ABBY:

Keturah's faithful and noble steed. This is the horse Keturah rides (most days) at the farm. She seemed happy to see us on the weekend (after we returned from holidays)...Well, as happy as a horse can look. She actually looked at the camera in the first picture, so that was a good start. Usually, she just scowls at me (I think it's the flash)!

Anyway, just a couple of pics tonight as I just got home and I'm going to try to unwind before bedtime (after two coffees!!)

My Soccer Star!

Here's a couple of pics of Brookie and the soccer net with the sun setting in the background (an artsy-type photo). These were taken last week at Brookie's soccer game, where they had a tie game for their first playoff game. They have been doing well since they got the new coach a few weeks ago. The team won the two games they played when we were on holidays too. They won on Monday night and again tonight and have moved from last place to 3rd place. Way to go team Canadian Tire!

I've FINALLY had time to play around with the blog features today at lunch and then tonight after dinner and have added a few new elements, such as

• a slideshow of my pics
• my list of favourite sites (more to come!)
• a poll---this week: what type of camera do you use?
• blog catalog, which is a cool site where you can search all blogs to find one or many with topics you are interested in
• a favourite picture of mine (Casey the foal), which I will update weekly.

Hope you like the changes!

A Hiking We Will Go...

Sorry for not posting in a few days, I've been copying vacation pictures to my USB key so I could get them printed. Doesn't sound that time consuming, but when you have 300-500/day for 14 days and then trying to narrow it down to 200-300, it takes awhile!! I did narrow it down to 260 and got them printed at Walmart last night. They turned out pretty good!

Anyway, on Sunday we headed to Lemoine's Point in Kingston to do some hiking since we haven't been there in so long and it was such a beautiful day! During the walk, we saw, frogs, blue jays, turtle, chipmunks and fed the ducks. Here are a few pics from our walk:

1st-a very small painted turtle (he was about 5 inches long)
2nd-a chipmunk eating our sunflower seeds
3rd-a duck waiting for some seeds too

More Farm Animal Shots

Keturah went to riding lessons on Saturday, after missing the two weeks we were down East. She couldn't ride her normal steed, Abby, so she rode Shebazz, who was a very stubborn, lazy horse, so Keturah had her hands full. She did get out to the field to visit Abby though before the lesson. Here are a couple of shots of her with Shebazz and Casey the Cutie, Andy, a chicken, Scotch the kitty and a llama.

We're Home!

Our flight was delayed about 1 hour yesterday, but we eventually got home...Thanks to our bird-sitters, Aunt Cindy and Uncle Les, who babysat Wyatt, Sylvester and Shania for us!! And for the yummy home-cooked dinner last night! We appreciated it!!!

On Sunday, we drove around the Cabot Trail. We left at 8:30am in the morning from Sydney, Nova Scotia, drove over to Ingonish Beach, which is the first picture below and then continued driving...lots of mountains, going up and then down and all right close to the water---Yep, I'm scared of heights too, especially with the water so close to the edge! I kept telling Kevin to slow down!!

The second picture below is that of Nothern Gannets. They are cool birds which fly around watching the water for fish, hover for a bit and then dive down into the water...They are very funny to watch. We saw them at Pleasant Bay, where we stopped at the Whale Interpretive Centre to stretch our legs.

The third picture is that of a little bird we saw on the Skyline Trail, when we stopped to hike. We hiked for 2 hours as we were told this is the trail where you are GUARANTEED to see Moose...Guess what, we didn't see ANY moose!!! Everyone coming out of the trail said they saw a mother and baby and another guy said he saw 5 of them...I think they are full of it! I don't think these Moose even exist! Everywhere we've gone, they say the moose is hiding because they are so shy---yeah, sure they are!

Anyway, we couldn't really afford to hike for 2 hours, so after that we had to keep driving as we were still 5 hours away from Halifax and we had a plane to catch in the morning! (We got to our hotel at 10pm)

So the next four pictures are just scenic pictures from the Cabot Trail, where we stopped (probably at various lookouts, where we stretched our legs!)

We did eventually see a couple of moose or we think they were--well the back-end of them as they disappeared into the woods...So, no pictures of the moose...maybe next time!

Thanks for reading and commenting about our travels and pictures! See you all soon!

The Fortress!

Today we headed to the Fortress of Louisbourg, which was once a busy fortified seaport. From it's founding by the French in 1713 to its abandonment by the British in 1768, Louisbourg was a place of profound significance in the Franco-British struggle for empire. (Yep, that was straight from the brochure!)

It was interesting and entertaining, okay, they made me say that...It was okay as far as historical-museum stuff goes (which I'm not interested in very much). Did I mention we went to a Miner's Museum yesterday too? That was kind of depressing---a very sad and depressing work environment--just like mine! haha. The mine was creepy---we went down the mine shaft a bit and Kevin had to bend over the whole time as it was only 4ft 2in in some spots.

Here are some pictures from the Fortress (mostly animals, because that is my main interest) and then a couple from the Louisbourg Crabfest in town, where they made us stop...needless to say, Brooke and I didn't enjoy it very much since we don't eat alot of seafood and we had to eat hamburgers (not veggie ones either) and we had to sit and wait for them to eat all their crab legs...Oh well, I enjoyed the live music.

1st pic-Brooke dressed up as a soldier
2nd pic-Keturah fighting off those soldiers
3rd pic-some dalmatian-type chickens
4th pic-a goose
5th pic-a mother turkey and her babies
6th pic-a father turkey, protecting his family
7th pic-a sparrow
8th pic-sparrow babies in their nest
9th pic-Kevin and Keturah playing with their crab claws
10 pic- a crab that avoided the steam pot

A Cruisin' We Will Go...

Yep, we braved another boat cruise in the Atlantic Ocean..I bet you can't believe I'd go again...Yes! The only reason I wanted to go was to see the Puffins. We did alot of driving yesterday and in our travels, found this little boat cruise called Donelda's Puffin Boat Tours. But, because we got to her location in Englishtown fairly late yesterday, we said we would come back today to have a boat cruise. They said they wouldn't be going out if it was rough at all.

We stayed in Sydney, Nova Scotia last night and called Donelda this morning to see if she was cruisin today because it was overcast and starting to rain and she said probably just the 10am one as the afternoon looked too windy. So, we booked our four seats and then headed over for the 45min drive.

It was a cool little area as there were fishermen there catching mackerel and cleaning them and feeding the guts to the seagulls. No wonder the sea gulls here are twice as big as the ones in Ontario! There are also Bald Eagles flying around too...a spectacular sight for us!

We got on the cruise and headed out to Bird Island. It was a pretty interesting ride as she pointed out all the Bald Eagles watching us from the trees along the mainland. It was an enclosed boat with lots of windows, but I wasn't looking forward to shooting through glass, so we sat at the back of the boat which was open. We sat and chatted with another family from Ontario!

The Guide, Donelda told us when to come in as we would be getting wet and that it was going to get rough for a bit, etc.etc...at least we were a bit prepared and it didn't last too long, even though I think the waves were as high as the last one!!! Thank goodness for Gravol--nobody felt sick this time!!!

We then got to Bird Island and saw Seals, Atlantic Puffins, Razorbills, Black Guillemots, Black Legged Kittiwakes, Herring Gulls, Great Black Backed Gulls, Double Crested Cormorants, Great Cormorants, Bald Eagles (and youngsters), Northern Gannets and a Great Blue Heron. The trip was worth the price! We didn't get to tour the other side of the island as it was too rough and the boat would have gotten tossed right onto the Island I am sure!

So, here are some quick pictures for you...Sorry if they aren't that great---I was in a hurry and just grabbed the first ones (out of the 500+) that looked okay....

1st pic-lone puffin
2nd pic-a group of puffins
3rd pic-some small birds I can't remember the names of
4th pic-a seal watching the boat closely
5th pic- a lighthouse with lots of birds flying around
6th pic-the kittiwake
7th & 8th pic-the black guillemots
9th & 10th pic- bald eagles, (Donelda was throwing fish to them from the front of the boat...they are good at swooping down to get them!)
11th pic-the boat we went out in.

I think I need more zoom power for my Nikon---some of the birds were so far away, that I didn't get any good close-ups!!! At least, I got to see my Puffins! A dream come true for me!