Country Cottage and U.K. Costco

They have arrived at their cottage!  It was a bit more remote than Janet had been hoping for, but it's not too far off the main road and about 8 miles to the closest town that has all amenities.

Living room with steps to kitchen.  Seriously, Janet!  Even this is out of focus?!?

Bedroom with king size bed.

The traffic jam varies between morning and evening.  There are three cattle gates from the "road" to the cottage.  Each trip in and out involves dodging animals that lay across the road and may or may not move out of your way.  If they don't you have to creep by them very slowly and hope they don't change their minds.  Morning traffic jam:  cows!

Evening traffic jam:  sheep!

Delicious latte outside in the autumn sun.

They started out the day late and without a plan.  Bad move, not that anyone was blaming the other person.  If you believe that, you don't know these two idiots!

They drove to Leek, which had a nice town centre and tons of old buildings, but at the same time was kind of a time warp.

Check out that gigantic squash!  All of the veggies and most of the fruit were local.  There is a huge local food movement in the UK, which Janet thinks is excellent.

They weren't sure what this was.  It looked like broccoli, but was a really pretty purple colour.

Today, they went to a AA suggested pub called The George in a small village Alstonfield.  It was a very small village and the pub was excellent.

Kitchen herb garden.

There was also a beautiful church in this village that proudly displayed their handmade kneeling pads.

Janet thinks they are incredible.

Sheaves of wheat in the church.

Costco!  Much the same as at home, with a few exceptions.

Seriously, who needs 1250 tea bags?  Even in the UK?

Kiddie size Hunters for $60.

They enjoyed Costco, but it wasn't the culture shock they were hoping for.

We Hit The Road!

We are on our way to Camp USA!  We love it!  Little bit worried about Noodles as she is quite frail these days and I know for a fact the people are leaving to go on vacation.

Look at this poor woman at the ferry terminal.  Dead battery!  We have serious empathy as the last time we took the Coho to Camp USA, we also had to pray they could bring out the battery chargers.

Lo, and behold we arrived in PDX and they had a nice dinner with Mikey and Bronwyn.  We stopped at Costco to purchase some back ribs, but Bronwyn let us know Mikey had already purchased them.  Turns out he purchased St. Louis Ribs.  Hello, World!  Huge improvement over back ribs.  So delicious!

Janet and I went in the car down to Blue Lake for a nice hour long walk.  It was super.  Here I am in the car, getting ready to go home.

Because I am such a delicate flower, I can only put my front paws on the back of the car and need my back end lifted up.  Poor Noodles can barely cope with her front paws up, but we help in every way possible.

The people started to pack up and leave and we were pretty distressed about it.

Oh, man!  We are super sad!  Please say it isn't so!

I put my paw on top of Janet's hand as she said goodbye.

No, Janet, please don't leave!

OK...we'll be fine.  I've got Noodles back and by the way, have you considered "hand lift" surgery?  According to everything I've read, it's not too late.

No worries,  Janet.  We love Mikey and Brownyn so much and they love us.   You will be barely missed.

So, they went to London and stayed here:

Georgian House Hotel

The inside of their room.  They love this hotel and have stayed here before.

They were only able to stay for two nights.  The closest station to this hotel is Victoria Station, which is the only one they have used.  On the last day, they went to St. Paul Tourist Info to pick up their National Trust passes and suffered huge crowds.  On their return back to the hotel to pick up their bags, they went one station further - Sloane Square.  Huge improvement!  Great neighbourhood with nice shops and restaurants.

After they picked up their bags, they headed to Heathrow to pick up the car, via Sloane Station.  They had a great lunch at No. 11 Pimlico.

City corner with veggies at Sloane Square.

Charcuterie platter with Olive Tapanade Crostini.

Inside of the restaurant.

Check out the bike rental racks and how about the "heart attack" stairs Janet climbed up.

This is at Heathrow, and yes indeed, Janet did walk up all those stairs!  Oxygen Lung waiting at the top!

Janet says there is so much to share with us that she will blog way more often.

Thanks, guys, for dropping by.  XOXO  Noods and Pash.

I Think Ball Season Is Over

Can you believe it?  I think I have found the last of the baseballs.  I spotted this one in the bushes right away.

Unfortunately, I am a shorty ass doggie and couldn't reach it.  Plus, did I mention I am shoving my face into very prickly holly?  Janet got it out for me.

This makes a total of 55 balls since April!  Janet marks it on the calendar every time I find one.

Don't you just love how cute I am?

Janet and Phil go to Sun Wah for Chinese food often.  For once, they had something different:

OK...the dry ribs weren't different but the Crab and the Tomato Fried Rice were.

Mr. Popular had dinner out, two nights in a row.  That left Mrs. Unpopular at home with us.  She made some Broccoli Cheddar Soup.

She didn't buy this squash, but look at how beautiful it is!

It's really pretty now along Bowker Creek.  This is the portion that is not being re-done.

Phil had some clients come from Toronto and they brought him this fancy baby size chest of drawers filled with chocolates.  Janet had two.  A couple of days later, the box was filled with the wrappers only.

Look!  More doggies with jobs.   These doggies were "pup stars" as they were filming a movie outside Janet's volunteer job.

No, you are correct.  She was unable to get a single photo where the dogs were facing her.

A whole semi-truck filled with toys for the stars!

I whined and complained to Janet about wanting to be an important doggie with a job, so she let me help out with the gardening.  She complains on a regular basis about how much she hates gardening.  Frankly, I don't get it.  This isn't too bad of a gig.

See that itsy bitsy person in the middle on the stage below?  That's Ringo Starr.  Janet says it's shocking how poor of a seat $100 each person buys. And, those would be tickets purchased the minute they went on sale!

Despite the poor seats and Janet wanting to slap silly the woman sitting in front of her, they said the concert was great.  Started at 8PM sharp and they were on the stage for just over two hours without a break.

We think summer might be over.

It rained so hard, so fast,  the water was running down the street.

I'm pooped, so think I will take a break.  Noodles is getting really old now, so I have to do most of the heavy lifting.

This blogging business is exhausting.

M.O.T.B. and Oak Bay High

Neighbour Wendy across the street was M.O.T.B.  aka Mother of the Bride.  Janet thinks sometimes being the person who gave birth to the bride is way harder than being the bride.  Wendy spent hour upon hour in her yard making it perfect.  Personally, Janet is of the opinion that Wendy's yard is pretty much perfect on any given day, but we digress!

Deer proof netting on top of the pots.

Along the path leading into the back of the yard:

For 24 hours there was a large truck parked in Wendy's driveway.

It was cloudy all day long, until about an hour before the outdoor ceremony.

Janet knew they were doing the catering, but couldn't figure out why they were there for so long.  Turns out, in the back of the truck is a fully equipped commercial kitchen - two ovens and a large frig, not to mention all kinds of cooking utensils.

Janet had to walk through the flower bed to take this photo, which resulted in soil getting on the sidewalk.  She dutifully came home and went back for the broom to sweep it clean.

Janet took her glass of wine curbside in the afternoon to wait for the bride.  Here she is, as beautiful as could possibly be.

Truth be known, Dana was even more beautiful in person than in a blurry Janet style photo!

After being bride stalker for a day, Janet and Phil went on a tour of the new Oak Bay High.  Oh my!  Janet says had she gone to a school like this, she would be way smarter than she is now!

Janet loves what used to be called Battle Ship Linoleum.

An incredible theatre.  In addition, there is a Teen Centre and after school care, in conjunction with Oak Bay Recreation.

Bye bye chalkboard.

Some walls, like this one can fold up to make a classroom larger or smaller, as needed.

This is a small collection of the pots that held plants that now adorn the school ground.

I want so much to be like this doggie and carry a lunch bag for one of my loved ones.  First on my list is a person who needs a lunch bag.  This calls for Finley to move to Oak Bay, or me to move to Squamish.  Second on my list is to try really hard not to shred the lunch bag to get at the goodies inside, so perhaps I should just do the carrying at the end of the school day!

Janet's work on Mondays usually consists of making and changing signs for the weeks upcoming activities.  Look what her tools were recently!

Who knew Janet was capable of using a staple gun and hammer!!

Another blog post without a single photo of us.  What's going on Janet?