It's starting

School went back on Wednesday and since then I've noticed a dramatic change in the weather.  While the days are still warm (in the 20s) there's no longer much heat in the sun and the light is softer.  It's been pretty breezy and dead leaves have started to fall.  I've even heard the geese doing "practice flights" (I think they're practising because they weren't flying south)...

This morning while lying on the floor playing with the baby I saw out the window that the leaves on a couple of trees have started to change colour.  I must admit that I'm surprised at how early it is but I don't really know how long the whole "Fall" process takes.

We're excited to see the trees turn yellow and orange and Action Boy is very excited about the snow returning but we will be sad to close the pool down.  There are so many things to look forward to over the next coming months (visitors, trips, Halloween, birthdays, Christmas, snow etc) but I'm really not looking forward to dressing two small children to go outside.  It has been so great just walking out the door.  Maybe it'll be easier this time around as we'll go into it gradually rather than land in minus 20 degrees!

xx

Tastes like home

I've been quite lucky so far not to feel homesick.  Of course I really miss being with friends and family but overall we're coping pretty well.

However Fanta Pants craves certain foods like vegemite, meat pies and lamb.  Lamb is hard to come by here but we'd had a tip off that Australian lamb was available at CostCo and so I went off and joined up.  (CostCo is a huge, warehouse like supermarket that sells things in bulk at very good prices but you have to be a member to shop there).

Our tip off was spot on and I found cryovac Australian lamb!  Yippee!

We picked up some Quebec multi coloured carrots and green beans from the farmer's market in the village and voilà!  A beautiful mix of Quebecois and Australian produce!  Biting into the lamb was like tasting home.  I haven't had lamb the entire time we've been here and it was delicious!!!

xx

Sovereignty

Over the summer it's been hard to keep up with current affairs but there is a provincial election next week.  I try to check in daily to see what is happening and each day I am amused and baffled.  It seems very likely that the incumbent Liberal government will be booted in favour of the centre left Parti Quebecois.  The Parti Quebecois (PQ) is also a separatist party.  That's right, the PQ doesn't want to be part of Canada any more...

There is so much history behind this that I couldn't possibly hope to understand but I'm seriously baffled that despite the many problems this province has, the majority of this election campaign has revolved around who is a federalist and who's in favour of sovereignty and when the referendum would take place.  Besides the obvious French language benefits no one talks about the advantages to Quebec of going it alone.  There is one question no one needs to ask - "Does the rest of Canada really care?".  Probably not from what I've read.

The PQ also have some seriously questionable policies.  The following is from the national newspaper "The Globe and Mail".  

Although she’s basically a socialist, some of her rhetoric smacks of Europe’s anti-immigrant right wing. “Let us not yield to the intimidation of those who want to impose values that are not ours,” she declared in a campaign ad. She wants immigrants to pass a French test before they run for public office. (Originally this restriction was going to apply to people born in Quebec too, until aboriginal groups exploded in protest.) She wants to ban the display of all religious dress or symbols (except the crucifix) by anyone who works for the government. She wants to take away the right of francophone and allophone students to attend English-language junior colleges.

Wow!  I can't believe these people will probably win...  I'll let you know what happens and which "country" we'll be living in!!

xx

Pets in shops

I don't think I've ever seen a pet in a shop in Australia but here there are lots!  It seems that many shop keepers bring their dogs and cats to work to keep them company!  At one of the local shopping centres there is a cat is supposed to live at the garden centre but wanders the halls and spends a lot of his time on top of the cosmetics counter at the pharmacy!  Little Miss D just loves it!

There is a gorgeous little homewares store in our village and today I met their cat.  Not surprisingly he suits the neutral decor beautifully!  It was nice to pat a cat!

xx

Halloween

Yes I know Halloween is over two months away but we've been talking about it since we got here and Action Boy is very excited about the whole thing.  The thought of that much "candy" for a small boy is almost too much to bare!  His choice of costume changes weekly but generally revolves around a star wars or ninja theme.

The reason I've started thinking about it because the paraphernalia has already hit the shops!  At the moment it's only a couple of home ware shops that have started stocking Fall and Halloween inspired decorations but I'm pretty sure that as soon as school goes back next week, all the other shops will move straight into Halloween.

At the moment, our main concern is learning the seasonal etiquette and deciding on costumes for trick or treating and the choice is amazing!  As would be expected, costumes for kids generally revolve around the latest movie or toy but there are some pretty funny ones for adults available too.  Some of the costumes for women are very "adult" and probably a bit cold for here!  The costumes seem pretty reasonably priced too - most around $35.  Here are a couple of the ones I really like.  The "Plug and Socket" one is a bit rude but so funny!

www.buycostumes.com

xx

Hello?!

Wow it's nearly been a week but unfortunately my absence from the bloggosphere isn't due to an exciting trip.  In fact it's quite the opposite.  We've spent the week pretty close to home!  With three little ones to entertain all day (and one who's just moved to one nap) there isn't much time for much else.

With school starting on Wednesday of next week we're trying to fit in as much summer as we can.  Lots of playdates, swimming and playing outside.  I must admit though, we're all looking forward to school going back....

xx

I need a weekend to

recover from the weekend!  Where did it go?  We're were busy little people but we had fun!    So what did we get up to?  Among other things - a show and shopping in the city, date night, brunch with friends and afternoon tea with Fanta Pants' colleagues.

I was really excited to take the two big kids to see the show "How to Train a Dragon".  It's a live performance with puppets based on the animated movie of the same name.

It was really fun and the kids had a blast.  The dragons were amazing and it must have been such a thrill for the actors to "fly" them.  The lighting and staging was impressive complete with fire breathing dragons!

The performance was at the Bell Centre which is home to the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team and it's located smack bang in the middle of the city.  After the show we went for a spot of lunch and shopping at Zara Kids!  (I love that shop!).  It was the first time I've really wandered around that part of the city.  I've driven through heaps of times but on foot I realised just how compact the central city is.  I'm becoming much more familiar and comfortable with it and look forward to checking out a few more places.

xx

Dilemma part two

To feed or not to feed is no longer a question.  Completely by accident I came across an article in the local paper which was about feeding the local wildlife and it is of course prohibited with fines of up to $1000.

So there will be no intentional feeding of the wild life at our place.  Whether or not Elizabeth and her babies choose to vandalise our bin in order to find dinner is another story all together!

Note the scratch marks?  Elizabeth must have very sharp claws...

xx

Dilemma

I've written lots about our furry friends who live in our garden.  We've become quite fond of all of them and have even named a few.  We call the mama racoon Elizabeth as her facial markings remind me of Elizabeth Taylor's eye makeup when she played Cleopatra.  One of the squirrels also has very distinctive eyes which makes him easy to recognise so we call him Nutty.

Last night we managed to see Elizabeth's babies up close!  She wasn't around so I'm guessing she was off looking for food and they were waiting for her.

We had thought that our raccoon family lived across the street in the storm water drain and would cross the road but last night we found out that they probably cross under the street and come out this hole at the bottom of our driveway.  I had always wondered why the grate was always off, even when the ground was covered in snow and now I know!  These little critters keep the passage clear!

There seem to be two babies in this family!

Now here is our dilemma.  Considering the fact this family lives the the end of our driveway and by law they can't be moved, do we leave food for them at their home in the drain hoping that will stop them raiding our garbage bin and making a big mess?  Raccoons are amazingly dexterous and so even bin locks don't deter them for long.  I'm really in two minds about this...

xx

End of summer...

I know it's only the middle of August but it really feels like summer is coming to an end...  There are a few key pointers that are making me think "Fall" is just around the corner.  (Fanta Pants is already ruing the leaves that will soon need picking up!).

Firstly, the weather is a bit hit and miss but it has generally been less humid in the last week or so.  Then there are only two more days of swimming lessons left, school goes back in two weeks, we bought Little Miss D's "inside" school shoes and I've just started negotiations with Action Boy about a back-to-school haircut (he's pretty keen to let it grow!).  We've ordered the school supplies and I just got the email reminder about registration for Fall activities for the kids!  (We're going all out with skating and ice hockey this year!).

Before the summer started I thought I'd be tearing my hair out with all three kids home together for nine and a half weeks but I'm surprised and pleased to say I've actually really enjoyed it!  VIP visitors and our trip to France broke things up nicely but since we've been back we've all really enjoyed swimming lessons then lazing in and by the pool.  Playdates are at our place in the pool and we've thrown the routine out the window.  The kids have gone a bit "free range" with a fair bit of nudey swimming and nature pees going on.  It has been a truly great summer and we look forward to doing it all again next year...

In the meantime we're going to eek out every last bit of this season while looking forward to all the fun things Fall has to bring...

xx

Bears!

Canadians love camping and every time I ask if there are bears where they go camping, they laugh at me!  Apparently raccoons are far more dangerous in a camping ground!  If we lived on the other side of the country people wouldn't be laughing about the grizzly bears but around here no one seems to worry about the little black bears.

I've been wanting to see these guys since they woke up from their long naps in the early spring so today we headed back to the Ecomuseum.  (Fanta Pants took the kids not long after we arrived in Montreal see here).  It was pretty warm and steamy today so many of the animals were looking for a cool spot but this bear put on a lovely show for us.

We all felt very "secure" being this close behind an electrified fence!  I think I was the most excited to see the bears although Little Miss D announced at dinner she'd like to look after the baby bears when she grows up.

We also got to see a very fast little chipmunk and some very lazy looking raccoons.  They really do have the cutest creatures in Quebec!!

xx

Bloom

I love knitting but unfortunately I'm definitely not the fastest knitter in the world.  Despite being a bit slow, I really enjoy the process and the result.  I'm particularly proud of my latest project "Bloom".

Little Miss D seems pretty pleased with it too!  I'm not sure what happened in this photo - who is this girl and what have you done with my child?  Smiling?  Posing?  Amazing!  I think we're beginning to move out of the treacherous threes!  Yippee!

For those of you who knit (I know there's one of you!) the pattern can be found here on ravelry.com (it's like pintrest for knitters!).  As it's kind of stretchy, dress is supposed to grow into a tunic top.  The idea of getting more than one year out of it really appeals to me after all the hours I spent on it!!

xx

De-humidifier

It gets hot, steamy and sticky here!  Before coming here we were so caught up in the fact that it would regularly be as cold as minus 20 degrees that we didn't realise how stinky hot it gets as well.  I must admit I have been shocked at how hot it can be.

Fortunately we have the pool and on a super sticky day it's actually much nicer to sit under a tree than in the unair-conditioned house.  (Who knew we'd need aircon?!).  We're used to a dry, take your breath away kind of heat but here the air gets thick and sticky.  It's very tropical!  The big advantage to this kind of heat is every couple of days a big thunder storm blows in to clear the heat away and water the lush gardens.  It's amazing to see it build up then explode!

The big disadvantage to high humidity is mould.  Anywhere there is moisture sitting around it grows eg in the water filter and laundry basket!  Eew!  The basement is also a haven for it and we realised we needed to turn on the "de-humidifier".  (We knew it was there but didn't really know what it did but thanks to Google we realised it could be quite useful!).

This thing is ugly and a bit noisy but it does an amazing job of sucking moisture (and future mould) out of the air.  The bucket holds around four litres and needs to be emptied daily!  I was astounded that so much excess water was hanging around!  It really "feels" less damp in the basement and I'm sure that's much healthier!  

xx

Woodland creatures

Canada is full of woodland creatures and you don't have to be in the wilderness to see them either!  I've written a lot about our darling squirrels but I can't remember if I've mentioned our raccoon family.  (I've never been know for my memory for details!).

We have a mama raccoon who lives between a vacant plot behind us and the storm water drain across the road from us.  This means she and her babies use our place as a thorough fair.  We might catch a glimpse of her or see evidence of her being around but she's been hard to get a photo of.

Finally on Friday night I got one!  It's not a great photo but it's the best I've managed of her so far.  While watch the Olympics on TV we saw that the local security patrol had parked across our driveway and it seemed the security guy was trying to help our raccoon cross the road safely!

Seeing an opportunity for a photo I grabbed my camera and ran out.  Apparently if raccoons are in danger or appear to be endangering someone/something else by law they can only be moved 100 metres from where they were found.  So I guess that means we're going to have to figure out a better way to secure our garbage bin.  This clever little creature can manage to lift the lid of our green wheelie bin even when it's strapped down with an occy strap!  It appears that her favourite foods include chicken and bread...

xx

Lord Fanta

Being a pretty big North American city, Montreal plays host to a lot of great cultural events.  One exhibition we've been keen to get to is Star Wars Identities at the Montreal Science Centre and it was fantastic!

Two excited kids waiting to go in with their imaginary light sabres...

There are two main parts to the exhibition - one part is an amazing collection of 200 pieces of original costumes, props, models and sketches from all six Star Wars movies.

R2-D2

Yoda and Little Miss D 

Padme Amidala's costumes as worn by Natalie Portman.

The second part of the exhibition was an interactive adventure to create our own Star Wars characters!  This was so cool and really appealed to techno obsessed kids.  Via a wrist band with a memory chip installed we answered a series of questions about who and what we wanted our "characters" to be.  The system of questions and explanations that helped you decided on answers was so well executed with a perfect blend of information and technology.

It was a no brainer that Little Miss D would be an Ewok!!!

By the end of the exhibit we each came away with a character complete with detailed back story and of course we all had to decide if we would choose the dark side... only Action Boy chose to join forces with Darth Vader!

Fanta Pants' creation - Lord Fanta

Little Miss D's partially finished Ewok - typically for a 3 year old she lost interest half way around!!

xx

Brocante

I've been meaning to share this for a while but I hadn't gotten around to taking the photos!  So going back a few weeks now in the Loire Valley we came across this fabulous brocante.  

A brocante is kind of like the cross between an antiques fair and a flea market but it can also be in a permanent location like the one we found outside of Azay le Rideau.  It was amazing - just like it had been styled for a magazine shoot!

I managed to find some little treasures too.  These sabots are just gorgeous although I'm yet to find them somewhere to live in our house!

No problems bringing these wooden babies into Canada - no OTT customs declarations...

I have looked long and hard for vintage robots for the kids and who would have thought I'd find them in rural France?!  I'm not sure who's more pleased with these guys - me or the kids!!

xx

It's on...

The Qubecois Premier has just called an election and that means the long running debate on tuition fees should be decided upon once and for all.  The election is due on 4th September which is apparently unusual as they don't usually campaign during the summer.

Current Premier Jean Charest from the Quebec Liberal Party

The current government will be going for a fourth term which would be a massive task in itself.  It appears that there are some very clear points of differentiation between the major parties and they include tuition fees, a possible sovereignty referendum and the corruption scandals that have surrounded the current government.

I'm only scratching the surface of the political intricacies here but I'm looking forward to finding out more as the election campaigns unfold...

xx