Lists of 2013 - #8 - Places I Have Lived

Listography 2013 - #8 - Places I Have Lived

My whole life has been spent in Alberta, never more than an hour from the farm where I grew up!  I love to travel but I just realized now that I've always lived close to the ones I love.

1.  My dad purchased a farm using money he had saved while working for Calgary Power, installing the power lines that were being strung through rural Alberta in the early 1950's.  The farm was just west of Millet and about 8 miles east of where he'd grown up.  The yard contained a big old two-story house and various out-buildings, including a barn and grain elevator.  When he and my mom married in 1954, they moved to this farm.  Last summer while on a garden tour, I had the opportunity to go back and see what's happened to the farm now.  The yard is so very beautiful with a waterfall and pond just off the deck of the house and a lovely garden area.  So many memories flooded through me that day!

2.  When I was 9, my parents purchased my grandparents farm, where my Dad had grown up, and we moved there in December.   This meant a change of schools for us but we knew many of the kids since we attended the same church.  Moving here meant that my Dad became a full-time farmer, leaving his stucco and plaster job that he'd juggled for 10 years.  My parents still live on this farm.

3.  My college year was spent at Camrose Lutheran College, now the Augustana campus of the University of Alberta.  It was a small liberal arts Christian college, less than an hour from home, with a student body of less than 500.  I lived in the student residence, worked in the kitchen for a few hours every week and took first year courses in home economics.

4.  The college did not grant degrees so after 1 year, I transferred to the University of Alberta and the faculty of education.  I lived with 3 friends in a two bedroom apartment just a few blocks from the campus.

5.  During the summer after my third year, we married and I moved to Bob's family farm.  We spent nearly 20 months in a tiny 2 room house that had been built for his grandfather.  It was cozy but had no laundry or shower facilities - thankfully Bob's parents lived just across the yard and shared their water with us.

6.   And that brings us to the home that we currently live in - the one that we moved into 36 years ago.  Bob and his brother logged the trees and sawed the lumber and then he built the house with his Dad.  It's served us so well and is the only home that our girls have known.   Really, Darrin too since we moved in on his first birthday.   So many memories made here!

House Redo - part 2

Here's the start of the new floor!

Hallway

Living room

Evening Sun Stroll

The evening light, in that hour or so before sunset, has been just perfect for pictures!  Here is a little tour through our yard on a lovely Sunday evening.  

The shadows are lengthening -

the potted flowers are flourishing - 

the saskatoon bushes are in full bloom - 

the bleeding heart is just coming on - 

the apple blossoms are fully open - 

the Mayday tree is huge -

- covered with flowers -

that you can smell all across the yard -

and the sky is big and beautiful!!

This one of the big Alberta sky is for Melinda!  And, yes - that's Bob underneath the truck!  Checking or fixing some little detail is always on his agenda.  

Thank you for walking through the yard with me tonight!

Update

on Heather!! I posted for her birthday last week but had to come to the other computer to find pictures from when she was little. So many memories for all of us in these pictures!!



Big sister, Heather!




Sitting with her cousin Tyneille - 1979
Do you think she resembles Helayna? Maybe just a little?!!




A play wedding - Heather was the groom, Naomi was the bride and Melinda was the minister!



"We are the champions!" pose - I think this was the summer after the Olympics were in Calgary




Bryce Canyon, Utah - October, 1991




Wedding day, June, 1999




Our 3 beautiful daughters




Mel's grad, Wolfville, NS, 2002
You've probably noticed that it's nearly always group pictures - the joy of having siblings, I guess.




At Naomi's wedding




New car time!

It's a showery day here so instead of being in the field I'm baking Sunflower Oat Bread, Upside Down Rhubarb Cake and Oatmeal Cookies! It's smelling pretty good!!

The Smell . . .

Of spring is right outside our house and you can smell it across the yard too. What is it? It's the beautiful, tall white Mayday tree that is in its full glory. I took some pictures but Blogger Beta doesn't want to cooperate so I'll post them later. The tree is covered in blossoms

After I got home, I went out and cut the grass. It was getting pretty shaggy and very thick in some places. Love the smell of freshly mown grass too. Any other smells you ask? Oh, yeah - chocolate bars, coca cola, a baby just fresh from the bathtub, and cinnamon in baking.