Beach:
We went to the beach today for only the second time this year. It was wonderful. Panting’s Beach is nice and sandy. 
We went down and explored the big rocks where there are always tons of crabs, hermit crabs, snails and sometimes seals (although no seals today).
There was a moment when D realised that he was surrounded by “Pinchy Crabs” and had a little cry, but I ran in and whisked him away from the horrible brutes. He was immediately happy again.
There was a couple with two young boys who walked up our way and were trying to take a family picture on the beautiful red rocks. I offered to take the picture as they were having trouble balancing the camera and we talked for a few minutes. There is something about the local folks around here. At one glance, I can usually predict if someone is from here or not. They were not.
On the walk across the beach to go home, we passed a family from Quebec. The type that give Quebecers a bad name. She was smoking on the beach in a tiny bikini. Strangely her skin was not the colour and texture of old leather (Maybe in a few years. We all need goals!). He was huge, fat, poutine filled walrus, but, thankfully, he had left his speed-o at home. Right as I came up beside them, they decided that it would be a good time to make out. The chorus of lip smacking and ooo ummms was na-a-sty!
Bugs:
The bugs are worse than ever this year. It’s difficult to be outside on most days. The kids will not be deterred, however, and they all have bug bites that have been itched into open wounds. B has solved her issue with the itchy bug bites on her legs…. Band-aids!
(Keep in mind you can not see the ones on the back of her legs)
Peacock:
Well, we are down to one last peacock. 
Pride, our big beautiful boy, who was here when we moved in, was mowed down in front of our house last Friday. The person did not stop or even slow down. The whole family was sitting on the couch watching a movie together and having a nice evening together. The movie was nearing the end and the kids were going to be “off to bed” soon when I heard this horrible “CLACK” sort of noise… I turned and saw a champagne coloured SUV fly buy and the peacock roll to a stop. He was a completely intact bag of crushed bones and limpness… All of his tail feathers let go on impact and we scooped them up in a big handful. It’s a bit morbid, but we figured that we might as well keep them. They are all in the garage waiting to be sorted through to make sure there is no carnage on the ends of them and he was summarily scooped into the bottom of our compost bin (hopefully, we won’t get into any trouble for putting a whole animal in there).
So we are down to the last peacock. Pride’s son. B calls him “Glory.” Hopefully, he does not start to taunt the road as he grows older. He has a very unimpressive tail, but has immediately recognised that he is the top bird and has taken over the nightly crying out when he spots danger and peahen courting. He takes this latter very seriously and tries his very best to show off his limit assets to the girls. B says she wants to hatch their eggs, but we are not keen on having another bunch of females. We have six already. B has one that she is working on taming and it eats out of her hand now. The hen will snatch some food and run a safe distance away to eat and then return for more…
The Van:
Our 1998 Caravan died… Well, it was dying and we were starting to look for a new vehicle. It had just reached the age when we were no longer willing to put any money into it, then the transmission cracked… We were stranded here with an ancient truck that could only carry three of us. Not one car was available to rent on the entire island and no baby-sitters were available. We mentioned this to our friends who were visiting and they offered us their van. Normally, I would have said, “No, it’s too much trouble for you, ” etc, but we were stuck. We borrowed their van, packed four kids into it with strict instructions about how the day was going to go and headed out to buy a new one. We went to four dealerships, the bank, the insurance company and then back to the first place we started at. The same day, we returned our friend’s van to her in town and drove home in our 2007 Chevy Uplander with 43, 000Km (26, 700 Miles) on it. So far, so good (it’s been two weeks now).
