The month of June Begins

Well it has been almost a month since last I wrote, and a lot has happened since then. I have traveled to Grand Junction, Durango, Ignacio, Pagosa Springs, Wolf Creek and many more destinations all in the month of May. In total about 1300 miles were completed and this time of year has some spectacular sights. The rivers in the mountains are gushing torrents with all the snow melts and the combination of some good rain showers.

I got to play my first game of racquet's ball and it was good fun and very different to squash. Our garden is starting to take shape and is looking very green. We have put wood chips out in the flower beds, fertilized the lawn, placed bug killer on the garden and mowed the lawn each Saturday since the start of Spring. It is all great fun and good exercise.

I decided to start playing tennis again after 21 years as squash is not popular out here and golf seems like a lot of money to outlay at this time. But I am learning fast that tennis may in my case be more expensive than golf. I have broken 6 sets of strings in 7 weeks, with my forehand top spin. Sure I can get win the point each time but the cost of the restring is far to expensive to repeat each week. This last week was the icing on the cake as I practised out on the court with the ball machine. After hitting balls back across the court for an hour I managed to snap the strings on the racquet's even against the machine. So now I am thinking that golf once a month may prove less expensive.

The Bulls crushed the Chiefs and what a finish to the Super 14. Even though we don't always get to see the game we check the on line scoring to keep p with whats on the go. I am sure there are a lot of people still recovering after that win.(and I am not talking about the players).

Well we re certainly getting our fair share of rain at the start of this spring but we are looking forward to summer and the warmer temperatures rolling in. Wishing you all a great month of June ahead, miss all our family and close mates and just want you to know how appreciative we are that so many of you are still in contact with us each week.

Anniversary in the US

This is lake Dillon which is still frozen but if you wait a week from now there will be boats sailing on this lake.

The slush season is here and as you can see when the snow starts to melt it gets messy and not all that pretty either, even though the memories just a month before were of skiing up to this patch of ground and enjoying a Bratwurst roll with a beer.

Lesleigh stading in front of the Evergreen Lake that was frozen just three weeks ago.

A View of our condo inside the lounge on the base of peak 8 at Breckenridge.

It was this time last year when we stepped onto that Boeing and took off for New York not knowing what to expect or where we would land up. Well the adventure has taken a little more shape than either of us could have ever imagined.

So in celebration of the one year mark Lesleigh had booked us a room in what is a very upmarket hotel right at the base of the ski lifts. It was a great day and even though it is the slushy season it was a good break from town. The Saturday morning we took a road trip to see the mountains in transition between winter and the spring before heading back past Lake Dillon and then onto some friends in a place called Erie which is an hour north of Denver.

What an evening we had as we drank way to much and as the rain fell all around us as we braaied on the balcony under the umbrella. Well I was well done a long time ahead of the food being ready and got a really funny spate of hiccups which I could not get rid of no matter how hard I tried. We got to bed after midnight and had a very sensitive body on Sunday morning. When I got home, I mowed the lawn drank lots of water and then played 2 hours of tennis to get the alcohol out of the blood stream to feel half human once again.

Now we are at the end of another week and I cant wait for the weekend with warmer and drier weather forecast it is going to be a great one! Friends and Family Enjoy your weekends and enjoy the outdoors come rain or shine, because it is the place to be.

A blizzard sets in and the rain / snow continues

Well as you think Spring is in the air again this week we got a blizzard which is like a cold front, but because the temps are higher at this time of year, we tend to get a snow / rain mix and things get quite sloshy out there. My jetta got stuck twice on Friday but with a little bit of back and forth between reverse and the sports gear mode I managed to get it out and back onto the road. Sunday looks to be a better day and should be a lot more fun outdoors.

We had some friends over for dinner last night and we made pizza's from the dough and a handful of Margarita's to follow the pizza, followed by Melva pudding and ice cream. It was a great evening and we had a lot of fun, I can still feel it this morning.

I need to get out into the garden and put the fertilizer down so that the grass will look great into summer this year. I managed to repair a lawn mower and so now have a almost new machine for $25 versus having to buy a new one for $300 so that felt good and was a great weekend project. When the lawn is cut and green I will post the photographs in a week or two.