If I just randomly looked at these photos, I am not sure that I could find a connection between them! The photos seem totally unrelated, and I have to admit that it was a totally random weekend. Some friends and I started out with High Tea in Waterton at the Prince of Wales Hotel and ended up skinny dipping in the creek at our summer pasture on a perfectly delicious summer day...no where to be, no deadlines to meet, nothing to do but enjoy summer at its best. I jokingly called it "high tea to hillbilly"! We dressed up for the tea and then left our fancy dresses hanging in the bushes along the creek, while we enjoyed the cool water and some cool beverages. What a wonderful, lazy and most perfect afternoon. Over the weekend, we did yoga on the veranda in the cool of the morning, (thanks to Lynn, the yoga instructor from Monster Fitness), found out how uncoordinated we could be a Zumba class one afternoon and ate WAY too much food, laughed until our sides hurt and actually did a little scrapbooking just to make it justifiable. After the bathroom renovation ate up a chunk of my summer vacation, haying season bit up another huge chunk and the hail storm completely finished my vacation off, this was certainly the highlight of my summer! A couple of days of down time was just what was needed! Thank goodness that the girls were good sports about the Zumba class. (I didn't tell them where we were going) and I took a little teasing about me being in an exercise class. Me! Can you believe that? The one that claims that if I am running, it is because something scary is chasing me. I certainly did not think that I would ever enjoy going to the gym, but I have to say that I love this dance class. We had a really good workout, and then went to the lounge for a cool one - probably undoing all of the burnt off calories, but having a blast! For the record, Megan did work up a good sweat and found out that it isn't as easy as it looks. My list of favourite things about the weekend would look like this: * Myra's salmon and couscous supper * cold Corona and Pink Palos in frosty glasses * the look of horror on the other Zumba class participants when they saw Tracey taking photos * yoga in the still of the morning * the fresh veggies that Donna brought from the greenhouses in Medicine Hat * watching Jackie trying to get back in the creek and into formation before the timer on the camera went off * the hysterical laughter when we were taking turns putting our clothes in the bushes * how funny everyone thought it was that we have a road named "Spread Eagle Road" in our area. (They made me stop so that they could take photos) * the beautiful dishes that Myra brought for me (I really did not have a hand in that one, believe me or not) * time well wasted, with the best of friends Maybe the summer of 2012 was not such a disaster after all!!!

The clean up this week has been truly a big pain in the ---! What were once pristine rock pathways and flower pots full of herbs and flowers turned into tangled, mangled and rotting piles of debris. With the help of Sam, Laressa and Kate, we tackled the yard clean up, just moments after getting the go ahead from the insurance company. It may be up to two more weeks before we can see our adjuster and his team and I just couldn't stand to look at the mess any more. What a difference a few days made, with a team of determined girls and one wicked ass industrial leaf blower. We kicked some major hail butt! My blood pressure is starting to go down, I am not twitching any more, there are still a few beer left in the fridge. And by the way, FYI. Thank you, Connie, for showing up with a cooler of beer within hours of the hail!!! May God bless you!! You know how sometimes you just don't know what to do in a situation? Or what to say? Like, after someone dies and you are trying to think of a particularly wise and comforting message to give to the family. In my case, in times of trial and disaster, just give me beer. You don't have to say a word, just hand me a cold one. This week took a few more Coronas than usual, but then again, it was an unusual week! In the middle of the night, I had a thought. Which, during the light of day, didn't quite seem as genius as it did in my dream. Maybe a leaf blower would work to "blow" out all of the drifts of apples that were strewn around the trees. I have about 30 truckloads of washed rock in my back yard and it was COVERED with crap. We (and I use that term loosely, as it was mostly Laressa and Kate) tried raking it and we raked out more rock than leaves. Enter the leaf blower. I was thinking, in my dream, that if I could get the apples rolling and the leaves flying, that the landscape rock would stay put. It worked!!! It wasn't without tribulation. Andrew stayed long enough after lunch to get the cursed leaf blower running for me, helped me strap it on my back and was still shaking his head when he left the yard. It was really heavy. And noisy. If my hearing was somewhat damaged after the hail storm, it was finished off by the leaf blower episode. Not to mention that the bulky damn thing snagged on every overhanging limb and made me sweat like a lumberjack. If someone had come along with some money, I swear I would have sold the farm, thrown in the dog and my husband for free and been down the road so fast that the leaves would still have been in the air. It did save us DAYS of time, so I guess manhandling that thing was well worth the pain and effort. Note to self...wear proper footwear when handling a big leaf blower! I thought it was optional, but I should have thought better. Andrew was long gone before I realized this mistake and I could not shut it off, knowing that I would never get it started again. We had to do one big section of the yard by hand, and I literally mean "by hand". But at the end of the week, you could tell that we were winning the battle. That was week number one of my summer vacation. It isn't even a "staycation". It is a "suckcation". Big time.