Australia Day 2011

Hello to you all and we hope that you have a great Australia Day (our 3rd in Canada).  We are having friends over on 29 Jan to have a belated celebration.  So while all of our Australian famiy and friends will celebrate our National Day in the heat with the trademark flies and the not so trademark flood clean up, we in Fredericton will be having well below freezing temperatures and snow flurries.



We donned our Mambo shirts for the occassion but it is worth noting that while it is 21C inside the house it is minus 24C outside with snow falling to add to the 30+cm already on the ground. We feel fortunate to have experienced this winter wonderland for two years now.

This may well be our last Australia Day in the snow and we will really miss the white winters.

Please have a great national day and stay safe.

Love Bev and Ross

  

Pond Hockey

Hi All,

Our pond has become so popular as a pond hockey venue that we thought that you should see a short snippet of the evolution of the site.

First is a shot of the pond in summer that I am sure most of the regular readers are familiar with.

This photo shows our fantastic young next door neighbours Suzanne and James who early in 2010 started clearing the snow off the frozen pond but due to many difficulties with weather nobody got to skate on it.

But this year the weather has been more favourable and a team of youngsters ( younger than us anyway) led by across the road neighbour Andrew Pyne took on the challenge to clear the snow, attempted to scrape the ice smooth and make use of it.

After much work the team managed not only to smooth the ice but start to improve it by scraping and flooding with water overnight to provide an improved playing surface.

Andrew (with a significant amount of help from dad Doug) has been the lead in the work and is seen here watering down.

The surface continues to improve and is flooded after use most days.

Then on Friday mother nature decided to take a hand and dumped 20+ cm of snow on the area in what from our Aussie point of view can only be described as close to a white out.

Not to be daunted our team arrived on Saturday complete with snow blower to begin restoration. As you can see a significant amount of snow had to be moved.

By Sunday morning, after what can only be described as a heroic effort by Doug and Andrew on Saturday the pond was back to playable standard and this shot was taken only two hours ago.

 

All the youngsters and some of the not so young appear to enjoy the pond and we are so pleased to be able to help facilitate all the fun. 

Tonight (Sunday 23rd) we have a wind chill warning for tonight and tomorrow morning of lower than -38C  so there is not much doubt that the surface will stay solid.

We wish all the best to our friends and family at home who are caught up in the flood crisis or its consequences.

Please stay safe and well.

Love Bev and Ross

Connecticut Visit & Wedding

Welcome to 2011.

Fom 29 December 2010 to 3 January 2011 we had the opportunity to travel to Connecticut to attend the wedding of Jessica and Christopher which we will talk about later in this update.  The trip to Connecticut from Fredericton is about an 8 -10 hour drive particularly at this time of the year with falls of snow which can render the roads inaccessable.  We were fortunate that we had good weather with sun and no snow falls to worry about.

We took the oppportunity to overnight in Freeport, Maine which is rich in history, nature, the arts, and the home to numerous shopping outlets.  For more information on Freeport have a look at http://www.freeportusa.com/ 

From Freeport to Middleton, Connecticut it is a short drive of 3 hours, so after booking in to the Crown Plaza we were off exploring.  As many of you will know Ross has a passion for trains so one of the first areas we visited was Essex Train station which in the summer months conducts combined river and train trips.  When you live in a country that really has a winter with lots of snow many of the activities are seasonal such as river trips. 



Essex is a pretty little town and is located on the coast, the following two photos show what the harbour looks like as it starts to freeze and what a beach looks like with snow on the ground.  This is something that we never see in Australia.

On New Years day we travelled to the Mohegan Sun Casino and donated $30.00 to the Casino's coffers.  The building is amazing and it was well worth paying a visit.  To see more of this Native American casino have a look at  http://www.mohegansun.com/

The reason for the visit to Middleton was to attend the wedding of Jessica and Christopher.  Christopher is the son of our dear friends Regina and Jim Hess whom we visited in Georgia last year.  Justin, their other son is married to Lizzy, the daughter of our great friends Maureen and Dennis who live in San Antonio, Texas.    The wedding service was conducted at St. Pius X Church, Middleton and you will see just how beautifully the church was decorated.  

We donned on our Sunday best for the occassion.

The bride and groom looked outstanding and there was great joy as we wish them every happiness for a long, happy and loving life together. 

The wedding reception was held at The Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate.  This is an amazing old home and to see more of this impressive venue have a look at http://www.wadsworthmansion.com/ . The band that provided music at the reception was called Shaded Soul and was one of the best bands we have ever heard. Their website is worth a look and is at http://www.shadedsoulband.com/
              

In lieu of wedding favours, a donation was made for The Matthew Freeman Project: Pens and Papers for Peace.  The website is http://www.freemanproject.org/ This donation was to honor the memory of their brother in law Captain Matthew Freeman who was married to Theresa, Christopher's sister.  Matthew was

killed in Afganistan in 2010. 

The wedding was a great opportunity to spend quality time with our dear friends Regina, Jim and Justin and some of their extended family.  We also got to meet Jessica's family who were very gracious and made us feel right at home which is the way of our American friends.

Until our next update we wish you a happy new year, may it be filled with good fellowship, good health and laughter.

Love Ross and Bev