Tennis in Bali - a short video

Avocados!!!

One of the great things about living in Bali is having food grow in our yard.
We have banana, lemon and breadfruit trees... to name a few.
But by far our favorite is the avocado tree, which has been giving us huge avocados for the past 2 months or so. Here's a picture of the tree, which is just above our kitchen, and a short explanation of how we harvest the avocados...

From Avocado tree

From Avocado tree

First, you need someone to climb the tree. Wayan, our gardener, is always up for the task.

From Avocado tree

Once up, he reaches out and picks the avocado...

From Avocado tree

...and then throws it down to me on the ground.

From Avocado tree

We usually pick about four at a time.
They're huge. And make great guacamole, and a specialty here, avocado juice.

From Avocado tree

A giant spider builds a web

Greetings all. Peter here...
Last week I was doing some yoga in our living room (yes I've started doing a little yoga here in Bali)... and I noticed this huge spider, about 10cm across, building a web. I took out the camera I shot a little video... it's only a minute long. In the second part if you look closely you can see the web coming out of the spider.

Janet's parents visit Bali

Our guest house has been busy! Two days before Peter's parents left, Janet's parents arrived for a weeks stay. Here is a guest post from Wes and Mary.

From Mary and Wes visit Bali

How wonderful to have been able to travel to Bali to observe the life style that Peter, Janet and the kids are enjoying. Such a departure from Toronto!!! So many highlites for us: from enjoying the bamboo guest house, to being a little overwhelmed by the fascinating beauty of the big house. I will never eat rice again without thinking how labour intensive it is to grow, but also just how beautiful rice paddies are which contribute so hughly to the richness of the Balinese culture. The compounds and temples, just numbers alone, were so interesting, not to mention the traffic and all the motor bikes!!!!

From Mary and Wes visit Bali

Our driver, Agus, is such a special person and will never be forgotten. Our meals in the house and out were delicious, with Wes's birthday dinner being outstanding. It was wonderful to see the kids and to tour the Green School. Our host and hostess made our stay so welcoming and just could not do enough. Not their fault that we both fell!!!!! This is certainly a very special place and lucky for us, they went and so did we. The bike ride was scary but fun Janet - and thanks for insisting I go. If I was asked to rate our stay, I would say 10 out of 10, and that's hard to beat.

From Mary and Wes visit Bali

ALL JUST AMAZING. MANY THANKS.
WES AND MARY

Peter's parents visit Bali

From Audrey and George visit

Here is a guest post from Peter's mom. Audrey and George were here in Bali from December 30th - January 23rd.

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We arrived in Bali and were struck first by the heat and humidity, which continued throughout our three and a half week stay. We stayed with Peter and Janet in their beautiful bamboo guest cottage, and were thrilled to be able to use their house as our base as we travelled around the island. We saw a good part of it, and had an absolutely amazing time.

Of course the highlight of our visit was spending so much quality time with our 3 grandchildren. Of our 649 pictures, it's likely 500 feature Austin, Myles or Emmet. When we were ïn residence, we loved having Myles and Austie climb into our huge canopy bed with us at 6am each morning.

From Audrey and George visit

We travelled all over the island- to the east, to Padang Bai where we went snorkelling on a boat, and swimming on a lovely white sand beach, and to Candidasa, where we went down a tiny steep slope to a surprise white sand beach, complete with warungs (food stalls), showers and beach chairs and umbrellas. We went to the north with Peter to the edge of the volcano, and down into the crater where we swam in hot springs amongst natives...(Peter loves to be the only bule). We went to the north east, to more mountains beside a huge park, where we stayed in an enchanting villa complete with an outdoor shower that was so much fun. We hiked to a waterfall en route to the north, and stopped at a coffee plantation for lunch. We went to the south- twice- to Legian beach, where the big waves are, and many surfers spend their days just playing their hearts out. We went to the south west, to the most photographed place in Bali, Tanah Lot- a historic temple situated in the sea. And we went over to Lombok by ferry with Peter, Myles and Austin, and spent 4 glorious days there, 2 on a remote island called Gili Nangu, where we slept right beside the waves, and 2 at the southern tip of Lombok at a beautiful unspoiled beach with a great Novetel hotel on it. We spent some lovely days in Ubud, in the heart of Bali, and hiked some gorgeous trails (we went up the Sari Organic path a record 3 times, we liked it so much). We did some great shopping and had fun bargaining, we had some terrific meals at very unusual restaurants, we wandered through the Monkey forest, we travelled on the back of Peter and Janet's scooters (or at least I did), and we had two lovely days at a very beautiful 5 star hotel in Ubud.

We had 4 different drivers in Bali: of course Peter and Janet were our favorites, but Agus and Eka were a terrific source of information, and as they took us around different parts of Bali, we learned a great deal about the customs and the ways of the Balinese. We saw ceremonies everywhere- lots of funerals, special temple activities, cremations, and many people making offerings everywhere- even around Peter and Janet's home. We loved walking over flower petals to get into the house! And on our last evening there, we had a special birthday party for Janet's Dad, complete with musicians, dancers, and many more flower petals spread around the house. Amazing

We loved the Indonesian food; George and Janet took a cooking class together, and as I write this, he is making his favorite Nasi Goreng.

From Audrey and George visit

And of course we loved the heat. The rainy season lived up to it's name, and we had rain most days, sometimes accompanied with very violent thunder storms, but the rain didn't interfere with our plans most of the time, and no sooner did it stop than the sun came out. It was very hot and humid throughout our visit.

The surprise for us was how populated the tiny island of Bali was, and how commercial it was- with stalls selling just about everything all along the roads. The roads are narrow, and the traffic is intense, so getting from one place to another was sometimes challenging, but it was all part of the atmosphere, and great fun to soak it up. We found we sought out places that were less travelled, and more rural, and when we viewed our slide show last night, it would appear we accomplished that, as our pictures show us on beautiful beaches and magnificent green rice paddies-virtually by ourselves!

Finally, we enjoyed visiting the Green School, which has to be seen to be believed. George, Janet and I spent a great morning in Grade 2, where we taught the students in Myles and Austin's class all about Canada. It was a red and white day for everyone.

Makasi to Peter, Janet, Emmet, Austin and Myles who were so hospitable, and with whom we had such fun. It was a trip we will never forget, and we are so glad you invited us to come and visit.