Just Another (Snowy) Day In The Life….

 

Truly – I try NOT to complain – but really? It has snowed here nearly every day for the past week.

On one hand – there’s going to be great water for rafting! I’m talking BIG water!!

On the other hand – well……..It looks pretty – and it makes picking up after the dogs much easier! Still ----- it weighs on you.

My girlfriend in Ontario is talking 26C! for the last week! And what are we getting?

THIS!

Pretty isn’t it? (that’s the neighbours back yard)

And since I was feeling – um – beaten – I took another looking a bit northward and into the snow…..

SIGH

But look on the bright side! Because it’s always snowing here, I finally got my dining room finished except for hanging pictures etc.

                                    

And now that the dining room is finished and it’s still snowing, I can’t work outside painting trim…..so I’m back to working on my jewellery. I even took a weekend course on metalsmithing and had a fabulous time and met some fabulous people! Because of it I signed up for a week long course in July with Christi Friesen working with polymer clay and mixed media. I can hardly wait! It might not even be snowing then – but I’m not going to bet the barn on it!'

Now – back to real life (as if taking courses to improve myself is just playing – it sure felt like it though!)

There is one month left before whitewater rafting starts at Otter Rafting Adventures. My brother is already hard at work and he keeps telling me to take it easy and just work on my jewellery. Sounds good doesn’t it! Our new guides arrive around the long weekend we get in May – the 24th to be exact. My brother is having them do all the hard work it needs to revert from a pottery studio into a rafting center.

And what am I going to be doing for the next month?

The Man told me on Monday morning that he had booked us a month in New Zealand!!

GASP!!

He also rented a campervan so we are touring around the North Island and we are going to meet up with Mickle and Zebby Cat, and also visit with her parents! {Sorry Fiona! We hope to do the South Island in the future.} We leave on the 29th of April and come back on the 26th of May!

DOUBLE GASP!

(drats – where’s my puffer?)

I don’t care that I will be taking all my pills with me so that I can get around and do things. I swear I’m not going to let anything stop me! I hear they have a great Class 5 whitewater rafting adventure. If everything goes right – I’m in there! Just to say I did it!

What we are going to do is black water rafting which involves wetsuits and inner tubes, and a helmet with a light on it so that you can see the glow worms in the underground caverns that you ‘drift?’ through. It sounds wonderful! There’s water! and there’s adventure! That puts a smile on my face!

I know I’ve been terrible about posting for some time now, and it’s going to be at least another month of silence while we make our way around New Zealand in search of hobbits and friends. But when I get back I promise pictures! Maybe not right away because – you know – rafting is starting up again for my brother’s business and I’m a part of that.

But when I can – I will post pictures so we all can share in the adventure!

Have a wonderful life while I am away! I promise I will!

Into The Fray Once More

I sat here struggling over the title of this post and after much thought I’ve left it because that’s how it feels.

On Monday I saw my first Robin of the year! It was sitting on the same branch it sat on last year when I first saw it. It’s recognizable voice was heard across the miles as I excitably called my brother and chirruped “there’s the first Robin of the year!”, and right on cue it whistled once more for my brother. “I hear it!” he told me and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smiling too.

“You know what this means don’t you?” I asked him shaking my head. “We’re going to have another huge snowstorm in the next couple of days”.

And it never fails.

The Robins appear and the temperature usually drops substantially by about 10 degrees and the snow starts and doesn’t stop. I always worry that the Robins will freeze or go very hungry. I could be wrong though. Maybe worms make good popsicles but I’m going to give trying that a pass. How do you find worms under 5 inches of snow? Besides, the ground is still frozen and I doubt the Robin’s little beaks could dig down through it to find a worm straying from it’s hole.

The snow started yesterday afternoon and it is scheduled (that cracks me up) to stop snowing sometime this afternoon. At present I see only a flake or two floating around but that will change. In a little while I’ll glance out the windows again and there will be nothing but a wall of white and little Robins huddled in front of tiny fires – their wings flapping to keep it going.

So yes, here we go again – into the fray

                                         

                     

These pictures were taken at 7:30am. They are not black and whites – I just used the ‘Early morning Alberta, Canada’ theme on my camera.

Give it another hour and this is what it looks like -