My first week of being 33...

Was spent in the bush! But first, of course, my birthday :) It was somewhat low-key, but really what I wanted. We went to see the musical Wicked, which was indeed wicked good. Very well done, and very professional cast. Before the show (it was a matinee), we went out for lunch with Perry, the lady that sits besides us when we go to musicals, which was really nice, although the food and service was disappointing... But it didn't ruin our day! Sunday morning we celebrated by going out for breakfast with our running group (almost complete!), which was also nice.
Nolan got me some really nice earrings. I guess my small studs (I have studs and small hoops) were starting to drive him nuts, so he decided to upgrade to some nice real diamonds. Don't they say diamonds are a girl's best friend? Not sure I agree, but those earrings are darn pretty! He also got me some beautiful roses. Looking familiar?

As I mentioned before, it's been very dry, and any rain we've had so far has always been accompanied by lots of lightning. And lightning is a number one cause of forest fires. The Thursday before my birthday, the students up in the fire towers at the PRF spotted a large fire on CFB Petawawa. By Friday, it had grown to over 100 ha, en Sunday it was up to 200 ha, and the east entrance of Algonquin Park was closed. The fire was close to the main entrance road, but also close to the PRF. Staff at the PRF was starting to burn out after many days spent in the towers or patrolling the forest for fires, so they asked me if I could help out. And why would I say no to a week in the field?! Indeed, no reason to say no! They also asked me to come out since I have a reputation of bringing lots of water. Remember from last year? Read here...  Well it worked, within an hour of arriving at the PRF, the sky opened up, and we got a short downpour. Which resulted in 4 mm of rain. And lots of lightning... So not a good scenario. A couple of days later several fires had started in Algonquin Park, but luckily nothing too major. I actually spent half a day up in the tower the day with most fire activity in the Park, and it was actually really cool to watch the fire bombers dumping the water on the fires. I was glued to my binoculars!
Below are some photos of the view of the tower, as well as some photos to show how dry it really is...

Pretty bad... Luckily we didn't have any fires at the PRF itself, but if something was to break out, it could spread very quickly, and that's why we're so alert.
After a week at the PRF, I went back home on Sunday and started my intensive French training right away: every morning for 4 weeks, after which I'm supposed to do oral exam. It's tough, but it's also going quite well. My French did not get as rusty as I thought it would be. This week it's actually only four mornings, since I'm back at the PRF, working another weekend (and a long one this time, Civic Holiday!).  Luckily Nolan is coming up for a few days as well, so at least he's not a bachelor again this weekend. We did get some rain on Tuesday (and lightning), but the fire index is back up, so the students are back up in the towers as well. They are calling for some rain this weekend, but also lots of lightning. Hopefully we'll get some real rain in the near future. And not just for us, also for the farmers and others in the region that need this rain so badly. Let's all do a rain dance!!

Road trip!

In case you missed it, but we spent the last week and a bit on a road trip, touring the NE part of the States, including Burlington VT, Boston, and the White Mountains. It was a great trip and a welcome opportunity to unwind, disconnect and just spend time together without having to worry about anything else, except for maybe find out where to eat. The weather was definitely in our favour, with no days under 25 degrees, no rain (although we are desperate for some rain here in Ottawa) and lots and lots of sunshine. So really, a great time!
I don't want to bore people with elaborate stories (who wants to hear that anyway?), so I'll just post some photos with some describtions. Makes my life easier as well!

The bridge heading into the US.

Talking about crazy lights! Of course they were swinging in every direction due to the wind. Hard to keep track of which one is yours...

Some cool carvings in what we thought was marble, in Burlington, VT

Boston!

General Hooker's entrance...

Of course, the Cheers restaurant!

The 'penthouse' view from our hotel room. Not too shabby!

Boston Common, a beautiful park right in the midst of Boston, and a stone throw away from our hotel.

Make way for Ducklings!

A giant pumpkin

Some people just have tooooo much money

A maritime variant of the dog house

Looking out over the Boston Harbour

Trying to decide what to drink, eh, eat...

Scientology in Boston. Didn't get sucked into it...

This is the part of Boston we really liked. Old homes (Boston has lots of history!!), big trees, and lots of character.

Fenway Park! Home to the Boston Red Sox

Now we're in Portland, where we took a boat cruise of surrounding islands and harbour. These are some of the most expensive houses in Eastern US. I believe it...

The famous Portland Head Light  

Harper Seals!

The last two days were spent in the White Mountains, which was absolutely beautiful

A gorgeous little waterfall. Nice walk to get to, and best of all, no tourists!

Proof that Nolan was there as well

Looking back you can see Mount Washington, the highest mountain in Eastern US

Since it was somewhat hot (32 degrees...), we decided to take the gondola up, and walk down Mount Wildcat (4000 ft). Turns out that walking down a mountain is still pretty strenuous!

At the top, we had another beautiful view of Mt. Washington

And one of our now-famous self portraits.

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Not bad, eh?

On our way home, we stopped to feed the ducklings, which were competing with the fish. At least the fish didn't eat the ducklings.

Mount Washington Resort looks beautiful from a distance, but up close it was obvious it is in need of some updating...

And after a wonderful trip, we're back home again (and even worked a full week!).

Some photos to show how that looks like:

Our tomato plant is growing out of control, but we're loving it!

Murphy's new favourite place to sleep. Not sure we're very happy with it.

And here is proof that we need rain. Badly... Our lawn is as dead as can be, and the city if now encouraging people to water their lawns to reduce fire risks. It seems weird to waste water in a drought, but I really don't want to have a grass fire on our lawn, and then have it spread to the house. So the sprinkler will be on tonight...

Lots of ups, and some downs...

In general life is really, really good to us. But sometimes, there are some downs as well. That doesn't mean things are not going well, but when it's a little tough, it's even more important to focus on the good and fun things.

So what is going really well? First of all, we had a somewhat surprised visit by my mom! She called out of the blue if we had plans for the following weekend, and after some minor scheduling, she arrived last Thursday for a weeklong visit.  We pretty much kept living our lives, which included Nolan being away at a conference for the weekend, but it was a really nice, low-key and comfortable. The weather in The Netherlands has been less than summer-like, and one of my mom's wishes was to have hot weather. Well, she got her wish. The day she arrived it was 34 degrees :) It wasn't that hot during the rest of her stay, but still very reasonable!

We didn't do too much while she was here, but went for a nice long walk on Saturday, and had Nolan's parents over for dinner on the Sunday. Nolan and I had to work some days as well, but still found time to relax, chat and catch up.

During our walk on Saturday, we saw four deer, all in different spots. Most of them were close enough for pictures, but I only captured one:

The last Wednesday morning we went out for breakfast, which was a real feast! It's also nice to see how Nolan and my mom get along so well :)

Another thing that makes me happy and proud, is our garden. Our hanging baskets are doing really well and are expanding nicely.

Our planters are also filling in nicely. Especially our roses are doing well!

The purple dahlia below is actually from last year. We dug up the roots, store them over winter, and then put them back in this spring. And it worked!

And then one of our other prides, our vegetable garden! All our vegetables are doing really well, and I think we'll be harvesting a surplus of tomatoes, green peppers, cucumbers and strawberries. Nothing wrong with that though, we like our veggies!

Tomorrow is Canada Day, which we'll celebrate with our annual pool party with our running group. The weather is still nice and warm, so the pool should be nicely warmed up by now.

There might be some interesting times coming up, but we also have a vacation in our near future, which will hopefully allow us to relax and get away for a bit. But that being said, we are both doing well, and we stay strong!