Last week we attended my brother-in-law P.’s wedding which was celebrated in Lumsden, Saskatchewan at my new sister-in-law M.’s family home. Lumsden is in the Qu’Appelle Valley and as you can see it is a beautiful spot.

M.’s parents have an amazing garden so I couldn’t resist taking a few shots of the various flowers.

The flowers for the wedding were also amazing.

The bride and groom!

M.’s mother is also an avid quilter so of course there was lots of really nice touches to the wedding that involved quilting, such as the guest signing quilt, cake quilt, and the gorgeous quilt she made them as a wedding gift. She also made the babies in the family bibs and little aprons for the flower girls to wear during the meal. Seriously I wish I was that prolific and talented.

Then we come to the best part, well a really tasty part anyway, that I think everyone enjoyed not just the kids. The Candy Bar! I think this was maybe even more popular than the alcohol bar.

I think all the little special touches, great hospitality and family dance moves made this one of the loveliest weddings I have ever been to.

I decided to go up to my parents land for the week to see how the cabin was coming along. It was exciting to see the windows getting cut out. Its nice to get out of the city again and we had great weather while we were there.

This is the view from cabin. The air was hazy but not from northern forest fires as I thought at first but,  water. It was so humid. Driving there I saw that large areas in the fields were underwater. Many farmers were not able to get their crops in on time because it has been so wet. I remember as a kid we would walk to the field on the right in the picture through the gap in the trees but now its completely submerged.

flycatcher babies under one of the cabin bump outs

I also spotted this sinister looking guy on one my jaunts when I decided to brave the mosquitos. I don’t know if you can tell from the picture very well but its a vulture. He was kind of intimidating to approach because you realise they are really massive birds when you get up close.

This past week my son turned one year old. It has gone by so quickly and it seems like he has always been with us. He is starting to charge around walking and banging his head every two minutes. I made him an ice cream cake on the actual day of his birthday which I don’t have a great picture of. It was good but pretty simple to make. I used cookies and skor bars crushed up for the base a layer of ice cream then a layer of ice cream sandwiches and another layer of ice cream and then covered it all in blue whipped cream. He thoroughly enjoyed making a big mess while eating it until he started crying because his little fingers were freezing. We had another birthday cake last night at my husbands parents house for him and his little cousin S. who is turning one as well this week. I saw this cake made by Kaitlin who is the author of  Whisk Kid blog and had to try it. I cheated and used cake mix because I knew the cake would never be made if I didn’t simplify things for myself (were in the middle of a bathroom reno). Anyway it was a good surprise and the birthday kids loved it. It is really easy and her buttercream recipe was great. I was a little stressed while making it because I have been unsuccessful with buttercream in the past but it turned out really well. Her directions are simple and easy to follow. There is even this video of her making it with Martha Stewart. I like seeing videos of how to make things, as I am definitely a visual person. It is just easier when you actually see someone do it. When their recipes says add slowly you can actually see what there add slowly is like. Maybe I am just inept at reading recipes.Anyway I was very happy with it.

I was also able to get some things planted in the past week, which was no small feat as it has been raining here almost non stop. Well thankfully it did stop a couple of times so I was able to plant some tomatoes and herbs in containers. So hopefully if all goes well and the sun comes out we will be enjoying some tasty things this summer.

We went for a little trip up North last weekend to Waskesiu to a friends cabin. I thought I would share some photos of how beautiful it is up there. I love it there at this time of year because it is so quiet. I think I need to sign up for a Flicker account so I can post my hundreds of pictures of tree bark and other forest odds and ends for those like me who wish to see that many photos of tree bark. My artwork has been put on hold a little by a temporary part time job, but I’ll be back. In the meantime I will set up Flicker soon and you can look at bark to your hearts content.

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