Sunshine and summer celebrations

It's time to start writing again, but where to start since there's been at least one exciting adventure each week. Lots of volunteering and summer festivals have been keeping me busy.

My summer started with a bit of Caribbean flavour that first arrived in a cookbook, then carried over to a birthday meal, a potluck and then finally to the Carisask festival in Wascana park. If you haven't tried my papaya recipe yet then you'll have to make up an excuse to come over.

This year I managed to volunteer for both the Regina and the Saskatoon Fringe Festivals and probably snuck in about half a dozen plays. I'll probably stick with 'La Mexicaine de Perforation' as my favourite because of it's zany plot and characters. The night my parents were here for a visit we went to see the long time running stage show of the Trial of Louis Riel. Half of the entertainment was watching my father on stage as a jury member. The other big art event this summer was the Regina Folk Festival which drew an impressive crowd to the city and literally transformed Victoria park to another place. My favourite moment there was dancing in the rain to some lively Spanish bands.

The summer has also been full of a lot of biking as my means of transportation and also as a source of adventure. As I embarked on the Secret Garden tour by bike I discovered some impressive trails travelling West along the creek. The first day I was volunteering at the Native prairie gardens outside of the impressive First Nations University campus and then the next day I explored the gardens all over the city. The following cycling experience was on the M.S. Bike tour, something I've always wanted to do, which took me out to Rouleau (a.k.a Dog River on the Corner Gas set) over to the 15 Wing Moose Jaw air base and back again. It was a total of 120km over two days accross the prairies with a fun group of people and for a good cause.

Then next you would have seen me dressed as a Devil wandering through Wascana park with wild group of people from the Regina Delta hotel. As an adopted member of the team I raced with the Delta Devils in the Regina Dragon Boat Festival. An experience I highly reccommend to others with or without a Devil costume.

During the last few days of August I went out East to attend my good friends' Ana and Edgar's wedding in Ottawa and then the Vimy guide reunion in Granby, Quebec. Eight years later 'la crème de la crème' as we liked to call ourselves, met to relive stories, songs and comraderie from our unforgetable experience in France.

I don't really want the summer to end...