| You may
recall that 2004 was hectic for us. We signed up for a house in Florida,
spent the summer working on our house to sell it, and had a big family
reunion of the Long Clan in Virginia. (Click on the pictures for a larger size)
We finally
moved into our new house on December 15th, and have now been here one year,
and still have some boxes to unpack. Downsizing was painful. But we are
very pleased that we moved; Peter works out at the fitness center every
morning and Joyce walks. We bike a bit on the weekends, and have made a
couple of kayak trips on local rivers. |
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We
much prefer this in Florida
to
this in Virginia
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Our move
was enthusiastically supported by our geographically extended family. They
lost no time. Graham, Nancy, Stephanie, Eric, Brian and Julianne arrived in
February while Warren, Sandy and Keiran came in March, both families
sleeping wherever they could among piles of boxes. We look forward to them repeating
their visits in 2006, when we should be better organized.
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We made our summer trip to
Emma Lake in Saskatchewan in June, this time in our new 35 foot trailer, although we did
not dawdle much on the way. Old habits are hard to change.
Summer at the cabin
was cool with a lot of rain. Peter did one brief canoe trip (it rained; that is
his Florida tan)
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Joyce's birthday always falls during summer
at the cabin. There was often a gang at the cottage at weekends, which was
fun. Even better, the visitors always cooked superb meals. And we could recuperate during the
rest of the week.
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Warren organized everyone for
bike rides into Prince Albert National Park (it rained!)
And we did paddle
gently around our lake most days.
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Life was not all beer and skittles. At the lake we
repaired the deck, painted, put on a new roof, fixed the furnace, felled trees
and stacked wood.
Of course, there were a few warm days when we had to cool off in the
lake
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After Labor Day the population at the lake
declined, and finally we (Warren mostly, with Keiran's help) took the dock in.
The aspens turned golden and it was time to follow the geese south
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Back to Spruce Creek and the riot of weeds which had flourished over the past 3
months, as well as the exotic creepers Joyce is now cultivating.
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Here, we are continuing to build shelves and storage, adding to landscaping, continuing the unpacking of the remainder of 250
movers boxes and finding
places to put everything. But we made the right move.
