School's out for summer...

... Words that would normally send shivers down my spine! But as summer camp starts on Monday, I'm not too concerned! And summer is definitely here at last. We've had pretty much wall to wall sunshine all week and temps are reaching the high 20's. This weekend we are expecting highs of +36, which after experiencing -36 in January is most welcome! The only downside to all this hot sunny weather is the particularly vicious mosquitoes that we are now plagued with. We are all hoping for some very windy weather to blow them all away!


The children are all well, overjoyed in fact about the school hols! Leigh continues to be busy on the Prairie (the mosquitoes even manage to bite through their uniforms!). He did manage to have last weekend off though, which was just as well given the amount of champagne that flowed
following the fantastic news of his promotion to Lt Col. Well done Leigh, we are very proud!


Olivia has her (early) birthday party tomorrow and I expect the rest of the weekend will be spent at the splash park. I think it is fair to say that Olivia is far more excited about her party than I am at the prospect of entertaining 16+ kids!

Just a quickie!

I have just been looking over my blog archive which you will find towards the bottom of this page and have noticed that the footage of the children sledging, is now working! After hours of tinkering, it seems that for some technological reason (unknown to me!) it is now available for viewing! So take a l@@k! The blog is archived under 2007, and is dated Mon Dec 17. Ben is the first one down the hill,(it's amazing that he didn't take out a few pedestrians en route!) shortly followed by Olivia and much to Charles' frustration, I wouldn't let him go down (I'm such a bore!).

Rain, rain and more rain

As you may have gathered from the blog title, we have had rain alot of rain here. In fact it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it has been on a Biblical scale! Apparently Alberta usually sees a couple of days rain a year, even less on the Prairie, so this amount of rain is very unusual. The Prairie has now turned green, instead of the usual scorched yellow and this part of Canada now resembles the English countryside. Lets hope summer does arrive before the Arctic winter sets in again!

Apart from that all is well. The children are busy and happy, Leigh is very busy and probably not quite so happy - he's been getting a bit wet out there! Despite the weather we did make it to a neighbours BBQ on Sat evening which was fun. The children have had their various 'Track and Field' days (Sports Day to the rest of us!), which they have enjoyed.

Hopefully attached to this blog is a recent episode of BFBS which amongst other things shows Ben & Olivia in their classrooms. BFBS have been out here filming the Med Man exercises and family life here in Ralston and it has been shown on TV here. There's some footage of Leigh briefing the Canadian Armed Forces minister too. But as they didn't do any filming in the gym or the Liquor store, I have managed to avoid the same fame!

Notes for the footage - Ben is stood at the front of the class (his 'show and tell' he claims!), Olivia is sat next to her teacher and is to the left of her shoulder when talking. The house shown (with the red car) is Marluth's house and I haven't been to the 'Prairie Rose' club since we moved in!

Hutterite Visit

Even though my visit to the nearby Hutterite colony was about 10 days ago, it's safe to say that not much would have changed there! Each year a bus load of us 'BATUS tourists' are allowed to visit the colony under strict rules - no photos and no questions about religion or thier personal lives but it was a truly fascinating day. As I said in my last blog, the Hutterites' resemble the Amish in thier dress but are more progressive than the Amish in that they use 4x4's rather than horse and cart and are often seen in Walmart!

The Hutterites' originate from Europe and Sects can be traced back to the 1500's. Persecuted out of Europe they settled in the USA, but moved to Canada after thier German language and refusal to help with the war effort made then look like enemy agents! Since then colonies have sprung up througout North America & Canada. The colony we visited were about 120 strong and when the colony number grows to about 160, the group splits to form a new colony. It is up to the Elders and Church leaders to decide who stays and who goes.

We were shown around the colony by some of the Hutterite children who got a rare day off from school & chores. We saw the school house, kitchens, living accomodation, dining hall, and all the barns and outhouses and slaughterhouse (not my favourite bit!). The children start school at 7.30am and finish at 5.30pm. In the summer months they don't have as much schooling as they are out weeding the fields. All the children leave school at 15 and work for the colony. No-one has thier own money and they are pretty much self sufficient. They all eat together at set times; the food prepared in the huge kitchens. They sit at long lables, the men and boys on one side and the women and children on the other. Thier homes are identical and sparsely furnished - upright chairs, no T.V, radio - not even a kitchen as everything is communal. And when they are not at school or working, then it's Church, Church, Church! They sing Hymns but without an organ or piano as that is not permitted. Nor are cameras as they are not allowed to be photographed, so there are no family photos around the houses. The children don't have toys (they wouldn't have time to play with them anyway!), they don't play sport and they have never seen films. Each year a family might receive $100 for new shoes; they only get new clothes when there is enough material for everyone to have something. No holidays, not even Sundays, and the only socialising they can do is with other colonies. Everywhere is immaculately clean - almost clinical.


Inspite of all that, they are such a happy lot of people. The children were amazing; so well spoken and confident, and all with great sense of humour's. Some colonies are more progressive than others - the photos with this blog I took at the Heritage Park last week. They are very rare indeed... I don't think it is very often that you will get a photo of a Hutterite on a Ferris Wheel!

Busy!

After an unremarkable week last week (with the exception of a speeding fine!), this week has been pretty full on - hence the late blog. The children have started their swimming lessons, and as they are all at different levels, they all have separate lessons, which means that on top of thier usual after school clubs, I am dashing back and forth to the pool! Ben also had a golf lesson this week at the driving range here which he really enjoyed (I think I might go up there myself and smash a few balls to de-stress!).


On Tuesday I went on a visit to the nearby Hutterite colony. It was absolutely fascinating and I'll do a separate blog about it later as it's not possible to describe how these people live in a few sentences and we weren't allowed to take photos. But basically they are strict Christians, descended from Europe (German is thier first language) who live in Colonies in the USA & Canada. They resemble the Amish people in the way they dress and, though not as strict as the Amish, they live completely isolated lives, without the influences of the outside world - no tv/radio (That said, I have seen them shopping in Walmart & the Canadian Superstore!).


Leigh has had some time off The Prairie this week, so on Wednesday we took the children out of school and went to The Heritage Park in Calgary for the day. We had a brilliant time - the weather was great and there was lots to do & see. There was a steam boat ride on the lake (Ben was invited to steer the boat and got a certificate!), an old Canadian steam train, lots of fairground rides and a replica 'Wild West' street. Whilst Ben was steering the steam boat, I was chatting to the Captain - it turned out that he went to Plymouth Polytechnic (now Uni) and lived in Plympton! (For those who don't know, Plympton is a suburb in Plymouth where my Mum lives!) Small world!

Summer!

Dare I say summer is here at last?! It's been hot; around 28 degrees and sunny. We are enjoying the short time left before we get bombarded with flies and mosquitoes (or skeeto's as Olivia calls them!), and have to shut all the doors and windows and cover ourselves in repellent! Not complaining though! The children have had a fantastic time in the garden with the pool out and running through the sprinkler!
Leigh has had some time off the Prairie this weekend too so we have had the BBQ out... lovely! Not much other news really so this is a short blog this week. Just had to take this photo of Ben though who managed to get trapped in the trampoline surround the other day - I could hear him shouting "Mum, Help!"... When I saw him I said "Hang on Ben, just let me get the camera!"

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!