A Rocky Mountain Fairy Tale

Last weekend we left our little island home and set out on a road trip through the Rocky Mountains. Our destination was a wedding in Canmore, Alberta, and after an eventful night in Vancouver with a couple of our favourite people, we drove for 11 hours on a beautifully bright first day of October.

Sadie was amazingly well-behaved, although we did stop in Kamloops to buy a portable DVD player. We made the mistake of allowing her to pick the DVD she wanted though, and now the shrill, inane voices of Strawberry Shortcake and her sugary friends are forever burned into our consciousness. On the way home, we picked up Toy Story and it was a MUCH more pleasant ride. We made the usual road trip stops: coffee breaks, gas stations, diaper changes. We marveled at the mountain vistas and lamented our numb bumbs. We also stopped at the Enchanted Forest because we thought Sadie might enjoy it, and she did...mostly. But.....have any of you ever been there?! It is seriously CREEPY. Allow me to post a photo:

AAGGGHHHHH!!! I KNOW - I WAS NOT AWARE THERE WERE DUCKS AT THE CHERNOBYL DISASTER EITHER.
I will spare you the image of the "Chucky"-like papier mache baby head that is resting at the bottom of the pond outside The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe's Shoe. Intentional?? Or an unfortunate and macabre casualty of molded glued paper left to withstand the elements?
The Enchanted Forest is fairy tales and papier mache gone wrong. Gone horribly, horribly wrong.
But, I give credit to the effort that went - and is still going into - making a "magical" place in the forest for children. But I would highly recommend against the use of ANY form of hallucinogen while visiting. To be on the safe side, I'd stay away from even Gravol.
Wait - come to think of it, you might need that one...

The rest of these photos were taken out the window of our moving vehicle somewhere between Revelstoke and Banff, with the exception of the last two, which were taken at Lake Louise on our way home.

With Thanksgiving coming up this weekend (in Canada), I will be thankful for the sun-drenched colours of Autumn and for this wide open wilderness we had the privilege of passing through.

Merrily, merrily, to Asia we go

I would like to have a giant world map on my wall and stick a coloured pin at every location a Koo & Poppet doll has traveled to.

Yes, I will most definitely do that one day.

Up until this week though, no Koo had ever traveled to any part of Asia.

But a certain Benedict is on his way to a new baby in Shanghai:

And here is strawberry-loving Riana-Chan with her "Summer" bunny in Japan:

(thank you, Ada, for the photo)

In other travel news, GUESS WHO TOOK A TRAIN RIDE ACROSS CANADA?

None other than our beloved "Milly":

(thank you, Darrell, for the photos)

I just about fell off my chair when these photos were sent to me :)

Milly sure gets around.

Okay Scandinavia, your turn.

Wordless Westcoast Weekend

China Beach, Vancouver Island BC

Liam goes spelunking

photo: Michelle Loewen

Can you picture it? Me, sitting at my sewing table, watching a Koo & Poppet thingy come closer to life with every ounce of stuffing, taking a good long look at each one's facial expression before determining an appropriate name. After the naming comes the tricky part: getting their "likes" and "dislikes" just right. In Liam's case, he likes caves and dislikes getting stuck and, in fact, further to that.....

"You read it here first folks, Liam is a serious cave nut. He loves exploring the dark depths of cavernous places. (Well, that's what he told us to write. However, his friends will tell you that the real reason he likes going in caves is because it's a good excuse to wear a headlamp, and Liam thinks headlamps are the bomb)."

Needless to say, these little critters come into being with no shortage of character, even if it only exists in my imagination. So perhaps you can imagine my utter delight when my new friend Michelle, who is also a brilliant photographer, kindly took it upon herself to photograph Liam in his element, headlamp and all.

A photo essay of his entire spelunking adventure (Liam reads maps, who knew?!) lives here on Michelle's blog. Please have a peek and browse through Michelle's portfolio if you're so inclined, I promise you'll be smitten with her work!

:::www.michelleloewen.com:::

Liam's Cave Adventure

Bon nuit, little bunny

Milly gazing out across the streets of Paris

First, Riley traveled to New York, and now Milly has taken up residence in one of my most favourite cities in the world, the unmistakable Paris.

When new mom and talented photographer Carine Tyler sent me this photo, I couldn't quite believe my eyes at first.

"Milly, is that you?? Wait....wait. Full stop. OMG. Milly is that you in PARIS??!?!"
She wears her new city well, by the looks of it.

Whenever I package up one of these little misfits and drop it off at the post office, I imagine the journey that lies ahead: over land (over sea in some cases) and all the points in between. I imagine the small manilla package tossed in a cargo bin, in some random holding place, and then I imagine X-ray vision seeing through the package at the little critter inside.
I imagine the parcel being to delivered to the door of the recipient, and its contents placed in the hands of a little boy or girl.
I imagine this new friend being toted along on trips to the park, the library, the dentist. I wonder if one might ever be left behind, destined to become a stray and lost forever.
But approximately one year ago, around the time that Koo & Poppet came to be, could I ever have imagined that I would receive a photo of one of these bunnies high atop a balcony in Paris, looking in the direction of Sacre-Coeur? Absolutement pas!!!

I hope this doesn't come across as me putting too much importance on these things. Afterall, they are just toys, and they are just things. But it's what these things have come to represent for me. They are a means of connecting with people I've never met (that's you, by the way), a stitch from one place to another, a journey that I would otherwise have never known.

And photos just make my day. Please keep sending them!

Bisou, bisou,
Sarah

Riley does The Big Apple

Could I be more excited about Riley's [mis]adventures in New York City? 

No.

How very Amelie-garden-knomish of you, Riley.

Thank you to Rubeena, Jesse, Kingman, Erin, and baby Brewster-Hunt!

My life as Ring Master of a traveling circus

Ran Away from the Circus by whiteowlpictures

 I would like to take this opportunity to tell a few tales of adventure that have occurred over the last few weeks. Not "Raiders of the Lost Ark" type adventure, more "Adventures in Babysitting" adventure. 

The first involves our new dog, Coco, who came dangerously close to being our "old dog" Coco. We had had her for one week when I took her for a walk around our neighbourhood. I had planned on getting her a dog license that very day, but thought that surely there was no real rush. Mistake number one.

I turned on to a side street (Sadie was in the Ergo baby carrier on my front), and what pulls over on the street but the big white van marked ANIMAL CONTROL. I'd seen this officer in action before - he's a burly French Canadian with a penchant for buggery (always wanted to use that Dr. Evil line). Well, not really - he's tough but fair, and once I explained to him that we'd only just got her and yes, I was on my way to get a license, he let me off with a warning, but wrote me up just the same. 

So on we went, next to the pet store where I ordered Coco a name tag with our phone number on it and also fitted her for a harness, thinking this might be a little more secure then just a collar. Mistake number two. 

We began to head home, but I started to think I might like a coffee. Do I or don't I? I thought. Mmmm, nah. Wait, maybe. Okay, yes. Mistake number three.

I turned in the direction of Starbucks. 

For the first time I found myself in a situation where I needed to tie Coco up somewhere and leave her out of sight briefly. Which I did. And uh, yeah, that'll be big MISTAKE NUMBER FOUR.

As I was ordering my coffee, someone pounced on me from behind. It turned out to be one of my oldest friends, Nicole, whom I had just been with earlier that day. We laughed at the coincidence and planned to sit down together. "I'm just going to go check on Coco" I said.

Next thing I know, a frantic girl is bursting through the doors of Starbucks going WHO OWNS A WHITE DOG?! IT JUST BOLTED DOWN FORT STREET! 

People. Fort Street in Victoria is the Toronto equivalent of, oh, say Queen. The Vancouver equivalent of West Fourth, the San Francisco equivalent of Powell (minus the cable cars). Point being, it's busy. And it is one thing if a Golden Retriever gets loose and heads up the street. It is another thing entirely if a young, terrified Whippet gets loose and takes off like a bat out of hell. 

My heart sank instantly. I was sure she was a goner, she had no identification on her. Goose: cooked.

The following 10 minutes or so is pretty blurry. By some grace of God Nicole was with me, delegating search parties and declaring an ALL POINTS BULLETIN. Witnesses said Coco scrambled out of her harness and was acting erratically. There were reports of a shady character possibly letting her loose (this of course was a rumor - the fact of the matter is that she was one crazed Whippet.)

My husband left work and joined the search. Two other friends jumped in their cars and began searching for a needle in a haystack. At one point the three vehicles all converged at one intersection. 

I was devastated. I couldn't believe I'd just lost my dog after one week. I'll never get another pet again, I vowed. I imagined her getting hit by a car or worse, going into hiding and spending the next few nights cold and shivering, eventually starving to death or being eaten by some animal braver than she, like a German Shepard or a cat. 

As fate would have it, I found myself dialing the number of the burly French Canadian Animal Control Officer who had stopped my not 40 minutes earlier. I also called the SPCA in the event that someone picked her up and recognized she was someone's pet and turned her in. Then I walked home retracing my steps, hoping for an Incredible Journey miracle. I ran into my dad along the way who was also driving the streets, searching.

As I approached a park near our house, I saw a man with a spindly white dog in the distance. Gasp! Coco? COCO!!!! I began running toward them, a sleeping Sadie bouncing up and down in her carrier. COCO??!!? No. A white greyhound. Defeat. And then "WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?" two little girls on their bikes witnessing a crazy person. 

FYI, thank goodness Sadie was a little angel through all of this and remained asleep. In all the chaos, if she had woken up and started crying in the carrier, I think I would have laid down on the sidewalk and asked Nicole to please ADMIT ME. 

So anyway, I turned on to our street and in the distance saw Nicole, who had since gone home to change out of her heels and into some athletic gear appropriate for lost-dog searching. God love her. She began running toward me. THEY'VE GOT HER, THEY'VE GOT HER.

"ALIVE???" I asked.

That very same Animal Control Officer had picked her up and taken her to the pound. The rest of the story needs no telling, she is now safe and sound back home with us, no worse the wear. Coco, we're so glad you're still with us. 

The second adventure story will have to wait, as this entry has proven long. But reserve your seats, ladies and gentlemen, the Circus is coming to town.....