Snow & Rocky Mountains

We have woken today to another big snow dump and we are expecting another 15cms this afternoon and overnight. Even the children are getting fed up with it now! 'Oh not more snow'! Olivia said this morning!

We had a great time in the Rockies last week. It it such an amazing change of scenery to go from the very plain flat Prairie to the awesome sights as you approach
the Mountains. Very beautiful. We visited Lake Louise again to see the ice sculptures that are there and the children had fun skating on the frozen lake (Leigh & I were too lazy to put our skates on!). It was a lovely day and for once the temperature was only just below freezing so we were able to spend a great couple of hours there.


Leigh & Ben skied at Sunshine for a day and had a great time. Ben came home with excited chatter of Black runs, 'Ollie's', 'Grinding' & attempts at mid-air 360's! Not content with just pointing his ski's downhill - how boring is that? I think Leigh's ears were bleeding by the time they got home!

We had a trip to the swimming pool in Banff; the children spent the whole time going
up and down the water slides whilst Leigh & I watched from the hot tub. Heavenly! We also managed to squeeze in a couple of visits to the Science Museum in Calgary as we stopped there en route to Banff and again on the way home. It's a great way of breaking up the journey.

So after a lovely break we are now back in Ralston. I'm off this weekend on the Wives Winter Exercise; Ex Frosty Frolics! It promises to be good fun and I can look forward to some Dog Sledding, Ice Climbing, Snow Shoeing & a tour in an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle). And a couple of sensible early nights. Obviously!

Hockey & Supper

Yet another quiet, chilly week in Ralston. That feeling of spring in the air which we had last week was swiftly put to an end with the return of temperatures around minus 20! There's not been much new snow though which is a bonus!


Leigh went up to Calgary on Monday evening to watch the Calgary Flames v Montreal Canadiens (ice hockey!) with a couple of guys from work. They had a great evening; beers, hot dogs and live sport, what more could a man ask for on a Monday night! They certainly had a birds eye view of the game! I think it is indicative to the size of Canada that people over here think nothing of making a 5 hour round trip for a night out!



Tuesday evening we had supper over at the Commanders house, well us and about 16 others; they have a very big table! As usual or so it seems, I get to sit next to the visiting Brigadier. But unlike the time before when I asked the Canadian Chief of General Staff if he was in the Army, I managed to work out that this chap was indeed in the Army therefore saving myself from further embarrassment! It did not occur to me however that the other 16 guests were all part of the same Brigade out here visiting and said to about the 6th guy I spoke to who told me he was from Catterick 'Oh really? Did you know the other guy I just spoke to is from Catterick too'... Quite a coincidence wouldn't you say, well I thought so anyway!


So we are just on Half Term out here this coming week (or Reading Week as they call it out here). We are having a quiet weekend before heading up to Banff of Tuesday for 4 days. Maybe a spot of skiing, ice skating, outdoor hot tubbing in sub zero temperatures.... we are all really looking forward to it. So I'll blog from The Rockies next week....

All quiet on the Ralston front!

It's been another quiet week in the Ralston - even the weather has been quite unremarkable! The temperature has barely dipped below freezing (causing a treacherous thaw!) and even the odd Gopher has been spotted around the village giving us all the false sense of hope that spring is almost upon us!

It seems that the weather in the UK is more of a talking point! Indeed I nearly fell off my running machine when I saw a picture of the A38 near Plymouth being shown on the Canadian news channel! It must be bad back there to get sympathy from the Canadians!

So not much to blog about this week; last Friday we had a good night in the village pub, followed by a fun Dinner party the next night... followed by a few much needed quiet nights! I`ve started a quilting course (yes, quilting!) which I really enjoyed and will (hopefully) end up with a patchwork `Quillow`, which is a quilt which folds up inside a cushion! So with that and my Ceramics I am turning in to quite the picture of domesticity! I`ve even been cooking a lot! Time to leave Ralston me thinks!

The children are all happy and well. Olivia said her `Promise`at Sparks (Brownies) this week and is now a fully fledged member (i.e I have a lot of badges to sew!) and Ben and Charlie are happy sledging just about everywhere!



Leigh took these fantastic pictures of the sunrise over Ralston very early O`clock en route to the gym... not something I will see first hand!