Travels in Canada.......

Greetings from Canada girls......how are you all?

Thought I would pop in and show a few pics of my trip so far.

When I arrived at Calgary airport hubby and son were waiting and Rich had drawn a sign and held it up for me....☺  

He'd drawn bunting, a ball of wool and knitting needles and a jar of vegemite on it along with my family nickname.

It was very sweet, he knows me well and I had a good laugh....

It was great to see them after a month apart.

Ok, the pics here we go, first weekend after I arrived we were at the Folk Festival in Canmore at the foot of the Rockies...WOW

It's GORGEOUS, jaw droppingly beautiful and when the storms roll in it's even more so.

And I have to say you Canadians are hard core.

 You don't let a bit of rain stop you from enjoying the outdoors in Summer.

Out come the umbrellas, coats and tarps and you just keep on enjoying yourselves

Monday morning there was a free pancake breakfast on the last day of the festival and it was lovely.

 Live music to entertain us, friendly locals to talk to and stunning scenery in the background.

We had a brilliant time at Canmore, thanks everyone for making us Aussies feel so welcome.....we certainly hope to be back.

Elk grazing along the roadside

Taken just out of Jasper on the way to Hinton

Some sweet birdy love going on.

A grey Jay we met at Lake Louise.

Very tame birds and they were happy to take bread from our hands.....

Had to stop and check out this lush vegie garden in Jasper.

Interesting to see what people grow in different places.

We took a River Safari over at Blue River on the way over to Vancouver. 

  We saw 4 black bears in their natural habitat.

It was a great trip and well worth it.

Wildflowers growing along the roadside.

They make me think of all the  lovely wild flower pics that Sue over at

 Mr Micawber's Recipe For Happiness 

takes on her weekly bike rides.

Last week we visited Granville Island Market in Vancouver and first thing I spied was some yarn bombing.

It's a great place to go to see artists and their wares.

 I'm sure I never even saw half of it, but time was limited.

When you have a couple of fellas in tow you're always watching the clock.

Anyway, if you ever visit Vancouver make sure you visit Granville Island Market and tell hubby you'll be at least 2 hours!!

I did duck into the Cloth Shop and bought 3 x 1/2 metres of fabric......there were toadstools, owls and birds....swoon!

Last weekend, we stayed in Victoria on Vancouver Island. 

We stayed with some people from church which was great.

 Hi Joan and Matt.....☺

We had a great time with them and when we left on Monday morning we headed to Butchart Gardens......WOW.

Put it on your list if you're visiting Canada.

Silly me forgot to charge my camera and half way round it went flat, doh!!

Thankfully, hubby had his camera and was happily snapping away.

Even Rich who's 22, enjoyed the gardens and had his phone out snapping madly. 

So it really is a place for all the family to visit.

Can't wait to get home and pull on the gardening gloves.......

One thing that has really struck me over here are the hanging baskets in towns. 

Whether they are outside businesses or hanging along the streets. 

They are just beautiful, obviously the climate suits them so well.

In this basket alone I counted 9 different varieties.

Also the gardens around town centres and outside of petrol stations are well tended and cared for. 

It's a real credit to whoever is in charge of them.

Some baskets have been at least a metre wide and full of blooms.

At Port Alberni down at the wharf we saw a shop which had the sign

'Vancouver Islands Best Donuts'

Now we've been sampling donuts from Tim Horton's while we've been here so I was up for this challenge.

I must say the sign was right.

I tried a maple and bacon donut......mmmm, lip smacking delish.

It's not too weird, just think of pancakes, bacon and maple syrup, it works.

And on the way back through Coombes we discovered a brilliant way to keep the weeds from growing in the roof gutters.

Keep a goat on your roof.......

Coombes is a very touristy little place, but it seems rather  quirky and interesting.

We've travelled a lot of kms and seen quite a bit of the countryside and it's been lovely.

But we're all missing home and looking forward to toast and vegemite and coffee just the way we like it. 

We're now on the countdown to home and Rich has one more festival to play the 

Salmon Arm Roots and Blues Festival 

which is on this coming weekend.

Then it's back to Vancouver for our flight home.

Also have to say a big THANKYOU to my hubby Chris, who due to insurance reasons has been the chief driver whilst we're here.
It's tricky driving on the opposite side of the road and figuring out different road rules etc.
 He's done a brilliant job and all up the boys will have travelled over 10,000 kms.

Now if you've managed to stick with me till the end of this post......well done....

Thanks for visiting everyone, I'm off to bed now we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow.

Hope you are all well,

Take care,

Claire X