We used to live in Cumberland when we were little. It was fun! We would walk to our friends’ houses to play. One of our favourite places was the old orchard—mossy and shady, and full of wild violets, old apple trees, and trails to explore. We would pack a picnic and choose one of Mom’s Dear Faithful dresses so she could take pictures of us in them among the flowers. Mom’s dresses are very pretty—we like all of the flowers and lace, and we like to twirl around in them.
Our yard in Cumberland was small. We lived in an apartment above a cafe, and sometimes we could smell the yummy things cooking down below. We had a little old bathtub that we filled with cold water in the summer. We would cool off in it and fill it with floating flowers from Mom’s garden. Our garden was so full that we had gardens in the back alley. Mom and Dad wanted to buy a house with a big yard so they found one on Quadra Island where Mom grew up. We were sad to leave our home and our friends in Cumberland but it was only a short drive and a ferry ride away to Quadra. We had to pack up all of our things—even our garden and our old cat, Toby.
We were excited to be able to walk to the beach by our new house and see our cousins and aunty and uncle more. Our new yard was much bigger! We moved in the summer. Our new house needed lots of work—so much work that we had to stay in a little cabin up the road for a while until our house was ready to live in. There was a lot of going back and forth, but we would go to the beach and swim and pick all the different berries! Dad made lots of noise with all his tools. We would come to the house and help with painting and hand him nails and make sandwiches for him. He put up new walls and made a laundry room, and fixed lots of old things to make them new and pretty. Mom painted our room pink and we got a bunk bed. We helped her plant all of our flowers again. Dad built her a new sewing room; it’s big and has lots of room for all of the pretty fabrics and dresses. You can see lots of gardens from up there, and now Mom can take new pictures of us in her dresses in our own garden.
We have 24 chickens, three cats, and a bunch of fish in our pond. We have a big veggie garden and all kinds of berries, and we planted our own fruit trees. We like to have picnics under our golden plum tree now. We play with all the lace and buttons in Mom’s new sewing room and try on all the pretty dresses. We even get to help her decide what colours the dresses will be sometimes. She lets us pick out a new one each year for summer—we want to wear them all!
We’re happy that we live on Quadra and have made lots of new friends. We go to Quadra Island School—kindergarten and grade two. We love our neighbours here and we like to ride our new bikes around Hooleyville. We are in a nature art class at the community centre and we are learning to play the piano. We love Quadra just as much as Cumberland. The end.
