This has been written with photos selected by Olivia. It was prepared as a powerpoint presentation for her class, and then adapted into the blog format.
My Latest News From Canada
Butterflies at the Botanical Gardens
We went to the Butterfly Exhibition in the Botanical Gardens.
There were not only butterflies, there were lots of sections that had plants in them, but the main part was the butterflies. There were so many different types. It was a really large enclosed room with lots of plants that attracted the butterflies. The butterflies were flying freely. There lots of flowering plants.
Some people were lucky and butterflies landed on them. I was scared that they would tickle or hurt me. A butterfly landed on mum’s back.
Maple Syrup Cabin (Sugar Shack)
We went to a sugar shack for an afternoon. It was a small family owned shack. The dad who owns it was quite old and he loves making maple syrup.
The family had 200 acres with 7000 taps in the trees. The farm didn’t use buckets to collect the sap, they use plastic tubes with a vacuum pump at the end.
We got to help “can” the maple syrup. This means that we put the maple syrup into a can and put the lid on. I had never known how cans had their lids put on! To put a lid on a can you put the can onto a machine with the lid sitting lightly on top, then wind the can up, press a button and the can spins really fast tightening the lid. The syrup has to be a certain temperature before canning it. Once the lid went on, the can became very hot. You needed to wear gloves to handle the cans. 24 cans of maple syrup went into a milk crate, which was immediately put into a snow bath. The syrup had to cool quickly so no crystals formed.
Some Maple Taffy photos
We love the maple taffy! We made some after we had put the syrup into the cans.
Swings in Town
In the city there are some swing’s that sing.
are 21 swings. (7 groups of 3 swings)
When people swing on them they play a note. When 2 people swing, the swings make a tune.
The 2 outside swings make a note but the middle swing does not make a note. 3 people do not have to be swinging at the same time to make a note.
They were so much fun.
Bike Riding
On our first ride, we did 9km as a family. I did a second ride with Mum and and we did 13km. We did a bridge to bridge ride along the St. Laurent River and it was fun but was a little hard too.
I have borrowed a bike from our neighbours and it is much bigger then mine back in Australia. It is white with a few strokes of light green on it.
I love bike riding here in Montreal.
Change of Weather
The change of weather here is very dramatic! Everyone here says that this is a very long winter. There is still some snow around, but most of it has melted. 
We started to clear the deck a few weeks ago. This was hard work. Once we had clear the snow off the deck and thrown it onto the grass and it had melted, we started to move the snow from the grass to warmer parts of the grass.
We now don’t have to wear snow pants and boots to school. We only wear a soft shell jacket, (a jacket that has a soft inside and is light, keeps you very warm) and our outside shoes. We don’t have inside and outside shoes anymore. OH YEAH!
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