Home is Where Our Story Begins
The beginning of May was to herald many exciting events like picking up the keys to our new home and surprisingly sprummer (Spring and summer mixed) which arrived with much fanfare and arm waving (on account of all the deer fly… more on that later).
We met with Claire from Viewpoint the morning after settlement for the exchanging of the key’s ceremony and boy what a morning it was! Winter had finally let go and left sweltering temperatures behind, we had ditched our jackets and jumpers and our deodorant was now being put through its paces. We all walked into the house and didn’t make it past the kitchen for the first hour while we chatted with Claire, it was becoming abundantly clear that the kitchen was going to be the heart of the house which is exactly as it should be.
Once Claire had left leaving behind a bottle of bubbly and box of chocolates to toast the occasion with, we took this opportunity to retrieve all of our worldly belongings out of the Warlock (which took all of 10 minutes) and with a new bed, mattress and sofa scheduled for delivery imminently it was time to put our new kettle on, wait for our stuff to arrive and take a minute for everything to sink in.
It is hard to describe how we were feeling in that moment, the past three months had been like a tornado ripping through our life but instead of destruction and chaos at every turn there was growth and transformation. All around us life was now bursting with colour, sound, and scent. Nothing remained of the winter, the landscape had changed, and we had changed with it, we were not the same couple that had left NZ all those months ago.
Life is a continual process of arrival into who we are.
The culmination of the past four years had finally materialised, and we had finally arrived exactly where we were meant to be, which was sitting in the kitchen of our forever home in Canada. It was going to take a while to settle in. We live in Canada! Let me say that again, we live in Canada! Holy heck! Yay to us for having the strength and determination to get to this point, we took everything that was thrown at us, the ups, downs, joy, and pain and still we prevailed.
God help Canada because you are now stuck with us!
Our first day in our new home was all about soaking in the moments, exploring our surroundings, and repeatedly telling ourselves that this was not a dream. Lola was a proverbial dog with two tails as we took her for a walk around the sprawling garden, into our woods and down to the river to see how it had transformed. We were viewing the world around us with fresh eyes, the forest colours were so vibrant, pine needles crunched underfoot, and life chattered away in the treetops above, we were even lucky enough to stumble across Bambi dozing under the branches of a pine tree.
And when we finally reached the river, we knew we were in heaven!
But we didn’t limit the exploration to just the garden and house because just a mere five-minute walk down the road was Woolenhaupt Lake (it is far easier to type it than say it, alcohol helps with the pronunciation!) which was equally as beautiful as the river at the back of our garden and was also to become Lola’s favourite spring swimming spot.
Lola took respite from the heat to wade chest deep into the lake water whilst simultaneously draining it, boy she was thirsty! Seeing how much Lola was enjoying it we were tempted to take our shoes and socks off and join her but thought better of it when we saw all the leeches, which called to mind a specific scene in the Movie Stand by Me, we all know the one. Ermm Nope!
The haunting call of the Loon echoing across the lake provided the perfect soundtrack to Lola splashing around and living her best doggo life, it was a truly special moment.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxhK585OEEq5zbKcyYvyjzSGPEEs7KHYsz
This special moment did not last long however because the deer fly arrived. Deer flies are most prevalent through May to the end of July, don’t be misled by the name, there is nothing cute, springy, or deer like about these blood suckers, the only likeness is their size because these flies are bigger than your average house fly, the size of deer to be honest! (okaayy I’m exaggerating a tad).
The female deer fly requires blood to produce her eggs and can find her prey by detecting heat and carbon dioxide which on a sweltering day must be like an all you can eat buffet. The female deer fly has jaws like a pair of scissors which she uses to cut a cross like incision into the skin and lap up the blood which can leave a nasty allergic reaction. Come on Canada, what next? We have ticks and deer fly! Surely there can’t be anything else? Ermmm did someone just mention horse flies???
So, with Lola suitably replete with lake water we made the short walk back home waving our arms around our heads like a pair of freaks with restless arm syndrome, we had learnt another Canadian national dance, tick dance, deer fly dance …. nailed it! The surprising benefit to this was that all our neighbours thought we were waving excitedly at them while no doubt whispering to each other about the new weirdos from NZ who had just moved in.
So, with the sun setting on the first day in our new home, it was time to rest our tired arms (fatigued from all the flapping), scratch our multitude of deer fly bites, take some antihistamine and pop open the bubbly! It had certainly been a day to remember. Aside from Lola not so gently snoring from her new spot on the chair beside us we felt enveloped in peace, contentment, and gratitude so we raised our glasses and made a toast to all those who helped us to get to where we are now, and to the future stretching before us.
