Hello family,

Yesterday morning Lyssa slept in a bit, as she'd had trouble sleeping. Mike said that as soon as she lay down and stretched out, the baby started kicking! Then, at the end of the night when the baby gets tired, then she can sleep!

After a lunch of a delicious salad and leftover cornbread, Mike, Lyssa and I went with Shamus the dog on a bit of an outing, in Mike's GMC "Jimmy" which he painted with a tartan pattern:

First we went to Porpoise Bay Park, to the shore of the bay there. 

 Then it was a few minutes walk to shallow Angus Creek, where salmon come to spawn, and after they are done they die. 

Earlier, when the salmon are all still crowded there spawning, bears come to to eat them. It was surprising to me that all that natural drama happens within a few minutes walk of a parking lot and picnic tables! Anyway, it was an absolutely beautiful creek.

 I had also somehow assumed that the spawning activity wouldn't happen in such a shallow creek, so that was also interesting.


Then we hiked a bit in hidden grove, the woods very different a little further from the shore.

I took so many photos because the scenery was so gorgeous and so different. But I was a little nervous as we got further from the parking lot, so close to Lyssa's due date, and glad when we headed back.

We stopped briefly at the small grocery store near their house, where I photographed these bilingual salad dressing bottles:

Waking from an afternoon nap at about 6 PM, it was still light outside but quite chilly, and the fire in the glass-fronted wood stove was very comforting. 

I took a lot of photos of Lyssa's amazing larder, many of the bulk foods ordered from the restaurant wholesale order. She made a huge batch of her special granola, and a batch of her little lump cookies.The workers at the restaurant and at the pizza warehouse use the granola for a mid-shift snack, with yogurt. Lyssa said she didn't want to have to make any for a while, after the baby came.

I told her it was so impressive and "almost looked LDS" . She said, "Well, I decided, if I'm not going to be allowed to work, and all I can do is be a homemaker, I'm going to do the best possible job at being a homemaker as I can!"

(She is not allowed to work while she is still only classified as a resident of Canada.) She does not have Canadian health insurance yet, but the baby will be completely covered. And as a long-time resident, her health care is priced at a lower level than it would be if she needed health care as a foreign visitor.

Last few photos below: Leo the 10 year old cat, granola, cider vinegar working, starting granola, and mead.

Love, Lennie