Winter arrives in Norfolk

Warm greetings to you
all, wherever you may
be in the world. I hope
these shots will give an idea

of our weather just now.

Over the last 24 hours we
have had about six inches
of snow, but of course it

is much deeper in places.
We don't often get much snow
before Christmas, so this is unusual.
It will probably only last a day or two.

Here is our village sign;
it stands just outside our
house, which is behind me.

This is our garden pond and picnic
table.

This is what I call rubbishy
weather!

A view of one of our

neighbours' allotments.
No ploughing today.

Hopefully we'll be able
to keep toasty warm
with these well seasoned
logs.

Johanna visits

Things have been pretty crazy here so I haven't had time to post. Here's some pictures from Johanna's visit to Toronto this summer, even though we're well into fall.

This is the sound and light show projected onto the parliament buildings in Ottawa each night over the summer. It's so good it makes you feel patriotic even if you're not Canadian... Chil started humming "Oh, Canada" afterwards!

First Nation's art from the Museum of Civilization

This is the inside of the basilica in the old french quarter on Montreal. We were lucky enough to visit during the annual international fireworks festival. Every Saturday and Wednesday night through the summer a different country competes with a display. We saw the awesome Australia

Quebeckers are a bit different from the rest of Canada, including what they choose to fill their prams with (above).


...this was all part of the Just for Laughs festival in Montreal's latin quarter.

New Orleans

Here are some photos of our recent visit to New Orleans, Louisiana. It's a very interesting part of the world, very unique and very different from other places in theUS. Definately recommended.

There's a big graveyard thing going on. We visited the Lafayette cemetary, that was the one used in Easy Rider and Interview with Vampire. We had a random tour, guided by a very drunk cemetary worker who had a good line in graveyard jokes.

Chil refused to hold the baby alligator. It took quite a lot of convincing to get either Nisreen or Chil to the swamps in the first place but I think they were both glad they did, it was really quite beautiful. Lots of alligators too.

In the afternoon we went to an old plantation called Laura. They have a fascinating historical tour that gives you an idea of life and slavery on the sugar plantations before the civil war.




This is Chil and Niz shopping in the French Quarter of New Orleans. These old parts are all unharmed from Katrina. Some parts could reasonably be described as sleazy, and tourist traps, but there's still lots of great architecture, unique culture, jazz and blues music. We found the N'Awlins folk particularly friendly and proud of their reputation for knowing how to have a good time.
There are still some areas that are very damaged from Katrina. We saw one, the lower 9th ward where possibly half the houses were still abandoned, almost 3 years on. The crosses and writing on the walls show that they have been searched, for bodies first, then for pets. We were a bit concerned that visiting these areas was a little inappropriate, but when we chatted to people they were glad that people came to see. They feel that they've been poorly supported and want people to know.

We've got Johanna visiting with us now, she just arrived today. Were thinking of celebrating Chil's birthday next Friday with a trip to Montreal. We'll keep you posted!

Nova Scotia

We've been exploring atlantic Canada, Nova Scotia borrows a lot from the old scotland, even their flag is reminiscent, although with the colours reversed. As we found, they definately have Scottish weather: the whole 'four seasons in one day', with lots of fog, high winds, rain and occasionally sunshine.

It feels strange to go on holiday from somewhere with a great summer to all that British style weather. Nova Scotians are a different breed to Torontonians. There's a different accent that even sounds a little British, with hints of a celtic lilt. The pace of life is much slower.

They are blessed with the second biggest natural harbour in the world (after Sydney) and the second busiest on the eastern seaboard of the continent (after New York). We went on a boat trip to look for Minke whales but only managed porpoises... or is that a wave... or is it that one over there...? Apparently there's more to see in Quebec so we might have more luck in September with Mum.

We are now realizing the true magnitude of Canada's geography. When we looked at Nova Scotia on the map it seemed like a very small part of Canada. We'd planned to start in Halifax and drive up to the highlands of Cape Breton in the North.

Although the province is only 300 by 100 miles we ended up having a much lazier time, went south to Lunenburg and across to Wolfville on the other coast. I think we needed the rest, it gives us an excuse to go back and have been told that the weather is even more dismal in the North!

Chil loved NS for the lobster, we both loved it for the rocky beaches and the incredibly well preserved fishing villages. Nova Scotians are ridiculously polite. This is on top of the already high level of politeness amongst other Canadians. If you jaywalk, or even stand by the side of the road looking like you might want to cross, cars will stop in both directions and the drivers will smile cheerily and wave you across.
Chil's been learning the secrets of brewing at the Keith's brewery...


We've now got Nizreen with us for a couple of weeks and we're off to New Orleans on Monday for 5 days. I hope you're all enjoying Euro 2008 as much as I am, I can't say I'm missing watching England self destruct again.

Summer softball

We've been seeing the inside and outside of more private buildings in 'Doors Open Toronto'.


This is actually the inside of a 1930's Deco banking building. Chil and her friend Barbara have been trying to get into the vaults...


One if the guys I played hockey with over the winter introduced us to a new sport for the better weather. This is Chil at the plate... while not exactly a big hitter she was a pretty athletic fielder! Chil liked it enough that she's bought a mitt, we'll keep you posted for home runs.

Fantastic news that Mum and Dad have had the bore hole cleaned and now have fresh water again! I hope all is well in Lusaka.

Dylan

Doors Open Toronto

I passed my exam! I'm still only 3/4 of the way through the degree but very glad that I don't have to do the exam again.

We've been BBQ'ing this weekend and are now off to Doors Open Toronto.

It's lovely and warm here in Toronto and we're looking forward to the summer, which really starts for us June 13th when my classes finish for the summer and we are going off to Halifax in Nova Scotia, the Atlantic region of whale watching and lobster suppers for Chil. Chil's friend Niz is coming to stay after that. My start date at SickKids has been delayed to August, which will give us another summer month of the quiet rota I have at St Michael's hospital. I think it will be a bit of a shock to the system getting back to busy on-calls when at SickKids, but the first month will be broken up by Mum's visit in August. Quebec city is 400 this year, so we might all drive there then.

This is our local park, Berczy Park, as seen from Toronto's flatiron building. It's older but smaller and less well known than New York's flatiron, but a great local landmark and this weekend all kinds of private buildings open their doors to curious Torontonians.

The tall building in the back is our condo block, also a flatiron building. Our flat is now obscured by the new building being constructed but is just behind the top right hand corner of that building. The main road there, Front Street is one of our favourite places and the main street in our St Lawrence Market area. It's generally very low-rise for downtown Toronto with a bit of cafe culture breaking out now the warm weather is coming. The green in the corner is Berczy park again.

Audrey's Garden Studio

We are both very proud of our latest purchase! In March we decided that it was time Audrey had somewhere to call her own; somewhere where she could paint and draw and frame pictures to her heart's content. So she designed a studio and we then went to a local company that makes wooden buildings, and showed them our list of design specifications. To our surprise they weren't in the least fazed. So it was delivered in late April in several pieces and four men spent a day putting it up. Over the course of the next couple of weeks they beavered away and eventually it was completed just in time for Audrey to take part in "Norfolk Open Studios 08"- this is a Norfolk-wide celebration of local artists and it's the first time that Auds has taken part.

Leading up to the first open weekend (last weekend) Audrey was really as nervous as I have ever seen her; not just nervous but really racked by a terrible tense headache. Anyway, she needn't have worried because she sold two paintings that weekend! This weekend is a Bank Holiday weekend for us, so we're hoping that we'll get plenty more people coming for a look - weather permitting, of course.

Here are two more pictures, showing the garden and how it looks overall.

Springtime in Toronto

Spring has sprung here in Toronto, so we're celebrating it with a collage called "Nandad in his garden".

The snow has long gone and instead its been warm and sunny with green things springing into life everywhere.

University of Toronto

This is my study group for the comprehensive exam for my Master of Education degree, celebrating after the exam. The results are out in a few weeks...