A weekend in the village

It was great cycling home from work at 6 o'clock this evening in the daylight and even more so knowing that the clocks go forward next weekend (nearly a month before the UK.)

The topsy turvey Albertan weather may still have a few surprises in store for us, but at least we'll be eating our supper in daylight within a few weeks.

This weekend we're taking time off skiing and our Rockies commute and catching up on housework, shopping and hopefully (for me) some quilting.

A Tuesday night quilting class has started in the village and I've started making a 6ft x 6ft applique quilt which will have 35 squares all depicting things about Canada. Not something I would have invisaged myself doing a year ago, but then neither was ice hockey! I think the easiest way to cope with being isolated in the middle of the Canadian prairie is to do as the locals do!

Signs that spring is on the way...

(1) It's going to be +10c on Friday.

(2) Both rabbits have been out in the garden together every morning this week, when often we don't see them for days on end.

(3) The UV index, a staple of the summer, has returned to the weather forecast

(4) At least one gopher in the village has come out of hibernation

(5) My bike has come out of the shed for the first time since November.

Annwen's Birthday weekend

We were back in Fernie this weekend to celebrate Annwen's birthday. Eight of us stayed in a privately owned condo which was part of the Stanford Resort. The condo itself was a really weird layout, with 3 bedrooms across three floors and was typical of the hundreds of developments being thrown up across Canada at the moment. Fortunately we only had to stay in it, not look at it.

However this row of five beautiful heritage houses are right next to the new development and looked out on it. Good for us, not so great for them.

Saturday was, as always, spent on the slopes, but this time there was no fresh snowfall and the runs were rock hard. I called it a day after falling off the lift twice as I dismounted and flipping in the air whilst doing a turn and coming down hard on the ice. I'm not mad about snowboarding and days like that certainly don't help!

We went out to a small restaurant called Corner Pocket on Saturday night. We were by far the largest party in there and the owners had a clever solution to help the small kitchen cope with big orders like ours : a close up magician. He kept us entertained between our starters and main course, which was a rather innovative idea.

Our condo was slightly out of town, so we took advantage of the bus service which is laid on by Fernie Town. It costs a $1 each way and so gets its name from the Canadian term for $1, a "looney", so yes, it's the "looney bus". We've no idea if this name for a bus full of drunken tourists is half as funny to the Canadians as it was to us.

Aside from our weekend in Fernie, temperatures here continue to hover around freezing point (as opposed to highs of -15c!) and although we still have snow on the ground, people in Ralston are starting to tentatively suggest that worst of the winter may be behind us... here's hoping!

Lunar eclipse

We had a lovely clear night tonight for the lunar eclipse, which was at 8pm in Canada and 3am in the UK... for once we were in the right place at the right time!

Despite it being -12c outside my camera (and more importantly the battery) didn't kick up a fuss and I was able to get the series of shots you can see on the left.

We've actually had quite good weather this week, -12c is pretty much the coldest it's been and it's supposed to be +3c at the weekend.

Talking of which, once again this weekend we're off to Fernie. This time we're staying with 9 others from the base in a rented condo.

My colleague Annwen who has been over from the UK for 2 months is heading home next week, so we're travelling to the Rockies to give her a good send off.

We'll definitely need a weekend in the village after that - The housework is mounting up!

Off to Fernie again

Another update after a busy weekend. We had a pleasant surprise when the weather took a step towards spring on Friday. It was plus 6 during day and outside all you could hear was the sound of running water as a slow thaw began.

Jim and I had to do some hasty shovelling around the sides of the house to prevent the metre or so of snow cover from melting and seeping into the basement. In the end the thaw wasn't that extensive, but it has still revealed patches of grass and long forgotten bits of summer garden ware!

Once again we drove up to Fernie on Friday afternoon. Eight hours on the road every weekend has become almost routine and the monotony of the long roads is broken up by having our Sirius Satelitte Radio in the car - It's absolutely fantastic, we love the comedy channels and Maxim & Cosmo radio which are speech and really help to pass the time.

This weekend we were staying at Violet Cottage (see photo left) with ours friends Kirsty & Mark. The house is owned by Joanne & Patrick who run the Old Nurses B&B in the town. We'd tried to stay at both our regular haunts but because it's a long weekend had found everywhere booked out, however that didn't stop us dropping in on the B&B to pay our bill and staying for an hour drinking their wine and talking to the guests!

As usual Jim and I spent Saturday on the slopes. Despite all the weekends away, I'm still only on my 7th snowboarding day and only stepped onto a ski slope for the first time 2 months ago, so it's been a long uphill struggle to master the lifts, get my balance on the board and finally learn to "carve" - the art of repeated turns across a snow slope.

Therefore I am quite proud of the following video clip. I will apologise to more advanced boarders and skiers who read this blog, who will not be remotely impressed at my snail pace descent, but it's a lot harder than it looks!

Still cold

The weather forecast on Wednesday turned out to be wildly optimistic and we finished the week with temperatures of nearly -30c and a blizzard. It's hard to imagine the warm damp winter in the UK, when here in Ralston, we're starting our fourth month of continual snow cover.

We're not sure when winter ends either. The ski resorts in the Rockies are open until late May, but people in the village say that May is when the weather really warms up, so I'm not sure how both can be true!

Blackie the cat has shown very little inclination to venture outside since we inherited her. The occasional cold blast of air through the front door as we come and go sends her running back into the warmth of the sitting room. Whatever adventures may await her in the garden can clearly wait till the spring.

Coyote!

Much excitement this afternoon when a coyote was spotted in the school grounds. BFBS were alerted by the police, but rather than passing the message on to the village, I was more interested in running outside and getting a photo!

Unfortunately I didn't have my digital SLR with me so I missed the opportunity to get a close up, but on the plus side at least I had a camera at all!

Also of note is the fact I ran outside without a coat and didn't end up in intensive care! We're up to 0c today and apart from a slight dip in temperatures again midweek, it looks like we might be back to highs the right side of freezing point for the next couple of weeks... spring is on the way!