Seagull antics

One day in late September Grant and I spent a few hours wandering around the harbour area of Nanaimo...it was a perfect day for it. We watched fishermen - in boats and with waders - trying to outwit the great number of Pink Salmon which were congregating in the harbour waiting to go upstream. We watched boats in the harbour, and enjoyed an ice cream cone.

While we were walking back I spied a young seagull standing in the seaweed and rocks just below the seawall. The bird had a purple starfish in its mouth, and when I first saw it, the starfish was more out than in. It almost seemed as if the bird was not quite sure if it could actually swallow the starfish. I watched til the starfish completely disappeared - and took pictures as I watched:

PICTURES of renos etc

This is our newly renovated Family Bathroom..we are especially pleased with the tile, and thank our German Helper Christian for all his help with this project!

To the right is my mother's old bedroom..freshly painted, new carpet, and a bamboo blind. We have a desk and chair we are still re-finishing, and when done they will replace the temporary table and chair to the right of the bed. The room is cozy and welcoming now - we hope to be able to either rent it long-term (another Boarder) or have it as a Bed & Breakfast room.

How time flies..

Sounds a bit trite, but when I see that I last updated my Blog at the beginning of July, then, yes time does fly!

Since my last post:

• we finished our month of having two Japanese teens who were upgrading their English at Queen Margaret School in Duncan (I did a lot of driving back and forth between Duncan and home and Nanaimo)
• we had a number of guests here via Helpexchange and Workaway
• we completely re-did the original bathroom next to Mom's old bedroom, and partially re-did the other family bathroom
• we had 4 Japanese girls for a total of 12 nights who went to Queen Margaret's School
  
• Grant was laid off from his job at B&G on August 28th
• Ian came home for a wonderful surprise visit, stealing a week off of school
• Kasia lost her one puppy, which was stillborn when the Vet did an emergency C-section
• Grant started a new job as Yard Manager at DEMXX in Parksville on Sept. 28th
• We re-did Grandma's old bedroom, with painting and new carpet - it looks really great, and definitely ready to rent, either long-term or as a B&B room
• Heather and I started our 2nd year as Guiders with 1st Chase River Guides with G. and our Jr Leader R - we are thrilled to have 15 Guides this year.

I continue to enjoy my new job as Program Coordinator with the Nanaimo Telephone Visiting Society...'happenings' there include:

• having Ivy, a great VIU student as a Canada Summer Jobs employee for 6 weeks - the office doesn't even resemble its former self!
• we have a new website now: www.ntvs.ca
• I put together and published the September 2009 NTVS Newsletter - Bryce mailed it to our non-email volunteers and clients this past week. I will continue to use it as PR
• we hosted the 1st ever NTVS Open House, which was a success
• On October 13th my 3 months 'probation' will be over, tho I actually started working at NTVS July 6th

THERE! I finally feel as if I've done some fast catching up!