How to have a tea party

Put on something pink, and put quite a few clips in your hair.
Put a blanket on the coffee table.
Put another colourful blanket on the coffee table, jauntily draping it over one side.
Lay a tartan ribbon along the length.
Lie bread sticks end to end along the ribbon.
Break up more bread sticks into small pieces and put them in tiny bunt pans.
Get an embroidery hoop and lay it in the centre of the table.
Place cups and saucers inside the hoop.
Fight over who gets to pour the invisible tea and who gets to pour the invisible milk.
Serve.

Last of the Vacation Instalments



That was us strawberry picking two weeks ago and rumour has it Oma whipped up a delicious batch of jam with it. It was really fun even though Heather is displaying one of her "exhausted-I can't take any more" looks.

In other news: We went to Dumfries Monday to celebrate Jennifer's birthday. It was beautifully hot and sunny and the girls splashed in a sprinkler park, we rented a pedal boat and floated around, ate lots of cake, played Mexican Train, which is really fun, but I would have had an even better time, in fact, I'd have probably won, if sombreros and tequila were an integral part of the game. Us Reid ladies slept out in the backyard in our tent and it was a great warm dry night. Then, yesterday morning, just 10 minutes before it was time to take down the tent the rain started. And it hasn't stopped.

Wheeeee!!!

Oma and Opa set up this fantastic soapy waterslide in the backyard and it kept the kids entertained for ages; they loved it.

They never did that for me when I was a kid. All I ever had to do all summer was weed the rock garden.

Lost in the Lake Mist

Here is Heather stepping into Lake Echo on a cool and misty summer morning, ready for swimming lessons with the fishes and the leeches.
It's good for them.
There's Ailsa on the left just leaning back into a back float.
And Heather trying to blow bubbles. She did not want to put her face in. Maybe she didn't want to see what's underneath.
But look at it on a sunny hot day-it's gorgeous! Don't you wish you were taking swimming lessons here? They're heading out into deep water.
Here's Ailsa's class doing the same. That's her on the left again after she slid off the board and into the deep.
Oh, the lake is fantastic, warm, sandy on the bottom with a few rocks and some great big ones to stub your toes on if you're new. If you're not new, you know just where to find them and to suddenly go from chest deep to knee deep in the water. I spent all my childhood summers learning to swim in this lake, and three teenage summers teaching and lifeguarding at it. It's great to go down early in the morning and watch a loon swim and dive through the cool misty water. Then to watch the mist lift and the clouds clear and the hot sun come to beat down on the swimmers and paddlers (rowers) from the Orenda Canoe Club just along the shore.
The lake is just a little ladlefull of heaven.

Oh Canada!

Well we've been back from Nova Scotia for 48 hours now. The Scottish weather is slowly trying to catch up with Canada but is still 10 degrees less. We had a fabbo time spending qualitytime with the Reynolds, Couttys, Forbes and McGRath, with plenty of babysitting/childcare/cousin interaction. We have so many pics to share that they will have to come in very small amounts at frequent intervals.........

We hit the ground running with the Canada day celebration -Ailsa and cousin Charlotte running down Citadel hill. Watching men in uniform parade and lots of music -

Maria provided the elaborate Canadian T-Shirts. Then we had lunch on the harbourfront as the sun came out. More blog themes to appear - lots of watersports, kayaking and whales.

John