Back down to earth!

I suppose Sissy and I are back down to earth, but we certainly had an exciting morning. After just a few hours of sleep last night, we got up early (5:00) and headed off to Carleton University where we went ballooning to celebrate Sissy's birthday. Wow what an experience. It was fun to watch the balloon being "assembled" and filled with air. It was an adventure to get into the balloon. And then we took off.

It was such a calm, tranquil experience.. no bumping or jumping. Just gradully moving up into the air and watching the world below float away. There were two other balloons that took off together with us. It seemed like all the noises and hurry were just gone as we hung in the air and looked around us. It was surprisingly un-alarming and amazingly still.

The only real excitment came as we approached land. We went down a couple times (I was even able to grab leaves off the tree tops) and once we did a "Splash and Dash" (Thankfully avoiding the Plunk and Dunk). That is, we dropped down into a river, touching the water with the basket and then took off for the skies again. The photo below is our reflection in the water. I've kept the photos to a minimum, but I took 70 in the one hour we were up there. It was irresistible.

I must tell the funniest part, which was our landing. After we jumped out and had our champagne toast, the guys went to roll up the balloon and the rest of us stood around in this farmer's field. Suddenly a herd of cows appears to investigate (I think they liked the champagne). Everyone was rather in a panic, as there were a lot of them and they didn't seem to happy to see us there. We laughed until we cried. The "chase car" rescued us and then drove us back to the University where Sissy and I caught a bus home. It must have been 10:00 or so when we arrived - to João's relief. What a morning. Glad you could share the fun with us.

Saturday

Last summer we had 24 Alabamians here to help us reach out to our neighbourhood. As a fruit of that work, this year our church people decided to do it on their own! Cool idea. They did a great job handling it all. They came out in droves and really did a wonderful job setting up and cooking and making things happen. We had good attendance of our neighbours and really enjoyed getting to know folks. The kids did face (and arm) painting in the back, in the shade.

The little ones stayed for the whole affair and eventually began to play with bubbles in the back yard. I'm not sure who had the most fun... the wee ones, the church folks or the neighbours who stopped by. But it was a great day. I wish our "southern" neighbours could have seen it -as they were our inspiration.

Saving money on a visit to the dentist

Sunday I had a great day. We had a picnic lunch to celebrate Rosemarie and Manuel's 20th wedding anniversary. It was a great day to be outside. And the food was just great.
After lunch, I was inside for a bit and one of the Mary's birds, took a "liking" to me. It was her Love Bird, who gave me lots of "kisses". He even gave me a thorough cleaning - even of my teeth. I guess I won't have to go to the dentist any time soon, huh? What a hoot. Just had to share it.

Book Club

This is the book club (minus Anne who took the photo) that met on Thursday. We had a GREAT discussion on the book "Eve's Daughters" that we all highly recommend. We had a wonderful time being out at Barb's cottage. It was a gorgeous day outside and we enjoyed a peaceful walk all around the lake. The photo below was taken down at the lake. As we talked about the book we enjoyed this great view. Everyone brought something for a potluck lunch and we ate like queens. What a great way to spend the day. It's good to have friends and good to enjoy spending time together. It's fine to read interesting book and talk about them with others.

Oh, Canada!

We enjoyed Canada Day (July 1st) here in Ottawa. It's a great place to be. The night before we enjoyed the RCMP Sunset Musical Ride. It's really quite a show with horses, dogs, bagpipes, choirs, even Sky Hawks (parachute team). You can see the horses in their star formation below.

Canada Day was a good one here in town. Sissy and I especially enjoyed going to the National Art Gallery and seeing a special display on the Florence Rennaisance art, with pieces by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.

In the photo above, Sissy is standing by the giant spider sculpture outside the museum. Note the ominous sky... We got caught in a rainstorm on the way home and were two drowned rats by the time we got home. João just laughed hysterically at us!!! The rain cooled things down a bit, so when we went back out to see the fireworks around 9:00, it was quite cool. Of course, the fireworks were late and some people even went home, thinking they had been cancelled. They weren't, and it was well worth the wait and all the nasty little bugs. What a show.
Sunday was a gorgeous day and we had a great service. Even being a long holiday weekend, the church was full. We had both baptism and Lord's Supper, so that kept the sermon short, especially being bi-lingual. Vince, who was baptized is Italian and his whole "clan" came in for the occasion. Filled up two pews. They sang and played the piano and flute and made for a lively service. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the whole experience. It was different.
In the afternoon, João squeezed in some visits and I was able to make sure all was clean and closed up at the church, as well as at the house. The evening, while Sissy went out with friends, I worked in the yard (as did João, until a visitor arrived). When the crew came home about 9:30, we ordered in pizza and talked and laughed until after 11:00PM. It was a wonderful day.
Today Sissy is off to start English (Intermediate Level) at a new school downtown. Tomorrow night she will start her French classes in the evening. She will be a busy little girl. In the afternoon, she has aerobics. No moss on her. Hope you are as busy and happy as we are.