Canmore Community Garden

As most of you know, I am probably one of the worlds worst gardeners and green fingers I do not have. Indoor plants have perished and I fail to have anything green and growing in my home. Living in Canmore with a very short growing season the chances of me growing anything are very slim indeed.
This year has been the first year that we have attempted to plant any flowers on our deck. It all started with Heather and Finlay planting some sunflower seeds and watching them grow into seedlings, painted their plant pots and eventually  put their plants outside when the threat of frost had eventually gone, in around beginning of June.

Well since then I have seeked help and have become involved in the Canmore Community Garden which started last summer. Here you can have your own 6'x4' plot to grow what you like and is your responsibility or you can be a part of the communal garden and help out wherever needed, and the beauty is you can learn as you go, help out where you can and also harvest the benefits of healthy chemical free fresh vegetables. That is what I have decided, just because I was too late in the season to buy a plot...not because of my lack of green fingers.....of course!!

I have been down to help out a few times now and since being orientated, I have had Heather and Finlay come down too. I explained to them that there was a sand box and wheel barrow if they should get board.
However they LOVED it and were so excited to help where they could with collecting straw and greens for the compost heap.

Watering it all down

and making sure it was stomped down enough.

I showed them round the garden and we collected snow peas, courgettes, carrots, rosemary and parsley. We saw tomatoes growing and squashes getting bigger, kale and lots of lettuce. There is so much in the garden and I only know a fraction of what is growing. However I do know that the kids thoroughly loved it and were so excited and proud to bring home their little bounty.

double rainbow over Canmore after the rain storm.


 

Spikey Paintbrush Island

Holiday weekend found us enjoying our time in the mountains. It started off on Friday night with a free concert at the civic centre where CKUA radio station was broadcasting live from Canmore and introduced one of the main performers who was lined up to be performing live on the main stage at the Folk festival over the weekend. We sat on the grass and enjoyed the music, while heather and Finlay danced for over 2 hours.

The following day we managed our first trips this year to one of my favorite parts of the area...Kananaskis provincial park. It has a beautiful pave bike path and we enjoyed a ride through the mountains, Finlay behind James and Heather helping me on the tag-a-long.We enjoyed a picnic by the river before heading out on the bikes we went a little bit further than normal and continued past a sign that said "Bear in area" Heather and Finlay enjoyed yelling "Yo Bear" at the top of their voices disturbing the peace for the oncoming cyclist, however brought a smile to their faces. Once back at the truck the kids were sat on the tail gate as James and I sorted out the bikes and snacks and all of a sudden Finlay yells out "there's a bear!!!" and sure enough about 20 metres away was a black bear coming out of the trees, sauntered across the road and quickly and quietly passed back into the trees on the other side, there were a few people milling around and we had just passed some people setting of on their bikes and people had been picnicing, however the bear may have chosen his time to come into the open briefly and nobody else noticed this silent,brief and swift passing of wildlife. Unfortunately I had just put my camera back in the truck and was in such awe that by the time that it registered to take a photo, the bear had vanished.

The following day we took the canoe up to Spray Lakes which is a reservoir and loaded everybody into the canoe, this was quite an interesting trip as when we were paddling we noticed that on the bottom of the lake there were hundreds of tree stumps which had been cut down. We realised that this had once been part of the forest and as we ventured further we came to a point where there were just rocks at the bottom. Obviously this had been once the river that had run through the valley before they had flooded it and made it into a reservoir.This river still feeds the reservoir and you can see the flow of the river in the water.

We found a little island, well a knoll in the middle of the resrvoir and decided to picnic there. On the island there were Indian paint brush plants which had lost their petals and were just about to turn to seed. At this point they look like paint brushed, so Finlay and Heather picked some, took them home  and created some lovely paintings at the end of the day.

Picnic on Paint Brush Island

Calaway Park

Some more family fun in Scotland

While visiting in Aviemore, a strange feeling of regret came over me. after all the decisions and life changing paths James and I have been through in the past six years. It was Inverness area and Aviemore that I had said that we would consider to return to after our year in canada, which had turned into 18months. When we had arrived in Aviemore during our three weeks at home in Jan 2006, we had enjoyed the area and had visited the Fire hall there, during our tough decision whether to return to the UK or to continue our adventure in Canada. The fire hall had stated that there were no jobs at present however they would keep James' contact details and communicate in due course. We had had a brief look round Inverness as it had been a few years since we had holidied there, but to be honest, were a little disappointed, but had loved Aviemore with my parents.
During our time in the UK I had been feeling very emotional and during the three weeks there found out that we were pregnant. This now threw a whole new dimension to our decision making. Would we take up our old jobs in Nottingham, live in our old house have family surrounding us and look at moving up to Inverness in due course once jobs were in place, with a new baby and no maternity income. Or would we see how James got on in his final exam for the Calgary fire department and continue our new life in Canada. The next two weeks was an emotional roller coaster and found me feeling that it was time to come home, however there was something also pulling me toward a lifestyle in Canada that I knew I couldn't give my children in the UK. However they would be close to family.
Well we never really made a decision as such and we decided to see if James passed his final exam, if he passed then we would stay in Canada, if not we would try to pick up our life in UK.....He passed, so we put the house on the market, came home for a week in the May to  placed our belongings in storage, shipped it to a storage unit in Canmore, hunted for a house in Canmore and continued with our jobs and James completed his training for the fire department. We had a beautiful baby girl, Heather in September and our life seemed to be on track, grandparents visited when Heather was born and I was able to visit Scotland in Jan 2007 and then again in May 2007. I had thoroughly enjoyed my maternity leave, made friends through parent groups, ran lots and continued our outdoor life xc skiing, hiking, biking, running with Heather in tow. Life was good hormones were making me feel content and settled.
When we finally got possession of our house in April 2007, we painted our house, moved our belongings in set up our laptop and checked our e-mail. James had received and e mail from Highlands and Islands fire department...18months later...saying that there were job vacancies if he was interested in applying!!! But we had just finally moved into our house after 18 months of transition and settling in and we had settled nicely into Canmore life.
Looking back now I see that if we had decided to return to the UK at that point in Jan 2006, our lives may have pathed out successfully with our goals to move to Inverness area.
Well Finlay came along not long after that July 2008 and  life continued to be successful and we have enjoyed our active life here in Canmore and have shared so many amazing experiences and and out door pursuits with our children. I have a fantastic job at the Canmore hospital with a rotation that was practically made for me , 0.5  8 hour evening shift in emergency. Allowing me to spend a substantial amount of time with Heather and Finlay without having to rely too much on daycare, it also enable us to manage with James' shift work, although now he is on regular days and it continues to work well. We are both in well paid jobs.
However over the last few years as I get older, see my children grow and develop and see my parents getting older, missing family events and special moments, Heather and Finlay missing out on that all important family connection which I feel is becoming stronger and stronger within me I suddenly realised perhaps we were missing out on more than we thought. Life and time passes so quickly, nothing stays the same forever, and you cannot buy back the time that you miss. There is nothing quite like family and despite all the good friends that we have made and have been a support to us, I still feel that family are the people who are there for you no matter what or where you are...it is their wish to help out, they have invested interest and unconditional love for us and our children. When I think of all we have been through to live the lifestyle for ourselves and our family. I wonder if we have strived so much for a better lifestyle and opportunity that we have maybe gone too far and have gone passed what is actually important in life. Is it that the meaning and purpose of life is to spend it and share it with the people that love you the most...and that is your family. This is the way I see it, James, not so much. However we have now lived two lives, one in the UK and one in Canada. I want both these lives simultaneously and I cannot do that. People and friends that I know, back home have never lived another life and seem settled and content, they may not appreciate their family the way I do, and some say that they don't spend quality time with family members, whereas we do when we go home and maybe that is why I have realised the important things in life for me. I now endeavor to return every year to enable my children to embrace the culture from where their parents are from, to maintain that important relationship with their family and make that time special.

This visit that we had recently was mainly to take in Craig's wedding and again enjoy a family reunion. James and I had spent time in Ilkeston, enjoying aunts,uncles, cousins and grandparents and then we spent time in Scotland doing the same. We took a mini break to Aviemore prior to the wedding with my parents. that is when i felt the worst, when I revisited the turmoil of the decision making process we had endured 6 years previously, staying in the place where we potentially could have continued our life. As soon as we drove into Aviemore I felt at home, relaxed,yes, I could live here...I like this place. This feeling continued and released a whole bag of emotions that I wasn't expecting. Could we have made it here? Could we have enjoyed the lifestyle that is offered in Scotlands answer to Canmore? In the same country as our family and still at a distance where you are not underneath them, but enjoy regular visits. I spent alot of my time here in tears, thoughts of our life running through my mind. Wishing that we had perhaps not pursued our dreams or driven ourselves so hard and settled for a life here. However this was not reality, we were on holiday. there was no hospital until inverness, fire hall inverness an hour commute for both of us. Child care would have continued to be a problem.

Finlay two wheelin'

Since turning four Finlay has learned to ride his two wheeler. He has been riding the run bike since last summer and this year he has enjoyed riding his two wheeler with training wheels. James stripped Heather's old bike and repainted it in bright orange, Finlay's favorite colour, however, it took a couple of days for him to get used to pedaling at the beginning of summer. Since then he has been doing well. It was one afternoon when Heather was in camp that I decided to see how far he could manage on his bike with the training wheels.  We made it down town to the grocery store where we refueled with apple juice and a cookie before biking all the way back, me trotting beside him. It was then that I thought he may be ready to give up the training wheels. So the next morning we got the bikes onto the back alley Heather rode in front and I helped Finlay...He was unsteady and tippy on the first run and ready to give up. But we went again with the promise of mini chocolate stars for every time he rode the alley way. By the third run he had it and a few more practices and several mini chocolate stars later he was feeling very proud that he could ride his two wheeler.

I have been trying to get the kids out regularly on the bikes and a favorite route is round the river where it is flat and lots of opportunity to stop and through stones