Author: Pam

Lowell had a great idea of getting bunk beds for L’s big boy bed, the second bunk would provide a great storage space for our ever shrinking apartment. L has had no trouble getting used to sleeping in his new bed. He only tried the second night to delay sleeping by getting out of bed and even then only twice. We still haven’t been willing to give up our TV/computer/spare room, (actually I am not sure if we could even if we wanted to) so the bunk beds were added to the bedroom too. For those of you who doubted that we had room for another bed I took a picture. Both Lowell and I agree that even with the addition of the new bed the current arrangement is a better use of space.

Snapfish.com had a sale on ordering photos last week; so I spent some time sorting through picture files. I realized that in the general busyness of life and blogging about traveling there were several photos of L’s development and personality that family might find of interest.

Lowell dug his guitar out of the closet one night when I was at work for 2 reasons; L might find it fun to pluck the strings and Lowell who is without means to indulge his previous hobbies was looking for something besides reading to do.

Sometimes the only way to get any work done around here is to find a way to let L “help”. Now cleaning the bathroom is so much fun that when Dad asks him what he would like to do he requests cleaning the bathroom. You can imagine how thrilled Lowell is about that, well it was Lowell’s idea in the first place.

IMAGINATION! “I’m the greatest boxer I have ever seen.” There is some truth to that.

Yesterday L was lining up shells and counting, he does well until 12 then he skips 13 and 15 makes it all the way to 20 and then says 11 followed by any other number that comes to mind.

We headed up to New Brunswick this past weekend to visit some family and hoped to do some camping along the Bay of Fundy. It rained and rained and rained some more. We did have a good time even if we cut it short. We spent Friday evening and Saturday with my cousins A & V at their new home. They gave us the tour around Centreville and took us to the Potato Museum.

Sunday morning we took a chance and drove to the Bay of Fundy. Sunday afternoon turned out to be nice; we spent some time in St John walking around the old part of the city and watched the Reversing Falls when the tide came in. Then we headed to Hopewell Rocks for high tide. The Bay of Fundy has the biggest tides in the world a 7m difference on average. Hopewell Rocks are sandstone sculptures made by these tides.

We wanted to sea the rocks again at low tide in order to appreciate the difference in the tide. At low tide you are also able to walk on the beach around these “flower pots”. Monday morning we woke up to rain, but we were determined. We packed a change of clothes in the car for the ride home and headed out.

Thankfully it stopped raining soon after we reached the beach, but during the rain I think L had it the best of all.

This is the same view at low tide as above at high tide, amazing.

Complete with halved cupcakes,

and a small gift.

L and I picked strawberries on Monday, it worked really well actually. L was busy piling the berries into towers in the containers instead of eating them or wandering away until 2/3 of the way through. Then he snacked on a couple and played with his toys for a few minutes while I finished up.

I don’t have much freezer room, but I did want to preserve the yummyness for later on in the year. We are not big jam eaters, but a syrup for ice cream or waffles would be good. I used 1 cup of sugar to 4 cups of berries instead of the 7:4 ratio that jam recipes call for, resulting in something I will call Strawberry syrup.

I know that strawberries are not ready in Manitoba yet, so here is a photo sampling of the desserts we have been enjoying to tempt your tastebuds.

We took a drive yesterday to the summit of Mount Greylock, highest peak in Massachusetts at 3491 ft. We spent some time admiring the view and then enjoyed a cookout. L liked being taller than the trees. I liked looking down on the rainbow.

We marked the end of the semester with a camping trip to the southern coast of Maine, we were gone Thursday to Sunday. According to the weather forecast it was supposed to rain Thursday, scattered showers Friday and sunny Saturday and Sunday; they were right. Rain it did, all day Thursday, Thursday night, most of Friday and Friday night. Eventually the sun did come out and we had a good time.

Knowing that it was going to rain Friday we spent a good part of the day at the Children’s Museum of Maine. L served up ice cream, drove a firetruck, fed tadpoles and dozens of other activities. That evening we did have a reprieve from the rain and roasted bratwursts and made s’mores on the fire.

Saturday the sun did come out and we spent the day near the ocean. We climbed rocks and found snails near Nubble Light,

and splashed in the waves and waded in the tidal pools of Ogunquit Beach.

…Western Manitoba. This picture was taken May 15th near Riding Mountain after receiving 1 foot of snow overnight.

Thankfully Western Massachusetts is having different weather. Today L and I did some gardening. I posted a request for unused garden space on a community board. I had a few offers of “come make a garden out of our lawn”, but someone was willing to let me use a piece of his market garden. The garden is a 15min drive which isn’t ideal, but it seems like a good spot. The garden is also at a higher elevation, so even though the lilacs are blooming it was recommended to me not to put out plants until the 25th of May even here in Massachusetts.

L and I both had a great time playing in the dirt. I have to admit that seeding is the most exciting part, after that comes the work. It will still be good to be outside out of town this summer. L was perfectly content to dig in his big sandbox, look for worms and drop in the occasional seed.