Petits Haricots

Butterbean, Josie (Patch of Puddles) and Shannon (Going Against the Flow). all born in November in 2004, and hence dubbed ‘The Triplets’

Here they are at around 6 months old at our first Muddlepuddle Summer Camp:

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Around a year old:

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At around 2 1/4:

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And now they are 6:

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i have been playing a lot of games with sb and bb, and a lot of wii games too. trying to make the most of all the time i currently have at home. Some painting, crafting and baking. both girls have made me a cake
the girls have done lots of home ed, with bb finally playing the cello – i haven’t given her any hints yet! she has been making up her own piano music too. SB has really been working hard.
DH has been doing the window – woohoo
my f-i-l has been admitted to hospital this last week with gallstone problems, so m-i-l staying with us. luckilly he is better now, tho going to return later to have a lap chole. m-i-l has enjoyed being with the girls i think, and also helped ship shape the house a bit – as noticed by zoe

today was historyetc. we had a great day. i did the roman pots – decorated, broken, buried, found and glued together , there was sari dressing up, game inventing , fimo indian wall decorations, people picture frame painting, chappatti and dahl making. it went really well and was very enjoyable. lovely seeing everyone, and my first day off work for 10 straight days, so much needed . bb had a moment with a lost lizard up a tree, beaurifully camouflaged! rescued by katy . thanks all for a lovely day. working so much means i barely keep up with family let alone friends and so good to see people.

actually, whilst SB having an absolutely fab time at pgl, BB was a bit moochy. she really REALLY missed her big sister. i was at work a lot, and unfotunately am going to have to work most of my wednesdays for the next 6 months, but with a guarentee that i will get them back at the end. this means that home ed is going to have to work differently. with me working so very much more than full time, DH and the girls will need to do it all whilst i am at work, so that when i get home we can do music prac, story of the world, but mostly play a game, do a craft or read. already the increased hours are leaving me feeling shattered and burnt out from both ends. the girls grizzle more [well bb] and i don’t respond well it also means that there may be significantly less blogging, i am running out of available time, and don’t plan to use the time with the girls to blog!

anyway, i made sure i did things with bb on my return from work, and on the weds [which i did have off] we did playing together, lego and went swimming again, so that i could feel that i was part of the family, rather than an evening visitor. I read stories every night, snuggled up to watch a film.

DH did do some of the window DIY – woohoo! and we have painters in working on the sash windows. gradually this house is coming together. BB and DH made a wooden boat. BB did most of the sawing, hammering etc herself whilst DH oversaw the project. she then painted it multicolour and it looked fabulous

at the weekend SB returned – hooray BB and i made a cake whilst waiting for her, did some trampolining together and some more playing. After SB returned we went geocaching round the village lake – i am planning to increase the number of walks i do too . Sunday we cut out and decorated lots of fish, in prep for our summer party, and we went pond dipping and tree climbing. it was a lovely day when i got home DH had worked hard on the window, and i made courgette mousakka for us, full of ingredients from the garden, and sausages with home grown veg for the girls. All very happy

what i should have added was that SB had a fab time. she really enjoyed it, and time spent with Maddy. she loved all the activities, thought they had a great leader and had lots of laughs, and she would like to do more climbing next time. the veggie food was disgusting apparently, and one girl in the group kept trying to stuff meat in her mouth, but this doesn’t seem to have phased her. she had no major injuries, tho one of her broken teeth needs reconstructing again!!!

it is taking me ages to blog the canada photos, in part because waiting for that day to be flickred. so i will do a quick post for coming home. dad met us at airport, and i was hugely surprised by the wave of emotions i had. i found out my sister died in baggage reclaim last time i went to canada, and it was all just a little bit much.

back and hugs with family, and delivery of presents stewart and the kids there too so a good family reunion, to take my mind off desires to emigrate

the next day we went home, a quick few hours before niece and nephew arrived to stay for the week. we had a great week with them staying, and having the 4 children is often easier than just 2 as they get on so well together. they generally played on the tues, wed was historyetc – which they both love, thurs dh took them to a film (cars 2). they did mostly loads of crazy playing, crafts and sidling off to watch sarah jane . enjoyed trampolining, climbing trees and just generally being happy. It is so great to see the kids blooming again after the loss of their mum last year.

weds was history etc, with a chinese theme. i mght blog separately. we made maps and made sugar cube great walls of china, we made fans, decorated willow pattern plates, origami fish and tangrams. one of the best things was the harvest and stirfry though. i went into the veg patch – full of harvestable food and a bit jungle like – and harvested different colour beans, chard, courgettes, carrots and it got chopped by assorted kids and then stirfried. v yummy

saturday SB went off to her PGL week activity holiday with her friend maddy. she was v much looking forward to it. bit of an eek moment for me tho! a whole week!!! i did some crafts with the 3 kids left, and then with stewart we went geocaching in the village. had a lovely walk along some fields and easily found the cache, as well as lots of blackberries, some sloes and some not quite ripe wild plums.

sunday stewart and the children set off home, and BB and i went swimming.

i have to say, leaving the rockies was really really hard. i could have quite happily spent the whole holiday/rest of my life there. however, we had promised drumheller to bb, and knew it would be worth it. we got up early and drove up a mountain to a viewpoint over banff and there i cooked breakfast just as the pancakes were ready a tour bus stopped, and all the ppl coming off visibly smelt the pancakes and looked over. great to have breakfast with a view .

we then drove to johnstons canyon for our final excursion in the rockies. it was amazingly busy and we couldnt park in the car park – a first! so we parked on the road side and walked up. the walk follows the canyon up past a lower and upper falls to inkpots at the top. we knew we had to leave by 1 ideally, so knew we wouldn’t get to the top. the walk really clings to the canyon sides, in some places having ‘catwalks’ ie balconies sticking out for the walkways. it was a great walk and not overly challenging to the lower fall, and v beautiful. it was far busier than we were used to tho! there was also a geocache nearby. we started the wall to the upper fall, but realised time running short, so romped back, picked up an icecream and readied the van for a long drive i had premade sarnies for all of us, dh and mine with some fruit and munch bars in the front, and water, and on the girls table, their own sarnies, crisps, popcorn and fruit. thought we would be well provisioned for a long drive

so we set off, the drive was easy enough, have to say both dh and i had half an eye at the wingmirrors to see the last of the mountains as we went past. the change to flat farmland is a bit sudden, and a shmck to the system! but we made good time, and soon we were nearing drumheller. since there is only the summer to do road works, there is a franticness to it, and a whole road was pulled up to gravel, not making for a happy driving experience as went v v slowly. we drove through an area farmed by a hutterite community, and later saw some of the community selling fresh food in drumheller.

the badlands are v odd hoodoo formations cutting through alberta, and drumheller is there. we could tell we were getting close as dinosaur statues are everywhere! everthing is advertised with a dinosaur. our campsite had loads of them . was v nice campsite with a shop and great showers . we had curry for tea [i had made too much before and frozen half, so nice and easy to do ] and had a lovely shower, then we drove to drumheller museum as it is open till late to book things for the next day. we booked the dinosite for me and bb and the dinodig for sb and dh. then the girls played on the outdoor playpark area – a kind of soft play until bored and we went home ready for an early start the next day.

reflecting on our time in the rockies, we had a great time. the motorhome was a brill way of seeing it, and gave an extra dimension of freedom and excitement. we tried to see a mix of things – lakes, canyons, walking trails, mountains, museums, experiences – the glaciers and the jasper tramway, hot pools and watersports – rowing, rafting, canoeing as well as a lot of driving about. if we could only go to one area, it would be jasper, as there is something of everything in that area and v beautiful and there was loads more you could see or do. i wouldn;t have missed kootenay though either, and enjoyed the way we saw lots of different areas. i would highly recommend time in the rockies for anyone i also think there is loads more there i would have loved to see or do, and if i got the chance to go again i would grab it. holiday of a lifetime tho are few and far between, and if we have money to do something this big again, i imagine we will go to somewhere completely different.

we decided we would up and out, and stay at the tunnel mountain camp the next night, even if it isn’t so picturesque, because what is the use of pictureseque when you can’t leave the motorhome!! having not used the camping blocks, however, we did have a sani dump run to do, and that ended up a bit of a palava. it is the not so brill part of motorhoming, tho not too dreadful either as long as all goes smoothly. unfortunately it didn’t . DH got a bit stuck and had a wobbly moment, i went out to help and got bitten to pieces, but at least did manage to separate us from the inpipe, tho leaving a bit behind on the rv – well, so dh told me. arghing at yet another ‘thing’ we drove into banff for brekkie determined to enjoy the day. we were nearly there when dh had a ‘doh’ moment that the bit he had been trying to remove actually was part of the van – thank goodness i hadn’t been successful in removing that too!

the odd think about banff a about 9am is that it is pretty much deserted! the shops only open at 10, so despite worrying about parking, and parking somewhere that was 2 hours only, we would have been fine. dh moved the van afterwards to a more permanent spot near the boats . our idea was to grab an early all canadian breakfast. hmmmm, didn’t imagine the complete lack of places to do it! eventually we found somewhere called coyote that was really fab. sb had buttermilk and blueberry pancakes with roast potatoes and scrambled egg also on the plate!! bb had just buttermilk pancakes with maple syrup – we had ordered her just 1 as a childs portion, but after much wailing at that upgraded it to the adult three. she ate…. one, obviously DH and i chose diff things and had half each, a mediterannean omelette and burrito, with potato bravas and pancake of bb each! was far too much food and we were completely and utterly stuffed. yummy meal.

the girls and i then went to the parks canada info place and dh moved the van. unfortunately, though they could give us our banff explorer tag, they couldn’t give us the kootenay ones, so arranged to get that sent to our home – v v helpful these parks canada ppl. we then watche a screening on changing use of the parks – including a fab 70′s looking round a motorhome with wet and dry cabinets and the display on tracks and scats. v informative.

DH joined us and we walked along the riverfront to… the canoe hire! we hadn’t said anything about it to bb as didn’t want a repeat of the wailing at lake louise, but we hired 2 canoes for 2 hours at the same price it would have been for 1 there. bb was absolutely beside herself with utter happiness. the rest of us were also really happy we went bb and dh, sb and i. we told the young things that we were enthusiastic novices and needed to choose the quietest river route so they directed us up a slow sidestream to the vermillion lakes. it was perfect

I cannot put into words just how much i loved paddling along with sb, zigzagging up the creek, crashing into the riverside, ducking under the branches that we hadn’t avoided we didn’t ‘pull’ at the same strenght, and it took me a while to learn to pull and steer as it were dh had it easier, as bb pull didnt alter much the direction of the boat, and she was mostly enthusiastically splashing. and it was soooo peaceful . there weren’t too many canoe hirings, and many of them went up the river rather than our creek, so only occassionally did we have to alert others of the dangers of coming near us . we went under a railway bridge as a train went over – v exciting, and then finally paddled our way to the vermillion lakes. this was just so beautiful [and tranquil if you ignore us ] and we had canoeing races, and sb and i tried to go backwards for a bit – and then we just revelled in the perfection of being on an empty lake reflecting the sky and the mountains.

we went back and got in just before our 2 hours were up, having thoroughly enjoyed it. i begin to really wish we lived on a lake or minor waterway so from the boats we had an icecream and enjoyed the sunshine and decided which of the museums to go to. we went to the banff park museum first. A bit odd as stuffed with stuffed animals, and SB got the unnerving thing, but bb quite happy looking around them. there was an interesting kids hands on bit as well. we then went ot the Luxton first nations museum which was very interesting, but a bit timewarped, and possibly could do with a bit of a refurb and rethink to make it sing to kids, especially when they are getting used to interactive elements everywhere. the tableaux were a bit unnerving – as sb pointed out, no one was smiling. i think it could have done with being a celebration of the culture a bit more perhaps, tho i completely get the need to catalogue how the coming of the pioneers changed things irrevocably. sb chose a wedding card for my cousins there, but neither chose to buy anything else. we went back into banff and the girls played at the park area until it was time to head off to a campsite and consider meal options

we went to the mountain tunnel site for motorhomes. it was kind of like a semigrassed carpark! however, no mosquitos and we could see the mountains. bb found a friend fairly swiftly, and she and they ran around looking for ground squirrels and leaping of bridges etc . after tea we then got into the motorhome and went for a drive. we drove to lake minnewanka, which is indeed v beautiful, and wandered about. not far along trails as lots of bears there, and then drove to johnson lake and finally some winding paths back to the campsite. we saw elk and bighorn sheep, and a wolf girls were both asleep, and we sat out with a beer for a bit before calling it a day. our last full day in the mountains.

this was another of my favourite days. I have to say, i loved all days really on balance, tho there were obv a few better than others . this was one of those perfect days

we woke up early and had a quick brekkie and drove to the HQ of the rafting company. we were the first there, and had time to get ready and all excited the other 14 or so then joined and we got into a minibus and were off. the leaders were v informative. ours is in college doing wildlife filming, and rafts all his holidays, having rafted around the world. the other chap was from australia. they gave loads of info as we drove to the kootenay river, and went on a logging trail to get to the getting in point. we were all doing a half day session, and as it was a family rafting experience – ie not particularly wild – it was mostly first timers or those with younger kids. BB was most definately the youngest. SHe was also adamant she was going to paddle too. we therefore got put with the most experienced leader

SB chose to sit right at the front and DH next to her. BB had to be at the back so she could go to the middle in the more rapidy bits, but sit on the edge and paddle otherwise. so i went with her. I had worried abit that i would look like a crazy big lady who shouldn’t be doing this kind of thing, but have decided not to bother worrying. so we all got in and pushed off. The first bit was a bit rapid-like and SB loved getting a face full of water and leading the ‘stroke’ on her side of the boat. on my side i had a skilled older dad at the front and then 2 hopeless pre-teen boys then me, sometimes with BB. i was a bit concerned the boat would just go round in circles!! luckily i am not too bad at powering a paddle, so the tangle in the middle seemed to match the other side

as we intermittantly paddled and drifted down the kootenay we saw birds, deer and our guide pointed out minerals and rocks, trees devastated by the pine beetle, talked about water, melts, river levels, rock flour and rafting as a career. He was very interesting and seemed to have done a lot of traveling through the rockies and knew his stuff – always good when you have ppl like me on board i did enjoy the paddling, and the fact the water is soooo cold! made my cold feet keep the rest of the body cool. we had our nereus case for the camera, so had a few more admiring looks for that. should have bought a load and sold them on the way round!!

In the middle there was a v comprehensive snack break – coffee, hot choc, cold drinks, cakes, cheese and biscuits [optional meat] and an opportunity to swap positions on the boat. not many swapped, and sb got to keep pole position we paddled off, with BB getting to do a fair bit of paddling. when she hadn’t been for a while she would ask me to ask when she could paddle again. about 5 mins before the end she started asking when it would finish – so obviously half day was the perfect length for her. we all disembarked and piled into minibus for drive home, bb fell asleep on sb’s lap in minutes [should have had her with a parent!] this turned out to be a shame as we saw both a black and a grizzly bear, and poor BB was asleep. they were pretty close to each other, but not being agressive.

Back in radium hotsprings we went to an odd icecream bar. all but sb had an icecream, she chose a maple syrup shake, and despite her protestations, i realised it must be fairly awful, and persuaded her to let me buy her an icecream we then went to the parks canada information whilst DH did some shopping. the girls put in their completed yoho xplorer booklets and the lovely parks canada man took them through swearing an oath to protect canada’s wildlife and gave them a certificate and tag. we also picked up the kootenay xplorer booklet, and did some of the suggested activities at the tiny little museum room. this had a bit on the local tribes language and mythology, the rather shameful period of trying to stamp this out and also an interesting bit on forest creatures and fires. Back to the van and we set off.

The first stop was suggested by the xplorer booklet, at the redwall [handily an earthcache and geocache site] where we looked at the iron rich rocks, we went past where we had not that long back seen the 2 bears, but they had gone – to BB disappointment. there is a lovely view spot just as you get to the kootenay valley, so we paused there to look, read the info boards before driving on. I had given the girls a packed lunch for their table, so they were just munching away we did stop for a munch tho by the kootenay crossing. the girls enjoyed running up and down and paddling before we set off for the floe trail. along the way we saw a herd of white tailed deer. i only saw the mum and babies, but BB pointed out all the bucks in the grass she has a good eye, and also most of the possession of the binoculars

the floe trail was also something suggested by the xplorer booklet, as there had been a fire in 2003 and it suggested looking for various things, including regeneration. it was absolutely nature noise only, there are v few vehicles on the highway, and we soon lost the sound of them. we were supposed to be in tight 4′s – which the girls not so keen on! so we played a traffic light game of them running forward on green, stopping on red etc. i imagine all that noise would have kept bears at bay there was a great ricketty bridge over the river, and that is where we turned back. there were lots of berry plants on route, not yet ripe, but would be a bear magnet later in the season! with older bb we would perhaps have planned less motorhome travel and fewer but longer walks.

our next stop was at paint pots – again in the xplorer booklet, but something we would have done anyway. a lovely walk through forest – which had a smell of vegetarian stew i thought, but laughed at by my family , and the girls ziggzagging walking along logs like beams. [still not managing tight 4's tho i did better when saw another family walking back with bearspray in hand!] across a v wobbly bridge and finally to the ochre beds. we saw lots of tracks, which we thought were a variety of deer, bear, wolf and wolverine. [possibly!] the girls paddled in the ochre, and i got bitten to pieces. they drew pictures with the paint and eventually we move on as the day was lengthening and it is v bear contry-ish. We had a good paddle and wash of feet in the clear icy stream before back to the motorhome.

as time was drawing short, and we were heading for banff before dark, we didn’t get to walk along the marble canyon like i had hoped, tho did stop briefly at the great divide for photos and a geocache. the girls didn’t get out, i think they were getting tired again also playing games as we travelled. they did very much like travelling in a motorhome.

finally we drove towards banff, taking the v slow but beautiful bow valley route – tho no bears – all the way to 2jack campground. mostly as we thought we would breakfast at lake minnewanka. we should have seen the signs when we were surrounded by mozzies, and the parks canada girl on reception only opened her mesh screen for nanoseconds! girls collected wood and DH did BBQ for tea, but not perhaps the best place for it since we were bitten to pieces. it was our last opportunity tho for a rockies fire, so definately done :). minimal going out after that though

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You would have been 40 today. You were so keen to live and make 40. I miss you with my whole heart, but will raise a glass to my beloved sister today x x

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we got up fairly early but had a leisurely breakfast. there was free wifi and a laundry. we did the major wash, the girls played on the small playing park area and we watched the parachutists come down. There were other kids that BB ended up having fun playing with, and so SB and I played ingenious. the campsite is owned by an englishman that just hasn’t quite gone home yet, and has set up what he would want in a campsite, and also an adventure – mostly aerial – holiday/activities.

Washing done we set off, going past a crazy ‘home museum’ with loads of broken down tractors outside and what may be classed as junk . time to drive down the columbia wetlands towards radium. it was a nice drive down, with loads of views of the columbia river and wetlands. rather hysterically the ‘viewing points’ all had trees infront of them, and the worst view of all. luckilly they did have geocaches… we stopped at one for lunch, and definitely loved the motorhome for the freedom to eat and prepare on the hoof. Enjoyed the completely different scenery here, very farm-in-tyrols similar, and some good traditional barns. thought that we could v much live here, as not in national park, but a quick hop into. the climate was def different than the other side of the rockies, and crops were definitely further along. the girls sang ‘in the jungle’ nearly non-stop and it morphed into a song of there own with many more woohoo’s in falsetto than the original!

we nearly went part of the way to the bugaboos but the road turned into track, and that was against the rental conditions, so we did a slightly scary 3 point turn and carried on to radium. loads and loads of mountain sheep – this time the male herds. it was scorching weather again – at last! Popped into the supermarked for supplies and went to the campsite. much more open than others, and had a play area near our pitch which the girls enjoyed.

Then we set off to the hot springs for a swim the route to these springs not quite as exciting as miette, but the girls were keen to visit these ones as a diving board essentially there is one hot pool for wallowing, and a cooler pool for swimming and diving. the girls much preferred it, and had fun swimming and coming down the little slides. me and sb also jumped off the diving board – see my decision to be a bit braver is already paying off! I couldn’t quite bring myself to actually dive tho – baby steps!! we spent ages there and i was quite prune fingered when we got out!

Back to the campsite for tea – had already defrosted bean chilli and had with wraps. early night as getting up early to go white water rafting the next day – very excited

we got up bright and early and drove into town for breakfast, picking something up from the bakery to eat as we drove to lake louise. it is busy, and we wanted to make sure that we could park easily enough. we got there in good time and nibbled our breakfasts before going down to the lake. we had hoped to go canoeing, especially since the guide book said there were 4 person canoes. there were, but 2 adults and 2 littlies, and the price was such that for 2 canoes we would have to think hard about it. walking away BB had such a mega temper tantrum as she had been so desperate to canoe, and so couldn’t control it that we had no choice but to not canoe. it had a bit of a cutting of nose feel to it. i was unsettled as i could so clearly remember walking round the lake with viv that there was a blurring of then and now, and wailing tantrumming children and an out of sorts partner were not what i needed at all. however, we did walk round the lake, and i let myself blend then and now whilst holding hands with one girl and then the other. we did nearly do a walk to the teahouse, which would have been very nice, but BB wasn’t keen, and had only just regained her equanimity. the path was easy, and busy with tourists, but the lake and mountain serene and beautiful . there were some fallen tree trunks to make beams of, some rocks to scamper on by the waters edge, and a variety of birds to spot. watching the canoeists i did wish we were out on the lake tho. in the stillness and the tranquility i thought of you, viv, where you wished to go again x x

after we finished the walk we attempted to buy an icecream, but it was shut so we went back into the town and bought one there before driving on towards the spiral tunnels and takkakaw falls. driving on it was a bit of sleet a bit of snow and a bit of rain, so all those beautiful viewpoints weren’t really there for us, tho we did pull in at some stops and take the opportunity to look at what we could see. One of the stops was the spiral tunnels where the cross canada trains gain and lose huge amounts of height in a safe way. the info boards, as always, were very good, including historical, scientific, engineering and human interest bits. the old route without the tunnels must have been extremely scary, and obviously there were a fair number of derailments and fatalities. there was an interesting discussion on routes chosen and why as well. we did see a train go through these tunnels, but from a different viewpoint and later. it was very rainy though, and the girls starting playfighting, so we moved on!

the next stop was at the weeping wall where we bagged a geocache and answered the questions. it was still not the best weather, but at least not pouring with rain so we decided we could make takkakaw falls ok. we went past the monarch campground and up towards the falls. the road only opens mid to late june and there was snow higher up. there was also a scary bit where rv’s over 8m have to go up the switchbacks backwards for a section. DH didn’t fancy this, and the roads are pretty empty, so he did a big swing round and went forwards. eek!! luckilly ok

As we got to takkakaw falls it started to rain a lot again so we all got togged up and set along the route. Takkakaw falls is arguably the highest falls [they do argue] in the rockies, and its name means it is magnificent in Cree. there were lots of beaches BB was keen to paddle a bit in as we walked along to the falls foot. due to the drizzle we saw no rainbows but DH and the girls did some rock climbing up the slippery slopes, the start of a climb that can take you to the top. BB particularly loved the climb. SB had a small fall on the way down, so i helped her back to the van for meds and got the tea going etc for when BB and DH joined us. Unfortunately, I also did some washing up and put the sink side out, so when DH raced in, he didn’t look, hit his head on the drainer, fell down the stairs and broke the door . we tried to fiddle and fix it, but then we had to take off the top bit the holds the door open and doesn’t let it slam about hmmm 2 problems we were going to have to pay for . When DH recovered, we set off driving again. we had a layby stop to consider camping at monarch, but it is small looked full, and the road near it was roads worksy, so we decided to carry on.

this was a mistake really, as it was a long drive. we stopped at field, and looked at the info on the burgess shale there. would have loved to go to it, but felt that BB would have been utterly miserable, and I am not exactly fit, though would have done it! We picked up a Yoho xplorers booklet from the parks canada place and looked in the mini mueum. BB fell in love with a schleich mummy and baby grizzley bear, so we did buy those with her money

Moving on we decided to drive all the way to golden, to have an easier day the next day. It was a LONG way! and when we got to the municipal ground it wasn’t appealing, luckilly they had a brochure of campsites in BC, so we found a phone number of one in nicholson and went there. It was much nicer, and even had wifi! the first opportunity we had to send of geo-logs, catch up with friends – that seemed very odd!! and pop a few photos on flickr for family back home. quick tea and DH and i played race to the galaxy game before bed and planned out the next day a bit. we also took the opportunity of wifi to book a family white water raft experience along the kootenay river. my sisters dying words were have fun today, so my challenge will be on or around her birthday to do something fun and perhaps a bit challenging to celebrate the joy of living. this year it was to be my first whitewater raft experience.