Catching Up

Hello and after 6 weeks of no blog information we are now back on line. As you all know we only update our blog when we we feel there is something of interest to share with you.

So, over the last 6 weeks we have celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with our wonderful Canadian friends Debbie and George. The dinner consisted of turkey with all the trimmings followed by a great dessert and our contribution to the occasion was homemade pumpkin soup. As many of you will be aware North Americans generally do not eat pumpkin as much as we do in OZ but Debbie and George are prepared to try anything and we all had a great time.

On 31 October we were invited to a Halloween Party party at James and Susan's place our next door neighbours and you will see from the photo below just how some folks approach the night. We will let you guess what the costume represents. Suffice to say it is not a mushroom.

During the day of Halloween wanting to do the right thing we went to Walmart and purchased a quantity of Halloween treats just in case we had trick or treaters come knocking at the door. Ross got into the swing of things as you can see from the photo below and he spent some time doing up individual packages of goodies. However, as we live some 17 kms outside of the city the trick or treaters were few and far between so we now have lots of sweets left and will be eating these until next Halloween.

On 11 November we attended a Remembrance Day ceremony at a local village not far from where we live. Remembrance Day in New Brunswick is a public holiday as it is in various parts of Canada and it was so pleasing to see that all around the country people turned out to remember those who had payed the ultimate price to ensure the lifestyle Canadians enjoy. The conduct of the ceremony is very like what we do in Australia and Remembrance Day is as big for the Canadians as ANZAC day is for Australians. We were fortunate that it was a sunny day but we all needed warm jackets and sturdy shoes as the ground was very cold. We wore our medals and it was a privilege to celebrate this day with our Canadian friends.

Recently we have discovered NZ lamb in the supermarkets in Fredericton so we have been enjoying this. Lamb is not eaten much here in New Brunswick so it has been a real pleasure to introduce our Canadian friends to this tasty food. Last evening we enjoyed Australian lamb.

As we come to the end of this entry it is with much sadness that we let you know that our much loved Herbie passed away on 7 November after being very unwell over a 6 week period. He put up an heroic battle but succumbed to an overwhelming infection. We miss him terribly and Murphy is still a little lost as this is the first time she has ever been a lone dog.

So we end this update with a lovely photo of Herbie who will remain with us always.

To you all, treasure what you have and stay happy, safe and well .

Love Bev and Ross

Fall in Fredericton, New Brunswick 2009

Hello again and it has been a few weeks since our last update but as you know we only post our changes as they arise.

We are now officially into the Fall (Autumn) season but as the last summer type days are fast fading the city of Fredericton takes every opportunity to stretch out the remaining sunny days as it can. So in true NB style the Dragon Boat races were held on the St John River a few weeks ago. Any monies raised goes to the various well deserving charities.

Yes, this is the same St John River which was solid ice when we arrived some 10 months ago and in not so many months time will be solid ice once again.

The photo below shows one of our local Deer. She and her Fawn are now coming back every day or so to have a nibble and a walk around. We guess they are starting to get ready for the oncoming winter. Last winter we were so excited to have 7 of these lovely animals in our yard.

As we have mentioned in the past, NB is very active with promoting its Province and as part of the Farm Show weekend we had the opportunity to visit one of the local wine makers with Debbie and George our lovely friends.
We visited Motts Landing Vineyard at Cambridge Narrows, NB and this winery is owned by Sonia and David. David is a retired Cathay Pacific Airline Pilot and Sonya who is the Winemaker undertook her winemaking courses in New Zealand (NZ) and each year they return to NZ for the Canadian winter. To see more about their winery take a look at mottslandingvineyard.com

Their property is lovely and we enjoyed their hospitality as well as their wine.

The next few photos show us having yet another great time. This is George and Bev supporting one another in the preparation area.

This photo shows the entrance to the property with the wine making barns to the left of the shot.

This is a photo of Debbie, Ross and Bev in front of the homestead with a view down to the river with the vineyards located near the river bank.

Same photo with Ross, Debbie and George. Bev was the photographer.

We in Oz have oohed and aahed over the years about the changing colours of the fall in North America and the photo below is of our backyard as fall approaches. You have seen this photo several times over the 10 months we have been here from the snow covered ground to the vibrant green of spring and summer but the fall colours are really something.

The next photo is what we see each day we look out our window. This is the home of Kathy and Doug who are our across the road neighbours and lovely friends.

Each day we drive down the road new colours greet us and fall is truly a wonderful time of the year.

So until our next update may you all remain happy and well.

Love Ross and Bev

P.S. Today is Thanksgiving in Canada whereas it is next month in the USA.

Visit to Texas

Yes, we have been on the move again and this time we returned to San Antonio Texas, our second home. It had been 2 years and 3 months since our last visit and it was geat to spend time with our many friends who live in this area.

We stayed with Maureen and Dennis Reilly whom we have been great friends with for 16 years ever since Beverley was posted to Fort Sam Houston as an International Military Student.

Maureen and Dennis have a great house and two lovely toy poodles called Savanah and Buddy. Both dogs enjoy lots of attention and cuddles and you will see from the photo below just how comfortable they make themselves particularly on Ross's lap.

Weatherwise it was very hot and for some 58 days straight the temperatures had reached well over 100 f. The grass is dying as are the tress and shrubs.


Fortunately the Reilly's have a great pool which you can see from the photo below so Ross spent quite a bit of time sitting in the pool.




We were also able to celebrate with Randy and Wanda Reynolds and their family and friends a great lunch at their home in Henley TX. The occassion being that Randy has finally after 30+years taken his discharge from the USAF. We first met Randy and Wanda in 1998 when they were on posting to Australia and have had the opportunity to spend time with them when they were posted to Hawaii.




Now you have all heard I'm sure that everything is bigger in Texas and there is a lot of truth to this saying as evidenced by the very large frozen margarita in the photo below. It was so large I had to offer the remainder to Ross to finish.


As usual we visited our favorite eating places and Ross was able to enjoy his best beer, Shiner Bock.

While we never ventured into the Riverwalk or revisited the Alamo if you look at http://www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com/ you can see what these area look like.

Of course no trip to San Antonio is complete without a visit to San Marcos and the outlet stores. The area just grows and grows and now spreads over many acres. The photo below provides a snapshot of how this place is developing.

Now that Ross is back at university and has a rather heavy acadaemic workload that sees him attending university 4 days a week and twice on Wednesdays, we are limited to day trips closer to home.

Best wishes to all and remain happy and well.

Love Bev and Ross

Bay of Fundy

Hello again and welcome to the story of our day out with Debbie and George, our great friends and neighbours who took us to visit The Bay of Fundy National Park and Hopewell Rocks

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world where the sea levels rise on average between 4 to 6ft an hour, with some 100 billion tonnes of water flowing in and out twice a day. To see more on the Bay of Fundy National Park please have a look at www.pc.gc.ca/fundy

On the way to the Nationl Park we spent some time visiting Hopewell Rocks where one can see the rise and fall of the tide at a rate of 32 to 46 feet. To see more of Hopewell Rocks please have a look at http://www.hopewellrocks.ca/

We enjoyed lunch in the National Park and we were introduced to the 'famous sticky buns' at Alma, a small fishing Village located on the Bay of Fundy. This area is known for its delicious lobsters and scallops.

The websites provided will give you a much better story than we can tell so we will sign off until next time. So enjoy the read and stay happy and well.

Love Bev and Ross

Ministers Island

Welcome back to our continuing ventures around this lovely country. A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit Ministers Island Historic Site. This Island is about a 2 hour drive from Fredericton and is located near St Andrews. It was the summer home of Sir William Van Horne who was the driving force in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Consequently he became a very rich man and was well placed to spend up big on what in its day would have been a grand estate. Unfortunately while it is an asset of the New Brunswick Province there is no allocation of funds to maintain this property which requires an urgent injection of funds to preserve this gracious property for future generations to see and appreciate.

Before we go any further we need to say that as we were walking around the island we came across two cyclists and after saying hullo and passing we realised that it was Michael Smith and his wife Rachael. Michael is known world wide for his cooking shows including "Chef at Home" that is shown in Australia. In a mad scramble for the camera we only managed to get a shot of them as they disappeared into the mist. (I promise that it is him in the white tee shirt).

You will see from the two photos below what a magnificent home this is. The property is very large and features tennis courts, a very large bath house which leads to a man made seawater pool and lots of other buildings. To see more of this great estate please log onto http://www.ministersisland.org/ which will provide you with more photos of this estate.

We travelled to the island with our very friendly neighbours and you will see us all enjoying the sun. You will have see a photo of Debbie and George before but may we introduce to Kathy and Doug. Kathy is sitting on the table and Doug is standing on the right of Ross. We travelled in Kathy and Doug's van and we picnicked at a local park and stopped for fish and chips on the way home. A good time was had by all.

You can drive or walk over the ocean floor crossing 'the bar' at low tide to get to the island. Please see the following photo, we opted to walk.

We had a great day thanks to our friends.

Until next update stay happy, safe and well.

Best wishes,

Bev and Ross

Newfoundland

It has been some time since our last update so to bring you up to date from 15 to 24 July we had the opportunity to travel to Newfoundland (NFLD), a rather big Island. We only had time to travel up the West Coast and we intend to return to the East Coast at some later date. Over this period we travelled some 3,500 kms and spent 45 hours in the car. So our story of this trip will be divided into segments as we are limited to the number of photos we will be able to place on the blog. Up front we want to tell you that we saw 7 Moose, two silver fox and several ice bergs. We meet friendly people, saw great scenery and ate very tasty food. We hope that you will enjoy the few words that will follow and in particular the great scenery.




Our first over night stay on our way to NFLD was at Antigonish. This is a very pretty town and very Scottish. Every window was decorated in the tartan of their city. We stayed here again on our way home and enjoyed the stop over at the Victoria Inn and ate at Gabrioux Bistro where we enjoyed a delightful meal.

We then travelled to Sydney (Nova Scotia) where we departed by ferry for Port Aux Basques to begin our travels up the Westen side of NFLD. The ferry was 4 hours late in departing from North Sydney so the 2 1/2 hours drive north to Corner Brook saw us arriving at 9 pm. After booking into the Glymmill Inn we found our way to the Wine Cellar, a charming restaurant which served great NZ lamb. While staying at Corner Brook we took the opportunity to spend 3 days on the way up and overnight on our return trip. We wanted to make the most of our time in this area and embarked on day trips which took us to the Big Falls where we saw salmon returning to their birth place to spawn. It is truly an amazing sight to see these salmon fighting to get up the overwhelming waterfalls to return to their birth place. We will let the photos display the wonder of this area and if you look closely you will see (maybe - but it is there) a salmon fighting to return home.

From Corner Brook we travelled further north to St Anthony where we stayed at the Grenfell Inn. The name Grenfell is held in high regard in the area as the Dr Grenfell did so much for the community. To read more about this extraordinary man please go to http://www.grenfell-properties.com/

Just as we were entering St Anthony we saw our first iceberg. We were so excited to see this marvelous wonder that we took a detour and took the first of our many photos of "our iceberg".

From St Anthony we travelled another 50 kms to see the Viking Village. To learn more of this amazing find please go to http://www.norstead.com/ . In the National Park where the village is situated we saw the first of the Moose family. Over that day we were to see several more as we drove to different areas along the trail.

The West coast of NFLD is best described as rugged beauty and the terrain is forever changing. One passes through many small fishing hamlets and quaint villages where folks seem very content and happy with their lot.

On our return to Port Aux Basques we stayed at St Christopher's Hotel which is located on a hill that provides a great view of the town. We took the opportunity here to visit the Board Walk where we enjoyed the local fish and chips.

Our ferry trip home which takes 5 hours was on time and on returning to Nova Scotia we had on overnight stay at Antigonish and arrived home the next day.

More to follow over the next few days.

Stay safe

Ross and Bev

Bard in the Park

In the summer months the City of Fredericton provides many cultural events, weather permitting and on 4 July along with our lovely friends Debbie and George we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream. The play was held in Odell Park which is a very pretty park and a gift to the city from the one of its forefathers. The park provided an excellent setting.

We started off our adventure by having an early supper at a local Indian Restaurant where we were introduced to variety of never eaten food before but all very tasty.

The weather this day was very wet however, following supper, undaunted, we departed for the park. It continued to rain and after a delay the weather cleared sufficiently so the actors could do their thing in amongst the wooded forest.

Over the next 3 hours we were treated to a very professional play. We followed the actors as they played and ran through the forest. We avoided and jumped over muddy areas, fought off the largest mosquitoes and all managed to get a very wet bottom in the process. However, it was a great night and a real tribute to the actors for carrying this play off in such bad weather conditions.

Well until next time. Stay happy, safe and well.

Love Bev and Ross