The weather is still having some wet moments, some sunny moments and some frosty mornings. Overall though not too bad. We had our Thanksgiving Dinner. It consisted of Roast Turkey with all the trimmings and followed swiftly with a nice Pumpkin Pie and cream. Delicious! When we had our first Thanksgiving Dinner in 2004 we bought a Pumpkin Pie but dreaded actually eating it because it looked disgusting but we in fact found it very tasty and we all look forward to the Pumpkin Pie now. We enjoy Thanksgiving as it feels like we are having two Christmas meals a year! We basically had a lazy day chilling out and playing games. Mette, who is a Realtor, had to do a couple of house showings on Thanksgiving Day. Real Estate sure is different out here!
Been working on our land, getting final things done before the Winter sets in. Busy doing some pruning, weeding, tidying, mowing and a few minor repairs. I had to rotovate an area of the field and plant 364 Garlic so we are hoping for a good crop next Summer. This year we grew 54 so we are slowly expanding. We are still enjoying the Parsnip we are growing and it is nice to pick fresh Parsnip and have it cooked on a plate an hour later. Certainly beats all the transportation that shop-bought produce goes through. We have enjoyed growing a few different vegetables and fruit this year and definitely want to get into it more.
Halloween was upon us once more. Where we used to live on a sub-division we would have around 200 children knocking throughout the evening. We now live more rurally and we get a grand total of ….2. We still get in the spirit of things and decorate the garden a bit but in all honesty it’s probably more for our own entertainment! We went to a friends house in the evening and drank hot chocolate around a bonfire. Our children are older now so they went trick or treating with their friends and we picked them up later.
Daniel is playing Soccer and is getting back into the swing of Basketball training as their season starts the end of November. Anja is doing lots of dancing and is busy preparing for a Christmas Show. We also participated in the live webcam seminars at the Coventry Emigrate Shows and it was nice to talk to you and answer some of your questions. Speak to you all next month!

The blackberries have all been picked, made into jam and sold on our stall. Another successful season with our plum and blackberry jams. A long wait until next Summer now until we can make some more. It is nice to make something from the fruit from our field rather than just letting it rot and go to waste, a nice connection with nature.
Both Daniel and Anja have started back at school after their long 10 week Summer holiday. Daniel has already got back in the swing with both basketball and soccer and Anja is back to her dance routine. It is nice to see how many kids are involved with sports and clubs and other activities over here. There are definitely lots to choose from.
Anja had her birthday and she had an evening with her friends over for a sleepover. They swam in the pool, had their nails done, watched DVDs and ate pizza and ice-cream cake. I also helped with the pizza and ice-cream cake eating. I am now a parent of two teenagers although I am sure I don’t look it!
We had a BBQ and there were 25 of us altogether. Been a bit of a poor BBQ season this year due to the weather so it was nice to see friends and spend a bit of social time together. We have met up with another British family who have recently emigrated here and it has been good to be able to share each others experiences of emigrating and talk about our local area here.
Some friends from England came over for a visit and stayed with us for a week and it was nice to catch up and find out what has happened in each others lives. Since we left 3 ½ years ago they have had two children so a couple of new additions in their life.
The weather is still up and down being warm and sunny one day and wet and chilly another but, as someone said the other day, the forests and plants will be thankful for it as normally the Summers here are hot and dry. Also this year flowers lasted longer and the grass stayed green so the wet Summer has had it’s benefits.
We were also involved with the live webcam seminars at the Emigration Shows in York and it was nice to speak to some of you and be able to answer some of your questions. It is always good to hear from you and if you have any questions please feel free to ask, we always reply to all of the e-mails so please don’t be shy.

The blackberries are coming out and we have been busy picking blackberries and making jam to go on our stall with the plum jam. Our jam is becoming quite popular and we are establishing a few regulars at our stall.
August has been a traveling month. I went back to England with Daniel, Anja and one of Daniels friends. It was the first time I had been back since emigrating 3 ½ years ago. Daniel was already booked to go and Anja had said she didn’t want to go but with a week to go she suddenly changed her mind and said she would go if a parent went and guess who got the short straw! Daniel’s friend Cody also booked his ticket at this time. It was an unusual feeling stepping of the plane in Gatwick – a bit unsure how I felt, not over excited, not over despondent. Met my parents in the airport and then went on those fast, busy roads that seemed a distant memory away. The roads felt small and after driving on the other side of the road in Canada it felt strange sitting in the passenger seat with no steering wheel. We were back for two weeks altogether and it was nice to meet up with family and friends. The kids also enjoyed meeting up with some of their old friends and seeing how much they have all changed (Daniel was 11 when we left and is now 15, Anja was 9 and is now nearly 13). One difference this time was that I took photo’s of touristy places like Beachy Head as, although I have been there many times while living In England, now it would be nice to have a photo keepsake as I don’t know when I will next be back to enjoy it. I must admit that it didn’t take long for me to miss my sanctuary of Vancouver Island (I think it was when I boarded the plane in Vancouver) and as time went on I was longing more and more for the return date to come around and I found out that a lot of the reasons for us emigrating was still evident. If nothing else it had reinforced why we emigrated in the first place! Overall it was good meeting people and revisiting some old haunts but in all honesty I hadn’t wanted to go back to England and after this visit nothing had changed my mind to the contrary. When will the next visit be, I don’t know, probably not for a while.
On our return to Canada Daniel went of to a Summer camp for a week and at the end of August we went on our family holiday. We went to Whistler for 2 nights and during this time we saw 14 bears! Mette and Anja tried out the Zipline which goes through the air at a height of up to 200 feet and for distances up to 2,000 feet. Daniel and me decided that a nice leisurely ride up the top of Whistler in a Gondola was a better idea and we went up and enjoyed the views and a little bit of snow. From Whistler we went to Salmon Arm for one night. We then went onto Ainsworth Hot Springs visiting a few small towns on the way including New Denver and Kaslo, both very pretty, and enjoying our drive through the mountains. We spent 2 nights in Ainsworth and can thoroughly recommend the Hot Springs, a very enjoyable time. We also visited some caves called Cody Caves which was fun. We moved on from Ainsworth and stayed one night in Hope. On the way we went through some more nice towns including Osoyoos which is in a valley between the mountains and is hot. There is a big lake there and we all agreed that we would like to come back and stay here another time. From Hope we went to Hells Gate which is a Gondola over the Fraser River. A nice place to visit and have lunch followed by an ice- cream the size of a puppy! We carried on from here to North Vancouver, to my sisters house, where we stayed the night before returning home to Vancouver Island the following day. As with all holidays reality is always waiting and so it’s back to work, back to school, back to all the sports and clubs and back to being a chauffeur again. Be back next month!

The weather is still all over the place - wet one minute, sunny and 37 degrees the next. Still at least the grass is still green and the garden doesn’t need watering! On the night we had 37 degrees we slept in a tent in our field as it was cooler in the tent than our house. We have been harvesting our Garlic and Onions and have decided to grow Garlic on the rest of our land. It’s doesn’t need fencing as deer’s do not eat it. Our plum trees have produced a good batch of plums and we have been busy making plum jam and selling it on our stall. Daniel has been busy playing basketball and went to Gonzaga University in Spokane, USA for a weeks basketball camp. He generally goes to America 3 or 4 times a year plus Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and up and down Vancouver Island so plenty of opportunity for traveling if you get into a sport here. Anja has joined a swimming club and is having fun going to the training sessions and meeting new friends. We have joined a local gym and enjoy going as a family. This enables us the chance to get fit and have some family time doing something together. Darren’s sister and her family came over for a visit from Vancouver and it was nice to stay up late sitting outside chatting. They were lucky having good weather and had a lot of use out of our pool. We went to our neighbours for a garden party and had the chance to meet up with some of our neighbours (we live rurally so some of our neighbours are a bit of a distance away). We live opposite a Vineyard which is owned by the Cowichan First Nations and we went to their annual Salmon Bake. The food was very nice and they put on a great performance of traditional First Nations dancing.

The weather has gone full circle from hot, warm, wet, warm and back to hot again. Work is very busy especially Mette. She is a Realtor and Vancouver Island and the Cowichan Valley is experiencing a lot of house sales and rising of house prices, this Island paradise on the Western edge of Canada is starting to be found!
Daniel and Anja have broken up from school for their annual 10 week Summer holiday and I didn’t notice too many complaints from them! Daniel is still playing lots of Basketball and has a lot of Basketball camps planned and Anja performed in a Dance show at the Cowichan Centre and will be doing a Dance camp.
We had a phone call in Mid-June from an English friends parents saying they are staying at relatives in Vancouver and can they come over for a visit. It was nice to catch up and have a chat about old times and new but it felt strange having someone visit from England for just 3 hours.
On Canada day (July 1st) we went to the Sooke Canada Day celebration, then onto French Beach and back into Victoria for a meal. Canada day is a big day here and everybody gets involved either through community events or parties in their home, lots of Canada flags everywhere.