Minden missed me so much. While I was vacationing way out on my father in law’s farm near Montreal, he hid under the couch. My mother had to call the cat sitter who herself was nervous about his whereabouts. He was under the couch, or in the cupboard, while his sister, the uncharacteristically spry MARGE, gallivanted about the halls — soaking up the bliss of an empty, kidless house.
It’s a pretty farm. I’d say “pretty little farm,” but it’s far from little. Acres and acres of land on all sides. It’s beautiful — quite stunning, really, especially at my favourite time of day, dusk, when the sun is going down and brushing its pink, purple, orange strokes across the sky and along the hay-bale-dotted horizon. Ahhh…. Air. Country air. Enough to make you insane after a week of total isolation and no nanny.
Anyway…. C’mon, I’ll show you around….
The swimming pool…. We spent most of our time at the pool, and we have the sunburns to prove it. By the end of the trip, my dives were PERFECTION. We’re talking Chinese-Olympian PERFECTION.
The kiddie pool, aka the HOT TUB. Farmer Zaide has hot water in his hose, and we made good use of it.
You don’t need other peeps in the HOT TUB to have a HOT TUB PARTY!
FROG! TOAD!
TREE FROG! AT THE DOOR. I wanted to feed him but no one would let me. I love feeding the animals, but it’s not always recommended — especially in the country where there are more than just SQUIRRELS (Howard the Squirrel, since YOU ASKED, is thriving here in the city — I love him, too).
Tub o’ Fish. Happy, big-arse goldfish.
Inukshuk.
Tomatoes.
Romaine lettuce.
Zucchini! Did you know zucchini is a FLOWER?
Beans.
Rascal. Not farming. Just fondling the UR-UR on his new shoes….
UR-UR. “Mama, lootz! UR-UR!” (Translation: “Mama, look! TRAIN!”)
Sunflower. In bloom.
Carrot FAIL.
We ate them anyway. They were difficult to peel.
Potatoes from the farm — so many from one single bush! Made up for the carrot fail.
ME! On the FARM. In my now officially SIGNATURE hat. Glowingish (but bitchy) from FULL-ON detox — more on that later.
Windowsill.
Josh surprised me with a day trip to beautiful OTTAWA (an hour away)….
I wasn’t prepared for the trip AT ALL. I arrived in the big city wearing crocs and no makeup — total farmer. HENCE I insisted we hide from Chantal, Annie, and Loukia deep in the downtown market, which was fascinating, by the way….
The next day, we went to our beloved Montreal (1.5 hours away), where we found a water park….
Monkey loves her some water park….
So does Rascal. Those are shorts, by the way. 10th percentile, BABY!
Oh yeah….
When we got home Sunday evening, Minden came running to the door and jumped me like Dino when Fred Flintstone walks in the door. And he hasn’t really shut up since. I missed the little fluffball….
Little does he know we’re away NEXT WEEK, too….
TOTALLY missed you, too, Gorgeouses….
Love!
xo Haley-O
