We arrived back from Regina on Saturday - just in time for my Sunday shift working the Father Christmas Festival House Tour! I was working 252 Main Street with my friend June. This community never ceases to amaze me! I thought I was volunteering in the house and discovered when I arrived that actually the home owners had created a guest house in the property's barn and this was where we would be. 
What a magical job they did - Alice in Wonderland was the theme and the attention to detail was amazing. The decorations were so creative, nothing was missing. Trees hung from the rafters, small doors to go through, cheshire cats and more. So neat to see the committee use items from other events to create something brand new again. 

We squeezed in a quick trip to Regina to see Adrian's Aunt Stephanie and his cousins, Kelly, Wayne and his wife Sharon. So, so much fun. Lots of great conversation, some wine and fabulous food. It was so much fun hearing about Adrian's family, childhood and I am beginning to figure out who's who. We had a fabulous time and are hoping to visit again in April. 

Just back from Costa Rica and all decorated for Christmas before we head off to Regina!

You know you're having a great time when you forget to take pictures! We were in Samara (pronounced like Camera but with an S) for a week with our friends Jan and John. We had planned to join them in Samara last February and had to cancel at the last minute so when they invited us to join them in November we jumped at the chance. Jan and John already had the ground floor of the Dos Mangos property rented so there was room for us! Lovely 3 unit condo - we had the bottom floor and the pool. Although the pool is available to all three units, it feels and is used mostly by the bottom unit which we had. 
Our accommodations were great, in the town so close to everything. 5 minutes to the beach, bars, food and happy hours just a few steps away.  The beach is beautiful, lots of sand, waves when the tide is in but at low tide swimming was super calm. Lots of restaurants and hotels on the beach, all still small and quaint. You could rent a chair and an umbrella easily from one of these hotels/restaurants and keep it for the whole day, just needed to drink and or eat - who doesn't want to do that! The beach offers surfing and horseback riding. It's fabulous for walking, wonderfully clean with only a few vendors. 
The food was spectacular, we had great meals ad the prices were pretty good. Several grocery stores and lots of places for food, drinki and so on. Touristy but not too touristy. Lots of really small, great places to eat and friendly people. We'll definitely be back. 
We settled into a routine pretty quickly, early walk on the beach, followed by breakfast beachside. Some down time reading and then afternoon swim for me, happy hour rounded out the afternoon and into the evening. Highly recommend.

Super concerned about all of our friends in Makayuni, Tanzania. The Maasai have largely not participated in the election protests rocking the country and are hugely affected by the impacts. Internet and cell phone service down, banking restrictions and limited access to money. We're thinking of them and praying for their safety. We understand, that in typical Maasai fashion, the crisis is bring the community together in support of each other.

Quick overnight trip to PEI to close up the Beach House for another year! Bumper crop of grapes going to the birds -  I really must find a way to use them next year!

No sooner had our girls weekend ended when the weather turned. We ended up coming home early because it was too windy to do our final fall closing of the Beach House duties.

While we were in PEI enjoying our great fall weather, Justin and Shannon hosted friends and family at our place!

So excited to have been able to host some of my friends at the Beach House. Wonderful weather, lots of laughs, Farmer's Market, Brickhouse Brunch and an amazing first game of the World Series - second game not so great. Thanks Mary-Ann, Nancy, Christine and Kate for a fabulous weekend - thank you to Adrian for his great bartending and waitering skills.

We are so lucky to live where we do. While we desperately need rain, our fall has been spectacular. While enjoying our hot tub the other night we were mesmerized watching the chipmunks and squirrels get ready for the winter. The sunflowers that were planted near our retaining wall were the draw, and we were able to watch the squirrels run along the top of the wall, climb the sunflowers and retrieve the small seed heads. They also diligently worked to gnaw through and release some of the biggest flowers full of seeds. Sadly I didn't have a camera - and I was able to catch a picture of one of them the next evening, and a shot of some of the mess they left behind.
I can't tell you how much fun it was - more than 30 minutes of entertainment. Especially watching one squirrel try to figure out how to take home a flower full of seeds that was almost as big as he was. He tried many different routes before finally finding a way!