We've had another week of mixed weather here; everything from warm sunshine to hail and snow flurries, from freezing mornings to hot afternoons. It's just impossible to know what to wear!

Leigh is spending a huge amount of time out on the Prairie at the moment with some ridiculously early starts; this morning his lift was at 2.30am (and he only got home at 8pm the evening before) and that's not unusual! Thank goodness this is the last week of the exercise for this year and we can get back to some sort of normality... before we have to start getting up early again to hit the slopes! Grrr.



So the children and I have been spending alot of our spare time down at the ice arena, where I spend a back breaking hour helping Olivia & Charlie around the rink! Ben does help me as long as none of his friends are there... It's far too uncool to be holding your sisters hand going slowly around the ice - so uncool in fact that he will abandon her when one of them shows up! He's such a toad!



Olivia & Charlie love it though. Charlie can barely stand up yet and chuckles all the way around - he even asks me if I need a break to stretch my back! Olivia is improving each time and thankfully is reassuringly cautious! I did think she was going to throw in the towel though when she tore her favourite pink trousers!

Where does the time go? All is well in sunny Ralston though it has turned rather chilly recently. Some mornings on the school run it has been a brisk -12 but thankfully warming up by lunchtime. Tomorrow we are expecting a tropical high of +18. Weird Canadian weather! I have noticed a lot of geese heading south recently. Very sensible.


Last week I helped out on Bens school trip to the Dinosaur Park which was a fun! No need to re-read that sentence, I did actually volunteer to go! (I must have still been half asleep when I agreed to it!). We had a great day out, though my instincts were confirmed that Ben is indeed the class clown! Luckily he`s a very popular boy and gets away with it! Chaperoning 4 boys around the Badlands who are all keen climbers is a frightening experience though!


Leigh is thankfully on the last Medman of the year and will be very glad when that finishes at the end of this month - it's even colder out on the Prairie (of course!). All we'll be waiting for then is for the snow to arrive and the ski fest to begin!

Footage of Ben at hockey training - Olivia is still 'thinking' about playing; hopefully she will make up her mind before the end of the season! Thank goodness Charlie is too young!

Beware of the coyote!

Its been a pretty quite week here. Charlie and I are back in sync with the Canadian timezone and all is back to normal; school runs, swimming lessons, ice hockey... We have also been enjoying some fantasctic sunny weather with most days reaching +30. That's about to change though with an overnight of a chilly +1 forecast!

Ben is enjoying the ice hockey again and his '2nd year' status! He's improved vastly since starting just a year ago and he was more than happy to show the new ones his 'hockey stop' who were watching in awe! Olivia is still deciding whether to play or not. I think her main reservation is the fact that the hockey kit is not pink and sparkly and even worse, the ice skates are black! I think she maybe better suited to figure skating! Chilled Charlie is as laid back as ever and is happy being carted around from pool to rink - as long as he has a couple of cars in his pockets to play with!

I haven't taken any new photos for the blog this week, but I did managed to get some audio footage of a pack of coyote that must of been fairly close to the house late one night. They sounded alot louder than you can hear on the film (honest!), but it gives you a good idea of what the local wildlife sounds like around here! (Turn your volume up to max!)
Lol! Having listened to this now I have published it, they sound more like a couple of chihuahua's! :)

Briefly back in old Blighty

Yet another excuse for a late blog (this one better than being eaten by dinosaurs!); Charlie & I have briefly been back to the UK this week for a 6 day round trip. Quite alot of travelling for such a short trip, but it was needed to see the family and it was a marvellous excuse to catch up with some friends too!

We started off with a couple of days in Plymouth, seeing my Mum & brother and lots of other family, staying with my sister (thanks Nick!). Managed to squeeze in a trip down memory lane and spent a morning on the Barbican which was where I lived when I met Leigh... the sun was shining and it really looked lovely. Then we went off to Bristol to see Ros for the night at her new abode. Had a great night catching up with her and trying to keep track of what she's been up to! The next day we moved on to Bath and I had a chance to pop into our house, just to check it was still there - it was and pretty much looked like it did when we last saw it a couple of years ago (with the addition of a traffic bollard in the back garden! - those pesky students!) From Bath we went up to see Ed, Abi & Issy for the night in North London and were again well looked after - thank you! By this time Charlie was very happy to be in a house with a playmate and toys and utterly bewildered as to what was going on! After a morning there we moved on to see Mike, Lou, Ben & Olivia in Uxbridge before finally going on to Heathrow the next day. It's always a danger staying with Mike & Lou the night before catching a plane given our mutual appreciation of wine, however, unlike my husband who only narrowly made his flight, we were there in plenty of time and not too worse for wear - thanks guys!
So a real whirlwind week. Leigh turned into a domestic God juggling the children/work load with ease! (Perhaps I should do it more often!). The children looked well fed and nourished; in fact the only complaint was from Olivia who said that Daddy couldn't quite do her hair bobbles right!

Summer has returned

No late blog excuses of being eaten by dinosaurs, having broken laptops or issues with Microsoft - it's just been a pretty ordinary week and I've hardly taken any new photos!

Though the weather has warmed up here again the ice rink has recently reopened reminding us all that winter isn't far away. Leigh and I have decided not to play ice hockey again this year; it was good fun last year, but it soon began to take over our lives and it seemed like there wasn't a day in the week that one of us wasn't at the arena training or playing, which after this years hectic summer of 6 MEDMANs is not too appealing! (I also remember trudging down to the arena for 9pm training sessions when it was -20 and snowing!) Call us spoil sports, but we can well and truly tick the ice hockey box and leave it there! Ben will be playing again though and Olivia is keen to give it a go too. So to quote Sarah Palin, I'll be just a regular 'Hockey Mom' (no comparisons to the pit bull & lipstick bit though please!)

This weekend, the Medicine Hat Tigers (ice hockey team) were playing here at the Ralston arena showing off their skills which was fun to watch. And on Saturday evening there was an outdoor concert, `Larks in the park` played by the band of the REME, which was another good night - almost like Glastonbury, less the rain and ... alcohol! (NO outdoor drinking alowed in Canada!)

By the way, who is teasing me with fame in my hometown local rag? (see preivous blog comment) - Can't be one of my friends; it's too well written!!! Very funny though!

Brrr!

Another overdue blog and another week of being without a laptop for 5 days due to yet another unfortunate accident! Lets hope this is not going to become a weekly event!

Otherwise its been a pretty chilled week. We all enjoyed Leighs time off the Prairie; most of which was hot and sunny. We spent quite alot of time at the outdoor pool in Medicine Hat and at Echodale with bucket & spades (not sure what the children were playing with!) and made the most of the last week of the school summer holidays.


Then towards the end of last week the weather changed.... it went from a pleasant sunny 28 degrees to a cold and wet 5 degrees. The rain has now stopped but it is still chilly and there has even been snow in Canmore - news enough to wipe the smiles off our faces and send us all running indoors searching for our long forgotten winter gear! Indeed having learnt lessons from last winter, I have already ordered a Russian style fur trapper hat, complete with ear flaps! Nice! All I need to do now is to try not think about the rabbit I will be wearing on my head - especially as I pass the very cute family of rabbits that live under our shed all year round! I will get the same for all of us and in a couple of months time we shall look like some bizarre family out of Dr Zhivago!

Ben & Olivia are back at school now and Charlie starts at Little Gophers (pre-school) next week. After such a long summer break the children were surprisingly keen to go back to school yesterday - needless to say, for Ben, the novelty has already worn off!

Ralston Rodeo

It's been another very hot week here in Alberta. The highlight this week has been the annual Ralston Rodeo; Yee-Haa! Trucks, RVs, burger vans, horses, cowboys and, of course, numerous angry bulls rolled into the village to transform the Ralston Rodeo Arena, aka 'Fort Whoop-Up', into a full scale Rodeo event. It must be the Canadian equivalent of a travelling circus that moves from town to town; bizarrely the next day there was hardly any evidence that the Rodeo was ever here!

This year we only spent a few hours at the Rodeo as it was so incredibly hot (35+) and we left earlier than originally planned to cool off in the pool at Medicine Hat. We had a brilliant time and got to see a few (short!) attempts of the cowboys riding the bulls. Alongside that the kids had a great time clambering over the various displays of armoured vehicles laid on by the Prairie Staff (as did Leigh!). The travelling cowboys are absolutely crazy & I am surprised that in our current climate of `Health & Safety` they do not wear crash helmets, let alone the event ever being allowed to go ahead at all! As you would expect, there were lots of ``oohs and ahhs`` from the crowd as each cowboy nearly got impaled on a horn or got carried off on a stretcher - but I guess that`s all the fun of the Rodeo!

It is a relief that the current MEDMAN exercise has just finished and Leigh has a few days off. The plan is to spend more time at the pool and have days out at Echodale & Elkwater. The children only have 1 more week off school; Ben is particularly gutted about that, but, unsurprisingly I am doing cartwheels around the garden!

By the way, don`t worry if you can`t understand the North American drawl - neither could the rest of us!

Wives Prairie visit

Well what fun! On Sunday night a bunch of us wives spent a night out on the Prairie to see just what our husbands get up to and to watch the final nights live fire exercise unfold. We started out at 8pm and were taken to CFB Suffield for a safety brief & helmet issue. From there we were packed in to the back of a smelly, dusty, green truck and were strapped in to what can only be described as some sort of roller coaster seat (all rather OTT I thought at this point!) for our next journey up to EXCON (Exercise Control). To get to EXCON we had to travel on what is called 'The Rattlesnake' - a very bumpy, dusty track on which we were thrown around and completely covered in dust - at this point we valued our helmets and 'OTT' seating and we all had scarves covering our faces as we couldn't see or breathe! Once we dusted ourselves off at EXCON, we were fed and watered and were given a briefing on what the whole Medicine Man (MEDMAN) exercise is about before being given more kit ready to move on to the Prairie. Packed again into our smelly, dusty truck, we had an hours drive across the Prairie where we were thrown yet again around inside this truck (I think we could be heard for miles with all the shrieking & giggling - not from me of course!) before reaching our final destination at Madden's Rock.

We arrived around 1.30am, which was when I realised that I had packed nothing of any use in my rucksack; the rest of the girls were unpacking chairs, blankets, LOTs of food and flasks of coffee - all I had brought was (a now very squashed) marmite sandwich and a hairbrush! Just as I was beginning to feel very sorry for myself, Leigh appeared from out of the darkness and took me off to watch the exercise from his very warm & cosy TSV (Training Support Vehicle). I had never really thought very much of Leigh's TSV before, but at that time in the morning on a freezing Prairie I was becoming a huge fan of it!

So, as 'Jack' as it was to abandon the wives in favour of relative warmth and comfort in Leighs TSV, I showed my true colours and was off like a shot! The exercise itself was very impressive indeed. I have to say I was utterly confused about what was going on - lots of explosions, tracer fire, loud bangs and soldiers and tanks moving around. A lot of the firing was going over our heads (which was slightly alarming!) and I was listening to all the radio nets from Leigh's TSV. Needless to say I couldn't understand a word of it! Amazingly throughout all of the noise Leigh's driver managed to kip outside in the rear of the TSV and only woke when Leigh shook him to drive us to the next point in the exercise.

Sadly, I had to leave to exercise early at 7am to get back & relieve the babysitter before the children woke, which meant I missed the finale of the 'Python' being fired - a very expensive rocket that makes alot of noise & a big mess (and apparently clears a route through a minefield)! But all in all it was a really good night and I have alot more sympathy for Leigh being very tired. It has taken me about 3 days to catch up on my sleep; the men were still working long after we left!

I have attached a little bit of film which I took during the exercise and have since edited. The last scene is the 'Python' being fired which Leigh filmed for me. Sit back, I think you will be impressed!!!

Happy Birthday Nick!

Just a quick extra blog to say Happy 38th Birthday to my older sister Nicola! Happy Birthday chick - fame at last eh! (well except for that time when you were on Swapshop!) xxx Lookin' good bird!xxx

Summer fun

A much overdue blog... Thank you for your concern in Saltash; no we haven't been eaten by dinosaurs, though I will use that as an excuse as I haven't got a better one! We have been without IT for a few days though; our laptop met with a rather unfortunate accident and is completely broken; sadly we have lost some of our photos too. On the plus side though we do now have a shiny new laptop which I am very happy with and am using now!

Leigh is busy out on the Prairie somewhere... and the children & I along with the rest of the Prairie widows have been soaking up the sun & generally relaxing! Last Friday eve we were over at the Commanders house as General & Lady Dannatt were out here visiting. He's a really nice chap. I wish Leigh had briefed me before hand though as the Canadian Chief of General Staff was out here visiting too and over dinner I asked him if he was in the Army! I didn't find out until later who he was! Oh well, it could have been worse; one of the other wives asked him if he lived in Ralston! Clearly I wasn't the only one who had no idea who he was!

I'm out on the wives visit to the Prairie on Sunday night. We go out at 8pm until the following morning to see what the boys get up to and to watch the final night live fire exercise, which is apparently pretty impressive. I'm really looking forward to it - it will be good to see what Leigh does out here after all this time. I bet the boys can hardly wait! Attached is recent footage of the children enjoying the pool in Medicine Hat & Ben skateboarding (for a change!). Olivia is first down the water slide followed by Charlie, I did pan around to try and find Ben but as per usual he was nowhere to be seen, pretending not to be out with his Mummy!