"Messing about in boats."

Short... often... and full of photos! 
 That is what a good blog should be all about (thanks for the reminder, Myrna)... so even though I love to go on and on about what we're doing I promise that from now on I will do less 'talking' and more showing :-). 

Just thought I'd throw in this great little photo of some Quadra Island ocean life that my sister Carole and I saw last month to 'illustrate' my point!

Now...as Ratty solemnly says to Mole from my favourite book...  The Wind in the Willows written by Kenneth Grahame and published in 1908 (oh I could tell you ever so much about it... but that, I guess is for another blog... hmmmmm...)

...which was purchased for me by my beloved hubby, co-cap William, son Cam, and all my brothers and sisters-in-law and numerous other relatives and friends...for my... GULP!!!... 60th Birthday on September 8th this year... and by the way...

Who ever thinks they will ever get that old???)

Here I am at Arts on Atlantic (great little Inglewood gallery speciallizing in book arts) where I...

...pick up my new treasure...

Ooooooohhhhh...

Wow!

Co-cap Catherine proudly displaying her 'birthday book'...

...the most beautifully created Centary limited edition of Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows illustrated by Charles Van Sandwyk of Vancouver, Canada...

"Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply...

One of Charles Van Sandwyk's cards

 ...messing about in boats!"
Now, you may think that since we are back in Calgary (yes, you got it right...smack in the middle of the Canadian prairies and thousands of miles from any ocean) with co-cap William hard at work in the hospital and me picking up contract work at local school libraries... that we are not messing about in boats... oh but you are sooooooo sooooooo wrong!! 

As we order, dream about, purchase and adjust our ever changing lists of "Things to buy" and "Things to do" for ever more new hardware, software, books, upholstery material, navigational technology, life raft, 'ditch bag', forward seeking sonar,...

...and pour over the full set of the Pilot Charts that we just bought (which tell us what to expect along our South Pacific journey in the way of the winds and currents)...

 ...and read and re-read books of our soon to be visited South Pacific destinations,

and continue to change, add to and check off more of our "To do" and "To buy" lists...

We are most definitely are...  

                                  ...messing about in boats!