Goodbye, Farewell, Until We Meet Again....

This week the Pot family leaves London to take up a new calling in West Albany, Australia. Our congregation here at London will certainly miss them. We will miss the wonderful preaching we have received, we will miss the games nights, we will miss Monica's smiling face, and we will miss all 5 Pot children. As was said at the farewell evening, there will be lots of Pot-holes left behind. Since our children are all around the same age, from Tim & Byron in Grade 7 all the way down to Natalie and Alyssa, who would have started kindergarten together next fall, our house will have many Pot-holes.

This past weekend was Rev. Pot's farewell service. It was a rather emotional afternoon. Not too many dry eyes were found. It's not like they are just moving down the 401 to another congregations, but all the way to the other side of the world! In all likelyhood, we will never see them again - this is difficult.

Tim, Cody, Jared and Byron came here for lunch for one last Sunday get-together. Hard to believe that is the last time Byron will be here.... they had pizza for lunch, and played lots of Wii. Tim had rented some fun four-player games...I'm sure they will have lots of good memories. These boys have been good friends for the past 5 years, and as they get older, they develop much closer ties. I hope they will keep in touch, for a while anyway.

I had to get this on camera:

This game kept them in stitches, and Natalie enjoyed watching too!

I tried to get at least one nice picture before the mayhem started...

Come on, boys, just be serious for one minute!

I guess that was too much too ask

Oh well, boys will be boys....

We wish the Pot's a safe journey, an enjoyable and restful break in Holland, and God's blessings on their new life in Australia.

Garden Pictures

Every year I promise myself to take a photo record of what is in the garden. I have planted a bunch of perennials every year so far, and they keep disappearing. I have a feeling I am pulling them out in the spring thinking they are weeds. Oh well.... this is what the gardens look like now

Isn't this the most beautiful flower you've ever seen? Deanna and I saw this basket yesterday. I wasn't going to buy any hanging baskets this year, but I couldn't resist this gorgeous fuschia. I hope it lasts the summer....

Deanna's mini irises are almost done already. The large irises haven't bloomed yet, they are very late this year, it seems.

Deanna's garden:

The front garden. The peony is huge this year - time to split it!

This weeping pea shrub was our anniversary gift this year. I love it! It adds some height to the garden. The watering can sprung a leak last year, so we recycled it as a planter this year. And the coral bells (purple plant) is my new perennial for the year. I also added a bleeding heart in the back corner.

Victoria Day Weekend

Wow, I haven't updated on here for a while. I haven't even had my camera out lately. Just busy, I guess!

The first long weekend of the summer season is now behind us. It was a good one. Friday we headed out to Jarvis for fireworks and bonfire at Brian and Barbara's. A little chilly, but lots of fun. We swapped Deanna for Zachary overnight, as Brian was taking the kids to Ruthven Park to participate in some bird banding. Those of you who know Deanna will know that this is right up her alley! She loves birds... they spent 3 hours there, but were rewarded with seeing one of the rarest birds in Ontario, a Prothonotary Warbler.

Apparently there are only 5 pairs of these in Ontario. The pictures on their blog were taken by Bethany - good job, Beth!

Saturday was the Elementary Schools Baseball Tournament. London's team played very well, even though they lost most of their games. It was a rather dreary, rainy day, at least until the tournament was over. Then the sun came out! Oh well, since B&B came back to our place (we had to swap kids back again) it was nice that the kids could play outside.

Sunday was a much appreciated day of rest before spending most of yesterday outdoors again. Deanna and I got the gardens cleaned out and annuals planted. I'll try to get some pictures up later. After getting the three little girls off to bed on time (very sleepy after playing outside all day!) Tim, Deanna and I played a game of Settlers of Catan. This was the first time Deanna had played, and lucky girl, she won! Or was winning, when I realized it was almost 10 o'clock and they needed to get to bed!

All in all, an enjoyable weekend. Hope yours was too.