Ice Cream or Tool Sharpening, Take Your Pick

So I have been hearing this bell every day, or roughly every day, that sounds oddly like a mix between classic school bell and a really huge flag clanging against a pole. But it doesn’t go off in a steady rhythm and it tends to sound louder at some times than at others. So I was laying in bed this morning and I heard it, and so I asked Tom what it was. He told me it was a tool sharpening truck that comes by, like the ice cream truck except for tools.

“Come on, I’m not that gullible!” I said. (Yes, I am.) And he continued to try and tell me it was the tool sharpening truck. But he had this silly grin on his face as he was trying to tell me, very similar to the one he gets when he’s trying to pull one over on me, so I stood firm in my non-belief!

So he encouraged me to stare out the window in an attempt to see this “imaginary truck” as it went by. So, there I am, staring out the window, feeling like a silly sod, when all of a sudden Jim starts walking down the driveway with all our cutlery.

WHAT?

YES.

He wasn’t lying.

Story Time

I found this in the house yesterday.

The story:
Her plan was to come over on the Titanic, but there were no first class tickets left. She was considering going middle class but her husband convinced her to instead choose the R.M.S. Corsican because they still had first class available.

If she didn’t, Tom might not be here, and that would make me sad.

"Luck of the Irish" is what the family says to that.

Letters

My sister Kiki (we’re two years apart) writes the best letters. She has beautiful penmanship and covers the letters in doodles like the grammar fairy (our inside joke- he’s a man in a tutu) and her attempts at cooking and she just lets me know how it really is. We never really wrote letters before. I’m not going to say that I’m happy that we live far away and now we have to write letters- but I do enjoy being pleasently surprised by an envelope addressed to “Number 1″ from “2, 3, and 4″.

Obviously the contents of the letters are quite personal (I don’t think she’d want me posting them on the internet) so the sample I have is a recipe she’s given me that I’m excited to try tomorrow. (We’re exchanging recipes because we’re both getting into cooking.) To be honest I always thought she would be a great cook. That probably sounds ridiculous but it’s true. And I can’t elaborate anymore because I’m not allowed to write about what I’ve written in a letter until AFTER it’s been received.

(The ice cream truck is driving by. I think of her every time.)

So here’s her beautiful penmanship and some closeups of the doodles she sent me.

For my reply I practiced doodling foxes for about twenty minutes before I gave up and just went with it. No, I didn’t scan any of those because I FAIL.

(In her next letter she’ll probably write something snarky about how she won’t draw me any more pictures because I plastered them all over the internet. But I can’t help it. I like them. I want to remember. So NYAH.)

A Mini Vacation Fell Out of the Sky

Bronwyn has rescued a sparrow. And I hope she names him Napoleon. Assuming he’s actually a he. Anyway, I’m exhausted, I’ve had a very busy last two days (Bronwyn’s yesterday, Royal Botanical Gardens today, Tom’s sister’s show tomorrow) but I want to try and sum up my day yesterday because it was like a mini vacation fell out of the sky.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, aside from videos, which is ridiculous because I’ve been taking photos so there’s no reason why I have been slacking. I fail, sorry.

Anyway, I didn’t take as many photos as last time, actually, it would technically be the time before last. I think we were a bit distracted by water as water and cameras tend not to get along.

First we took a trip out the barn for rope, a mallet and a wooden steak so that we could swim out to the dock and tie it down. I’m glad Tom and I were there because I couldn’t imagine B stuck doing that all by herself.

It was a bit later when we finally got there because we have to arrange use of a vehicle before we’re able to head out, but one of these weekends we’re going to go camping and the like and it will be fantastic. We had great discussions on the dock, snapped photos, and Bronwyn and I were ATTACKED by black flies and mosquitoes while Tom remained untouched. Please, someone explain this to me. Shampoo? Deodorant? Just… girl smell?

At one point Tom saw a crayfish in the water and Bronwyn and I both dashed for our cameras, but were a little too late, the crayfish had crawled under a rock. So Tom hopped off the dock and tried to get him to come back out so we could take a picture. Because he’s that adorable. (The crayfish wasn’t tricked by the stick.)

Also, Bronwyn just noted that this is the only picture of just the two of us. And it’s our shadows. I love the contrast between our poses, and you can just tell I’m holding my camera at my chest (at least I think so).

Anyway, I’ve been really enjoying life at the moment. I have some good news but I can’t share it until later. And I’m dying about it, really, you have no idea. Tom’s been taking a lot of shots lately as well, on manual, and we concur that 2.0 is our favorite F/stop, currently. (He took this picture of the daisy, by the way- amazing, right?)

I keep gently reminding him that if he becomes a better photographer than me I’ll never forgive him. Then we laugh and pretend I was kidding. (Of course I was kidding, there’s no need to pretend. No really, I’m not that competitive. I promise. What? I’m not. It’s fine.)

We also had dinner with Bronwyn’s mum and dad, which was delightful! We were honored they wanted to meet us and after dinner they let the three of us sit at the table and talk away. (We saw a doe in B’s backyard!) And we talked until well after midnight. We did this last time too, and we would have stayed but we had to get up early this morning to go to the Botanical Gardens. We just feel very relaxed and comfortable with B that we can just talk and talk and talk. Which is awesome, because we don’t have any other friends here, really. We’re very thankful for B.

OH, and if I didn’t mention already- the strawberries here are fantastic. (Which is great, because that’s my favorite fruit.) I can quote B’s mum, "It’s this time of season where I say to myself, this is why we’re hear. The strawberries are big and fat and so flavorful compared to the U.S. strawberries. It’s fantastic."

WOW.
My mouth almost exploded when I had some. I had some a few weeks ago at Tom’s mothers and they were fat and juicy and I couldn’t understand why they were so good. I thought it was just that they were in season. Well, now I know!

Anyway, enjoy these photos, please- obviously the ones taken of us (and of Tom photographing the daisy) were taken by Bella B.