Hockey Humble Pie

Since belittling this fair nation's sporting prowess in a previous posting, I have come to realise that the final game of the Stanley Cup (that FA cup of hockey if you recall) is a monumental occassion that you just can't help but get swept up in; and as reluctant as I may be to refrain from admitting it was much more exciting to watch than any of England's world cup games so far - it was!
The only downside of the much anticipated game was that it was won, once again, by an American team - something which really, clearly galls the Canucks who have been trying to win this since 1996.
That's hockey done for the season, and now it's ball (as in base) and football (as in not real football - American football) for the rest of summer. Let's just hope that England pick it up a bit against Ecuador!
The holidays are coming and a big drive out to Sault Ste Marie is on the way, but there's still a bit of playtime in the mts to be had before then.

And they thought we were going on a summer hike;

I hope that all is well in your part of the world (where ever that may be)

S&S.

What time do they let the bears out?

No trip to the Canadian Rockies would be complete without a visit to the turquoise waters of Lake Louise - so that's where we headed at the weekend and hit the tourist trail. The overflowing car park suggested that the trails around the lake would be hectic, but it seems that most people just get out of their vehicle, walk twenty metres to the lake shore, take a picture with the Victoria Glacier in the background and then wander back to their car as the man in leather shorts serenades them with his Aplenhorn.
A hike up the Big Beehive made for super vistas down the Bow Valley and we managed to dodge

the clouds for most parts of the day (having left Cochrane in baking sunshine, the clear sky didn't stretch as far as Lake Louise).

To cap the weekend off, a stint up to the Rae Glacier was had on Sunday. The Highwood Pass only opened on June 15th, so we mosied on down into Kananaskis Country and up to Elk Lake and the Rae Glacier. At the summit of our hike, a kind man calmly informed us of the Grizzly Sow and two cubs that had just been spotted on the steep, well treed trail that we had climbed - and had to descend. Needless to say, we made the return trip to the car much noisier!!
So perhaps it doesn't matter if we don't get to spot a bear this year. We've problably wandered past many critters without noticing them, just like this little feller, who I didn't see on the way down from Lake Agnes until Brina yelped as I was nearly about to stand on him;

Obviously porcupines have nothing to fear - certainly not me - as their 30 000 quils will stop anything in their tracks. So they tend to sit around soaking up the sun, watching the world go by.

Is that soccer or football?

Hockey, hockey, hockey. Canada is fascinated by big fellers on ice skates punching the living daylights out of each other and trying to catch that damned illusive puck which is almost impossible to see on t.v - they should make that thing a bit bigger, then at least they might hit it or even catch it once in a while!
The Stanley Cup is the FA Cup and Champions League Final combined in Ice Hockey terms. The big stinker for Canada though is that American teams keep on winning it. Edmonton are Canada's representatives this year, who are somewhat rivals to Calgary. I always imagined the good old, warm hearted Canucks to be pretty easy going, but when it comes to hockey rivalry, it's like putting a drunk scouser in the Stretford end on match day!
Lost in the midst of inter hockey hatred and Calgary's sudden allegience to that great hockey U.S state of Carolina, is the World Cup. The football world cup - no, I don't mean the Superbowl, real football - soccer if you wish. There is scant coverage of one of the biggest sporting events in the entire world (although it is slighty better than they cover it in the States), but the local pub in Cochrane is run by a man from Middlesborough, so at 7.00am, the doors open, and in rush a mob of football hungry Brits all from our tiny town!!! It so happens that Cochrane is an ex-pat community of no small number, and when inside the pub it was like time travel to the Old Queen Vic' in the East End!
Canada's lack of interest in the world cup may stem from their not participating in it (they did qualify once in 1990, but failed to score a goal and came home early). And, with the Stanley Cup looking like it's going south of the border again this year, perhaps it's time for me to get my brush out and prep for Canada's most eagerly played game - Curling.


It's a bit like crown green bowling on ice (everyting's played on ice because there's so much of the bloody stuff here!)

Maybe this is not the time to mention that Scotland (that other great sporting nation) beat Canada to the gold in the previous winter Olympics.

I'm pretty sure that someone will point out to me that Owen Hargreaves (on the England team at the world cup) was born and raised in Calgary. This is true - however, then many others will point out that he is like a sack of spuds and without doubt the weak link in the team. Ho hum, maybe I'll stick to searching for those bears..

I have stolen this piccie from a friend's blog (Ken the Yank spends far too much time surfing the web for useless info, but sometimes he comes up trumps and he found this pearler of a picture);

So there's the big scary critter, ready to kill at all costs, sat at the bottom of the, tree. The little ginger kitty apparently become somewhat pissed off when the dopey old black bear wandered through kitty's garden. Kitty, angered by bear's complete lack of respect for kitty's hunting ground, charged the bear which could fortunately climb at a speedy pace (goodness knows what would've happened if kitty had gotten hold of the bear!!!). The bear attempted to descend, but kitty, still in a rage (and still in the belief that she was in fact an enormous lion), roared (meowed) showed those ferocious claws, and forced the bear back up the tree. By all accounts, the owners had to call kitty back in after an hour or so by shaking a box of Friskies, so as to let the traumatised bear down from the tree and escape to safety. Forget bear spray and all that other gubbins when hiking, just take your cat! (Cheers Ken).

As for goings on, the weather is still struggling to find its form at the moment, but we did get out to show mother the sights and sounds of Banff at the weekend and plan to hike up one of Banff's landmark mountains this week (Mt Rundle).

Thought that after a bit of Canadian mockery in this post I'd redeem myslef and show a bit of Canadian national pride by gettin in a shot of the Maple Leaf.

Normally after a hike we'd end up at some greasy spoon cafe, but on the weekend it was a step up as we ended at the Banff Springs -and they didn't serve pints of tea in mugs - or have any slabs of teeth breaking flapjack.

Well, keep your fingers crossed for sunshine - (sunshine here, not England as it sounds like you've had your quota for summer now!).

Keep smiling,

S & S.

Elusive Critters

So my ongoing claims from previous posts about finding great shots of Canada's finest critters remain unfounded, apart from Yogi, but I suppose that's cheating (now where did Brina leave that picnic basket?).
Canada had been treating us to days of nice hot sunshine, which has now been jinxed by the arrival of mum! Nice one mother, bring Manchester's rain over here why don't you! The ironic thing is, it's warm and sunny in Manchester - I suppose if the North West is having good weather, the crappy stuff has to go somewhere ( just a pity it has come here!). We had told mum about the great views, and super climate - but there is a certain glint of disbelief as she is greeted by nothing but thick, dank, grey towers of cloud.
We are still playing catch up with this blogg, having missed out a whole chunk of winter, so just for the record;
Yes, the first ski trip of the winter was bloody freezing - Brina's eyes only froze too until we got back to the car - made her ski faster though!!!
All that white stuff was great fun, but we are realising how short the summer season is now (especially with all this rain) so are having to make the most of these long daylight hours. At least it keeps me out of the basement renovations (all that can wait until winter when it's dark and miserable - as there is nothing more miserable than DIY).


Despite the clear lack of animal photography (which may not seem like a big deal to North American viewers of this page - but to humble Europeans who shot all of their large mammals to extinction hundreds of years ago and now find nothing more incredible and ferocious than Scottish Blackface Lambs prowling the fells of the UK - this is quite a big deal) we did go in search of Canada's iconic critter - the Beaver!!! We found a lodge and lots of lumberjack work like this....



These guys can chew their way through some serious log.


There are a few hikes and what not to be done in the coming weeks, and a trip up to Japser (those of you who don't know where that it - look on a map! - oops, sorry, that's the Geographer in me coming out again, Jasper is about four hours north of here, beyond the Columbia Icefields).

Anyway, hoping all is well with each and every one of you,
Cheerio for now,
S & S.

P.S. And big ups from Yogi as well (we'll get him next time).

One Year and Counting

Woo Hoo!!! We made it! May 27th 2006 has been a massive landmark for me, considering the testicle tumour terrors of last May 27th! To celebrate we went down to Waterton Lakes National Park, which borders Montana in the US and Glacier National Park (the same place where I had a little difficulty gaining access earlier this year - see previous posting). It was awesome just to get away and take a good deep breath of fresh air and raise a glass to the future. The only thing that wasn't on our side was the sun. So much for my posting "the sun has a very big hat" - well we found out this weekend that the sun doesn't have a hat at all, or if he (she?) does, it wasn't being worn in Alberta. It didn't stop *issing it down all weekend. As you can see below, the torrential rain made for a very busy high street in Waterton on Saturday afternoon.

Not to be deterred, we fought our way through the none existent crowds and made the most of the very few coffee shops and tea houses that were open. Waterton is an amazing place. Absolutely beautiful mountains at the southern end of the Canadian Rockies, but the town only has a permenent population of about 35 people. The summer season is really short there - from end of May through to Sept. It's a UNESCO World Herritage Site and has a whole load of other accolades. The wilderness makes for a rather dense population of bears, Grizzly and Black - although we saw neither on this trip.

We stayed in a cosy little lodge called Kilmorey Hotel (It is one of only two places that is open all year round and dates back to 1911 - remember Brits reading this, that's old for Canadians! Most of the decor hasn't changed since 1911, and in that sense it really fits in with the whole feel of Waterton - like stepping back in time).

Braving the weather on Sunday (it still hadn't stopped raining), we headed up to Redearth creek to hike. No rain up there!! ha ha. Just snow - and plenty of it falling for the end of May. We plodded through the snowy trails for a few hours, shouting and a hollering just to make sure any critters knew we were there. As you can see, some of the wildflowers were out, foolishly thinking that Spring had arrived sometime last week in Waterton, only to be inundated with snow now;

These purple flowers must have got the shock of their lives when the snows began again this weekend.

Now I know what they mean when they say; "If you don't like the weather, just hang on five minutes and it'll have changed".

Here's Brina all ready for action with the Bear spray just in case there's a big old hungry Grizz creeping up behind me whilst I take the photo!

(Just keep that safety cap on for now Brina!)

So despite the weather, all was good and we're just looking forward to celebrating every May 27th from now on! Only two check ups per month from next month onwards...

As for other things.. I keep promising more animal photos (beavers etc..), they'll be up soon, hopefully with the Osprey pictures. We have an Osprey nesting out in the field in the front - which is quite unusual as it is not that close to water - although the Bow River is just across the way. We sit out on the deck viewing it and are hoping to see it's chicks pretty soon!!!

Work is still work for us both (although everybody keep your fingers crossed that my Visa papers still come through in time).

Hope everyone is fit and well,

Live Strong,

S & S.

The sun has a big hat

How do,
(thought a northern greeting was appropriate today). The summer rolls on now, and the climbing season seems to be getting underway. I'm still adjusting to being able to clip to bolts on each route - but it sure beats my dodgy gear placements (to which I am sure many of you can attest!). The big deal at the moment is that it is nearly May 27th (one year since being diagnosed with cancer) and all is looking well! The Tom Baker Cancer hospital here has been superb (I'm actually due there later today for my monthly bollock squeezing, eye watering, blood taking, x-ray fun...) Once we hit the year mark I only have to visit once every two months and will need only four CT scans in the entire next year!!!!! Woo Hoo!!!! So May 27th is going to be a big party day in Cochrane (hopefully it'll involve a hut somewhere with climbing gear and a keg of Canada's finest gnats piss) - although it wont be quite as big a day as May 20 - Happy birthday in advance mum (21 again no doubt).
The photo of Brina is from the day I landed back in the land of Canucks - rather than head off to Tony Roma's for spicey ribs and greasy chips, she'd packed up a Japanese style picnic that we went to the mountains for - all very nice!!
Just for the heck of it, the first site had the front of the house, so here's the back garden (yawn);


The lower floor is the walkout basement which I have been claiming to be renovating - which is such laborious work. My plastering and tiling skills are testing my patience, but it may be finished by 2010.











Anyway, that's as brief as it can be for now but there'll be a few piccies of beavers (the big water rat variety that is) next time.
Hope everyone is fit and well,
Live Strong,
S & S. p.s. As you can see, it's nice when you have the road all to yourself

Nine months in one paragraph

Well folks, making this blog just goes to show that my geekiness has reached a new level. It has only taken since last September for me to get around to doing this - so my idea of documenting our life through our first Canadian winter is now a little flawed as it is May and super sunny, all the real snow has gone and it is well into hiking, climbing and biking season (for that, also read Bear season - but I'm sure there'll be more about those critters at some other time).
For those of you who may have missed it, we did land in Alberta last August, had a super wedding in Banff, bought a house in the foothills of the Rockies and began teaching in Calgary. Well, Sabrina is teaching full time, the authorities are a little reluctant to give me full teaching status yet...
Winter was full of of ski-ing and playing in the snow and ice - the end of the season was completed with the arrival of Browny and Nic who visited for ten days and had their first taste of ski-ing (photos to follow).
I'm still waiting for my work visa extension - not quite sure when it will arrive, but hopefully it gets here before the deportation papers do. (I've already had trouble getting into the States this year - apparently I had been an illegal alien in the US for the past 244 days!!!! - I knew nothing about it, but their computers certainly did and the alarm bells rang and lights flashed when we tried to drive into Montana a few weeks back).
Having just returned from a great few days back in Blighty (seeing family and new members of the Tate family) we are picking up with summer fun now - having had a good weekend climbing at Grassi Lakes in Canmore, we're off this evening for more of the same (good old long summer nights...).
Future postings will be rather specific to keep you all up to speed with Canadian antics, this garbled posting is just to check that this blog actually works...
Cheerio for now.

S & S
Here's a quick snap of the house.
The Piccie at the top is at a crag called Wasootch where we spent a lazy afternoon last week - we did manage to climb a few routes but were more interested in testing out how bear spray works (note to all, ensure any bear spray, no matter how little, does not blow back into your face - unless you desire burning throat and streaming eyes for a good few minutes - take it from me, it's not very nice).

Just one more thing, I couldn't resist putting up a photo of Browny trapped in a tree, into which he crashed going backwards on his first ever ski run - obviously I promised never to show anyone this shot to maintain his macho ego, so publishing it online seems the only thing to do.