November 15

On Friday, we did this and that (some Brahms and free-reading, and lots of Lego, thrown in the mix) and spent some time outside in the afternoon. The weather is incredible for MB at this time of the year, and we fully intend to take advantage of it.

On Saturday, we spent 6 hours outside. It was 11 degrees celsius, sunny with next to no wind. We got to spend some of that time outside with friends on this hay stack in a field just on the edge of town. The girls had so much fun, pretending the hay stack was a nest, digging in it to make a little area for the eggs (or the birds) to nest in, and just climbing and rolling around on it.

And yes, they found some ice! Fina has been on a hunt for ice lately, and we have found some on a few occasions. We are really waiting for snow (well, she is anyway!)

I'm having a hard time with the whole I-don't-drive thing right now (I don't usually care, but living in a small town where you can't get anywhere without driving, it can be difficult at times. If we lived in a city, we could certainly get around on our own by bus etc.  And when we do go in to the city for church and for shopping, it is hard to carve out the kind of time I'd like to spend in places of nature. I'm a bit sad about it right now. Send me positive thoughts), so I am so grateful that I have a haystack (and other fun places) where Fina can play with her friends within walking distance of home. If only they would fix the ski bridge so we could get in to the forest. This would have been the perfect year for it, but we can't cross the creek into the forest here in town until the creek freezes because the bank around the bridge has eroded and they have closed the bridge. See why we look forward to winter?

Off to our regular Sunday routine now. Into the city we go. Missing out on another warm and sunny day (though the forecast calls for a windy day).

A shout out to zia C, whose birthday it is today! We love you lots!

Stay tuned for my next post. School is flexible right now, but life keeps going!

UPDATED: We didn't miss out on the lovely day. Dad took us to Bois des Esprits, a lovely protected urban forest area, where a local artist has carved a bunch of logs and tree stumps throughout. So fun!
We even saw a few deer, including a big buck! We didn't get a pic of him, but it was incredible.

Fina and I LOVE this place. We have been twice with dad and once with our friends J and J. To think that we lived 4 kms away from this place when we lived in the 'Peg and that even now we do a lot of our grocery shopping at the grocery store across the street. I only learned about this place a few months ago.