What we do in the summer -

The following comes to us from Fred and Betty (Second Street)


Fred and I spend many hours in our backyard. I take care of the flowers and have recently given Fred some of my space for the vegetable garden. We have a little war going on with the squirrels. Last year, they ate the tomatoes and cucumbers. This morning, they were eating our radishes on a platform Fred put on the tree for the corn cobs. Oh, well, have a great summer.

Thanks guys for sharing with us!

As promised, we're sending you three early morning jpeg photos of our backyard in Fredericton, New Brunswick. It certainly has been a "labor of love"; Ron dug the pond and built the waterfall and stream, and Judy is the flower gardener. We are fortunate, in that the pond is fed by two fresh-water springs. The water in the pond is pumped underground uphill to a triangular-shaped series of two waterfalls and a mini-stream leading back to the pond.

Although we live in the City, we enjoy a country atmosphere. You will see the beautiful St. John River in the back-ground. We can sit in our family room or on the deck, listen to the soothing sound of the waterfall and do bird watching as Ospray's dive for fish in the river. We also have a pair of Northern Flickers that have taken up residence in a nest in a birch tree. We hope others will share their summer love as well.

Ron & Judy Steeves

Where ya'll from?

Thinking back to our fantastic Can Am day celebrations, one of the neatest things is finding out a little bit about where everyone comes from. Wouldn't it be great to carry on with this theme and see a little bit of what our "summer" lives are like. Do you have a special place you spend your summer days (or nights!) I know we have some cottagers (Carol) some gardeners, woodworkers, sewers, quilters, fishermen (and women) ....you get where I'm going! Send me some pictures of all the wonderful places you live, play, and visit during your time away from Avalon so we can all enjoy the great places and things we only get to hear about during the winter. To start us off I received some great shots pic from Ron and Judy Steeves! They better watch out. With a beautiful retreat like this they may be getting company!

And now, a word from Ron Steeves, New Brunswick,

Yesterday was a particularly dull, wet, windy cool day here in New Brunswick, Canada; just like we experienced all last winter in Florida. So what do you do when you cannot comfortably work outside in the garden? I dug out the CD of the AVALON 2010 "Winter Tonic" variety show. Judy had to come see why I was sitting at my computer laughing like a fool. It is so heart-warming to see friends like Kirby entertaining us in the Indian costume. I keep humming that song seeing "Running Bear" do his thing. People continually ask me "Well, what do you do in Florida ALL WINTER?". If only they knew!!! All I can tell them is....."The winter goes so fast; the next thing I know it is mid April and time to pack up to go home. I'm already looking forward to November when we can head back to our winter retreat.

"We wish "Running Bear" a quick and complete recovery and can't wait to see he and Deb back at Avalon in the Fall"

Thanks,

Ron

If April showers bring May flowers, what do you get in June?

Well, if you live in Southern Ontario, apparently you get a tornado...at least we did. At 3:00 am Sunday my bedroom started shaking, and although Ed has always said he was going to rock my world, he wasn't even in the room. We were staying at our trailer in Colchester (a small town on the north shore of Lake Erie near Leamington) and we had enjoyed some pretty neat lightening strikes over the lake all evening. Ed fell asleep on the couch (nothing unusual about that!) and I went to bed around midnight. We woke up at 3:00 am and the wind and the lake were roaring. We could hear things crashing around outside and the trailer seemed to lift up and down a bit. For about ten minutes we just sat on the couch and hoped we were dreaming. When the wind died down we saw flashlights outside so we got dressed and joined our friends for a camp inspection. There were branches everywhere, lawn furniture was blown away, sheds overturned and huge trees uprooted. One large tree landed on the trailer 3 doors away but thankfully no-one was there at the time. In the morning we learned of the devastation all around us. We certainly are grateful that despite the millions of dollars of damage in the Leamington area, there were no serious injuries reported.