I added a few pictures of Aisling while at anchor and down below. I will add a few more of the rig and sail handling tools soon.

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Big things are happening at home this weekend! Lyn Waller is walking 60 km in the Weekend to End Breast Cancer and has already raised more than six thousand dollars. Way to go Lyn! Congratulations, we are very proud of you!

If anyone would like to help the cause with a donation, check out Lyn's home page by clicking the link we have set up under "favourites" on the right hand site of this blog, or by cutting and pasting the link below:

http://www.endcancer.ca/site/TR/Events/Halifax2008?px=2676015&pg=personal&fr_id=1270&fl=en_US&et=srEjjjm4J8PEClpLjbqawQ..&s_tafId=189036

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Convocation Hall, University of Toronto, June 6th, 0930. The temperature in Toronto has already climbed beyond 30 degrees Celsius, but it is blessedly cool inside Convocation Hall. The graduates, in their dark robes with pink and white fur-lined hoods, raise silent thanks to the benefactress whose donation made the air conditioning possible. During the ceremony, Katherine looks serious and a bit pensive. Later, when we congregate to take endless photos on the lawn, she is radiant. Rick and I are, of course, bursting with pride.

Not everything went entirely as planned. Rick's parents, Evelyn and Dean, were not able to attend because Evelyn had been admitted to hospital with an obstructed bowel. It was a big disappointment, but we were relieved that she recovered without needing surgery. And Katherine was happy that her cousin Liz was able to get a last-minute ticket to Toronto to fill one of the empty seats. With Gram, Uncle Jim, Christopher, Rick and me, we had a healthy-sized contingent to cheer her on. The photo above was taken by Katherine's friend Sam, whose girlfriend Jess also received her Juris Doctor at the convocation.

In contrast to many graduations we've attended, the convocation was actually quite enjoyable. The small number of graduates kept the length of the ceremonies to a mere hour and the speeches were interesting. Then we all attended a luncheon under tents on the lawn outside the law school, with more speeches and lots of jokes about lawyer jokes. We had a celebration dinner at Scaramouch that evening. The view of the city was lovely and the food was as good as rumored. After dinner, Katherine opened a large pile of cards and gifts and said that the evening had exceeded all her expectations- what more could we ask? Early Monday morning, she was right back at school, attending a skills development course that will run until early July. The realities of life in the working world will hit home with a vengeance when she begins her articling term with Miller Thomson in early August. In the meantime, she'll have a month of vacation in Nova Scotia and for the first time ever, we won't be there to meet her. It makes us a bit sad to think about that, but if Christopher treats her half as well as he did us when we were home I know she'll at least be well fed!

We've added some photos of the graduation to the gallery. And also a few from our second road trip in Provence- I still haven't had time to write a journey entry about that!

We arrived back in La Ciotat last night and woke this morning to sunshine and blazing heat. I'm feeling a bit homesick today, but otherwise it's good to be back onboard.

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Happy New Year everyone! It hardly seems possible that we have been back in Halifax for over two months. Our weeks have been filled with work, socializing, catching up on all the little things that need to be done at home...and of course, Christmas! As we struggle through snowstorm after snowstorm, Spain seems a world away. Meanwhile, a lingering sense of unfinished business has haunted me and today I finally took the time to post a blog entry on the Alpujarras, as well as one Rick prepared some time ago (in praise of wine). We've also organized our remaining photos to add to the gallery- only to find that the gallery portion of sailblogs is currently offline- hopefully it will be back up soon and we will add the photos.

We're beginning to plan our second season in the Med- with work commitments, Katherine's graduations and family events, it's a bit of a logistic nightmare. We hope to be back in Almerimar by the end of March and depart for the Balearics in early April. From there, we're not sure. In the meantime, we devour the websites and blogs of our cruising friends with envy!

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