The Sabba-tickle Talk (Part 1)

For the last couple of months (every since we moved out of the house) Sandy has been hearing whispered murmurings about a Zappa-tickle... Sabba-tickle... (Mama spells it... sabbatical)... Sandy has been blissfully oblivious to the conversation but today it was time to have "The Talk" with him. Here it goes...

 Sandy has heard that it's always better to be sitting down for "The Talk"... so he is ready and wants to hear about it... what is going on with this Sabba-tickle?
"Well Sandy... we are going to be traveling for a whole year"...

 Sandy is speechless... and a bit stunned (see that stunned look in his eyes?).... Sandy recovers enough to say... "need a hot chocolate... now!"....

 Hot chocolate in paw... Sandy is ready to hear more (or less). Mama has decided that it is best to break this to Sandy in small pieces... First up... "We are going to be traveling for a few weeks to a place called Meh-hee-ko"....

 Since pictures are worth a thousand words... Mama shows Sandy a travel book for Meh-hee-ko...

Hmmm... it looks kind of neat... sort of warm and sunny. Sandy wants to know what it is like there but Mama has never been there either...

 Oooh... there is water there... and ruins by the looks of it!! Lots of places for a little bear to climb and have many adventures!

There are white sand beaches and... wait a minute... Sandy looks thoughtful... hmmm...

Sandy thinks that his pals Jerry and Ben have been to Meh-hee-ko before!! He gets side-tracked and does a quick search on their blog... sure enough... they were in Puerto Vallarta for Christmas last year! They had some funky looking sombreros...

But... we are not going to Puerto Vallarta... we are going to the other side of Meh-hee-ko... to a place called the Yucatan Peninsula... Sandy is a tad disappointed because he thought that maybe he would meet Jerry & Ben down there!

 But he perks up again when he hears that the Yucatan has the Chicxulub Crater... the one that eliminated the dinosaurs (and pterodactyls!)... beary exciting!!

And then Sandy sees how far away the Yucatan is from home (see the blue drop)... a beary long ways away... and a lot farther south... it might be getting cooler up there but it will definitely be hotter down there!

This apparently is all a bit much for a little bear to take in... just when he was thnking he was well dressed for the seasons again... sigh... need more hot chocolate...

Sandy asks "what about the rest of the sabba-tickle year, Mama?"... the reply.... "We'll talk about that later! After Meh-hee-ko..."

Bear Scary Leaf Bags!

Seeing all those orange leaf bags yesterday gave Sandy an idea...

All you need is a big black felt pen...

 And a bit of time and peace and quiet...

 And some patience and imagination...

And you can make jack'o'lanterns anywhere! Heh-heh!!

Bags and Bags of Leaves

It is officially fall and that means lots of raking for humans! Which means lots of leaf piles!! Lots of fun for little bears but the humans don't leave them lying around for very long. In fact, they bag them up and then leave the bags lying around for a long time!

 Aren't they a pretty orange colour?? They are very comfy too... nice and soft and crunchy.

Sandy climbs to the top of the leaf bag pile and then jumps down...

Well, he had a soft landing place - but that wasn't half as much fun as jumping into the real leaf piles! Mind you... these orange bags are giving Sandy a bright idea... He hopes that they will still be lying around tomorrow because he has plans... heh-heh!!

Missed the Harvest

Well, having been away so much in the last little while, Sandy has missed the harvest! We was all gung-ho to see waving fields of wheat and rye and barley and oats... but...

 All that is left in the fields is stubble!

Oh wait... what's that?? That looks like some sort of grain!

 That could be... wheat? Or maybe rye? The combiner left a little bit behind...

Enough for a little bear to be happy that he saw at least some of the harvest!

Home Again

Well, it's good to be home again - except home has changed quite a bit since Sandy left a few weeks ago!!

 The leaves aren't just yellow... they are falling off of the trees at an alarming rate!

 The yelllow leaves look so pretty...

 There are even some red ones... but not too many of those.

 Look at them all!

 In some places, there are so many leaves that you can hardly see the grass underneath! What is a little bear to do with that??

 Hello?? Where did Sandy go?? He was just here! And now he has disappeared!

 Oh wait... what is that?? Do you see something in that pile of leaves? It looks like a nose!

 "Boo!" cried Sandy popping out of the leaf pile (with a few leaves still sticking to his fur).

Sandy now knows what Jerry & Ben meant about playing in leaf piles. This is certainly a lot of fun!

They are so soft and pillowy... a little bear could just lie on his back all day and kick his feet in the leaf pile... Ahhhh...

Mail!

Sandy got home and found a card from Beanie!! Yay!! It is from the Roman Baths at Chichester... nope, don't remember how to pronounce that...

 And on the back of the card, there was a cute mouse stamp!!

Thanks Beanie!

Last Spike

Well, it's time to head home which means a long car ride. Along the way, Sandy convinces Mama to stop at Craigellachie (what a name!!).

 This is where the Last Spike was driven on Canada's firs Transcontinental Railway - the CPR.

 The crews working their way East from Vancouver had a much harder time of it as they didn't even get out of BC before the crews working their way West met up with them! Guess it's easier laying rails on the prairies!

 There sure were a lot of people there back in 1885! Apparently the guy with the white beard hammering in the last spike bent the first spike he hit! They had to get a second one...

 A big memorial cairn marks the spot and has rocks from all of the Canadian provinces in its base.

 This rock is a bit different... it comes from Scotland!

 From the real Craigellachie - which is where the President of the CPR was from originally.

 The actual railway is now fenced off here... but right up above Sandy's head is a spike that is a different colour...

 It's not real gold - just painted that way - and it's not even the original spike (which was pulled out after the 1885 ceremony to prevent souvenir-snatchers from stealing it!.

 There is an old caboose here as well...

 Sandy is a bit of a risk taker and wanted to jump off the back of the caboose!

 Sandy would have made a good little trainer engineer... or conductor!

 Sandy's face is a little bit small to show up well here! But he wanted to give it a go with the hammer as well...

Oh, that is one heavy hammer! But Sandy gives it his best shot... He's going to have to do some working out if he wants to make a really good swing with this hammer!