The Musonda's wedding

An experiment- now that I'm back to high-speed Internet I thought I should try to post a photo album rather than individual photos. We had an amazing long weekend and got to connect with friends from Zambia as our dear friend Sugar married a stunning Sophie on Saturday. Kieran (aka Mabvuto) flew in from Toronto & we had a blast with Sophie's incredibly warm & generous family & friends. I held onto the camera for most of the day so I'm sorry dear Priscilla that there are no photos of me*winning smile*

NB- if you click on the photo you should be able to see the photos within the album...feedback please*grin*

Sarah T's visit

Alvin & I were lucky enough to host one of our Canadian friends from Lusaka- Sarah T's first trip to the prairies- woot! As always we had a great visit with her reminiscing and sharing stories since the last time we were together.

Oftentimes when I'm taking photos I take them with people in mind- or I start constructing how I will phrase my sentences on the blog (weird I know). Sarah & I both had shirts made from Kutowa Designs (founded by my good friend / fashion designer / yoga instructor in Zambia). We are posing because a) I feel like a samurai when I wear the shirt & b) I miss yoga with Towani...a stretch? I'm not sure. We were going to wear them all day but it was perfect tanning weather so we bowed out.






























The weather was gorgeous so we set out to explore Edmonton's river valley on foot. A lovely passer-by snapped this before we headed up all those stairs.




















And at the top















More stairs...




















Alvin preparing the nshima (we had to cook Zambian with Sarah T around) & she thought the small size of the nshima stick was hilarious, comments Namukolo?




















And that's a wrap.

Belated Mother's Day

After so many years away it was much fun planning a Mother's Day get together. Here's the whole crew at a wildlife sanctuary in Devon- what a gorgeous day!

Tommy & Devo (I'm posting this especially for Uncle Emil- the photo made me think of him for one reason or another...)














Pop cracked me up, we just parked the car & he hopped right out binoculars up and looking for something exciting.















Mom & Pop on a glorious day

Delighted

That's just how I feel today- delighted. Every time I think of posting something up here I remember that I've forgotten to take photos. I could have shared photos of- the brief visit of my Uncle Walter, Claire's visit with baby Cruz, the perfect afternoon when Alaina brought me over a slurpee on the deck, or Dev's birthday celebration that involved way too much spaghetti & a quick game of "Mexican Train". For unemployed people we're keeping our schedules pretty loaded.

I've had a few quiet moments of reflection working this week for the ageing neighbours- what an opportunity Alvin & I are having right now. We were working side by side yesterday painting somebody's deck, hauling bark chips from the back yard to the truck the other day; and as I glance up to check on Alvin's progress I think- this is fun! Welcome back to Canada where there's something timeless and honest about good hard work; the smell of bark chips, freshly mowed lawn, pine needles (even those that pricked me through the gloves) and the sticky poplar pods that adhere to my shoes after every walk. It's a beautiful time of year to be spending time together and pitching in with the glories of spring cleaning.

Of course it's not all delightful. The uncertainty of unemployment, the relentless on-line applications and networking pressures are not what I would term fun. Or how I fell into a gopher hole yesterday walking down the hill to the bank. But all in all, today I'm just happy that connections are being made- work must be just around the corner now. I also l-o-v-e my new school course which is amazing since I've been struggling for about the past year with classes that I thought I would love & quite frankly didn't. I guess this has turned into an "ode to Friday"...and I can sign off for the weekend- woot!

Earning our keep

Have I mentioned how much fun I'm having being back in Edmonton? Alvin was helping out Pop with a big machine that aerates the lawn just the other day.















And today we awoke to snow- and lots of it. So we donned our warm clothes and started shoveling the drive...it's pretty hard to believe how quickly things can change overnight. At least the jacket & boots that Aunt Elena sent Alvin have had a test drive in this spring storm.














It was also great to see Candra over the weekend; we crashed her nephews second birthday party.





























Auntie Canj!