Safi's play date

Safi had a play date last week with Greta while Greta's mum (Betsy) was busy supervising the UVM equestrian team's quadrill display over at the horse barn near where we live.

It wasn't too long before those cheeky little pups were getting up to some tricks of their own...

"Please can I have a treat mum?", says Safi

"Me too!", says Greta

Oops, we missed out Adam's birthday

Adam had a somewhat restricted celebration of his birthday whilst we were in S Carolina, so we did the whole cake and singing thing with the Barrys when we headed to Ithaca the w/e after for Alan Bell's retirement do (he and his wife have headed back to Brisbane Australia so I don't suppose we'll be seeing them again anytime soon).

Happy birthday to you... Rachy sings to Uncle Adam

Jude and baby William

Corny in a filing frenzy preparing for the Barry family's upcoming move to Michigan

Long time no post...

Sorry for the long absence of new postings... I'm sure you're all fretting and eager for a new update.

So, much has changed since the extreme snowiness of February and our short but sweet sojourn in South Carolina. The snow is still holding up reasonably well in the mountains, tho' the streets of Burlington are now mostly clear of the white stuff. Spring has definitely sprung and we're enjoying plenty of sunny days interspersed with only sporadic bouts of torrential rain...aaah, a nice reminder of home!

Needless to say the lovely piles of snow that surrounded the brown house have now joined forces to provide us with the newest trend of the season... an in-basement swimming pool (see pic).

Luckily the very helpful UVM farm staff and guys from physical plant came to our rescue and swiftly rigged up an industrial pump to rid us of the 15" that had accumulated...

Now we are left with a smaller sump pump which will reside in the murky depths, I hope until the snow has completely gone... not long at the current melt rate.

Michaela making progress with her soccer scholarship

When we arrived in S Carolina we spent some time with Adam's cousin Michaela who's out here on a soccer scholarship at Newberry college.

We took her out to 'The Palms' for a feed up our first evening there, and she gave us a quick tour about campus the next day... I was gonna say the next morning but we soon found out that Michaela doesn't normally surface until around 2pm on a Sunday [I don't think even I used to get up that late at uni - J].

Anyway, despite the early hour of day (12.30pm) she was unexpectedly lively and told us all about her rigorous training schedule... and a few hints towards the extra-curricula activities that inevitably go hand-in-hand with first year at college! [It all seems so long ago for us 'oldies' now - J].



Pic 1 - Michaela's dorm

Pic 2 - Obiwan offers guidance to young Anakin (!?)

Pic 3 - Michaela's training ground


Pic 4 - The PE dept. (obviously)








Pic 5 - Jayne gets up close and personal with the Newberry 'Indians' College Mascot













Pic 6 - The pool where the team can relax after training










Pic 7 - The ice bath where the team can relax after training... errrm...







Pic 8 - Michaela on the phone to her Mum (Adam's Auntie Angie)








Pic 9 - Obiwan keeping it concise...








Pic 10 - Where 'the football guys' reside...

A weekend break in the South Carolina sun

We just back Tuesday from S Carolina where we took a long w/e break from the snow and the house hunting.

The weather was like a lovely warm spring/early summer day - just what the doc ordered! That said, it made coming back all the harder as we're back to actual temps of 18 below (-25C with wind chill factored in). Brrr. Ski lessons were cancelled this week because it was too cold on the mountain :(

Anyway, the next postings include some pics from our travels...

And so the hunt begins

Last week we started our search for a new house in earnest following the news that we've been 'pre-approved' for a mortgage (no mean feat for us aliens!).

We're now receiving new property listings every day and have seen a great deal of houses already - no winners yet tho. It's strange enough just getting used to the different types of houses here compared with back home (raised ranches, capes, colonials etc) and actually getting a nice house in a nice spot at a nice price seems a way off yet.

Apparently it's a buyers market just now tho' so fingers crossed we won't need to search for too long before we find a lovely Vermont home.

We'll keep you posted on progress...