Weddings & Community Events

This weekend our grandson was in a wedding, and though there will have been many good professional pictures taken, I had to get him in his little suit.  I tried... but he's a bit of a blur unless someone is hanging onto him, so I'll use the one with Bestefar...

Along with a community-wide garage sale this weekend, our local garden centre also had a petting zoo & hot dog day.  Since none of us have animals, this was novel for the grandkids, and they loved the close encounters with the animals they generally only read about.  

Annika is so quick to grab at glasses or earrings, and has an iron grip, so I was rather wary with allowing her to touch the chicks and kittens. But she touched them very gently, and was all smiles at the sight and feel of them.

Haley waited patiently in line for her face to be painted.  She knew exactly what she wanted - a flower on both sides - and sat very still until it was all done.

Annika's gentleness with the little animals wasn't as evident here, but this older dog wasn't at all perturbed about having his fur pulled by an enthusiastic little girl.

The craft Haley made... 

A horseback ride!

Snake Pits

The Narcisse Snake Pits in Manitoba are famous... apparently.  

This is from Wikipedia:  "The Narcisse Snake Pits are located six kilometers north of Narcisse, Manitoba. The dens are the winter home of tens of thousands of Red-sided Garter Snakes ..."

I had heard of them, but I'll admit they weren't on my bucket list.  Still, when my son-in-law suggested we go to their cottage for a wiener roast and then head up to the snake pits to celebrate my birthday, I didn't hesitate.  "Sure, let's go!"  My hubby was a bit less enthusiastic.  Granted, where he grew up, the most common snake was poisonous, and he grew up 'respecting' them, as he likes to say.  But I reminded him that this was my birthday, not his, and I was choosing to go.  The idea of spending the day with our kids and grandkids is enough incentive for both of us, and he came along without any complaints.

There aren't many weekends of the year when the snakes are this visible and active.  In fact, after mating season they will slither off to other locations.  Then in the fall, all but the youngest will be back to winter here.  But what we were observing here, were mating rituals.  Apparently each pile we saw would have 1 female and up to 100 male snakes.  It really was quite fascinating.  We couldn't go down into the pits... they are fenced off to protect the snakes, but there are enough of the garter snakes slithering in the grass, that if anyone wanted to hold one, they could conceivably catch one.  We were warned though, if they didn't want to be caught, you might just get peed on!  And yes, that happened.

After a few lessons from her dad, my granddaughter happily (and gently) held a few of her own.  I suspect she thought they'd be pretty good pets, but she also let them go when it was time to do so.  I will admit that she showed less fear than either of her grandparents!  

Note: The pictures of the snakes are mine.  If I were to post my hubby's pictures, you'd see a large parking lot, full of vehicles.  He was just so shocked that so many people would drive that far to see snakes!