other things

The wind is absolutely howling outside (although it's only -4) so let's think about other things.

On my way to Edmonton last weekend I saw this lady in the airport. I must confess I was quite enthralled by her. I have never seen a real Inuit in person and to see this woman carrying her baby in her hood was quite something. Loved her big bulky coat. This one is obviously for "warmer" weather.

I have had a cold/cough/congestion for over three weeks now. I've successfully passed it along to Howard who ended up with the whole triple "c" combination plus an ear and chest infection. When I was in Alberta my sister mentioned this Buckley's to me. Wow. It smells and tastes like Vicks but if you can get past that it actually works to relieve and loosen the congestion. I have to say I've never used any kind of cough medicine that actually works so this has been a surprise. On the other hand, I'm pretty much ready to be finished with this cough thing. I picked up a stomach flu bug in Alberta so I've had that in the midst of everything, and yes, I passed that on to Howard as well. Fortunately the girls have stayed healthy in the midst of all these germs.

hoarfrost

The hoarfrost was out in all its splendour yesterday. Absolutely beautiful it was indeed. It looks dreadfully cold in these pictures but it was only -9. A perfect winter day.

alberta bound

This past weekend I was treated to a trip to Alberta. The Rockies were glorious as we flew by.

My mom's new house is lovely. Perfect. So nice for her.

I went through our boxes in her garage and decided that it was time to let go of "Barbie's New Country Camper". It served 2 generations well, as Bethany said....

And I went through our wedding china which looks pretty good after 25 years. It has never been used! I plan to change that now that we are back in Canada.
I had a wonderful visit with my sister, Jean, and my mom of course, and lots of others along the way. My cousins are closing out their jewelry store in Peace River and I was glad to see it before the deed was done. It was a good weekend but I am happy to be back home to nurse my poor husband back to health (he came down with an ear and chest infection while I was away). I hung a few red bows along the railing of the house today and did some shoveling on the driveway. It's good to be home but it was lovely to see some of my family again too!

(By the way, the picture on the header is of Dunvegan Bridge which spans the Peace River about an hour from the town itself. You can read about it here: http://www.discoverthepeacecountry.com/htmlpages/dunvegan.html)

why i like canada - part 1

I really should have been posting my "why I like Canada" thoughts for a few months already. I have had many of those since we arrived here on August 11 and have not duly recorded them. However, today I was reminded of one when the plumber came to check out our reverse osmosis water filter. He left his shoes at the door and went downstairs to do his work. Once the flooring went into the house several weeks ago, every worker that has come through the door has taken off his shoes. People in Canada, even workers, take off their shoes when they to your house. I like this. I like this about Canada and Canadians.

love this sign

Actually the thing I love most about this sign is the road it's beside......

It looks somewhat "driven on", wouldn't you say? You've gotta love a small town. We sure do!

a slow week

I have been sick all week. It's been a rather strong reminder to me that I have not been careful about washing my hands when I'm in the schools. I will now do better at that!

We are still without snow but it's in the forecast for this coming week. I took these pictures last Sunday on our walk when I was feeling much better and wasn't being too careful about keeping my head out of the breeze. In the end it was probably the ice cream that did me in!

what's wrong with this picture?

The workers are putting the windows in the house across the street. I looked out and saw this guy working and thought - "What's wrong with this picture?". So what is it? Well, it's November 9 today and he's working in short sleeves. It's supposed to reach 15 degrees today which would be a record high for this day.

We've had glorious weather and soon it will be over but for now we've certainly been enjoying it.

a perfect day

November 7. A beautiful day. 15 degrees. Howard and I walked down to the creek and sat in the grass there for a long time, soaking up the sun.

Then we walked and walked and ended our stroll with ice cream from the local diner. Howard took me there for the first time over 20 years ago and introduced me to "twist" ice cream.


Someone called out to us as we walked past with our ice cream cones. "Ice cream! In November?!" We all laughed. What a perfect day.

sunrise this morning

life for me these days

If I'm not at home sorting and cleaning or sewing curtains, I am probably at a school in the area subbing for the day, or part of the day. I am now on the radar big time and I have been getting called - a lot! It's been really good and I'm starting to find a bit of a rhythm with a job that has no rhythm at all. On Friday I spent the entire day teaching music in an elementary school and I was reminded why it was that I grew weary of teaching music! It's a tiring job and you never get a break. You go hard all day and you have to be up for every class. After singing "Hot Pumpkin" at least 150 times that day, I was almost ready to scream! But I didn't. :) I am really, really enjoying this subbing thing even after an afternoon with a very hyper grade 5 class today. Mostly I find it very interesting and just plain fun. Because there are so many children of German and Russian/German immigrants in the schools in this area, I've been able to startle quite a few kids by speaking German to them. It's been great! And I've even used my Portuguese a few times - once with a little kid from Columbia who spoke virtually no English (I could tell he thought Portuguese sounded a bit funny!) and again today with a little kid from Paraguay who also spoke Spanish (and both Low and High German). He said he once knew Portuguese so he understood everything I asked him in Portuguese and you should have seen his grin!

So it's been fun. The picture below was taken of a letter of apology that I was given on Friday. One young man felt guilty after being so naughty in music and he managed to track me down before the day was over and give me this letter. I was touched and told him as much. Kids are great - most of the time!