All Roads Lead to ROMA!

Buon giorno!

(yes, I had to look that up. I need to work on my Italian.)

This is where we'll be in less than two weeks (eeep!)... the crowded, noisy, ancient beauty of Rome!

We booked our Rome hotel for WAY less than I thought we'd end up spending. Woo hoo! Budgeting! Saving the dough for a couple nice dinners or extra gas money.

This is the Hotel Capitolium. Not your typical hotel entrance, but the rooms look clean and the reviews were excellent.

And what's that right next door, you ask?

That's right....

Woo hoo! A disco sexy! A no limits disco sexy at that.

Oh but it's not all that bad. Let's see what's right across the street.

A cinema?

No, it's a Sexi Movie! Everything is sexy in Rome, baby.

Ah but enough about Rome. This is a rough, rough map of where we're heading...

We spend three nights in Rome before taking the fast train up to Florence (or maybe we'll just go straight to Milan?). Anyway we need to be in Milan for Oct. 15 for the start of the Giro di Lombardia, which leaves from downtown Milan, circles around Lake Como and finishes in the lakeside town of Lecco. This is the last big race on the internatinoal circuit, and Philippe Gilbert won it last year. (Those of you who follow the Tour de France may remember him from this year as the first rider to wear yellow.)

After that, maybe we'll go to Cinque Terre... eventually we'll hop across to Luzern, Switzerland to meet my friend Lisa.

Then it's the speedy train to Paris where we meet up with my sister, Kylie, before booting Cam onto a plane (he's doing two weeks -- I'm staying for three! My sister, on the other hand, is doing six months).

Whew. Can't wait.

Work has been crazy for both of us. We're ready to get on outta here!

And him?

He gets a nice two week vacation at Grandmere's & Grandad's.

Maybe he'll finally learn to hunt?

Oh what a sheddy shed

There's been a little construction going on around these parts...

Pops starting work on the first wall.

Beer & ice water = essential

I missed getting photos of the roof assembly... so this is how it looks today!

I am very proud of my tall sunflower. She's done well.

I'm also proud of the wee tomatoes that are ripening (finally).

Below are a few shots from this weekend, when Mikey, Jill & Isabella came to visit...

Apparently it's very serious business feeding a baby blackberries.

Les fleurs de Maysmith.

Shameless Plug

A blog post about building the new shed in the backyard is in the works! I promise!

Until then, this is a shameless plug for my graphic recording website...

http://www.tanyagadsby.wordpress.com/

I'm really loving this work!

Secret Garden

I've been meaning to post a few photos of our garden. It's been doing alright this year. But I think the garden likes to fool me... last year our one cucumber plant flourished. So this year I planted five of them, but the cucumbers are thumb-sized and shrivelled :(

Tomatoooooes! I love grape tomatoes.

The self-replenishing lettuce aisle.

I planted eight sunflowers. Only one grew.

The two zucchini plants I bought from the Moss Street Market are HUUUGE.

And the basil is also quite plump this year. Good old Basil.

That dead thing in the corner of the fence? Yeah that was once a big rose bush... until we moved it... and he died a slow death. RIP rose bush.

Breakin' the Silence

Hallo! How y'all doin'? We've been fine, although silent for the past month... or more... eeeeeeee....

But here's a quick visual summary of what we've been up to.

Eating al fresco Italian dinners in our lovely backyard garden. (with vino of course!)

Eating al fresco home-cooked meals on the parents' back deck. (with vino of course!)

Tending the garden. Trying not to kill the roses...

Jersey got a haircut. He thinks they took too much off. But it keeps him cool so I told him to keep his mouth shut.

And of course, we've been mountain biking. I joined the Dirty Girlz Club and I've been lovin' learning new skills and meeting like-minded ladies. I actually haven't been on a road ride in a couple weeks!

Cam's been practicing this wicked jump, pictured above. Here's the scary moving picture of the same jump... mothers, cover your eyes.

Today I decided to see how long it would take me to bike out to Hartland, the local mountain bike park (up by the red X). I'm going to have to do it a few times over the next weeks because the women's rides are right after work!

Cam met me up there with the truck and we went for a good ride on the trails.

This is my custom-made laminated map of Hartland... I colour coded the trails so I don't accidentally wander onto scary double black diamond trails.

Today Cam and I wound our way up the Switchbacks to the top... then descended Snakes & Ladders.

Now I'm ready for bed. Goodnight.

Pump Track Madness

On Canada Day, Cam and I hit up the pump track up in North Saanich. It was my first time out, but I had tons of fun. The swoopy hills and corners are great skill-building... and there ain't no roots or tree stumps to catch my wheels! My kinda trails.

This is a wee video we made....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZhvYYaYEm8


:)

Mt. Tzouhalem Adventure

Cameron and I tossed the mountain bikes in the truck and ventured over the Malahat to Duncan yesterday. We headed to Mt. Tzouhalem where a myriad of trails criss-cross through the woods for kilometres.

Cam said there were great easy trails for me to ride.... but after two hours of mostly hiking up the mountain and getting so deep in the woods I wondered if we were lost, we eventually found the easy trails.

But sadly we were both exhausted by then, so only did one quick ride down an easy trail.

Oh well, this kind of thing toughens me up. I just need to get past the "beginner" stage of mountain biking.

The killer view from atop Mt. Tzouhalem.... it doesn't look it, but Cam's feet are dangling over the edge of a few hundred foot drop.