Rocky Mountain High

Now he walks in quiet solitude the forests and the streams,
Seeking grace in every step he takes,
His sight has turned inside himself to try and understand,
The serenity of a clear blue mountain lake.

I think I know what Mr. Denver meant when he wrote this. I'm not a religious person but I couldn't help myself from thinking about the whole creation thing, and just how beautiful our world really is when we were in the peace and tranquility of the stunning Rocky Mountains.

Every corner turned was a new feast for all of our senses and every road we took provided us with another unique adventure. This really was our very own Rocky Mountain High.

As far as I'm concerned you can never tire of looking at lakes and mountains. They are so awe inspiring. When you start to consider how long they've been there, how big they are, the effect they have on the weather, the science behind how they came to be there and how they've changed over millions of years. But most of all for me at least, how beautiful they are!

So looking at mountains from ground level and from a distance is wonderful enough but we couldn't resist the temptation to get a closer look and to see the world from the mountains' point of view.

This is the Jasper Tramway. The longest and highest guided aerial tramway in Canada. From up at the top we could see the town of Jasper way below, six mountain ranges, glacial fed lakes with that beautiful blue colour, the one in the centre of the picture below is Lake Beauvert at the Jasper Park Lodge, the railways and the huge long freight trains and the Athabasca River.

The ride up was around 15 minutes and all the way up to 2277 meters (7472 ft) we had a guide explaining what we could see, the weather, and the history and mechanics of the cable car system. We had a wait of around 2 hours at the base station so we took that time to return Sarah back to the log cabin as the sight of the gondola swaying had unfortunately turned her stomach over.
Katie however is a more rugged explorer and couldn't wait to get up high and see 'stuff'.

At the corner of the Athabasca river in the picture below I've painted on a blue dot. This is to show you where our log cabin is situated. Bear in mind that I'd zoomed in considerably to get this picture and you can imagine how high up we were. Sarah by this time was in there, reading Peter Kay and eating chicken soup :-)

Linda had taken along a packet of short bread biscuits. Not just because she's a nutter, but because she wanted to enter a competition about eating these biscuits in exotic places. After this photo shoot and a very big lung-full of the freshest air you can imagine, we had a mountain top lunch. Chili Dogs and Chocolate milk! Very nice....

While we were in Banff we booked a treat for Katie. An afternoon riding session from the Warner Stables.

It was such a beautiful afternoon and Katie along with several other people was taken into the paddock to be assigned her horse for the ride.

No helmets or boots, or chaps, or body armour required, just sign the waiver and choose your horse. Fantastic really, it was nice and exciting just to watch them set it all up and in the backdrop of the mountains it was real wild west stuff with chuck wagons, dawgs, checked shirts and big hats!

The instructor asked Katie if she'd ridden before and then told her forget everything she knew. "We do things differently out here, you'll be ridin' western style, both reins in your left hand".

As you can see from above, Katie was completely stressed out by this...

The steed is named Millet and they very quickly became great Friends. The horses we so incredibly well trained, you can't imagine how calm they all were in the coral with all these strangers around them and clicking cameras etc.

So they set off for what would be 2 hours of strolling and trotting up the mountains, through shallow streams and pine forests.

Apparently is was "the best ride EVER!!!"


The town of Banff is very pretty. Set amongst the mountains and we stayed here for 3 nights. Lots of shops for skiing, walking, climbing and lots of superb restaurants.

While Katie was off being a cowgirl we had a walk around Banff....

Looked at the Banff Springs Hotel and it's fabulous golf course; how much would I like to play here!

Later that evening we did more of the getting up high thing with a trip up Mount Norquay. The view from even half way up was amazing, this was looking out over the town of Banff towards what I think is Cascade Mountain?

Norquay is a busy ski resort for a lot of the year and we could see the runs and lifts among the trees at the top. We also spent a good hour or so watching these little chaps go about their business.

These are Columbian Ground Squirrels, also known as Prairie Dogs, or to give them their proper Canadian name, "Grounn skwurrlls"

They are magical. They appear from their holes in the ground and seem to take it in turn to watch out for things... such as bears and birds of prey of which there are many around here... They forage for a living and eat a varied diet including seeds, fruit, insects, bulbs, roots and stems, they eat as much and as often as possible as they are hibernating creatures too. Very entertaining and very cute!


The Rocky Mountains are a truly wonderful and special place on Earth. Very beautiful, very peaceful, and very rewarding for those who dare to adventure. And Katie did!

The Office

This is my new home office.

I thought I'd share the story with you of how it came to be for several reasons...

1. I'm extremely proud of it! In fact I feel like a new parent, it makes me smile every time I look at it :-)
2. I should have done it years ago. For the last couple of years when working at home I've either worked in the kitchen, sitting at the dining table which is 99.999% of the time piled high with 'stuff', or else I've worked in the conservatory, which with the general weather in Burscough for 11.75 months of the year, has the rain/hail battering down on to the plastic roof and has singularly resulted in my considerable loss of hearing, my reduced sanity, and many abandoned conference calls.
3. Ok... I may have been a little obsessed with this project for the last month... perhaps
   
4. Everyone thinks I'm mad... and this is why...

Yep! It's a shed.

I took delivery of the new shed and immediately started by putting 2x2 runners on the floor. This was to allow for insulating and 'floating' the floor for comfort, stability and warmth.

Next I laid rockwool insulation on the floor, I just happened to have a few rolls spare in the loft.

When the floor was done I had to use the floor boarding temporarily to allow me to insulate the walls. Seems a little back to front but the purpose for doing it this way was to be able to lay a single vapour barrier covering the floor in one piece and halfway up the walls.

With the walls mostly done, it was time to lay the polythene vapour/moisture barrier. This allows the shed and insulation to breath on the 'cold side' and prevents any moisture from seeping inwards to the inner lining. I can't tell you how hot this particular job was!

Now I could lay the floor properly and this would be helpful for the rest of the fit out. The boards are 12mm ply wood, glued and screwed to the battens I laid at the start.

Insulating the ceiling was by far the toughest job. Again, I ideally wanted a single membrane which would drape down the walls and meet the opposite sheet coming up from the floor. For the sake of fastening it all up, I had to work across the roof struts rather than in between and then overlay the polythene as I did each piece.

Once that was done it became a lot less taxing and a little cooler.

Katie helped me with the plasterboard on the ceiling, she held the pieces in place whilst I hammered them into place.

I added extra 'glazing'. With some 3mm plastic sheeting. Sealed the existing windows on both sides, and the new glazing with silicone and then put in a frame to make it all neat.

Linda kindly kept me fed and watered throughout!

During the plaster boarding, it became apparent that nothing was exactly straight. Ok... it's a shed after all! At this point, I ceased to be a perfectionist.

The plasterboard was sealed with caulk and the flooring and windows etc sealed with silicone to allow for any movement.


I put the wiring in before boarding out, taking careful note about the path of the cables.

The opening window had a slight leak so I fitted a weather board over it and sealed it with silicone. That fixed it. I also fitted a deadlock before boarding the inside of the door, which I did with 6mm ply wood rather than plasterboard.

The finishing touches to the door, floor and windows was some architrave. I did this for aesthetic purposes so that it looked better and so that no plasterboard edges were visible at all.

For added security, I put steel lugs in the hinge side of the door/frame and a window lock.

When all of that was finished it was time to paint. Linda suggested some 'Light Space' paint which reflects twice as much light as normal paint. It works!


The dark blue finishes it all off nicely.

Next was somewhere to work. I looked at desks and my major concern was the legs. In such a tight space, I needed a work surface with no legs in the way and I wanted make the most of the available space. I built a frame out of 2x2 timber and braced it in the corner. The wood was fastened right through the plasterboard in to the 3x2 timbers of the shed itself.
I used 18mm MDF sheets as the desktop, fastened together with dowels and screwed to the batons from above and the brackets from underneath. The result is a very strong desk :-)

I took the edges off all around and sanded the joint down to ensure an even work surface. I used a primer and 'Paint and Grain' to finish the look. 3 coats of satin varnish ensured a permanent finish for me. Finally, I cut 80mm holes in the desktop and fitted cabling grommets and an under desk cable tray to keep it all safe and tidy.

Finally... the electrician came and terminated my electrical work to ensure that it is all safe and sound. Katie and I found a blind in the sale at Focus, the carpet tiles are down, I've got some plants, a DAB radio, a mains fed wireless doorbell extension, a mains fed Ethernet network extension, a bluetooth speakerphone, an oil filled radiator on a thermostat and timer, some family pictures, a coffee and my sandwich.... what more could I need?


Home Sweet Home :-)

Trains and Boats and Plains

You know that all-excited feeling that you get when you arrive somewhere for the first time, and you feel the heat on your back or the cold on your face, you smell the different air and you lie awake in bed as your body and mind adjust and you listen to the strange sounds such as the sea, the wind, the birds, or the traffic, or the gun shots. Well... on our first night in Canada all I heard all bloody night long were train hooters. It was so exciting at first hearing that whistle blow but after several hours of it combined with our jet-lag, it became a little tiresome :-) I loved it really and I'd give anything right now to hear those horns as I sit here in Burscough, in the rain, again.

All throughout our journey up through the Rockies we encountered these wonderful freight trains again and again. We could drive along side them for an hour until they disappeared into a mountain and then we'd see him again as he emerged some miles later. They are so long! I've tried to find out just how long but facts out there are few and far between. I know that they can take up tp 15 mins to pass you by at a level crossing as we sat or stood and watched many. I believe that they can be as much as 2km long and when you consider that they are mostly double stacked, that's a very big train indeed. This one above was just leaving Jasper station and the driver gave us a wave as we stood and filmed him go by.

Our first boat adventure took place right behind Janet and Eamonn's house in Okotoks. This is the community lake and beach, yes... beach! Complete with a beach house which all of the residents can share. One can help oneself to pedalos and kayaks, so we did just that.

It was such hard work! Great fun though :-) Katie and I were pedalling like mad while Linda sat with her toes in the water and soaked up the sun. These pictures are taken with a disposable, waterproof camera and then scanned so the quality is not that good, but enough to enjoy the moments on the water.

We took this shot of the house from the lake and I've painted in a bright yellow sun so you can spot which one is theirs.

The houses surrounding the lake all have their own signature, be it a pier, a boat, an inflatable or even a private beach. It's a lovely facility and this would be the first of a couple of visits during our stay.

Another boat trip was on the beautiful Lake Minnewanka (pronounced Minner Wonker). The name means Water Of The Spirits and all along our tour the guide explained the legends that gave it that name. The lake is 17 miles long and has been made wider and deeper on several occasions with dams being added. There are even abandoned villages beneath the waves and divers come from all over the world to sit on the infamous toilet and cistern which still stands many meters below.

This was a lovely trip which took around 2 hours. The scenery is magnificent with everything from bare rocks to luscious pine trees. Wildlife can be spotted all along and we were lucky enough to see this chap sitting up in a lakeside tree.

Did you know that Canada actually has more Bald Eagles than America? and that America has more Canada Geese than Canada! Is it me?

After the cruise we drove back along part of the Minnewanka loop and we saw some Bighorn Sheep. We encountered these cheeky little beasts many times during our holiday but this was by far the closest.

The sheep graze on grasses and browse shrubs all over the mountains and plains and they lick salt and minerals from the rocks, at what are called Salt Licks.

I say cheeky because they just stand in front of your car and refuse to move and if it's been raining or snowing they'll surround the car and lick from it too! The Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep is the provincial mammal of Alberta.

Our next boating adventure was one of the most exhilarating and beautiful experiences I've ever had. Our Athabasca River rafting trip!

We'd booked this before we left the UK and I'm so glad we did. It was a gloriously hot and sunny day and we were picked up at the Jasper Park Lodge hotel in an old school bus. During the trip to the starting point we saw Coyote, Gopher and Elk.

The mountains and the river look stunning from the road of course but from the water, they take on a whole new perspective and seem to have more symmetry about them, you can see the shapes of the mountains and the trees as they have been carved out by the ice and water and winds.


The raft holds 24 people and the guides were complete nuts! Taking every possible opportunity to scare us, and to soak us.

This water is 4 degrees and under the hot sun, when you get a bucket full in your lap or over your head or down your shorts you know about it!

The guy behind Linda got soaked within the first 2 mins as a wave came aboard and went in the back of his shorts, as he put it, "Oh my Goard!! Straight down the freakin shoot!"

The ride was filled with every possible emotion. It was thrilling as it bounced along the river, it was scary as it spun around in the rapids,
it was peaceful as it bobbed along in the sunshine,
it was tiring as it took around 2 hours and we had to keep hold of the ropes and bend inwards over the really choppy bits and as we screamed and winced,
it was very funny with our guides trying to out-do each other and raconteuring all the way about bears, big cats, big birds, dumb tourists, dumber tour operators, and more...
it was educational as they explained rock formations and tree patterns, it was absolutely fantastic!! Somehow... and I'm not quite sure how.... it was also very relaxing :-)

We saw Osprey along the way too and then right at the very end as we arrived at the destination site they took this super photograph as a memento of the day.