Sunday lunch in Patricia

We have just returned from visiting one of our nearest villages, Patricia, where we had Sunday lunch.

Patricia is about 45 minutes drive from Ralston and makes our village look positively expansive, however despite a small population it does have a rather excellent pub where you can cook your own food on a large grill.

We had heard of it through recommendation, so despite being rather daunted by the Google Earth view of it (it has about 4 streets!) we decided to risk a day trip!

For $20 a head we had drinks, soup, prawn kebabs, steak, salad, baked potato, garlic bread and pudding! We had been warned that it was busy on a Sunday, so were surprised to find for most of the time we were the only customers. I asked the owner if this was usual and he shrugged his shoulders. "These days, sometimes, sometimes not. It's the economy"

Patricia is a real one horse town, but we weren't surprised to see that like most Albertan hamlets it still boasts it's own rodeo ground. On the way home we stopped at Dinosaur Provincial park to show the spectacular view of the coulees to Ed's father who was visiting on holiday. The snow covered hills and frozen river were quite a contrast to the last time we visited with the RV in the summer!

Weather wise, we are still getting snow flurries on and off. Though temperatures are a lot more bearable, fluctuating between -10c and +10c. This morning we awoke to a fresh covering of the most remarkable snow I have ever seen. We were actually able to see every single individual snowflake in the pile. Very difficult to photograph, but we tried our best. I suggest you click on the photo on the left to view it full size. As Jim said, they look just like the things you would cut out in art class at primary school!

After a relatively quiet couple of weeks in the village, we are about to have a busy few weekends. Next week we are off to the Cypress Hills to do some cross-country skiing and snowshoeing and the following weekend is the Wives Winter Exercise in the Rockies, so there should be quite a lot of material for the blog!