Cycling & Our Cottage Experience

Our bike ride with Bob and Candice on Saturday was a wonderful day.  We really enjoyed the ride through the parkland and along the lake.  Jack had a ball on the 'tag-along' bike which attaches to Troy's bike and allows him to enjoy the ride on Troy's cycling power. 
Here are some pics of the day.

 Candice made a wonderful dinner which topped off a great day!

 Jack and Bob with a hand-carved raccoon!

This is a gorgeous little house with a beautiful maple tree turning red.  The photo doesn't do it justice.

On Sunday, we left Toronto and drove to Loon Lake, which is about 2.5hrs north eastish.  A Fire Chief named Doug and his wife Sue invited us to make use of their cottage and we are so glad they gave us this opportunity.  The drive alone was spectacular with all the trees changing colour.  We saw so many different shades of green, yellow, orange, red, brown and almost black!  The scenery is something I have only ever seen in posters etc so to see and smell it all was something I will never forget. 

The cottage itself was just gorgeous.  Aussies have a different definition of cottage to Canadians -- it was a bloody nice house!  4 bedrooms, deck, jetty and everything!  The view over the lake was so nice and relaxing.  The trees across the lake were also putting on a lovely display which seemed to change colour every day we were there.

The first night we arrived was f-f-f-f-freezing so Troy made a fire and we settled in for the night.  Doug and Sue have everything you can imagine at the cottage, so we made good use of the board games and DVD's!   Such a quiet and relaxing setting.  They also have one of those really flash u-beaut wine bottle openers like Dad has so we are guessing they like their wine!

The weather was a little drizzly at times but we made the most of our opportunity and went canoeing (I think they whole lake heard me screeching, "sit down Jack and STAY STILL!).  I knew for sure there were ice particles in the water.  We also went fishing in their boat.  We all caught little fish using worms (ewww).  The time just flew by so quickly.

 Jack took this picture of Troy and me!

 Jack was allowed to have a little turn of steering the boat - unfortunately he has his mum's boating skills....



I continue to enjoy my time at the Cat Shelter.   We have been lucky to have had a lot of adoptions recently, so I was happy to see a few of my favourites find good homes.  I am currently doing three shifts each week (a couple of hours each shift).   I have officially been 'broken in' and 'rated' by the coordinators as a "keeper" which basically means they love me (it's not hard).  I find it funny that they think I am so special when all I really do is what I am asked to do, plus a little extra of whatever I see needs doing (like redoing name tags and charts).  They think I am being helpful but everyone who knows me knows that it is an OCD illness....I met my first polydactyl cat yesterday - for those of you who didn't know what that was........it's a cat with too many toes!  FREAKY.  I was sucked in and if this cat doesn't find a home, she will definitely be coming home to Townsville with us.  Don't tell Troy though.

I also started a stability-ball pilates class on Thursdays with Barbie across the road.  Our first class was really good and the next eight weeks should definitely do wonders to banish the fat gods.   For those of you who have been concerned about my beaver tail intake, I am happy to report that I have not had a beaver tail for about 4 weeks!  har!  Take that, fat gods.  I won't mention the amount of crap we ate at the cottage though.

Ok that's all for now!   Hope you are all well and happy.  It's apparently going to get down to about 5degrees over the next couple of days, so if I can pry myself away from the fireplace I will try to do these blogs a little more regularly.   Take care, Erin xxxxx