A wonderful vacation and visit

I'm soo far behind, I don't even know where to begin!!!!   Ever have that feeling???

I have been home from Canada for 3 weeks now and I can't even tell you where the time has gone!!!!

We spent a wonderful week here with Mel's beautiful daughter Brenna.

 This is one of her engagement pics...with her beau Dan.

It was soo nice to get to spend time with her in person, what a gem!!!!

 

While she was here, we went surfing on my day off and spent a day shopping and walking around Encinitas, then it was back to work for me, but Brenna and her dad got to hang out and do "stuff".  I think they had a great time just being together.  
The 3 of us flew up to Canada for a week and we stayed with Mel's family on Bowen Island.  Mel and Brenna thought it would be fun for me to experience public transportation to get to our destination......WOW.... first we got on a sky train that became a subway....then we caught a bus that took us to the ferry, then the ferry took us to the island where Mel's brother picked us up....Talk about planes, trains and automobiles!!!!  It was soo fun to see it all!!!!

Mel and Brenna on the Ferry

Oh, what the life......small island community, slow paced life with beauty and nature ALL around!!! 

 Deer in the front yard....

It was such a nice, relaxing week.  We did some kayaking

Mel and Brenna flashing under their spray skirts!!!!

Steve and Dayna, our gracious hosts!!!!

went for some walks along the waters edge

and on trails thru the forests

where we saw GIANT slugs...YUK!!!!

A walk along one of the many trails.....

the baby geese were soo cute!!!!

 we spent time just hanging out and visiting. 

 It was soo much fun!!!!!!  

The weather was cool for us and it rained every day.  After about 4 days we were wishing we had the So. Cal. warmer weather, but as we flew into LAX, we were wishing we were back on the island!!!!

Brenna headed out a few days before us to go wedding dress shopping and she said she found the "perfect" dress.   We won't get to see it until the wedding, bummer, but guess that is how it is supposed to be, right?  Just have 15 months to wait..... hee hee

We got home and fell right back into the regular grind.  The yard looked like it had been ignored for a month!!!!   We filled 8 greens cans just with leaves and weeds we raked up the first day home!!!

Then back to work and house projects!!!!

The garage door is now on and working perfectly, and we got the landscape design for the front yard.  

We will start in the front yard and probably wait til next year to even think about the back yard.  We are really happy with the design and ideas Scott gave us, the yard will look fantastic when we are done........

Palms, bougainvillea, Bird of Paradise, Lantana and grasses.....OH MY!!!

  We will keep some of the plants that are already in the yard, we will just move them, and then  we are adding plants that have a tropical feel, lots of color and need less water.  I am soo excited to get started, but this will be a BIG job, and I will only be able to help after work, so not sure how long it will take.   Basically the entire front yard will be changed!!!!  I will take pics as we go and share.  
 We are thinking we might have to get the rain gutters up and the stucco fixed first to keep workers ladders and such out of the new plantings.  We'll see how it all goes.....

 Scott went thru the back yard with me as well and gave me ideas as to what can be removed and what should stay.  Most of the plants I wanted to remove can be removed.  This will help for now as far as the weekly/monthly pruning maintenance goes.   I started out yesterday morning removing plants and I filled up all 11 cans already.  Other than a little bit of trimming that I need to do today, the rest will have to wait til next week when I have empty cans.

I was afraid it would look bare if I removed some of these plants because they are soo big, but it looks alot nicer now, the plants have room to breathe and it just looks cleaner!!!!

I haven't even started getting back into e-Bay yet.   I really want to, but just soo much that needs to get done.   Hopefully in the evenings over the next week or so I will have some time.

The fig tree is giving us some wonderful fruit. 

I never knew I liked figs!!!!

I've been looking online for all kinds of fresh fig recipes.  This harvest is the small one, so we have been able to eat most of what we pick or share a few with friends.  The larger harvest comes in the fall, so we will be loaded with figs come October!!!! 

We have a Mulberry tree also.  I always knew them as a pain in the butt, and the berries stain everything.   Well........have you ever eaten fresh Mulberries???  OMG!!!!   They were all over the branches and I figured since the birds ate them, we could too.... hee hee

I picked a bowl full every 3 or 4 days!!!!   They don't last long, so I kept a few in the fridge to put on cereal and then froze the rest.   There are not alot of recipes for Mulberries: Jam's or to use in muffins, etc.    I will have lots to experiment with.   They are still producing, so back out there later today  for another bowl full!!!!

Well, I better close this for now or it might not get posted for another week!!!!
I will try to get my Canada pics in a web album, there are just too many to post here.

have a wonderful rest of the weekend!!!!