May your days be merry and bright...

We were lucky enough about four years ago to have a snow fall on Christmas Day, we were partying at my brothers house in Rainhill at the time and the excitement was prodigious with snowball fights and hastily made sledges from bin liners, wheelie bins, car bonnets, small pets, small children, satellite dishes, cake tin lids, you name it. The children quite enjoyed it too!

But it's been many years since I woke up on Christmas morning to a beautiful scene of fresh white snow like this...

This is the view that we were so blessed with over Christmas... It was still cold as I may have mentioned before but what a treat it was to wake up and look out of the window

As we awoke we rang The Girls who were back in the UK having almost had the entirety of their Christmas day. They were very excited and were having a really great day. Then we rang our parents as we took turns in the bathroom and got ready for our breakfast. Boy... WHAT a breakfast! We had the first of our Christmas day banquets in Poppies Bistro, I've never seen so much choice, so much quality, and so many greedy b*stards going up for helping after helping. It's Christmas Day for Christ's sake! Calm down!! It's not like you're going to starve is it!? Anyway... the scene outside was beautiful.

Children and their parents walking in the snow, skating around the ice castle, dogs with little Thinsulate boots on, yes... really!, horse drawn sleighs, and such a wonderful atmosphere of "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays!", it was completely and utterly wonderful.

Janet and Eamonn had more magic up their sleeves for us and we set off for a Christmas Day walk in the snow, to Johnston Canyon. We drove along the Bow Valley Parkway and every time I looked out of the truck window I just had to take another picture. This one below is a frozen river that had babbled along so blue and so energetically during the summer. It was amazing to see it so white and so still.

The walk up Johnston Canyon started with our second Christmas Day banquet, Janet's sausage rolls!! Delicious!

Named after a lucky prospector who discovered gold whilst panning in the (now named Johnston) creek which is a tributary of the Bow River. The walk is very exciting and takes one up through the beautiful canyon via a set of paths which have been enhanced to accommodate all of the walkers and climbers in all seasons.

There are amazing views all along the paths of the frozen water cascades, waterfalls and the breathtaking displays of crystals and hints of Athabasca 'blue' within the pure white snow.


We were so fortunate on this day that the sun was shining, this added so much life and allurement to the displays before us as it shone through the trees and inside the icicles and behind the frozen falls.

Then every so often there's a striking display of frozen blue which looks so out of place. Everything is so peppermint white and then out of nowhere you see a frozen blue spray as if somebody has spilled a pot of ink.

The scale of the place is stunning. It stops you in your tracks when you realise that the entire canyon has been formed by this now pathetic trickle of a creek which doesn't even have the strength to peep though its winter blanket.

Linda was so stunned by the beauty of the canyon that she decided to have a closer look. She still hasn't forgiven me for taking this photograph when she fell on her bum, rather than helping her up. Well... The way I see it is; It's Christmas day, your away from home, it's snowing, you have a camera around your neck, and some dozy bird falls on her ass... in the snow... right in front of you. What do you do? Opportunity - A favorable or advantageous circumstance or combination of circumstances. Chivalry - the rules and customs of medieval knighthood. Which would you choose?

As we reached the bottom of the main falls the noise was huge! We could see the water gushing down behind the ice and then bursting out into the pools at the bottom.

Once again the colours and the ever changing ice formations were truly breathtaking.

We left the canyon and headed for Banff where we were treated to the magical sight of several hundred Elk resting on the frozen waters of the Vermillion Lakes. Resting at least until several over enthusiastic people walked across the frozen waters to get a closer look, and scare them all off. We had our third Christmas day banquet in Starbucks, Banff. Well... a nice warm drink anyway :-)

As the evening drew in Eamonn took us for a drive around the Minnewanka loop and we had a close up encounter with an Elk or two of our own.

How weird was it to see the pier on the lake all frozen in! That (above) is where we caught the boat from last summer :-)

As we stopped to admire Two Jack Lake we were treated to the most dazzling sunset.

It was like our very own Northern Lights display. My pictures don't do justice to how special and how romantic this 10 minute period really was! It looked as though the mountains were on fire and the rocks were radiating heat. The ice was melting just enough to give off some steam and then freezing again as if it hadn't changed. The whole occasion was so special that I couldn't take my eyes off it for a second.

It was like one of those moving pictures that one can buy from the Sunday supplements! but VERY real! And then it was gone....

We raced back to the Chateau Lake Louise where we had our final banquet of Christmas Day. A truly special event that we'd booked for in advance, in a true banqueting hall (although we did have a private room just off the main hall) with every possible type of food you could imagine. Between us all we ate FAR too much and I had three foods that I'd never eaten before including rabbit, goose, and bear.

Calm down!! I was joking about the bear! :-)

Walking In A Winter Wonderland

This is a Chinook! Pronounced as Shinnuck or if you come from Prescot, Tyinn-Yuke.

We were treated to a perfectly clear vision of this natural phenomenon on the morning of Christmas Eve as we headed out towards the Rocky Mountains. Sometimes known locally in Alberta as a 'Snow Eater' this is a warming wind which can raise the air temperature by as much as 30 degrees for anything from a couple of hours to a couple of days. We noticed an increase from what had been around -23 to about -10. It looks amazing as if there is a glass bowl or bubble above the mountains which prevents the clouds from falling any lower. They can shift as much as 10 to 12 inches of snow in a day... In A Dayyyy!!!!

The closer we got to the mountains the more incredible the snow was and the winds started to play tricks on our eyes. The sky was pure blue, the mountains pure white and the roads were alive with a dancing carpet of snow which changed shape and direction by the second. Another second later and it was perfectly clear again. We started to see double after a while.

We arrived at Lake Louise just in time to see Santa arrive with presents for all the children which was very nice, very appropriate and added to the magic of the moment. Although it has to be said that he was FAR too thin to be the real Santa! I suppose that can be forgiven as it was Christmas Eve, himself would have been a bit busy...

The setting was nothing less than spectacular and it was smiles all around as we stood in front of the lake where we had taken pictures of blue water and canoes just months ago. Today there were skaters and an ice sculpture and we even went for a walk... On The Lake!

It was one of those moments where you think that you could die at any moment. You know, you realise that you are standing on some frozen water and even though there are people skating around you and horses dragging sleighs around you, that slightest little slip and the unease takes over your entire mind and you start to walk as though there are two hairs on your bum tied together and your already hanging on desperately to the (invisible) sides as you expect the ice to give way beneath you and plunge you to your icy death!

Or was that just me?

After our (somewhat-pathetic-penguin-like-shuffle) stroll on the lake we walked in a true winter wonderland.

The woods around the lake were dusted continually with the softest, whitest, prettiest snow I've ever seen and the trees looked beautiful as they glistened happily from every angle.

Of course some people just can't enough snow and despite the -Christknowshowcolditwas temperatures and the fine mist of falling snow, they have to create their own storm!

Everyone knows one!

Eamonn was VERY mean about Janet's new hat and said that she wouldn't look out of place just over the Cuckoo's nest.

We attended the General Manager's reception in the early evening which was a lovely event. Fabulous beers, wines, egg-nog with and without alcohol and stunning canapes were abundant and one of the managers took the time out to speak to us as he "really likes Australians!" (Eamonn talks funny you see...)

It was a lovely event in a truly lovely setting and at least three of us got a little tipsy ahead of what was to be a wonderfully warming Christmas Eve meal, at the Salt Lik steakhouse, Banff.

Buddy Marvellous!

We had a genuinely brilliant night out on Saturday watching 'Buddy - The Buddy Holly Story' at The Lowry in Salford Quays, Manchester. Linda and I bought the tickets last year as Christmas gifts and the evening had been eagerly anticipated. We took along Sarah and Katie, Linda's parents Geoff and Hazel and My parents Geoff and Eileen and we started off the event with a lovely meal in the adjacent Pizzeria. My Dad and I did the driving and we were so lucky with the traffic as Manchester United were hosting Everton in a re-arranged match! After the meal which was enjoyed by everyone we were treated to another feast of foot-tapping and hand-clapping right from the opening scene. The cast were truly superb and re-created the whole story and the sounds and scenery with a first class performance. If you'd have asked me beforehand how many Buddy Holly songs I knew I would probably have struggled to name 5, but as the show progressed I was amazed at how many I knew! All of them I think!! The band were marvellous and the extra performances of Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper added to the musical genius and the comedy of the event which told the tale of how the music so tragically died exactly 50 years ago tomorrow, 03-FEB-59.

But Baby It's Cold Outside...

Linda and I were lucky enough to spend Christmas back in Alberta, Linda for 2 weeks and poor old me just for 10 days... Imagine for a moment the most cold that you've ever been... now imagine being even colder than that... no... colder still... try to imagine spending an hour locked inside a butcher's deep freeze... with no clothes on... when you've just stepped out of the bath, and your heating isn't working... and you've no dry towels... You still have NO idea how cold this place can be!

No it's not a pair of hooligans about to rob the local 7-eleven, and it's not a pair of deeply religious ladies from the middle east either... this is Janet and Linda going out for a 10 minute stroll. 10 minutes, that's all and they have to disguise themselves as the Michelin Man and Sir Ranulf Fiennes. All of this, 4 layers of everything, just so that they don't get frostbite and lose patches of skin, parts of digits or even entire limbs on the way to fetch a loaf of bread, frozen bread of course. This is no exaggeration... It's medical fact that at or below zero degrees, the blood vessels in the extremities of the body start to constrict. This helps the body to maintain it's core temperature and is like an inbuilt defence mechanism against extreme cold. The body wishes to protect the vital organs inside and so it sacrifices the bits furthest away from the heart. At or below zero, remember that's what I said... This picture was taken at -26. Yes, -26! In the glorious Alberta sunshine!

That wasn't the coldest we felt or witnessed from inside the cuddly warmth of Janet and Eamonn's home. We saw -33 one night and the windchill apparently made it effectively -42. We didn't feel that one for ourselves, we just peered out of the window, and then into the bottom of a warming glass and plate of something delicious, and hot . On average, it took us all about 20 minutes to get dressed with thermal base layers, fleece layers, woollen layers, outer layers ranging from goose down to sheepskin, two layers of gloves, hats made from Moose Ox, scarves made from cashmere, socks thicker than the cast of Emmerdale in a particularly poor episode and boots that wouldn't look out of place on the moon. Still... with all of this, one couldn't protect ones eyes.... cheeks... lips... and within minutes, seconds even, you could start to see ice crystals forming on each others eye lashes and you could feel the sharpness of the air inside your nose and throat, so unnatural compared to the rest of your hot-water-tank like lagged body, that it felt as though someone or something was forcing you to inhale and swallow cold steel, very cold steel.

Still... It was SO pretty! The fresh dusting of powder snow glistened in the sunlight every time we turned a corner or rolled another step. No, I do mean rolled... it isn't actually possible to walk wearing that many clothes so you just have to kind of roll from side to side until you get a slight forward momentum, like one of those amazingly obese Americans that feature in all the latest round of reality TV shows. The snow is gorgeous! I smiled to myself and sometimes completely overtly every time it crunched under our feet with every step we took, and the sight of the Rocky Mountains in the distance looked somehow unreal against the pure white foreground and the beautiful powder blue sky. This photograph below is Linda and I, or was it me and my Sherpa, Tense-ing?, in front of the Beach House in Crystal Shores. The lake is completely frozen now and the residents spend hours and hours every day clearing snow from the ice, spraying water onto the exposed ice, and polishing the new ice layer to enable the children to play hockey for, oohhh... 10 minutes maybe. Maybe 12 minutes at the weekends... The best sign I saw which was in the middle of a 5 foot snow drift, just inside the gate to the now completely frozen snow covered lake, read "Danger! No Swimming. No Life Guard On Duty!".

The place looks so different in the snow, to me it is far more beautiful with its white coat on and somehow it has a great deal more dimension and far more colours and different shades and shadows. Only a few months ago we strolled around here in our shorts and sandals drinking copious amounts of water to stay cool. Now we shovel snow from the drive, a many times a week chore for poor old Eamonn, but for me... I'm on holiday, and PLAYING in the snow with a great big spade! It's like being 5 years old again :-)

Linda and I decided to go out for a short walk up towards the golf club which in the summer would take perhaps 15 mins. It took us more like 30 mins and we didn't get that far as it was just too cold and genuinely worrying at one point as we took off our gloves to take pictures of an icy overhang, and within no more than 90 seconds had to put them back on, and head back home where Janet and Eamonn very kindly didn't say "We told you so!" although there were one or two raised eyebrows and bitten lips.

We did get the pictures we wanted and here's one of them, but we didn't actually go out again unnecessarily until the temperature got to around, oooohh a balmy -17.

Eamonn chauffeured us about every day and along the way we saw many cars abandoned in the road and on the verges. This scene below is very common as well as very comical and we speculated that these vehicles hadn't been used for a day or two, but no more than that.

The town of Okotoks looks stunning in the snow, it kind of suits it even though it's not up in the hills and isn't a skiing resort. A wonderful place of comfort for us was the 'Tea and Time' tea rooms, a splendid little cafe where you can get every possible flavour of tea, and the most spectacular home cooked food. The soup and scones were a particular delight. As you can see from the next picture, it was particularly tricky to park outside as is usual in these parts and we had to walk perhaps 16 feet from the truck to the front door of the cafe. We were all starving by the time we got there after our hike.

This is the gang all warmed up and full of fresh mushroom soup and a Scottish Breakfast variety of tea. See... No hats!

I scared everyone one morning by announcing that as it was only -17 that I was going out for a walk to take some pictures. I wrapped myself up like a baby and headed out saying that I'd be back in about two hours. They however all heard me say that I'd be back in well under ONE hour and when I eventually arrived back they were just about to call for the Search and Rescue.
Ignorant of this panic I was happily wandering about Okotoks marvelling at the sheer beauty of the place and I noticed that after the first 20 mins I got used to the cold and as long as I breathed in through my nose, it didn't hurt anymore. I also noticed that my moustache, beard, scarf and collars were completely frozen up which amused me. Either that or I started to lose my mind in the cold?

The picture above is of the Sheep River. In the summer every time we passed by here there were people swimming and playing in this river. Amazing to see it now with foot prints all over it, some human and some not so.... Maddest of all is that you can still hear the water rushing by underneath and where it occasionally breaks through the surface, it causes steam clouds to bellow up. Fascinating! I didn't brave it out onto the ice... not with all the added weight of my clothes and cameras ;-)

This is a lovely little track which runs parallel with the Sheep River and the sun played all sorts of wonderful tricks with the light as it peered through the frozen branches, bounced off the powdery snow and burned through the icicles. It was very romantic and really awe-inspiring to wander along this path with no other noises than my foot falls.

The trees kept catching our eyes for all the time we were out and about and my solo walk was no exception. Every tree stands out against the sky and there was absolutely no wind to disturb the scene.
This scene is just around the corner from Janet and Eamonn's near to the Fire Station.

The highlight of this walk was coming across a sparrow roost in a road just behind the Tea and Time building. There were several hundred of these little birds huddled together in one tree to keep warm as they settled in for the night ahead. My presence didn't disturb them at all and even when I pointed my lens at them, they gave no more than a slightly irked flutter between them. The noise of them all chirping was lovely. I stood and watched them for a while, all communicating with one another and jostling for the best positions. I only moved on when I started to feel the cold through my arctic outfit. At this point I realised how and why people and animals die from cold. I started to imagine how tough life must be for people who live on the streets and tried hard to imagine, without success, just how they could possibly survive. Then as I walked up the hill back to Crystal Shores and a lovely warm home and welcome I thought to myself just how lucky I am not to have that knowledge.

Katie thinks that this picture should be our family Christmas card for next year :-)

I'll write more soon. Next will be the Rockies... Our fascinating and breath-taking trip up to Lake Louise for Christmas Eve - Boxing Day.

Is it time to order the stairlift?

I think I'm getting old.... I was in the shower earlier today and started to get very concerned when I couldn't see properly! I didn't know what was going on or how or why this sudden strange sensation of partial blindness had come over me.... then I bent down to pick up my bottle of Head and Shoulders (other shampoos are available) and my glasses fell off!! Is it me?