We are university educated, both holding Master degrees in Education (teaching), Educational Administration, and Curriculum and Instruction from the University of British Columbia. Since graduating from university we have lived in various places, mostly rural.
Nathalie has taught at the Secondary and University level, while John has taught mostly senior secondary Math, and been a school administrator. Nathalie is a passionate organic gardener of flowers and vegetables. John has taught many classes of intermediate and senior students as well as being Vice Principal and Principal of two schools. Concurrently with his professional duties, John has been a busy part time paramedic for 25 years.
Hiking in the back country is presently a major activity for both of us. We walk our dog, a Jack Russell terrier, daily on the remote trails of our local provincial parks. When on holiday we take advantage of the hiking opportunities in the areas we visit. The hills of Ireland, the deserts of Arizona and the mountains of Lake Tahoe, and thee Scottish Highlands have all been fabulous hiking adventures. Indoors we spend our time reading, John plays Bridge, Nathalie plays Scrabble, both of us do gourmet cooking and best of all--play with our grandchildren.
We spend most of our summers at home in Maple Ridge, looking after our small garden, enjoying the grand children. We lost our 16 year old Jack Russell in June 2023 and miss him terribly. We begin to travel in September, after acquiring housesits in places we would like to visit and, preferably in warmer climes. It rains a lot in Maple Ridge and we enjoy sunny weather!
Our housesits have given us a rich understanding of the pets, people and places we have visited, and we have found pet/housesitting much more enjoyable than the tour-type of travelling, although we have done a fair amount of both. We have loved many a pet over the "sits": two huge Leonberger dogs who lived for walks and swims in their local ponds in NZ. One of them, Jaeger had his own pet cat named Monty, whom he loved to distraction; two adorable Corgis in Australia who slept with us in our bed, taking up more than their share of room; a beautiful tawny standard poodle named Rusty, who loved our Chico as a companion, racing all over the mountain trails of Lake Tahoe until both of them collapsed with fatigue; CB and Coco chasing down real or imaged varmints in the pastures of Kinvara, Ireland--these and many other pets made the housesitting experience so much fun and memorable, and that is why we do it!
Enjoying a tropical garden
Hiking in the desert hills near Tucson, Arizona