Hee, Hee, Hee

I just love this pic. I see it on the lift door every Tue and Thurs when I go to college for hairdressing. Notice how the men are in the lift during a fire and the ladies are sensibly using the stairs. No offense guys. Makes me smile every time!

A capsize comes before....

A broken hand!

Well that's not strictly true, it's trying to clamber back into a tiny slippery dingy in a howling wind, that leads to a broken metacarpal.

I have never had a plaster cast before, it's not nearly as fun as I thought it would be.
Donations of biltong (beef jerky) will be accepted in lieu of flowers.

The epic canoe trip

Pete, Zeek and Corbin were going to go on the canoe trip to an island in the lough. It is a one night event, with a paddle to the island in the evening and then setting up camp. Enjoying supper and then doing those mysterious manly things that men do on a camping weekend. Then after a rough nights sleep they break camp - after a delicious Ulster fry - and climb back into the canoes and head home.

But Pete was sick, and I had to tell my boys (after they had spent the night before packing their bags) that they couldn't go. Obviously I didn't want to do this, so I asked their ever kind and wonderful Irish uncle Donovan if he would consider taking them with him. He very kindly said he would. They were so excited.

Donovan fetched them after school on Friday and off they went. They say a picture tells a thousand words, so I'll let them do just that.

The strong man carrying all his things and his brothers too.
The boats that they... got a ride in (I wanted to say paddled in but realized that that would be stretching the truth)
Setting up camp and deciding where everyone wanted to sleep. Zeek thinks something is great here.
Breakfast the next morning, look how tired we are as we stayed up very late chatting, but hey, isn't that what these weekends are for?
Nearly ready to go.
Thanks to anyone else who helped in any way with my boys: Ben, Ewen, Richard, Graham, Russel, Simon and Michael. (I hope I didn't miss anyone)

And this photo I saved to last because it was what everyone came up to me on Sunday to talk about. Corbin decided that he wanted to sleep out by the fire under the stars, on the log pile! He thought it was a great idea and he assured me that it was very comfortable. He still landed up sleeping in the tent though.
What a fantastic time, one they will remember for a long time I am sure. Thanks again Donovan.

Corbin doing his tie

He is so cute! Enjoy

Happy Birthday Zeek

11 years old now. We had a barbecue (braai) in the evening and ran out of gas, so finished it inside on the stove. Oh well, aside from that he had a great day.

A belated happy birthday Pete

Pete decided that since he had already done the paddle across the lough, he wanted to do something else biggish on his birthday, so we decided to climb to the top of black mountain. (Now I have to smile here because when they say mountain, well.... I would call it a hill, but anyway.)

We drove through the 'rough' part of Belfast and enjoyed seeing all the wall murals. It is amazing to me that even in the worst part of the city, there were still moms pushing prams, kids playing on the streets, old people walking alone. Anyway, back to Pete.

When we got to the 'mountain' we parked and walked across the road to start hiking. Well, this is a first world EU approved country, so there was a well marked, tarred road up to the top. Oh well, so we walked up, not hiked up.

The view was really beautiful, we could see pretty much everything around for miles. Pete took some pics on his phone.

38 years old, and still the love of my life.

A red fox in our garden

This morning I was in the kitchen and I heard Corbin shout: "Wow, what is that?" Then I heard Zeek say in a very excited voice: "No way, it's a fox!"

Well I came running and there it was in our back garden, just standing and looking at us. I wasn't able to get a picture, but it was a very exciting moment.

Then an hour later I was standing by the back door doing some laundry and I looked up and there it was again, trotting right up to me! It came within less than a meter and walked by with only a single glance at me. What an exciting moment, half of me wanted to run away (why was it coming straight for me, was I in any danger?) and the other half wanted to reach out and touch it (I could have if I wanted to)

This is the first time I have seen a fox in Northern Ireland. What a special moment that was for me.