What season it it here?

Well we have had an exceptionally quiet week here, so I'm not sure what I am going to write about this week - apart from the weather of course, which has been pretty grim! For the first time since arriving here, I have actually been envious of the UK weather - a mini heatwave I hear (though according to Sky news you have been under a blanket of smog as a result!). It's been cold, wet, grey and thundery, and there has even been more snow nearby. It's quite funny to see everyone dashing between buildings here in the village, dodging the rain, as it seems absolutely no one out here, including me, has an umbrella! Things are looking up as from tomorrow though, lot's of warm sunshine expected and +23 by the weekend. So it's just been the usual
round of after school clubs for the children and a couple of visits to the swimming pool. Not very exciting! Leigh is working all hours out on The Prairie; no one will be more glad than he when the weather improves. I think he spends a lot of time standing up in his vehicle with the top half of his body sticking out of the roof, so he can watch the exercise.... and therefore he gets rather wet! He has come home a few times this week soaking wet and quite unamused! Of course we have lot's of sympathy for the artic trained commando warrior!... We do!

Not a snow cloud in sight... Hurrah!

As expected it has been a quiet week for us here in Ralston, though I expect Leigh might disagree with that comment! So there's not much to blog about this week, though of course, in true English tradition I have to talk about the weather - which has been pretty good this week. Just one day of wind and rain; the rest of the week has been warm and sunny which is apparently the norm for this time of year. Lovely! We have spent lot's of time in the garden. Dare we say the worst is behind us?! Seeing and hearing the rain here this week was quite strange as I think it has only rained about 4 times since we have been here!

We have another quiet week ahead on the calendar and with the Med Man excercise now in full swing, the social life is not going to improve much for quite a while - well for Leigh anyway! In the mean time I'm taking up tennis lessons along with a few other girl's out here, which will be much safer and much, much more ladylike than my skiing!

Oh, P.S. Abi, just wondering if you are still at the Army v Navy?!!

Spring has sprung.... again!

After a week of snow & sub zero temperatures, which even by Canadian standards was quite unusual, we have had a lovely warm sunny weekend and it's set to continue. Thank goodness! Even poor Charlie opened the door one day last week and said "bloody snow"! Oops - not sure where he has heard that before! The main event here has been Charlie's 3rd birthday, which is actually today but we celebrated it on Saturday when we were all at home. He had a lovely day with lot's of presents to open and a
trip to Medicine Hat to spend some of his money, which he very much enjoyed. Other than that it's been pretty much all work and no play. Thing's are really 'ramping' up for Leigh with the onset of the Prairie season which starts on Thursday, and the recent snow dump has really hampered their progress (gosh, I sound like I know what I am talking about!). So we have a fairly quiet week ahead with not much planned - the children have a busier social life than we do this week, but with the Canadian winter well and truly behind us (we hope), we are looking forward to spending lot's of time in the garden... famous last words perhaps!

Alberta or Alaska?...We are snowed in!

So much for being decidedly chirpy about the warm sunny weather we have been enjoying recently - this weekend we have seen the biggest singular snow dump that we have had here all winter...and it's still snowing...and it's set to continue. We haven't made it out of the village all weekend - we can't even get the car out of the drive and even if we could, the snow plough which has cleared the main road next
to our house has dumped several feet of snow at the end of our road. Thanks for that! As our fridge is looking worryingly empty at the moment (apart from some beers!) I decided to brave the elements along with Ben & Olivia and walk to our local shop. As nice as it was to get out of the house, I think we looked like something out of a Ranulph Fiennes documentary with all our snow kit on, our heads tucked in as far as possible whilst walking in a single file! My biggest regret was
that we were not wearing our ski goggles, which would have been very useful given the blizzard we hit once we got out of the shelter of the houses! Our plan for this weekend was to head up to The Rockies again but after my last experiece of getting caught in a blizzard with Mum in January, we decided to stay here. Good decision! So Ben is upstairs now praying that School will be closed tomorrow, studious Olivia will be most upset if it is and Charles I don't think is fussed either way!

Med Hat or 'The Med'!

It's been another fairly quiet week here in Ralston apart from Marluz & I going to see Pavlo & his band in Medicine Hat. We had a really great night - they were briliant! The music was a mix of Latino, Spanish & Greek. It was really entertaining and it felt like we were briefly in a bar somewhere in the Mediterranean...it was a shame to leave the theatre and realise we were in down-town Medicine Hat! Even more of a shame to find ourselves in 'Ralph's Texas Bar & Steakhouse' a little later, which is a really typical Amercian bar full of Cowboys, 'Red Necks' and pool tables! Luckily the band we had just seen were in there aswell, so we had a drink with them! Otherwise,
Leigh is very busy at work preparing for the Prairie & the children are busy at school. As you may have gathered from the blog title, we are now fully experiencing the wierd Canadian weather - warm sunny days with overnight snow flurries! We had a lovely weekend in the sun and yesterday we went to Lake Newell which is about an hours drive from here. It's a huge reserviour - the biggest in Alberta - complete with its own beach! Everything is huge here - the water stretched as far as the eye could see giving the feeling we were at the sea-side! There were even a few token sea gulls so we all felt very much at home!

Spring has sprung (we hope!)

We are all decidedly chirpy in Ralston this week as with the exeption of one days snow, we have been enjoying warm sunny days with highs of +14. We managed another picnic at Echodale on Sunday, which was lovely and I hear there were a few more BBQ's dusted off around the village. Sadly all this means that the Prairie season is almost upon us again and Leigh is already getting busy at work preparing for it. We had Leigh's 'team' (or whatever you call them!) over for supper on Thursday which was a really good night. One of them has vowed never to come back to our house
again, though I seem to remember he was the one helping himself to (rather alot of) the red wine! We had a fairly quiet weekend - the first in a while and it was actually quite nice not having much to do. The kids are loving the warmer weather and are constantly out on bikes/rollerblades/skateboards/scooters - any mode of transport that doesn't involve walking normally! Its nice for all of us not to have to wear our entire wardrobe just to go outside for a bit! We had the Flavells
(Marluz & Paul) over on Saturday eve - they are our perfect guests as they cooked and brought a fully prepared supper for all of us with them! So that was a nice eve. Marluz & I are off into Medicine Hat tomorrow evening to see a performance by a Latino guitarist called Pavlo...not sure what else to say about that!

It's STILL snowing!

Well so much for my blog last weekend from The Rockies.... It's now a week later and we are in Calgary! And it's still snowing! We had a nice time in The Rockies last weekend and Barbara & Anya enjoyed their weekend with us. We went on the cable car back up Sulphur Mountain and briefly visited the still frozen Lake Louise - it was sooo cold! Perhaps we are getting a little too blaze about The Rockies - we even forgot to take the camera! As soon as we see The Rockies from the car, Charlie say's 'no mountains, not today'! So here we are in Calgary. Yesterday Leigh & Ben went skiing at the Olympic Park here and had a great day. Ben was a very happy boy going over jumps and 'grinding' (whatever that is!). He really is very good at skiing. I went for the more life preserving option and took Olivia & Charlie to the
Science Park which they love. So we all had a good day. Today we went to this indoor play area/arcade, which the kids really loved but Leigh & I didn't! We are heading back to Ralston tomorrow but Leigh & Ben may get a couple of hours skiing in before we go as it is the last skiing weekend of the season here. So thats the Easter Hols finished here and the kids don't break up until Summer. Never mind eh!

Rain and colds

Apologies for this weeks overdue (and short) blog! As welcome as the warmer temperature is here, along with it has come grey skies, rain and colds! Leigh & the children were poorly last week and just when I thought I was going to get away with it... it caught up with me on Monday! So not a great week all in all, but we are all much better now and are looking forward to heading off to The Rockies on Saturday. Barbara and Anya arrived safely last Sunday and have been off exploring the Medicine Hat shopping mall...infact they have gone back today for a second look and are there as I blog! Last day of school today for the kids as they break up for the Easter holiday. Ben is beside himself with the thought of 10 continual days off school, whereas Olivia is more concerned with whether the Easter Bunny will find us in Canmore! Happy Easter to you all - I'll blog again from The Rockies at the weekend.

Melting snow and picnics

At long last the weather seems to be warming up here in Canada. We currently have the benefit of the warm Chinook winds blowing in our direction and on Sunday we had a balmy high of +12. So we had a lovely family day out with a picnic at Echodale National Park, and I have just noticed that other Batus Blogger out here had a BBQ!
Luckily for us it feels warm enough to enjoy these outdoor activities and have the added bonus of still being able to chill the beer in the remaining snow! Before we dust off the flip flops and get carried away with thoughts of summer just yet, apparently the winds can change direction at any time and we are just as likely to wake up to more snow!

Kids are all cool. Leigh is back from his 'working' week in the UK & Germany. I'm hearing stories of Leigh narrowly making his flight back on Saturday...any idea's Mike & Lou?! Quiet week ahead here and freinds are coming over for supper on Friday. Then on Sunday we have Leigh's mother & sister, Barbara & Anya coming for a week, so we'll be heading back to The Rockies again soon - any excuse!

Spot the Space Cadet!

Another quiet week here in Ralston and we are all quietly optimistic that the weather is about to change for the better. We have had a few snow flurries recently, but it is warming up, and for the first time in months we can see patches of grass in the garden - a sure sign spring is on the way. We have also seen the odd gopher around which must mean that even they think it's warm enough to start coming out of hibernation! Ben & Olivia have now started soccer school on a monday (to add to the
long list of after school activities!) and are both really enjoying it. There's not much in the way of clubs for Charlie to go to but he really enjoys tagging along and having the run of the sports hall or ice arena without Ben & Olivia bossing him around! So with the exception of a fun supper party at a neighbours house on Thursday, the children have a busier social calendar than Leigh & I do! As some of you may already know, Leigh is currently back in the UK for a week, mostly around the Minley/Tidworth area and he's popping over to Germany for a couple of days midweek too. I know he is trying to get to see as many friends as he can between work
commitments. So maybe when I say the children have a busier social calendar than Leigh & I do, perhaps I should just say, a busier social calendar than I do!