Carrick to Calgary

It's a full moon in Calgary tonight and Halloween is just around the corner! Pretty soon (Sunday night) the streets will be full of ghosts and ghouls on the lookout for candy and cookies! We drove past a house tonight which is really getting into the swing of things - the front has been decorated so it looks like it's half-abandoned, they've turned the front garden into a cemetery, complete with headstones (!) and there are lots of signs saying "KEEP OUT", "DANGER" and "HAUNTED". Spooky weird! We are going for the more sober approach, with a light-up pumpkin in the front window, although we might get some low voltage ghosts for the front garden by the end of the week!


I used to be a werewolf, but I'm all right NOWWWWWW!


Pumpkin in the Window

Not much other news at the moment, and we're settling further into the rhythms of work and weather every day. P is busy as as a bee every day, and I'm getting to do some big cases, just the sort of thing I'm after. I've assessed 4 patients this week who need major surgery that we don't do back home (just too big), so I'm looking forward to getting their operations done later in the year. We're both presenting our work in a research conference in Banff next month and then we're taking a few days away in "B.C.", a little place called Tofino, on the Pacific Coast. Looking forward to seeing the ocean again.

The snow is melting for the moment, and there's a possible Chinook forecast for Friday, so it's turning into a bit of a warm spell, driving away the snow for a few days. It's still as low as -11 during the night, but by morning it's a warming -4 and in the day it can get as high as +2. No fresh snow since the big 4-hour dump on Saturday, but it's still everywhere you look, slowly melting away until the next load arrives. The Chinook might take us from -4 to +15 on Friday, apparently... should be something to look forward to! And then there are 'flurries' forecast for Saturday...

Here are some piccies of us in the snow:


Snowy street


The Shoveller


A Job Well Done


Snow on the Roof


More Snow on the Roof


Snowy Field


Oh My God, it's Snowing Again!


"Driveways and sidewalks cleared, no job too big"

The Jeep is going well too, a bit noisy but no problems and great fun to drive.


Is the boot big enough?


Good in the Snow


Just About Fits in the Garage!


Has a Built-In Compass and 4x4 Surround Sound!


Ready for some Off-Road Action


Never had a roofrack before - where do the skis go?


Proper Snow Tyres

Oh, and we had a lunar eclipse last night - very clear skies, a very cold night, but excellent views:



The moon has been very big in the sky all this week, and we've had a fantastic sunset every night about 6:30pm:


Big Moon Over Tuscany


Rocky Mountain Sunset


Another Rocky Mountain Sunset

That's all for now - time for bed!

J (&P)

Another bit of bad news from the Beeb this morning. John Peel is dead (heart attack while on holiday in Peru). Can't believe it - he was only 65. He was a fixed feature on the radio on Saturday morning (Home Truths) when we were at home. Read the obituary here.

This comes on top of the recent news that Pete McCarthy is dead at age 51 (cancer, about 2 weeks ago). Guardian obituary here.

We shall not see their like again


Pete McCarthy 1953-2004


John Peel 1939-2004

After our weekend of snow + curry, it was down to the serious business today of snow + work i.e. getting to work despite sub-zero temperatures and snow on the roads. First step was getting the driveway cleared before we went anywhere - this is because if you drive on the snow, it compacts and turns into ice, which you want to avoid unless you want to turn your driveway into a sloped skating rink. So it was out with the snow shovel! Amazingly, the snow here is completely different from snow at home - it's like a dry powder, almost not wet at all, and you can't make good snowballs with it - they just fall apart. Consequently, all you have to do to clear the driveway is put your shovel on the ground and gently push it along - the snow just collects up in it and you can plop it onto the edge of the garden. You have to clear your section of the sidewalk every day too - if you don't do it yourself, 'The City' can turn up, clear it for you and then charge you for the privilege. We did ours before we left this morning, but judging from the rest of the street, most people seem to do it when they get home from work. It really wasn't hard work, and 5 minutes saw it all cleared.


Going


Going


Gone

Our normal 15-20 minute drive in to work was transformed by the snow into a 45-minute slog along Crowchild. Just heavy traffic, moving at a snail's pace - a lot like traffic is at home, in normal weather. It was only -2 or so, so there wasn't much ice and the traffic was moving too slow to be dangerous. Apparently the keys to driving in the snow are:

1. Leave a lot of distance in front of you in case you're rear-ended (!)
2. Get some good winter tyres
3. Avoid sudden hard braking or acceleration
4. Approach junctions cautiously
5. Watch for out-of-control vehicles


Icy road in Tuscany

Fun, eh? I've also been looking up how to get out of a skid just in case...

When we got out of work, it was -4oC and the car was freezing! We had to wear our big heavy coats and drive with gloves on until the car warmed up a bit. Traffic home on the Transcanada was much easier than on the way down. Then we went for a walk in the fresh snow around Tuscany:


Tuscany in White


Sunset Snow


Excellent 'Baffin' Snow Boots - guaranteed down to -40oC!


Ooops! Forgot my hat!


Well wrapped up


On the Boulevard

We finished the day by tossing a couple of chops on the barbecue, even though it was -3oC on the deck! We had to clear the snow off the BBQ, but it warmed up pretty quick!


Brrr!

At the moment (11pm), it's about -4 and the road has turned to ice, which might make the morning drive interesting. The forecast is for -8 overnight and then -6 in the morning, rising to a max of -2 in the day. It's gonna be another COLD day!

J&P

Blogging in the Snow

Winter has arrived in Tuscarora Way, with flurries of snow all day turning slowly into a steady fall, lying more than an inch in our street. The temperature was -4 at breakfast time and struggled up to zero during the day, but has dropped again to -2 after the sun went down. It's still snowing as I type at 10pm, and has been for the last 6 or 7 hours. Our friends tell us that it's obvious we're new to Calgary, as we're still taking pictures of the snow, and that pretty soon we'll be bored with the white stuff. It's going to last until at least April next year, remember, which is 6 full months from now...


Rocky Mountain sunrise on Thursday


Fresh snow on the Rockies on Friday morning

The street is pretty quiet, even for a Sunday, with our dusting of snow:







Earlier on, we could see across the Bow Valley to make out the Olympic Park, but it's been gone for the last several hours:


Then


Now

It's warm in house, though, partly because we've turned on the gas fire for the first time:



One of the things I'm looking forward to is finding out just how the people of Calgary manage to carry on normal life when they're snowed under for 6 months of the year... How do you get to work? How do you get to the shops? And when does the weather get 'stable' enough to go skiing and snowboarding?

As you know, yesterday we had the first Inaugural Breitmeyer/White Curry & Snow Party to celebrate the coming of winter. We attempted to walk up to Tusselwood at 2:30pm, as it was only +1.5oC. But we hadn't counted on the bitter windchill, which made it feel like -15oC. Luckily, Mr Breitmeyer had been out earlier and had realised how cold it was, so he came down the road to rescue us before we froze. Once we got up the road, we spent the next 3 hours cooking up a storm, making 3 different curries:

Lamb Dopiaza (Madhur Jaffrey)
Prawn & Zuchini Curry (Madhur Jaffrey)
Thai Chicken & Coconut Curry (a Breitmeyer favourite)

plus poppadums specially imported from the UK (thanks, Viv and Graham), natural yogurt and naan breads.

All this cooking was done while working our way through 3 or 4 bottles of very nice wine, too, and listening to a new DVD of a Kate Rusby concert, recorded live in the Leeds Variety Halls.


Cheers!


Cooking Up a Storm!

After stuffing ourselves on this curry feast, we watched a bit of 'Finding Nemo' with Miss Hannah, and then settled down to see 'Love Actually' on DVD. We put it on pause for a bit so we could have port and French cheese, in case we would be getting peckish.


Get stuck in!

And then we got hopped up again, and staggered home at midnight. We were well wrapped, and it was -4, but there was no wind so we felt cozy and warm all the way home. The sidewalk and the gutters were frozen solid, so we just walked home along the middle of the road.


Warm and Safely Home!

We've spent the day today doing household jobs, although we might go for a quick snow walk later on. We've made a batch of shepherd's pie with some of our Alberta lamb, and have also caught up on our housework/ironing etc. I've been busy figuring out how to isolate our outside taps from the rest of the house's water system so that we don't freeze up completely! I only figured it out when I realised that the Canadian for 'outside tap' is 'hose bib'. Go figure.

I also swapped our summer tyres / alloy wheels over with our winter tyres / steel rims on the Honda. It took a bit of time, but at least we don't have to pay the garage to do it for us. We've also filled the window-washer bottle with neat 'blue' antifreeze solution which will apparently remain liquid down to -35oC. Now we just need to get our radiator sorted out with antifreeze and we're ready for everything the winter can throw at us! We'll put the Honda in for its winter service this week, and then do the same for the Cherokee when it arrives later in the week.


The Tyre Man


Working Away


Summer Off


Winter On

One more picture which we forgot to post last week - our Thanksgiving turkey:


Yum!

Anyway, it's time to stop blogging and curl up beside the fire on this snowy Calgary evening, before it's time for bed. Tomorrow will be our first Work Snow Day: we'll have to get up early to clear the snow off the driveway and sidewalk (it's the law!) and then it's our first drive to work in the snow... Should be interesting...