Moving

Hello, everyone. This is Josefina. I haven't written a blog entry in awhile - you guys may have forgotten about me. ;-)

We wanted to let you know that next month, we're going to be moving. We're going to be leaving Newfoundland and heading to the southern United States. In some ways this was a really tough decision for our family, but we think it's going to be for the best.

We still plan to blog in our new home! However, there may be a delay in getting any posts done when we're busy with moving our household and getting everything set up on the other end.

In the meantime, we'll still be around. We just wanted to give you some advance warning, so we aren't springing this on our friends. :-)

Love,
Josefina

Victoria Day, or Something Completely Different

Hello, everyone. This is Cécile, and this blog entry will be rather a change of pace from the serious entries we've been writing lately. This weekend was the Victoria Day holiday here in Canada, which also coincided with the Newfoundland Steampunk Society's one year anniversary since founding. To celebrate, the Steampunk Society had a picnic in Victoria Park. 

Blakeney has been working on a steampunk costume for us girls, and she wanted one of us to come with her to model it. I was most excited about going, so the other girls graciously allowed me to be the one to attend the picnic and wear the outfit! I had a wonderful time. 

We thought our blog friends might be interested in seeing some pictures of our outing and what I wore. The costume is very much a work in progress - the goggles on my head are particularly makeshift - but you should be able to get a decent idea of how the finished product will look.

Blakeney's friend Brent took the pictures with his fancy new camera, but he gave us permission to post and share them.

Enjoy!

Love,
Cécé

P.S. I also made a new friend! I posed for some pictures with her, and when she sends them to Blakeney, I will post those too.

Florida Trip Part Two, and a Mysterious Gifts Update

"They say America is beautiful,

And I sure hope they're right.

If I could see you across the water

I'd say 'America is beautiful tonight'..."

-Great Big Sea, "Yankee Sailor"

Hello, blog friends! This is Summer! Well, all good things must come to an end... including our trip to Florida. Now we're back in Newfoundland, and back in our winter coats - today we even had a snowstorm. Very different from our time in the sun. Maybe we can make ourselves feel warmer by reliving it.

So, when we left off, it was Tuesday. On Wednesday, we went to a little town called Tarpon Springs. The family went there last year, too. It's a little community by the water, originally mostly Greek. It was founded on the sponge diving industry, and when the town first started, people would regularly go out in their diving suits with their forks and collect sponges. Nowadays the main industry is tourism, but boats still go out - even sponge diving tours. We ate seafood overlooking the water, then walked around looking at the shops. Blakeney bought an evil eye (good luck charm) suncatcher for the house.

On Thursday, we went to the beach again. We spent some time walking the trails at the park, then cooked chicken on the grill for lunch. After lunch, we went swimming in the ocean.

Friday, we went to a museum for a change of pace, to avoid spending a lot of time in the sun every day. They had buildings from different times in Florida's history, including a school house, a home, a church, a citrus packing plant, a general store, a train depot and locomotive engine, and a barn full of old farm vehicles and carriages. It was really neat! Our only regret was that a lot of the stuff wasn't labeled, so sometimes it was hard to tell what was what. Some things were just obvious, though... and some things Cécile and Marie-Grace explained to us, because it was from their time. It was interesting to see those girls in a setting where they just fit in, rather than as fish out of water in modern times the way we're used to seeing them.

Saturday we rented kayaks and took them out into the channels and mangrove areas near the condo where we stayed. It was really fun. We got to see a lot of birds, a lot of cool mangrove trees, and a variety of houses and boats along the channels. One heron let us get really close, then flew right over our heads screeching. After four and a half hours paddling around, we were pretty tired, and Blakeney had a terrible sunburn, especially on her knees and hands. (We've never seen a sunburn that was purple before.) We had a really good time, though, and were glad we went!

On Sunday, some of us went to the local Anglican church. We didn't have time to go to the beach that day, so we went swimming in the pool. Then in the evening, we went to a Greek restaurant, where we had flaming cheese (They really set it on fire! "Opa!") and smelts (little fish) for our appetizers, then bowls of lemon chicken soup for our meal. The entertainment was a belly dancer, which was really fun. Most of the audience were kind of wet blankets, but we got up and danced with her! It was a cool show and a fun evening.

Monday was our last full day in Florida, because on Tuesday we would leave in the early afternoon. We went to the beach again... and that was where we got some unexpected insight into our mysterious gift giver who has been sending our resident vampires stuff to protect them against the sun.

While we were in the water, a girl we didn't know was swimming nearby. She looked somewhere between my age and Josefina's, so like in the 12-14 range. We never found out for sure... and we didn't even learn her name, even though we spent a couple of hours with her! Every time someone was about to ask her about herself, she would change the subject or be too far away to hear the question. All of us figured that someone else had managed to ask, but when we talked about it later, no one had.

She seemed nice, though, and we had fun talking and swimming with her. We figured we'd just made a nice vacation acquaintance, and didn't think any more of it than that... until Tabitha's necklace got caught in her hair and unclasped. Although we're trying to save the vampire sun protection liquid to make it last as long as possible, all four of the vampires took some when we went swimming, for exactly that reason; a necklace could get lost in the water, and that could lead to vampire-on-fire consequences. So none of us panicked when it fell off, because it landed in the shallow water where we could still see it, and we knew Tabs would still be protected.

This new girl did not know that... but she knew Tabitha needed to be protected from the sun, because she ducked toward her trying to save her. When Tabitha didn't catch on fire, the girl looked embarrassed, and said as if to herself, "Oh good, you planned ahead." Before we could ask how she knew about that, she was swimming off in a different direction again.

We were going to invite her to go to the restaurant for supper with us, but at some point she just slipped off when no one was paying attention. It was very mysterious and odd. We wondered if she was the person who sent the presents - and now we're sure she was. After she'd gone, when we went back to our beach chairs, we found another bottle of 'vampire sunscreen' in our bag, with another note that said, "I thought you could use a refill, with the weather we've been having."

So now we know who sent us the gifts. We just don't know who she is, or how she knows about us, or why she cares what happens to us.

On Tuesday, we reluctantly said our goodbyes to Florida. We went out for breakfast at Cracker Barrel, then headed to the Tampa airport. Our trip home didn't go as expected, though. Before our final flight, the airline rep announced that the weather conditions in Newfoundland were such that they couldn't take a full flight. (I think it was too windy.) Some passengers would have to get off - and in exchange, we'd get a free hotel room, free food, and a $500 travel voucher per person for future trips. That was too good for our family to pass up! So we gave up our seats - and lightened the load considerably - and spent an unexpected night in Newark. We got home a day late, but it was worth it, because now it'll be easier to afford another vacation.

So that's how our trip went! With the snow falling outside, it was nice to relive sunny memories from our trip! :-)

Love,
Summer

After the Storm

Hi, this is Kaya. I realize the post title probably seems like an overblown metaphor, but it isn't... there was a literal storm. It started around midnight last night with ice pellets and high wind, then it turned into a blizzard by early morning. Before long the roads were covered, and we were snowed in. There was no school for anyone today, and most of the non-vital businesses were closed, because the city officials wanted as many people off the road as possible so they could just send the plows through without anyone in the way.

We were all home, and we enjoyed an unexpected break and playing in the snow. Afterward we came in for hot chocolate (for the non-vampires, at least) and plopped down in front of the television to watch the local news. Maybe it's geeky, but when we have a big storm, we always find it interesting to see on the news what other areas of town look like all covered in snow, because we won't get out to see it in person.

They showed footage of a few different parts of town, then they cut to a shot of the reporter standing in front of Gia's apartment complex. Apparently during the storm, some limbs had come off the nearby trees and broken windows in a number of the ground-floor apartments, letting in a bunch of snow.

We didn't mean to snoop on Gia. We honestly and truly didn't. 

We were trying to help - since we didn't know when she'd be getting back from her sudden trip to Italy, we didn't want her to return to a ruined apartment. Maia has a key to her place, and since as far as we knew she wasn't home, we decided to go check on her apartment and make sure it wasn't her window panes that were broken. If it was, we would clear out the snow and the debris and put boards over the windows like the other tenants were doing, so her place wouldn't be totally wrecked before the building super got a chance to fix it.

By this point the roads were pretty well clear but there wasn't much traffic, so we walked over and let ourselves in with Maia's key. The windows weren't broken.

And Gia wasn't in Italy...

We hadn't even thought to question whether she'd really left or not. When we tried phoning and knocking on the door, there was no answer. She had told her boss that she was leaving the country for an undefined absence. Maybe we're naive, but we just assumed she was actually gone.

Gia was in the apartment, huddled in a nest of blankets in the corner of the living room, between the arm of the couch and the wall. She was shaking like she was cold, but the heat was turned all the way up, and she was burning up with a fever. We eventually talked her into letting us look at the bite injury on her arm, and it seemed a lot worse. It was swollen and looked infected. 

She wouldn't tell us what was going on, though - she only answered our questions with a nod or a shake of the head if at all. She refused to let us take her to see a doctor. Fortunately, Gia did agree to come stay with us until she's feeling better, though. We couldn't have forced her, but I couldn't imagine leaving her alone and sick in her empty apartment.

Kiwi and I helped her up the porch steps and into the house. Clare took one look at Gia, and hissed at her. We all stopped what we were doing and froze, shocked.

I've never heard Clare hiss before. Now, Tabitha does that stuff all the time. (Sorry, Tabs, but you do!) Practically whenever she gets frustrated or irritated, or feels remotely threatened, Tabitha will hiss or growl or snarl. It's a new-vampire thing, and Inna says she'll "grow out of it." Clare has been a vampire for over a year now, and she's mostly over those animal-like reactions.

"What was that?" I asked Clare quietly.

Clare shrugged, clearly embarrassed. "I don't know," she said. "I just lost it for a minute. Something about her... I don't know. It's probably nothing."

Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but I think it must have something to do with Gia's illness. A couple of days ago Gia played games with us, and Clare seemed to have a good time. There was no hissing. Not even any sign of discomfort. The only thing I can think of that has changed are the bite and the fact Gia is sick. Something about that has to have triggered a vampire reaction in Clare.

I'm not sure what will happen now. Gia is sleeping on the couch. Most of us kind of hovering, especially Maia - but Clare and Tabitha are giving her a wide berth, and neither of them can explain why. Marie-Grace and Cécile don't seem to be having a problem, for some reason.

I wonder what's going on? Hopefully when Gia gets better, things will go back to normal.

Love,

Kaya

Snow Day!

Hi, fellow bloggers! This is Summer. Summer in the winter! Har har! ;-)

(Wow, my little cartoon thing looks cold in a t-shirt, capris, and sandals!)

Anyway, we've told you this before, but today is not a holiday in Canada. We celebrate Thanksgiving in October, so today is just a Thursday for us. Today turned out to be unusual, though, because we got the first big snowstorm of the season. Not the first snowfall - that was a couple of weeks ago - but the first real storm that changed the daily routine. That's unusual for East Coast Newfoundland. We get a lot of snow, but normally our big bad weather is from January to May, not in November.

Because of the storm, we had a snowday today! It snowed on and off most of the day, and the sky was really cloudy, grey, and overcast. Being off school for weather was really surprising this early in the year, but it was fun. We got up at the normal time to read the school closings online, then got to go back to bed so we could sleep in. Then we got up, got dressed, had breakfast... and there was a knock on the door.

It turned out to be Cécile and Marie-Grace. Kaya had been worried they'd never talk to us again after Tabitha's issues last night, but apparently they still want to be our friends. Yay! They didn't come in the house this time - I think they didn't want to upset Tabitha again - but they asked if we wanted to go sledding in the park. The older girls had already gone out for a snowball fight with their friends, but Kaya, Fiona, Kiwi, Charissa, Evelyn, Molly, and I went with them, and we had a really good time tackling the "slopes." Our city is very hilly, so it's a great place to sled.

Cécile and Marie-Grace were wearing dresses as usual, but we were worried they would get cold, so we lent them some sweatpants to wear underneath. It looked a little silly, but everyone dresses in layers when there's a lot of snow, so they actually probably got fewer looks than usual. They didn't seem to have any trouble sledding in their skirts; I guess they're used to doing stuff dressed that way, even though they're still getting used to planning for how cold it gets here. (I was born in Toronto and I've always lived in Canada, so I'm used to it.)

When were done sledding, I taught the other girls some yoga. They fell over a lot - although the ballet girls and Kiwi with her gymnastics had an obvious edge - so I was glad I had thought to use the snow as cushioning. I'm not sure how much they really learned, but I think they enjoyed it. Then we built snow animals and made snow angels.

We had a great time, and laughed a lot. I'm glad Kaya and Fiona decided to invite the girls over yesterday, because now we can all be friends with them. I probably never would have met them otherwise because I don't take dance. We said goodbye to Cécile and Marie-Grace at the end of their driveway. (They live right next door to a creepy abandoned house... I wonder if they know any good ghost stories about it?) Then the rest of us headed home. It's fun to have new friends who only live two streets down from us. Once Nutcracker is over and the girls don't have so many rehearsals to go to, we're going to hang out more.

I'm so glad my family moved to this city! I wasn't sure about it at first... but now I've met so many great people. I feel really happy here, and very much at home. :-)

Love,
Summer

Hurricane Update

Hi, this is Bree. :-)

I've never experienced a hurricane before. I've never lived anywhere that hurricanes would be an issue. So when I heard Irene might be headed our way, I was really nervous. I wasn't here last year for Hurricane Igor, but the other girls told me the stories, and it sounded pretty scary.

Of course, hurricanes here aren't normally like Igor. Normally it's just a little extra wind and rain when hurricanes hit Newfoundland. They tried to reassure me, but I was still really worried. Irene sounded like it could be very frightening.

I like storms, actually. They're pretty and interesting.

But I don't like mortal danger.

We've gotten about as much Irene as we're going to get, though, and we are definitely not in danger, mortal or otherwise. The air feels very heavy and humid, like breathing into a blanket... but that's about it. Earlier the sky was overcast (now it's dark because it's night) and it's been spitting rain on and off. The wind is audible, but that's common in Newfoundland and it doesn't seem heavier than usual. It seems like the worst of what remains of Irene will pass us by to the west; the western portions of the island are getting more rain and stuff. We may get rain the next couple of days... but we might have anyway, this time of year.

So - no hurricane danger for Bree! Yay! I admit a tiny feeling of letdown, though, that I got myself all psyched up to be brave and heroic and nothing happened. I'd rather have it that way than be in real peril, though.

Hope the rest of you East Coasters are safe, too! Please don't think I'm too much of a coward that I'm still getting used to this.

Love,
Bree

Just in Case

Hey everyone! We're getting prepared for Hurricane Irene, just in case. It's not supposed to be too bad here, probably just wind and rain, but we're being cautious.

Normally hurricanes peter out naturally before they get to Newfoundland because we're so far north. It's unusual that we get more than a day or two of icky weather as a result of one.

Then last year, Hurricane Igor happened...

(We didn't take these pictures, they're from various news sources.)

Now we take it more seriously, and we don't assume hurricanes are going to be nothing.

We're filling up bottles of water, and we're going to the store for some extra food just in case. We have candles and matches because we tend to lose power a lot, especially in storms. Mostly we're just hoping for the best.

How about our blog friends in other East Coast areas... are you guys safe? Are you stocked up on supplies? Is Hurricane Irene supposed to cause much trouble where you live? Hope you will all be alright!

Love,
The Greens and The Roses

Blueberry Festival

Yesterday we went on a trip to a little town called Brigus for the annual Blueberry Festival. We were hoping to get there in time to see them cut the three-foot blueberry pie (and eat some of it) but we didn't make it because we got stuck in festival traffic. It's amazing how many people were there!

We still had a lot of fun, though. We walked around and played games - once again Bree kicked butt, she's great at games - and ate food. We got to watch this machine that made mini doughnuts, and the doughnuts tasted great with cinnamon and sugar. We also had moose burgers, hot dogs, and fries/chips.

There were a lot of craft stands as well as food stalls. Blakeney bought some homemade jam, and got us a blueberry pie to take home to make up for missing the big one. We had it this afternoon and it was delicious!

They had bands playing the whole time, and they were really good. It was mostly Irish/Newfoundland music, with a few covers thrown in.

The place was really crowded, considering how late we got there. Apparently there was a great turnout overall. The woman at the food stall where we ate said they had sold 3,700 moose burgers over the course of the festival. (Which is a lot even if some people ate more than one, when you consider that there were other food options too.) The town was probably really happy about how many people wanted to come.

It was a great time - real Newfoundland summer fun!

There was only one downside to the day. When we got back, the Roses' window was broken and their alarm system was going off. No one was in the house, and nothing was taken. They called the police just in case but there wasn't really much that could be done. Hopefully it was just an accident/coincidence. Maia and Inna are kind of worried. They put that aside to join us for the pie, though. Hopefully it's nothing serious.

Love,
The Green Girls

A Good Day

Today was a really fun one for us. We (Greens and Roses) got up pretty early in the morning (that isn't the fun part, bear with us) and  went outside the city for a hike along the coast. We packed lunches, and covered a lot of distance. It was beautiful!

Unfortunately our camera is still borked, but we have some pictures from when we did the same hike before, so hopefully that will suffice. The main difference from today is that the weather then was sunny, and today was overcast and not very warm. That was good in two ways, though - for one thing, we didn't get too hot hiking, and for another, Clare got to go. (She's been able to do a lot of stuff with us this summer. I think it's a nice change for her; she kind of got used to not being involved in much because of the sunlight thing.) No sign of the meanie vampires.

After we were done hiking, we went for ice cream. It was a great end to the day. Now we're pretty exhausted, but we had a really fun time! It was a nice break from the stress.

Love,
The Green Girls

Pictures are under the cut, if you're currently on our main page:

Evil Vampire Hunters Defeated by Traffic Court

"Uh, are we gonna fight, or is there just gonna be a monster sarcasm rally?" - A Vampire in Buffy Episode "The Freshman"

We haven't really said much about the car accident about two weeks ago, when Bree, Kirsten, and their driver's ed teacher were involved in a hit-and-run by the people who are after Clare. Bree and Kirsten are getting over how scary the accident was, and Clare is getting over feeling guilty over the fact the girls were involved because we took her in. Other than that, we haven't said anything because there hasn't really been anything more to report, on our end.

The police's end is another story. Ever since the girls made a police report, the constabulary has been trying to track down the people who hit their car. Our city doesn't have a lot of crime for an urban area, but our police force is really good. Eventually, they figured out who was involved. Today Kirsten and Bree had to go to court to testify about what happened. (Leaving out the part about vampires, of course.)

Turns out? Leaving the scene of an accident is a crime. So are obstruction of justice and evading the police, which apparently have happened in the meantime. The scary vampire hunters will be doing some jail time. They'll all be deported subsequently, and won't be able to return to Canada for a prescribed length of time. If they can't get into the country legally, it'll be a lot harder for them to come after our friendly local vampire.

So... for now, Clare is safe. Eventually they'll probably find a way to come back, it they're so inclined; Canada and the US have the longest undefended border in the world, and it's not impossible to sneak in. It'll be more difficult for them, though, and maybe they'll just give up.

Funny (but in a good and very relieving way!) that the mean vampire hunters were fought off not with violence, but with the consequences of a traffic offence! :-)

Love,
The Green Girls

Happy Canada Day! And a conversation with Maia

Hi, this is Felicity. :-)

Happy Canada Day, to all our fellow Canadian friends! (And to those who aren't, hope you had a good day anyway.) Today we celebrate when Canada became a country in 1867, although not all of the provinces joined till later. Ours didn't join till 1949, as the 10th province.

As we've mentioned before, because of this there's some tension about whether today is Memorial Day - as was traditionally celebrated July 1st before joining Canada - or Canada Day. Older people are still alive who remember not being part of Canada, and younger people don't. There's sometimes some awkwardness about whether this is a holiday of solemn remembrance or happy patriotic celebration. Many people do both.

That's what we did. We went to a Memorial Day service at the war memorial this morning, and just now we had a barbecue for supper. Once the sun sets - very late, this time of year this far north - we'll go to one of the city parks to watch fireworks over the lake. It's a fun holiday!

Today was sunny and warm, so Clare had to stay inside. She's still here, by the way, and we're glad. She seems to be getting more comfortable. I think she thought we were just going to ditch anyway if things got bad, but when we fought/helped her run from those other vampires, I think she figured out we aren't fickle like that. We felt bad that she couldn't join us for the barbecue, but our family and our neighbours were in and out of both houses all evening, so she had plenty of company. Since the fireworks are after dark, I think she's going to go.

Yesterday was not sunny. The sky was dark grey all day, and for most of it the fog was so thick that you couldn't even see the headlights of the cars. Until recently, we would have just thought mean thoughts about how we should get a real summer, but now we can't help but think... good day for vampires. And it was. Inna said she saw the ones from the park sniffing around their shed and ours. Like literally, sniffing. Weird. They didn't try to attack, though.

Since we've been having these discussions with Inna, we've started wondering more about their family, but it's hard to know how to ask them. So, do you have connections to creatures of the night and the walking dead? Not so much a good way to start a friendly chat.

We did find some things out from Maia - one of the two adult sisters next door, along with Inna - at the barbecue tonight, though. I noticed she was kind of by herself, so I sat down and asked her about their lives. She's pretty quiet, so I didn't know much about her before, just that her parents were from Rwanda but she was born in Canada (thus the North American name) and she's a math teacher at Fiona and Evelyn's school. Maia is still pretty shy, but she wasn't reluctant to talk; I think she just feels weird starting conversations about herself, but she'll respond if you ask.

It turns out their family started from foster care, too. Maia's parents were killed in a car crash when she was young, and they hadn't been in Canada very long so they didn't have any relatives or friends to take her in, so Maia grew up as a foster kid. (Some of my sisters can relate to that!) In the last foster home where she stayed before she aged out of the system, she met Summer and Kiwi, and the three of them got to be really close. So once Maia was an adult, she applied for and was granted custody of them. Because they had been sisters in the foster home, it made sense to keep that relationship - it would be weird if they suddenly had to start thinking of her as Mom. Inna came along later... I'm not sure how long, though, or how they decided to make her part of their family, because the food was ready and the conversation got interrupted. I have to admit I was kind of surprised; I had assumed Maia and Inna were there first because they're oldest, but I was wrong.

When we went to grab our plates, Maia said, "We'll talk more later, okay?" So hopefully before long, we'll know more of the story.

Love,
Felicity

Hey, remember the sun?

Missing: The Bright Thing in the sky

Last seen: Last weekend

Appearance: Lots of light, hard to look at directly, causes spots in vision

Date of birth: Quite awhile ago

Reward offered: Making nine Greens very happy

The weather here has not been cheerful. It's been misty, chilly, and dark. 

We miss the sun! It's June! I guess that's what you get when you live in the far north. It's nice that the days have gotten longer, and there's no more snow. Still, we'll be happy when it feels like summer! Or at the very least when we don't have to post a missing poster for the sun.

How about our blog friends? What's the weather like where you are?

Love,

Charissa :-)

Went Camping! :-)

Hi everyone! This is Kirsten, Bree, and Felicity. We didn't get to post from our camping trip like we expected, in spite of the novelty of a campground with internet access - we were just too busy having fun.

Bree had never been camping in Newfoundland before, so she decided to do some internet research to find out what to expect from the great outdoors in our province. She found a link about black bears. Now, black bears are not common in Newfoundland, especially within any proximity to the city. Somehow that website interpreted this as basically, "If you venture into the woods, black bears will kill you." None of us have ever seen a black bear, but poor Bree spent the entire weekend looking over her shoulder for bears. ;-)

We did see a moose, though! They're very large and not very smart, so they can be aggressive. Luckily this one was just grazing and didn't want to bother us.

We slept in a tent, cooked our meals on a charcoal grill or over the campfire, went hiking a lot, went climbing on some rocks, and told ghost stories and roasted marshmallows after dark. You know, the usual camping stuff.

It was fun! We're glad to be home, though... with lots of laundry to do, but oh well. Camping is popular here so we'll probably go several times between now and the fall. Next time, hopefully we can all go, because our younger sisters are jealous!

Today was the official Victoria Day - May 24th. In honour of that, and in honour of our camping trip, a little joking video from "Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers" about the Victoria Day weekend activities.

Hope everyone else had a nice weekend too... whether or not you went camping!

Love,
Kirsten, Bree, and Felicity

Happy Victoria Day!

Well, Victoria Day weekend, at least. The actual Victoria Day is May 24th. (Queen Victoria's birthday.) This is a long weekend holiday for us.

Kirsten, Bree, and Felicity are going camping with one of their friends' families - believe it or not, their campground has internet access, so they may stop by and say hi. The rest of us are having a barbecue in the backyard tomorrow; our neighbours are going to join us. No school for anyone on Monday! Should be fun.

If you know much about the history of our province, you may be wondering why we celebrate Victoria Day...

Yeah, Canada recognizes the British monarchy as ours also, but Newfoundlanders have in general had pretty mixed feelings about the royals ever since World War I, when an entire generation of young men was lost, poorly equipped and trained and basically used as cannon fodder. Newfoundland didn't become part of Canada until the late 1940's; it was British till then, and loyalty to the then-king provided a major incentive for men and boys to join the army in the first world war. So it seemed like a betrayal, not just a military defeat, when so many died needlessly because they were considered expendable.

For a pithy but accurate explanation of this, Great Big Sea has addressed it in a couple of songs. For the history, see "Recruiting Sergeant."  Then the more modern view is summed up in another song, "Over the Hills." Specifically the "The queen has called and we obey"/"We owe the crown and now we'll pay..." lines.

Recruiting Sergeant song and Lyrics

Most references in the song should be clear, but the CLB is the Church Lads' Brigade, an organization for boys age 4 to 21. It's sort of like cross between Boy Scouts and religious ROTC. "The stone men on Water Street" describes a war memorial that has become a major local landmark.

Over the Hills (really terrible sound quality, sorry!) or Sample (higher quality but a short section) and Lyrics

So why do we celebrate Victoria Day? From what we understand... mainly as an excuse for a holiday! It's seen as the end of the long winter, and most people will either go camping or at the very least spend some time outdoors. Hopefully no more snow. We'll be enjoying our long weekend!

Love,
The Green Girls

Summer Plans

One of the posters on AGPT asked a really good question: Are people's girls going to summer camp?

Blakeney realized, then, that she had not made any summer plans for us! She didn't really think about it because it sure doesn't feel like summer here. (It snowed a little last night and it's supposed to in the morning, too.) Now she's been scrambling to find activities we will all enjoy.

Kirsten is doing a Model UN "seminar" which she says is totally different from day camp, because day camp is for little kids and this is "serious." She'll be learning about politics and doing simulations about diplomacy and current events. Right up her alley!

Felicity, Bree, and Josefina are all going to workshops sponsored by the local public library. Felicity and Bree are going for writing, while Josefina will be doing photography.

Molly is of course going to an art camp the provincial museum is running. She goes there every year, and she says it's always fun.

Kaya's taking some dance workshops over the summer, but she's also going to attend an environmental science day program with Parks Canada.

Fiona, Charissa, and Evelyn have all decided to go to sleep away camp! And they're the youngest! That seems so brave. The camp is mainly the "traditional" kind: hiking, swimming, campfires and ghost stories, learning about nature, doing crafts... that sort of thing. They're going for two weeks, though, and for one of those weeks they're supposed to pick a "major" - meaning something to concentrate on and learn more about. Charissa chose sports and athletics, Fiona chose drama, and Evelyn of course chose horses. Sounds like fun!

All of us will of course be going on several camping trips during the summer - as a family and with our friends. That's a very popular activity in our province, and it's common for girls our age. It would be weird for us to spend the whole summer in the city! There are lots of great provincial parks within a fairly short distance, and we like to visit them, go for hikes, and sleep in our tent.

We still have months to go before summer. Now we have something to look forward to, though! :-)

Love,

The Green (and excited for summer!) Girls


P.S. Blakeney said when she gets paid WE CAN GET A DOG! She's going soft in her old age. (Just kidding, Blakeney!) We're so excited! :-)

Off to a bad start...

"But the notes are sour,

Where is the power

You once had to ignite the air...?" -Rent

Today was off to a bad start.

The start of the start was that the power kept going off in the late night/early morning. It was really windy, so that's probably why - although a lot of times it just seems random when it goes out.

The first two times, we knew it... oh how we knew it... because when it came back on the central vac roared, the TV came on and started blaring the cable help channel, and the alarm system started going crazy. Impossible to miss. So we would get up and stumble sleepily to calm the racket, and go back to bed.

Even with that, it wouldn't have been a restful night. And yet somehow, the third time the power went out and came back on, it did so completely silently. (Or maybe we just slept through the roar because we were so tired after the first two.) So we slept peacefully, oblivious.

Once we woke up, we had no idea what time it actually was. Blakeney checked the time on her Nook reader and discovered we had badly overslept. So instead of a nice morning, we all rushed around.

Kirsten was late for a math test in her first class (which she may or may not have watched The Vampire Diaries instead of studying for, so maybe it didn't matter so much.) Bree didn't miss anything major but she was really embarrassed to do the late-for-school walk of shame, and her teacher was really sarcastic about it. Felicity and Josefina missed their bus and their transfer, so they were even later and missed their whole first class. Evelyn was grumpy all day because she didn't eat enough breakfast - and probably also because her arm is in a cast. Charissa forgot her homework in the ruckus and got in trouble. Poor Fiona had this happen on only her second day of her new school!

Not the most auspicious day, to say the least. Now the internet is having problems, to top it off.

Hopefully we'll have time (and improved internet connection) to post the interview we've been working on. We asked Fiona some questions, and if all goes well, we'll be revealing her answers tonight.

Love,
The Green Girls

Powerless...

Hehehe, I couldn't resist the melodramatic title! :-)

This is Kirsten. Our planned blog post didn't happen tonight because our power went out for a couple of hours.

It wasn't storming, or unusually windy, or anything. It just went out randomly. That happens now and then. We think maybe our neighbourhood has faulty wiring, because the power was out all up and down our street, like it does every couple of months.

It was really dark, because we have a downstairs apartment so there wasn't any moonlight coming in. When the lights first went out and our vision was adjusting, I accidentally elbowed Bree in the eye; she was very forgiving. We read books by candlelight, and chatted. When we had to go to the bathroom we took the little light Blakeney uses for her e-book reader, and it was kind of creepy with that pale little glow shining on the mirror. Our eyes got really tired from being in the dark, and it got cold because the heat was off, so we took the covers from our beds, gave up on reading, and just talked.

It was kind of an adventure, I guess.

Love,
Kirsten
No longer in the dark!

Birthday Ideas?

Hi Everyone! This is Kaya. :-)

While we were in Florida, a certain sister named Bree let slip that she has a birthday next weekend. She seemed embarrassed about bringing it up, and I think she wouldn't have even said anything except that she'll be sixteen and she wants to start taking drivers ed with Kirsten.

Obviously we want to do something to celebrate!

The question is, what should we do? Normally we'd have a party, but she doesn't really know anyone here yet besides us. Bree is not exactly a social butterfly, so filling the house with strangers next week seems like it would potentially be really awkward. We want her to have fun, not be uncomfortable and have to socialize with a bunch of people she's barely acquainted with. It would be nice if we could find something that would work for just our family.

So, dear readers - do you have any suggestions for an activity? There will probably still be snow on the ground and it will definitely be grey sky and cold, so an outdoor thing is probably not going to work. Otherwise we are open to ideas!

Love,
Kaya
Whose days may be numbered, probably soon to be murdered by Bree for revealing her upcoming birthday to the world ;-)

Not Much New News

We haven't updated in a few days, because... well, there hasn't really been much new.

We've been working on getting Bree's room ready for her. She's still not here, though, and we don't have an exact ETA for her. We're hoping maybe within a week or so, but arrangements for her travel are ongoing.

We had another big snowstorm, and school was closed. We all went sledding! :-)

Other than that:

Kaya has been thrilled because there have been a bunch of Buffy reruns on the TV, and she loves that show. Molly has been sketching for some fashion projects she claims she will sew, although she admittedly may lose interest in the meantime. Charissa and Evelyn have been in an ongoing snowball stealth war with the neighbour boys; Team Green is definitely winning! Felicity and Josefina are practicing for a skit they're doing for a class (in French!) next week. Kirsten has been monopolizing the laptop reading other blogs, and has tried some new cooking experiments, around 50% of which have been edible and 25% have actually tasted good.

That's all for now! Hopefully we'll have some more "newsy" news soon. :-)

Love,
The Green Girls

Great Big Snow?

This is Kirsten! :-)

All day at school the other kids were talking about how we were supposed to get a big snowstorm. I thought they were just being optimistic because they wanted classes to be canceled tomorrow, but when I got home they were saying the same thing on the news. 

We went to the store to get extra groceries just in case, and it was packed! We stood in line for a long time, because everyone was worried we won't be able to shop for a couple of days.

Evelyn kept running to the window all evening, looking out for snow, but it didn't come. There's a layer of a few inches on the ground from a few days ago, but none was falling. Finally it was Evelyn's bedtime, and she was really disappointed.

Well, she got her wish, because about an hour ago it finally started falling! She'll be so excited when she wakes up. Everything will be covered with a blanket of snow. It'll be beautiful.

Of course, there are downsides to storms too. If we get stuck inside for too long, we'll get bored. We may also lose power. (Which means no blog - but more importantly, no lights or heat!) Either way, it'll be an adventure!

Love,

Kirsten in the Snow

P.S. Josefina says I should explain why I called this post "Great Big Snow." Where we live, a large tidal wave is called a great big sea. So since we're expecting a wave of snow... well, you get the idea! :-)