Behold! A Child is Born! Followed almost immediately, by another one!

Ecstatic congratulations to dear friends Amanda & Greg on the birth of their long-awaited twin boys!

High five to Sam and William, the Big Brothers!

Tinman tells us:

David born Wednesday, June 27 at 9:56 6lbs 15 oz

James born Wednesday, June 27 at 9:59 6lbs 5 oz


Amanda is resting and doing well. The babies are great, and are beautiful.

We are so happy for you.

Love, Humble and the Gang

Greenwood

Today was blisteringly hot, and we trundled off with the idea of going to the beach. We were diverted by the flagship conservation area of the region, Greenwood.


We found ourselves some friendly trees...


And fortified ourselves for the trek in...





Unfortunately none of the pictures came out well, but these gorgeous, shiny black damsel flies were dancing all along the creek banks...








Man, it was hot.









Baby Man working his way through...






Did I mention it was hot?






Look closely!




HW

Element: FIRE

Solstice celebration part four: Fire.

If you think it has taken a rather long time to get around to FIRE, the element that represents the sun, then you have been paying close and keen attention.

For two days we attempted to build and burn a bonfire. High winds (jealous Air Element?) prevented us from our task.


Finally the winds died down, and as I lifted the flame to strike, a spectacular and almost certainly non-repeatable tripping accident by the Scoob resulted in her tiny bum completely flattening the carefully arranged kindling.


After the hysterical laughter died down, we buckled down and rebuilt. This time we achieved our aim. The fire began to burn.



We invoked the spirit of the Great Marshmallow...


And the spirit of the Smoke...



It began to get dark, and we gazed at the flames...




And burned our marshmallows, mesmerized as we were.

HW

East Coast Guest Post!

This just in from our East Coast correspondent and favourite equestrian, from beautiful Dartmouth, Nova Scotia!


She observed our nature close-ups and sent in some of her own beautiful shots for your viewing pleasure...




When she's not busy dominating the film world, she's out and about, horseback riding and starting revolutions...




Thanks, eh!

HW

Julie Glaser

ViewFinders Director

Atlantic Film Festival Association

Direct Tel: 902-420-4797

Cell: 902-440-4454

Fax: 902-422-4006

e-mail: julie@atlanticfilm.com

Visit www.atlanticfilm.com for more information.

27th Atlantic Film Festival

September 13-22, 2007

10th Strategic Partners International Co-Production Market

September 14-16, 2007

7th alFresco filmFesto

Friday nights from July 27 – August 31, 2007

7th Viewfinders: International Film Festival for Youth

April 2008

The Way

Embracing the Way, you become embraced;
Breathing gently, you become newborn;
Clearing your mind, you become clear;
Nurturing your children, you become impartial;
Opening your heart, you become accepted;
Accepting the world, you embrace the Way.

Bearing and nurturing,
Creating but not owning,
Giving without demanding,
This is harmony.

Lao Tzu

HW

Element: EARTH

Solstice celebration part three: Earth!

We took this opportunity to get the Urchin Garden up and running.

Built ourselves a Morning Glory Tee Pee...


Planted a little herb patch...


And constructed little twig fences, to keep out marauding, er... well, they're really attractive and rustic...


HW

Attention Inner Circle!

For those of you desperate to keep up with the trials and tribulations of Wyfe of Tinman's gestation of twins, as she teeters into the final countdown, (and who among us, is not) she now has her own media outlet, cunningly titled Amanda Pietersma, drop by and say hi! She's bored, she's not allowed to stand erect, give her some love.

Hi Tinman!

HW

Element: WATER

Solstice celebration part two: Water...


We hit the beach and ran along the surf...


And watched the pretty boats...

HW

Element: AIR

To celebrate Solstice, we played with the Elements over the course of three days.

First up, Air!



We watched and listened to the wind in the trees...



Flew a kite...


And watched the clouds...

Stay tuned...there's more.

HW

Calamitous Cereal

Yesterday. Raisin bran.

Am I REALLY the only person this keeps happening to?!

Today's Hike

Yes, yes, just another day basking in natural beauty. Yawn...

Found a huge conservation area you can hit with a rock from here.






HW

The Great Solstice Bunny!

Thought I'd share this little beauty who nestled down in our front garden. Excuse me, I have to go explain now why they don't get chocolate on Solstice...

HW

Summer Solstice with Whippersnappers

Oh drat, another bonfire celebration!

It's the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer tomorrow. I'm seeing Picnic in the Wonders of Nature, and building and burning a small Sun here on Earth, in honour of the Big, Life-Giving Yellow One. Bit of Sun related story-telling, hand-wrought flower head wreaths, bit of cavorting...

Sort of lost track of the calendar and forgot to plan this. I can do it. I am strong, I am invincible, I am whatsit.

May the Midsummer fire invite the spirits of the elements!
Io! Io! Io! Hail, Fire, Air, Water, Earth!
We proclaim the summer!
Come and dance around the circle!

What the hell, just a little science too.

HW

Lake Ontario and Mr. Toad

HW

Eight Things Meme Thingie

Carol, that wild and crazy fellow Canuck over at You're Not Lost, You're Here! tagged me ages ago for this meme thingie, and as I do not have five children and cannot possibly imagine being as organized and efficient as she must have to be, it has fallen through the cracks...along with the ever elusive can opener.

The Rules are:

• Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves.
• The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed.
• At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Sounds simple, but it looms like a big, daunting, looming thing.

As I wish to be a Good Virtual Friend and Neighbour, I have cobbled together an emergency solution to save face. Back in March I did a post on Embracing Your Weirdness.

Please accept this as my list. By some freaky coincidence, I actually listed eight things. Of course, they are all WEIRD things, but that was inevitable anyway. Please note for the record, that I am no longer addicted to New Age music. Turns out admitting you have a problem is the hardest step.

As for tagging people, man, that's so much work. I'm going to cheat here too, and just tag my dear, elegant, intellectual French friend Penny, from Yellow House. If you don't read Penny's blog, you are missing out on some seriously great photography, Very Deep Thinking and jam tarts.

HW

Bonfires!

Really enjoying being able to set stuff on fire, out here in the Boondocks, without anyone calling the police.

Even the Giant Radioactive Mosquitoes, who remove chunks of you, rather than simply probing you with a proboscis, can't quite ruin the primal appeal of a bonfire roaring in the night.

Or the primal appeal of roasting marshmallows on sticks. One imagines one's caveman ancestors ringed around just such a fire, roasting Early Marshmallows and complaining about dropping the pointed end of their sticks in the dirt...

"O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live. "
William Wordsworth

HW

Hiking

Warning: giant photo essay.


Step out of our front door, turn right, then left, then straight for a bit, then left again, right once more, straight and then just past the transformer station, left again, and you are right (left?) in the middle of some seriously righteous Canadian parkland.


Today we went for a really beautiful hike.


Very wild and groovy, untrammeled, undamaged, heavily scented with wildflowers, zillions of wild creatures zooming around, great stuff.





We hopped across these rocks... I make that sound easy, don't I...


Tried to catch this guy, and snapped his portrait after he outwitted us with his cunning crayfish mind. Next time we'll have a proper meeting beforehand to plan our strategy, and THEN he won't be so smug, no sir.




Lots of lovely, winding, creek side and cliff top trails.





Incredible numbers of Monarchs and butterflies in general. They were just lying around on flowers everywhere.



Ahhhh, we're going back every day. Maybe tomorrow we'll take some tents and tins of beans and just never leave. What a beautiful world.

HW

(A little closer to...) Country Life!

Here I am, standing on the strange Country Grass. Notice how it is entirely different from Urban Grass. We had some trouble sleeping the first night, without the comforting blare of sirens and distant popcorn of gunfire, but it's getting easier. When we went out to complain about the silence, we observed strange little specks of light in the sky - there might have been hundreds of them. We look forward to finding out what they are.


This creature and others like it bounce past the windows morning and evening. Foxes, coyotes and white tailed deer abound. They don't have mosquitos here, they have 'Skeeters' and poor spotted Scooby is the blood meal of choice.


There's even cut wood and a bonfire pit. Cockles, warming.


When kids don't have television, they soon revert to their natural state, which is, of course, to spend hours building animals out of pom poms.


This is the Urchin Garden. It's since been dug and prepared, but we're a month behind schedule and may have to forgo starting from seed. It will still be wonderful.

HW

And...we're back!

Well, the heavy lifting is over, just doing a bit of this sort of thing. Regular blogging services will resume shortly.

Great big hugs and kisses and thanks to Silverfish and the crew of the China Moon, Captain Dad and the crew of Taio, and dear Plum who hitchhiked for five hours with strangers when her ride fell through and stayed for a week, lugging heavy chunks of wood around and banging things with screwdrivers.

Thanks too, to Scott, for the entertainment and the Tin Foil Ring, and to Pete, for the last minute muscle needed to subdue the appliances.

Thanks for all the hard labour and colourful conversation. Without you guys, we'd just be camped outside surrounded by disassembled dressers.

HW