Welcome Spring Break

Well hello all,

Tis only a meagre offering this time around. The whirlwind that is the end of term at school, sucks us in once again and many hours have been lost sat at my desk, bewildered that it is in fact Spring Break and I'm no where near completed all of the things that have to be done by the end of March (well, by the end of January actually, but since that deadline has long gone I'm just trying to put a positive spin on things).

Although time has been scant for blog posting, there has of course been ample time to ride, ride, ride. All is good on the cycling front, I am back into a fully fledged love affair with the road bike (much to Brina's disdain). I unashamedly admit to having spent a much larger percentage of quality time with the dreamy Giant TCR Advanced than wi' th' wife over the past few months - although th' wife is fighting back admirably by baking batch after batch of the greatest chocolate chip muffins ever, which is in fact luring me back inside on a more regular basis!

I rode out with Brad and Ken on Sunday - set off with nice blue sky, rode into an ever increasing wind which soon turned into a snow flurry that quickly morphed into a blizzard which petered out after half an hour or so to grey clouds that parted by the end of the ride to glorious sunshine - talk about all four seasons in one day.

We're off to see the Kendal Mt Film Festival tomorrow - should bring a nostalgic tear to my eye, hopefully there's some kind of Lake District footage amongst the clips shown (I'm guessing it's just like the Banff film festival but with less altitude (and attitude)). For you Geographical heathens Kendal is "The Gateway to the Lake District" up North in Cumbria (Aye, that be England not Alberta), and for those Land lubbing North Americans who aint been out East (that is, East across the pond), the Lake District is arguably one of the most beautiful pinpricks you could ever put on a world map.

The coming week should hold more fun in the hills. With Spring Break marking "Spring" we're due a high of minus 7 on Monday, the bike will be in (tucked up in silk sheets with a pillow) and I'll be out having a final kick of the winter ball. Off boarding with Portland Ken on Sunday then a guy I used to teach with is coming out to Banff, so we're off boarding for a few days, and the rest of the time will be spent ignoring any impending school work that has to be done!

Well, I managed to prattle on for longer than I anticipated having had nothing much to report at the start!

I've got to gear myself up for a Professional Development day tomorrow - no kids in school on the last day, just lots of teachers talking about themselves trying to sound important (I'll be the one snoozing and doodling in the corner - if only I was joking!).

Hope you're all paying more attention than I am,

Thinking of you all,

And giving everyone a huge toothy grin,

S&S.

Eye Eye

(Brina's gonna flip that I put this hideous piccie on - but I can't seem to take it off the page once it's posted on there - oops - I best nip out on the bike for a while til the dust settles).

Birthday's, Freezing Rain and Spring?

Happy Birthday to Brina for this weekend (well it was on Monday, but we went out to Banff for a bash over the weekend to celebrate). Brina turned the big 29 (an age which I still have 4 years to reach) and we cruised Banff on Saturday with a whole host of wannabe Irish pretenders all pledging their allegience to St Paddy and putting on brave faces faking their enjoyment of their yearly pint of Guiness. The Canucks love an excuse to party, and for the non Guiness fairing folk you were able to buy a pint of regular gnats piss larger with green food colouring in - for the authentic taste of a pint of Irish Listerine.
We had aspiriations to ski and board for the weekend too, but a lazy crawl out on Saturday via the coffee shop made for a chilled out Saturday, and the rather comfortable lodging plus overcast sky on Sunday kept us in relaxed mode on the Sunday too - but a nice weekend to play the real tourist and actually just take in the town - although Brina was becoming a little weary of my regaling of tales about "when I was a lad..." as we visited many venues which brought back rather humorous (and sometimes scary) flashbacks about my earlier days in Banff (admitedly only the more tame stories were released, the others remain firmly locked away in the dark recesses of my brain - and they'll stay that way thank you very much - Until the next time I get caught unaware with a bottle of Jim Beam anyway).
We stayed up at Buffalo Mt Lodge (part of the group that own Emerald Lake lodge and Deer Lodger - we were putting a great voucher to use which Mark and Lucy sent us as a gift - many more thanks to bro and sis there!) and it was super! It's all very cosy with log fires in the rooms - although as you can see, our ability at using the fire to cook baked potatoes was somewhat poor! Those damn log fires need a timer on them or something for the hicks who decide to use them as a stove;

The place had a great hot tub which was great for star gazing from. Our camera didn't make it on the weekend (another packing calamity), but here's a shot of the serenity of what it was like when we stayed up at Emerald Lake lodge - and you'll get an idea of the ambience of the place;

You can make out what was our lodge there in the foreground - with Mt Mitchell (I think) in the background, and the world famous Burgess Shales (world famous to geologists and fossil hunters that is.... yawn, stop me before I send myself to sleep).

As for other things on the great Canadian Frontier, I had to scrape not just snow, but freezing rain from the windscreen the other morning (the car looked like it had been sat in the deep freeze for a month with the bubbled ice covering it from an overnight freezing rain storm!). How I do like to prattle on about the weather (I thought it was very British - but that would be complaining about the weather - here I just tend to talk about it in awe!). With Spring officially starting tonight, the winter decided to have one last kick of the ball before being bumped off the seasonal calendar - freezing foggy morning followed by a rather heavy, wet snowfall. Winter was making it's final call as; true to the date; by the afternoon the sun was out, temps were soaring and with Spring offically here (in a couple of hours) the forecast is sun, sun, sun with highs of 18 degrees for the weekend!!!! Great!!!!

Time to dust the shorts off,

Remember to pack the camera

Embracing the season and thinking of you all,

S&S.

p.s. I finally worked out how to put the links on this blog (on the right there) genius (not).

Don't Count the Chickens

The meterological rollercoaster that is Cochrane's weather continues.

Having been overjoyed at the sight of the grand Chinook Arch that curved its way across the sky last week, bringing with it balmy temperatures of 17 degrees or so - we were optimistically considering that Spring was poking its nose around the corner.

This is the Chinook arch taken rather haphazardly on the drive to work - it may not look like much, but it moves in from the mountains and stretches from one end of the horizon to the other. With it come winds with more umph than generator 3 at Chernobyl. The house gets rattled like a tin shack and the winds, being very warm, just melt all snow in the way. Chinook is some first nations word for "Snow Eater" - you can quite literally watch the snow disappear as the Chinook moves East.

So the road bike was delighted to get a run out on Friday afternoon, and then the first good ride of the year was a sunny pedal with Brad from Bragg Creek to Elbow Falls on Sunday in the aforementioned 17 degree temps or so.
I lulled myself into a false sense of cycling security, thinking that every night would now be a roadie night - seeing as though the clocks went forward at the weekend too.

How mistaken one Englishman can be when toying with the fickle Canadian weather! Lo and behold, this morning saw a good 4 inches on the ground as I stepped out of the door to head to work! So much for riding tonight!

Brina caught this shot of me looking like I'm heading home from the grocery store - rather than departing to work.

The other blighter of all of this though is that I thought shovelling the drive was done for this year!

And as for leaving the big ol' truck out in the drive (yep, I still got her), well, that was a no no!

This aint too bad for a few hours over night in March. I neglected to sweep a lot of the snow off the bed of the truck (I was in a rush to get to work - late for another meeting), and hadn't considered the amount of snow that was lying on the back. It was all pretty stable until I hit about 60kmph, at which stage the massive, thick slab of snow lifted off the truck and smashed into the windscreen of the car behind me (oops!!!) I don't think the feller behind was any too pleased - and neither would I be with a mini avalanche crashing into my car at 7am. I don't think there were any serious casualties.

Some got to stay at home today in their father Christmas uniforms;

Hoping you are all really fit, well and happy!

We'll be up in Banff this weekend to raise a pint of the black stuff to Brina's birthday - what a fortunate coincidence it's St Paddy's day too, although you should never need an excuse for Guiness!

Thinking of you all,

Always take the weather with you (whatever it is),

S&S.

Deja Vu

Well here we go again, more snow things...

As we run into March I'd usually be thinking about Spring, the daffs would be up, the hedges would be budding green and it'd generally be pissing it down like you wouldn't believe. However, I negelect to remember that we're still in Canada - and this winter thing just really does like to hang on. It would seem that winter ends in May, we have a week of Spring and then lo and behold, before we all know it Summer will be here in all its glory.

Another weekend at Sunshine was on offer this weeked;

Brina was out in fine fettle again, ski-ing like a crazy speed deamon, chanting the mantra "play with the mountain - don't fight it" - a term she got from an 87 year old Austrian skier who still rides the half pipe - and I thought 31 was getting on a bit! It was a big breakthrough in ski-ing tradition that Brina carried a backpack. After all this while of being chief Sherpa I finally spat my dummy out this weekend and pointed out that I no longer need to carry a bag as I can fit everything in the multi pocket jacket mentioned in previous post!

This piccie is just to prove that the moniker of the packhorse has now truely shifted hands in this relationship!

We had a blast up on the slopes and were hoping for the typical blue sky classic day - alas - although the sun was out in Cochrane and it reached the giddy heights of 7 degrees, the clouds still covered the mts and, coupled with the snow, temperatures never got beyond minus 5 - which still feels bloody warm by comparisson to the rest of the year.

I got to ride my big old fat board which I'd had the kids at school waxing and sharpening in a makeshift snowboarding lesson (I'm pretty much the master of my own curriculum - the "lets go visit the coffee shop lesson" was by and far my most creative professional day so far as a teacher). The little blighters hadn't done too shabby a job on said board either and it rode like a greased up tea tray!

On the theme of work, we have this Thursday and Friday at school without the kids - it's just their parents that come in (which in many cases is far worse! "why are you taking my child's class to the bloody coffee shop Mr Williams?" is a line that I am readily prepared for and building up my armoury to defend "well, this class is all about the rounded child, and I was thirsty.. and also, do you think I give a toss?" - not sure how well this will go down, so may have to polish up any witty retorts). Work is good fun at present though and Spring break is encroaching - I feel a boarding road trip coming on (although am so tempted to blast it down to Moab in one coffee and red bull induced hazy drive, to ride on the rocks again). Brina is back off to the Soo for the week and she's looking forward to seeing all the folks again.

Although the winter here looks set to last up in the hills, the snow is melting off outside in Cochrane and Calgary at a heafty rate of knots - it's like the end of the last ice age down our street - and luckily I still get to drive the chuffing big truck, so I'm taking great pleasure in hitting all the big puddles and casting tidal waves of meltwater over all the little kids who insist on playing street hockey at just the same time as I'm getting home from work! (Simple pleasures).

I'm hoping that you are all keeping on the right side of the law and that you all have a twinkle in your eye,

Don't carry more than you need (don't carry anything if you've got a wife)

Tally Ho with the mischief,

S&S.

p.s. I've inadvertently put in a really blurry picture (we were both cruising at high speed at the time) and I'm too inept to extract it from this posting - but you can make out the fuzzy form of Brina hurtling into oblivion (at least in my defence this shows that I carried the camera - but I've got a special pocket for that!).