Miramichi, New Brunswick

I was travelling around New Brunswick last week and spent an afternoon driving up the Miramichi Valley, Canada's equivalent to the Tweed in the salmon fishing world. So I thought I would post a pic of one of the salmon fishing lodges in Doaktown, a village in the centre of the valley, to see if I can tempt Pete there some time. After all, what does a man do when he's fished the Kola Peninsula?? I had a look around the lodge (in typically Maritime fashion, there was no-one there when I visited, but they had left the door open and wouldn't have minded me having a peek...) and it looks very comfortable and is right on the banks of the river. Check it out without the snow at http://www.ledgesinn.com/ I also called in at the most famous salmon fishing shop in the country: W.W.Doak (www.wwdoak.com )...Pop Jim would have loved the place! New Brunswick is still deep in snow - on the coast road I was sometimes driving between banks of snow 8-10 feet high on either side. And here in Toronto, Gibson discovered how sticky the spring snow is when he returned from a romp in the park with snowballs amusingly attached to his undercarriage! It took a warm bath and howls of embarrassment to de-ball him...

Love from the Great White North, C, D ,P and T

Home again

Back from the land of dragons and lanterns (for a couple of months!) having had a lovely holiday - all the excitement of a three-year-old birthday followed by an amazing trip to Beijing to see the Forbidden City and the Great Wall - awesome!

Love to everyone from all in China - they're still suffering blog censorship quite frequently. (CNN and BBC World were constantly having the plug pulled on them last week whenever they reported on Tibet - it's really wierd, just like having a power cut but only on the television.)

Happy Birthday, Mother

Love you, miss you always.

ttt

We miss you Kate

Thinking of all the happy times and missing you on your birthday...

How brave to be wearing a white cardigan while balancing a chocolate Chip on your lap!

Love from all in Canada xxx

MEMORIES OF A HAPPY LIFE. LOVE FOR ALWAYS ON YOUR BIRTHDAY. WE ALL MISS YOU SO MUCH . X X X X PETE AND FAMILY.

Timmy's ice hockey team made it to the league final last night, which instead of being played on the rutted ice of an outdoor rink at the local park, was played on the perfect surface of the Ricoh Arena where professional hockey is played...An exciting game which they lost, but T scored a couple of classy goals, so he was very happy!

The other pic is from a couple of weeks ago when I was down in Orlando for the radio shows and had the unexpected pleasure of interviewing a kookaburra...at least he was more talkative than the penguins I had on the show last year...

Love to all, C,D,P&T

Just helping out!!

Come on we all the know that 'blue bump' was care of Celebrity cruises and the midnight feast's!! A little help from your friends was all you needed to get rid of it!! love H x

Snowy Indiana

Hey one and all, just some recent pics of the kiddos after the recent snow Maddie has this constant grin as she zips down the back garden slope! and Tyler is perfecting his snow boarding skills for when we take him to the real slopes!! hope all is well, we are surviving our first winter, although we have never had so many sick children in such a short spell before! A Christmas in the sun sounds good to us! Love to everyone Heidi Jamie Tyler and Madison xxxx

,

VERY REMISS OF ME........THIS PHOTO ...TAKEN IN OCTOBER '07 .... IS JIMS FINAL CAST OVER HIS FAVOURITE POOL ON THE RIVER TWEED AT LOWER BIRGHAM. WHERE WE SPENT MANY MANY VERY HAPPY WEEKS CASTING A FLY AND SIPPING THE WHISKY........

YOU COULD NEVER KNOW JUST HOW MUCH WE MISS YOU..

SURPRISE SURPRISE WE HAVE GOT A BLUE BUMP TOO ! ! ! !

GONE SOUTH IN THE NORTH EAST OF THE WEST INDIES...

JUST A COUPLE OF PIX FROM OUR RECENT TRIP TO SPLIFFLAND......WE VISITED ST.GANGER.... THE BEAUTIFUL ISLAND OF MARIJUANA ......THE GRASS ON THE ISLAND OF MULL WAS JUST STUNNING......ST. DOPE... PORT POT...NOT FORGETING OUR FINAL DESTINATION CAN- NAB- BLISS... A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL....THE SHIP WAS FULL OF CANADIANS AND NOT ONE OF THEM NEW CHIP OR DARA...I DONT UNDERSTAND IT.....WE MET SOMEONE ELSE FROM INDIANAPOLIS WHO DID'NT KNOW HEIDI AND JAMIE EITHER... ITS JUST AMAZING......

LOVE TO YOU ALL PETE AND PAUL'

Kirsty's pics

Kirsty's photos

Don't forget to double-click on collage photos to make them large enough to see.

Happy Year of the Rat

Hello Everyone!
We're back! Finally found a way around the censors - found a proxy server to route this through. Won't let me post photos, but I'll send them to Mum to put on. Since allowing me on for Katie Nana's anniversary, access has been denied again - what a controversial lot we must be! Anyway, happy Lunar New Year to all - tonight is the Lantern Festival, the last official day of Chinese New Year, and it is a little like a war zone outside, with each family seemingly celebrating with its own pile of industrial-sized fireworks. We thought initially that the whole of China was celebrating the news we got today, which was IT"S A BOY! Izzy is delighted, and wants it to be called Donald...still heavily under Disney's spell, after a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland last week. She refuses to answer to anything other than Goofy, and sleeps in her Minnie Mouse hat. We were lucky to get away on holiday at all- millions didn't, after China's worst snowstorms for 50 years, you may have seen some news coverage. The snow for us was beautiful rather than disastrous - only 30 cm, but still Suzhou was debilitated...school was cancelled for a week, mostly due to the roads being still blocked - 1 snow plough in a city of 8 million doesn't go far - the rest of the work was carried out painfully slowly by the road grannies, little old ladies with brooms and shovels. It's all over now except for the odd pile of snow.
Anyway, lots of love to you all...sorry not to be catching up this summer, but will be a bit busy!
Kirsty,Kevin, Goofy and blue bump xxxxx

New Addition!

Hi All,

Just thought we would introduce our new golden Labrador puppy.....her name is Jessie and she is now about 10 weeks old....we were pretty prepared for the poop and wee, but saliva filled shoes?????

Love to all

Clare, Jamie, Max and Jessie (oh..... and Kitty and Pablo the cats!!)

xxxxx

Snow! Snow! Snow!

Don't know what Bev is complaining about in terms of weather........ We've just had 35 cms of snow in the centre of the city and can hardly move for the stuff! And there is more forecast for the weekend too. Still it looks pretty, and Gibson and Timmy enjoy it!

Love

C,D,P &T

Venice

Venice very wet, but then I suppose that's what it's famous for. Lovely few days - carnival very colourful which more than made up for the dismal weather. Love to all xxxxx

3 years old

Finn is like the Queen - has two birthdays! Truth is, we ignored his real one as it is too close to Christmas and you can have too much of a good thing. So yesterday was party day and, as you can see, Lightening McQueen is flavour of the month!

Katie Nana

Doesn't seem possible the last time we were together was the kids Christening and as things go a very good choice of venue too ! We miss you although you are forever in our hears and thoughts ...... Heidi Jamie Tyler and Madison

Missing You

All our love to you, Good Kind Beautiful Nana....at least we have our own mini-Kate who so frequently reminds us of you....right down to your laugh!
xxxxxxx

Nana has obviously told the censors to unblock the site....haven't been able to get on here for months...has anything to do with Gordon Brown's visit I wonder?
Love and thoughts to you all
Kirsty, Kev and Isabel xxxx

Missing You x

Missing you Katie Nana....thinking of you...God Bless.

All Our Love....Jamie, Clare and Max xxx

Two years

We can't believe it's really been two years since we last held your hand - it seems like yesterday and forever. We still miss you so much, dearest Katie-Nana, dearest Mother.

Remembering Kate

Two years pass by so quickly, but we all miss you still very much, especially today...

Love and thoughts, Chip, Dara, Pip and Tim

LATE REPORTING XMAS AND NEW YEAR BY THE BOUGHTON SECT......FIRST TWO PIX I WILL LEAVE YOU TO FIGURE OUT ..EXCEPT TO SAY WE DID A BROADWAY SHOW AND WE WERE ON OUR WAY TO INDY! ! THE THIRD PIC IS NEW YEARS DAY AT HEIDI'S IN HER BACK YARD ..COMPLETE WITH SKI RUN......JAMIE CLARE AND MAX HAD A WEEK WITH US OVER NEW YEAR ON WAY TO ANOTHER WEEK IN MEXICO...OK FOR SOME HUH ? SO LOOKS LIKE A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL...WHEREEVER WE WERE..... SNOW IN CHINA ? PLEASE REPLY......CONGRATULATIONS BY THE WAY K K AND IZ.....AS IF CHINA NEEDS AN INCREASE IN POPULATION ! ! ! CAN WE HAVE A COMPETITION FOR NAMES PLEASE ? I'LL GO FIRST WITH ....FLEDDIE FOR A BOY OR FLELISHA FOR A GIRL..... CAN WE GATHER VOTES FOR THE BIG GET TOGETHER AT XMAS TIME THIS YEAR PLEASE...SOMETHING WILL NEED BOOKING SOON IF IT IS TO HAPPEN......I KNOW LOTS OF STUFF GOING ON ....BUT ....... NOT MUCH AVAILABLE IN CRUISES SO THOUGHTS PLEASE ON A POSTCARD TO....... TORONTO TEAM....GLAD TO SEE WE HAVE AN ICE HOCKEY PLAYER IN OUR MIDST...KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK TIM.....I'LL COME TO CHEER YOU ON WHEN YOU TURN PRO......PIP I AM SURE IT MUST BE VERY TOUGH AT UNI...BUT STICK IN THERE.....EVENTUALLY YOU WILL... SOBER UP ! ! ! MAKE THE MOST OF IT MATE...WISHED I WAS A FLY ON THE WALL..
SPRATTON GANG.....BEV HAVE A GREAT TRIP TO VENICE.....ITS EASIER TO GET HOLD OF YOU ON THE BLOG AS YOU SPEND SO MUCH TIME AWAY FROM HOME ! ! ! GABBI STEVE GORDON AND HUCKLEBERRY.....SOUNDS LIKE YOU HAD A BLAST IN THE ALPS...BUT GABBI YOU MUST STOP MOLLYCODDLING HUCK.....AND JUST LET THE BOY GO ON HIS OWN DOWN THE SKI RUNS.....I PROMISE YOU HE WILL STOP EVENTUALLY........ANYWAY DONT KNOW IF ALL THIS WILL FIT IN BUT WE WILL GIVE IT A GO......OUR THANKS GO AGAIN TO THE SUPPORTING STAFF THAT MADE ALL THIS POSSIBLE...KATE AND JIM WE LOVE YOU TO BITS... PETE AND PAUL . X X X

Happy New Year from Canada

Happy New Year to all - may it bring peace and happiness.
Here are a few highlights from our Canadian Christmas/New Year break.
Lots of snow at the cottage ..... where the furniture from the farm now has a new home for you all to come and visit.

And when there is so much snow, there is only one thing to do - get out there and enjoy it!

Much love

C,D,P & T

Happy New Year!

Just back from our very white Christmas in Courchevel. Lots of love to you all and a very

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

A Merry Family Christmas!

A very happy, peaceful, family Christmas from Chip, Dara. Pip and Tim.

We have a white Christmas here as you can see from this picture of our road. The conditions are also perfect (cold, icy) for Tim to start his first season of ice hockey with a local team at the open air rink in out neighbourhood park (that's him in the orange jersey, four goal hero in his 1st game despite the lack of hockey genes). And of course the Canadian Family Robinson traditional picture taken this morning as we gather around the Xmas tree...the difference this year is that the time of the photo is midday rather than 7 am as in past years, one of the boons of twin teenagerhood...

We are thinking of you all, wherever you are today - Suzhou, Courmayeur, Acoteias, Hook and Indianopolis - and we send our love and we clink our glasses to the most wonderful family in the world; we really are very fortunate to have each other, scattered acroos the globe though we may be. And not forgetting Poppa Jim and Katie Nanna who started all this 69 years and a day ago.

Cheers and here's to 2008!

Merry Christmas from Portugal!!

Merry Christmas to all from us here in the sun in Portugal.......

I'm a new girl at this blog business and it is quite apparent that I have to take over posting messages from this part of the world....I hope you are all well and have some great plans for the Christmas / Holiday period......and for those of you we won't see......lots of kisses from us!

Max was in a Christmas parade this morning though the old town of Albufeira and I've never seen so many little Father and Mrs Christmas's in one area....I'll attach a couple of pics...

Love to all.......Merry Christmas and a happy new year...

Clare (Jamie & Max) xxxxxxx

? Years?

Happy Anniversary, C. and D!

Love, Bev

39 Years!

Happy Anniversary, P. and P!

Love, Bev

18 Today!!!

Happy birthday to you,

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday, Dear Pip,

Happy birthday to you!

Lots of love, Bev XXXXX