Autumnjunglebuildingcameracakes

After the 4 day canoe trip last week, we headed out to the cabin again for the long weekend and what is basically the last weekend of the summer. It was a fairly quiet weekend out there, reading, enjoying a few beers and on Sunday afternoon and evening there was a bit of a final weekend family gathering as Aunts, Uncles and other family members turned up for a few more beers, a good chat and a great dinner around the table in the lounge.

After the dinner we all piled outside to the fire pit area where we spent the next couple of hours mellowing out and the huge rock that had been moved away from the fire at the start of summer was finally moved back by brute force by Brent and a Sandy. It was a good evening and a nice end to summer.

Buffs dad   - John

and mum - Susan - took on my new camera

Moving the rock

around the fire

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A final day at the lake on Monday and it was nice enough for a last quick swim in the lake before we helped John and Susan move all the clothing, equipment and remaining food and drink back over the lake, by boat, where we loaded up the cars and finally headed back to the city – albeit in a huge traffic jam as the rest of the Winnipeggers who spent their summer at their cabins also headed home. 

Driving back to the peg....

..i took a few more photos...

one of buff

and the mirror!

The week was fairly uneventful – apart from the one piece of mail that arrived for me while we were away – It is a certificate from the Canadian immigration department, explaining that I have been successful in my application for an extension of 6 months on my stay in Canada as a visitor. It doesn’t mean I can work or earn money, but I can now stay in Canada until the end of March 2013 – although that may not be the great news you would think – as it gets down to minus 40 degrees here in Winter and if I hadn’t got the extension I would probably have headed out to Australia for winter instead, where it is obviously a lot lot warmer and pleasant. I must be mental.

another 6 months

normal.....

zooomy new camera

The week continued onwards and I had to find something to keep myself amused and I came up with an idea on Tuesday when ‘Master’, the pet dinosaur I got Buffy a couple of weeks ago, nearly fell off the top of the bookshelf he lives on. He moves a lot when he roars and so I decided to build some sort of box to keep him in. After a little bit of shopping and an hour spent cutting shapes out of coloured cardboard, just like one of the kid’s presenters from ‘Blue Peter’, I had a cardboard jungle built and ready for Master to live in without falling to his inevitable death from off the top of the bookshelf.

I finished the end of the week, spending most of my time in the kitchen.The weather outside had been a little chilly and windy, so theres no more sunbathing for me in Winnipeg. Autumn is rally on its way in fast. Anyway, I hadn’t done any baking in ages, so made some scones and whipped my own cream (oooeeerr missus!) Then with a load of whipped cream leftover I decided to make a cake. A quick look through te cuoboards and an hour later I had a lovely Victoria sponge made and filled with jam and cream, ready to eat! It was bloody lovely and I must say – I am a pretty good cake maker!!

'Master', in the jungle

he likes his new home.

Cakey time

I also spent a bit of time playing with my new camera to see just what it can do. I have now spent a good few hours messing about with it and reading how to use its features on various internet pages and know a lot more about photographs than I did before. My favourite feature if the new camera is its 20x optical zoom, which is brilliant. I can zoom into a book from across the room and actually read what it says! I took a few photos around the apartment to practice, but I can’t wait to get away again in a few weeks and test it out ‘in the field’. 

Buff - hammering.

Penguin and duck

Bear doesnt like spider

Spider RUNS!!

Close up musical box

Dont spill padthai sauce anywhere - this is the stain thats left over a week later!

The last thing I did this week was to 'mount', the reminders of our canoe trip. Buffy has a few empty frames on the wall in the lounge, which have largely been filled with 'shit', that we find lying around. One has the glass part of a snorkel mask - another has the cardboard part from inside an old speaker and a third has various guitar picks. So, with one shoe a broken camera and one ketchup packet from the grumpy woman in Subway, plus a really old style map of the river - I created yet another masterpiece of art to adorn our walls!! haahaa, Its really just a frame full of shit!!

The canoe trip frame

How it fits in with all the rest