A pre move update

It is only a couple of days until we move to our rental house and we are all very excited and busy packing.  It is amazing how much stuff we have accumulated in such a short time.  We have also had a phone call to say that our goods have arrived in the country from England so hopefully we will receive them at our new home in the next week or two.  It will be great to have some familiar things and the girls will think Christmas has come early with all their toys arriving.

Today Gracie received the Respect award at school.  It is a very bid deal and I managed to drive there to see it being given to her.  We are very proud of her!

I thought it would be good to post some photos of the cottage we are in now.  It is called the Colonel Cottage and sits on Burridge Lake.

This is the view of the cottage looking up from the lake.

This is the view of the cottage from the front.

Yesterday evening Mya put some bread on the deck for the Blue Jays.  Unfortunately it got late and the birds had gone to bed but we had another visitor....

He was not frightened at all of us and sat right by the door eating the bread.  I know people say they can be nasty, but he was rather cute!  Apparently a black bear has been spotted around here so perhaps we won't be putting any more bread out!

We are all set up with cars now.  Nearly every Canadian has a Dodge Caravan so I had to get one too.

Mick's is a Ford Focus station wagon - yes I know he is showing his age.

We have started to slowly look at houses to buy and went to see one the other day.  It has over 70 acres of land with it - some farm land and some wooded.  It was fantastic but the house is in a terrible state and needs more than we can possibly do.  It was great to see something so fantastic but not sure we will end up with quite so much land - not sure I see myself driving a tractor...

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is Thanksgiving here today and we have just had a lovely Thanksgiving meal followed by pumpkin pie - delicious!

We are moving to a new house at Seeley's Bay on 30th October and we are all very excited.  It is bigger and the road is ploughed (cleared of snow) in the winter so we should be able to get off the drive way.  If we stay here we will have to plough the road ourselves!

It was two weeks yesterday since I broke my right foot and hopefully there are only three weeks left until I am cast free - I am counting the hours down!  Getting up and down the hill outside the cottage is proving to provide much entertainment for Mick watching me use the garden chair for support as it is impossible to even attempt on crutches.  I'm sure it looks funny but I can't really see the funny side at the moment.  I have called the insurance company, insurance broker, ministry of transport and finally the OPP (Police) and none of them can tell me whether I am actually allowed to drive.  I guess I will stick to being chauffeured about for the time being.

These are photos of the local area.  We have to drive past these beautiful views to go to the dump to get rid of our rubbish. The only things that empty the bins out around here where we live are the raccoons and they make rather a mess with it, so we take it to the dump once a week.

This is a woodpecker that was outside our cottage this morning.

This is the road to Westport and views of the town.  It is on the Rideau canal system and is one of our favourite places to visit.

And this is Burridge Lake where we live.

One month on...

It is hard to believe but we have been in Canada for 5 weeks!  Before we left England a few people suggested I start a blog.  Initially I thought it was a ridiculous idea but now that we am here it seems like a good way to keep in touch with everyone.

The children started school early in September and Mick started work this week. 

We are still in our little cottage on Burridge Lake that we rented from England.  It is very small but has everything we need except a washer / dryer.  We drive to Westport to do the laundry but the drive there is so picturesque that it is not a hardship.

We are surrounded by beauty and although it is isolated I really love that I can type this and look out of the window at trees and there is no traffic to be heard!  The only sounds today are the occasional squirrel running over the roof of the cottage.  Since we have been here we have seen deer, racoons, squirrels, chipmunks, turtles, porcupines and skunks!  There are also some beautiful birds called Blue jays that are quite vocal.

We all seem to be settling in well and we are getting used to the different way of life and terminology.  The children think it is very amusing that 'pants' are trousers here and not pants as we know them, plus gas is something you put in the car and not use on the bbq!

This is at the bottom of our deck - it truly is amazing.