This is not Slocan Lake

haha... as we're currently in New Denver, you probably thought this picture is of our dear Slocan Lake, where Muriel, Rachel and the kids go daily for their swim.  But no !  This is a picture from Gabriela who is currently in Italy with her boyfriend Thomas, where they are staying by the Lac de Côme with Thomas' mother and family.

Story time with Meo

Fearsome four on Slocan lake

Fearsome four

Here we have Molly as 'blue bear', Alice as 'green cat', Lily as 'pink bunny' and Ellen as 'red snail'.

Haying time

 left to right: Alice, Ellen, Molly, Lily, Devon, Rayan

Julia and Norbert inside the truck

  

                                        Lily, catching grass hoppers with Julia forking hay

 The barn 

Julia

Canada Dance festival

'Prismes' was the poster show for the Canada Dance festival this year!

This one is for you dad!

Lily's piano recital

Here is Lily, ever the performer at her first piano recital. Playing 'Sunday's March' and 'Swan Lake' on an estonian piano.

Flowers for Tai-Tai

We all think of Tai-Tai when up in the meadow and how much she would love to see all the beautiful flowers. I can't quite capture them with my camera but it will have to do for the time being.

Here we have a Valerian (the white flower in the distance) with the red Paint Brush and the purple flower that I can't remember (help Meo?). 

Lupin

 Columbine

?? 

White Heather

White and purple Heather

Purple Heather

Cow Parsnip

Idaho Peak

Our anual pilgrimage up Idaho Peak. Always lovely. This time the early meadow was well over and the late flowers were right at their prime. 

 Meo and Candy considering the flowers.

 Rachel and Slug.

 The four intrepid cousins.

 The two pairs: Molly and Lily - Ellen and Alice. How glad we are that they each have a play mate and a hike-mate. We could not have planned it better!

 Are these pre-teens that I see?

 The whole gang from left to right : Molly, Eric, Douglas, Lily, Meo, Alice, Rachel, Ellen, Candy

Eric waging war on wasps

Eric spent several hours over two days at the top of the ladder sucking up wasps at an enormous nest under the roof. His final tally was something like 360 wasps. He did demolish this enormous nest. This seems to be a wasp year, thee are nests and wasps all over and they are completely uninterested in food only in building their homes faster then Eric can demolish them..

Cousin power!

Alice and Ellen have re-united in their delightful playship.

Alice and Mummy in the trees

On the platform made by Colin and family last summer.

At the Dam

Here we are at New Denver. Our time in paradise has begun! This is the dam where we get all the water for the ranch. Every year we clean out the debris - mostly rocks and muck that have washed down the Harris creek over the year. This year, due to very heavy spring run-off, the dam was full right up the the it's lip. None of us had ever seen it so full but a good work party of Douglas, Thomson, Ralph, Eric and myself managed to clean it out in a mear two and a half hours.

Last Supper

The last evening before our departure, a nice evening with Paul-Antoine, Flor and Raphael - only missing Gabriela who is off at soccer practice. Eric's latest creation is on the table.

Visit in the garden

 Two fairies in the apple tree (Alice and Galilée)

 Cynthia collecting Galilée after the night's sleep over. No one was in a hurry to let her go!

Lily went all out on the barrettes!

Our Catalpa in it's full glory

Camp Des Débrouillards

 This is Lily heading out for a three day trip to the "Camp des Débrouillards". They were told to bring one small bag but were given a huge long list of things to bring... this was the best we could do!

Lachine Folk Festival

 The stately Galilée.

 Feline Béatrice

 Alice the Peacock

 Lily flower.

 All the girls.

Super Mama on her way home...

... with babe food and gifts for the family at home. Quite a trip back. We started in Ensenada at 6 am for the two hour drive to Tijuana and then the border crossing into the US. It took us two and  half hour to get over the border but we were told that it could take 4. Very hot and smelly poking along in the van at snails pace. Lots of people selling stuff along the road. We did get across the border to San Diego with lots of time to spare a good thing too because the airline seemed to have lost our tickets - apparently or tickets got cancelled by accident when we were on our way here! After another hour of standing at the counter waiting for someone to sort it out we did get seats and were off, back to our families YAy!!