A New Blog!

After a long hiatus, Rainwater Rambling is back on track. The name is the same, but the blog is a little different. I have switched web hosting providers and I am now going to blog with WordPress web software. WordPress is one of the blogging standards and allows for blog posts to be done from any computer with internet or any portable device with internet.

The New Blog

It will ask you for a password the first time, enter the dog's name (lowercase) or the cat's name. You will need to update your bookmark to just tanabe.ca.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

We headed out to Lori and Dale's place on Saturday for Carolyn's birthday party. It was a sorta surprise party, but the gig was up when she saw her cousin walking down Lori's street as they arrived. The weather held out and the kids enjoyed the pool.

Angela doing her frog imitation.

Claudia is finally tall enough that she can stand in the pool.

Chloe and Mickey.

Alex.

Angela and Gillian smiling for the camera, Brad looking at the lemon tarts.

Happy Birthday Carolyn!

Back to Blogging

I am finally getting around to updating the blog for this summer, it's not that we haven't been doing things, if anything, we have been doing too much. It will take a while to get this complete, I've taken close to 2000 photos since the last post back in May. Last night we watched "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" outside in the backyard with the Carr's. This has been our 4th or 5th movie this summer that we have done outside. Last Sunday we watched "Get Smart". I've gotten the set-up to the point where it only takes 10-15 minutes and we now have four locations we can mount or makeshift screen between our house and our neighbours.

On Friday morning, Angela, Claudia, Chloe and I were up early to head over to the Leash-free dog park. It is about five minutes from the house. Claudia and I went last Saturday morning, but it was after 9:00 am when we got there and there had to be over 30 dogs at the park. Chloe has quite figured out what she is suppose to do. She barks at the big dogs, sometimes running towards them, but as soon as they turn, she high tails it back to us. Friday she would run under one of the picnic tables. Here is Angela doing some scooping after Chloe did her business.

The girls managed to find a caterpillar while they were in the woods with Chloe.

The girls have been looking after Lily and Loki, the two pugs that live next door, for the past couple of weeks. They have been feeding, playing and walking them while our neighbours are away. Their oldest is home, but not always around. They have been watering the plants and veggies as well. Here is Lily trying to get in our house.

Chloe has been playing with the pugs everyday, her and Loki run laps around the backyards. By the evening she is pooped. Here she is kind of in and out of her bed.

Angela's Quarter Final Soccer Game

On Thursday night Angela had her quarter-final game for soccer. Their team was 1-11 this season, they played every Wednesday night since May and their first win came in game eleven. For their first playoff game they played a team from the Thursday night teams, fortunately it is a random draw that is decided at the beginning of the season. They won the game 2-0. Next week they play a team they were unable to beat all season in the semi-final game. They played a really good game this week and that was without two of their better forwards.

Angela played defence for most of the season.

Over the course of the season she had a few spills and bruises, but kept on going.

She is getting better at chasing down the opponent and taking the ball away. Even the ones that are about two feet taller than her.

If they win this Thursday they play again on Saturday in the finals. Go Angela!

Claudia's Quarter Final Soccer Game

Claudia had her quarter final soccer game on Tuesday night, her team went 0-12 during the season. This being house league, everyone makes the playoffs and how you do in the regular season doesn't determine who you meet in the playoffs. Her team had a few close games where they were either tied or leading late in the game and somehow it went the other way. Claudia started the season on defence, but was moved to forward and lately has been playing both positions. This was her night, her team won 4-1 and SHE SCORED 2 GOALS! I had to get the play by play via e-mail, as Angela and I could only watch about 20 minutes before having to leave for Angela's practice. I don't have any pictures but here are some from her previous game where she came close on a couple of occasions.

Way to go Claudia! The team they beat was from the Tuesday night teams, they do a cross-over of nights. We think the other Tuesday night team won their quarter-final, so she plays them this Tuesday, probably better they play a team they haven't seen before.

Happy Birthday Susan!

We were up at the cottage for Susan's birthday, and not wanting to bring cake home the next day, we decided to have it when we got back. The girls made her cake and it turned out well. Happy Birthday!!

Angela's Soccer Season

Angela is also playing soccer this summer. Her season has started, but it is the same night as Guides. She only has one more meeting and then she will start. She tried out and made the Intermediate Co-ed soccer team at school. They didn't have enough grade 7/8 girls, so they opened it up to the sixes. They had their one-day family of schools tournament on Thursday and they made it to the semi-finals before bowing out. They ended up tied for third out of 12 teams. Congratulations Angela!

Soccer Season Begins

Soccer season started last night with Claudia's first game. After some initial confusion with her uniform and coach-less team, things came together for her first game.

Here is Claudia in some action shots.

Claudia is playing in the U10 age group, as you can see she is on the smaller size, but she wasn't afraid of the ball.

This is Claudia's first time playing organized soccer. She enjoyed it and played well.

Amphibian and Reptile Ramble

I have been spending a lot of time out near Owen Sound for work lately. We are starting a new precipitation monitoring site at the Kinghurst Nature Reserve near Chatsworth. The property is owned by Ontario Nature and this weekend they were having an amphibian and reptile count. As part of our outreach program, I was there to give a demonstration of our equipment and talk about why we are there and what we do. Here I am with the Mark Carabetta, Conservation Science Manager for Ontario Nature waiting for some rain. It turns out his wife works at the ROM with Mom and Dad's old next door neighbour.

Afterwards I joined the group and went looking for Reptiles and amphibians. One of the Ontario Nature people is currently working on the Ontario Reptile and Amphibian Atlas. Joe Crowley is a wealth of information when it come to snakes and frogs. Here he is with a garter snake.

I spotted a water snake in the water and next thing you know he was in the water catching the snake.

Note the wet sleeve.

This little girl wanted to hold every snake they caught.

Here is a Ribbon Snake having a little swim.

A bigger Water snake, there were lots of Garter, Water and Ribbon snakes around the water's edge.

The Nature Reserve has a large wetland area and one of the more impressive old growth forests in Ontario.

There were also lots of leopard frogs in the grass.

And some Green Frogs.

This was a Pickerel Frog.

Here is a small Red-bellied snake.

Most of the people there were birders and knew all the calls of the birds.

Some lichen in full bloom.

Another ribbon snake. The cloudy eyes indicate that it will shed its skin soon.

Part of the property is an old farmstead, there is still a well on the site. Mark said if you pump it long enough the water will come.

One last leopard frog before I left for home. The rest of the group were going to look for salamanders and more snakes. They were camping at a nearby conservation area and then they were coming back on the Sunday.

Chloe's Summer Cut

Chloe got her first summer cut today. Here she is before going to the groomers.

Here she is after the groomers.

Haircuts and Badminton

The girls got their haircut this month. Here are the three of them showing their do's.

Chloe enjoys playing with Loki and Lily from next door.

The girls playing badminton.