Sunday, December 18, 2005
Countdown to Christmas...
Okay - we've been getting a slightly hard time lately for relatively infrequent blogging. To those of you who have missed out on the regular updates of life in Tuscarora, I can only say that we are truly sorry! However, its been a little too cold lately for doing anything much exciting outside of the house, and as for inside the house, we're not sure that anyone would be too excited about a blog that is likely to consist of what we had for dinner, what we watched on DVD, the fact that we spent yesterday throwing out a lot of junk that we seem to have accumulated over the last six months or so, and the fact that we did a major clean (not just a middle of the floor clean - otherwise known as 'boy cleaning') of bathrooms, kitchen, larder, dressing room, bedrooms etc. Told you it was exciting!!
Also, we haven't made an out of town excursion anywhere since Labour Day...so we haven't got any exciting pictures or stories about new places and new experiences. However, we do have the beginnings of big plans to do some driving up the California coast at the end of March next year - he has a conference in San Diego, and it seems like too good an opportunity to miss. While we've been to San Diego and San Francisco before, we flew between the cities, and we think we might have missed out on some great coastal scenery. However, we'll keep you posted on that one...
Regular readers will also know that we spend an inordinate number of words talking about the weather. I think that this is because the weather is so 'in your face' here...and as such, has a greater potential to impact direcly on day to day life. For example, we range from baltic enough to literally freeze your flesh and skin if you are daft enough to expose anything other than your eyes for any length of time - to being flooded so badlly that we have to conserve water because the water treatment plants can't cope with all of the debris that has been stirred into the river - to being so hot in the summer that we need fans in the bedroom at night to guarantee a little bit of sleep. Therefore, when its really cold, I just can't resist passing comment because its so different from anything we ever experienced at home. Apparently the fact that its a dry cold here, means that it doesn't feel so bad, but believe me, when its below minus 20 with a north wind, it feels cold enough to me. I know I've said this before, but when you breathe in and your nostrils freeze up, its cold, and the fact that its dry just doesn't help.
So speaking about how the cold can impact on life, there was a good story yesterday about a child who managed to lick a metal gate post to see how cold it really was, and who then got stuck. I don't quite know how they got him freed up, but I'm sure it was sore. Apparently it happens every year. Or how about a fire at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in High River yesterday - it was so cold that the water that the firemen were trying to spray on the fire froze almost as soon as it had left the hose. Several firefighters slipped and injured themselves on the ice created by their hoses, but they had to keep going to try to save the building. Or how about the ice jam in the Bow River just east of Calgary? When the river started to freeze, some big blocks of ice got caught up somewhere, effectively jamming up the river. The river that wasn't frozen then started to put pressure on the 'ice jam', meaning that it is likely to burst pretty soon, with the potential to flood the immediate area. Apparently, the people in the area just have to pray for a warm-up that is sufficient to melt the ice blocks even a little bit, so that they will float off down the river.
Anyway, I suppose that this cold weather is reasonably festive - currently we have bright blue skies...
as well as an icicle or two (which suggests that the temperature is starting to warm up a little again)
And (best of all) a Chinook wind forecast to start tomorrow and to last for a day or two... apparently we are to warm up from a current day time high of about minus 15 degrees C to something in the plus 4 or 5 range, at least until Thursday. Have to say that I hope our street will thaw out properly this time. After the last snow, we got just enough warm air to melt everything a little - just so it could form a horrible layer of clear ice right over the road surface. That ice has been sitting there for the last week, and they haven't been able to put out any salt on the roads, as it doesn't work at these sorts of temperatures. So, lets hope it melts and evaporates this time.
So, back to more festive matters... we got the tree up last weekend, and unwrapped the Christmas decorations.
I think these tree pictures are a bit of a re-run from last year, but here goes anyway...!
Unlit tree (with loads of presents - Santa is very organised this year - thanks to all who have sent gifts in the mail - we really appreciate it)
And lit tree...
The lights that you can see around the tree are our new LED lights which are stuck to the inside of the windows. Last year, we made a mistake by putting up lights with bulbs that heat up. They were very pretty, until we realised (with some horror) that they burned little marks into the white PVC window frames. Luckily, we caught on soon enough to take preventive measures ... and we only have two or three little pink and yellow spots in a couple of the frames (oops). This year, we discovered the LED lights, which don't heat up and don't burn the windows!
Some new additions this year are the bendy reindeers...I'm not sure if they're meant to stand up, but I actually like them better this way...
Other new additions were these three little trees, sent all the way from home (thanks mum!) - they're sitting on top of the telly...
The bronze tree is new - the silver one was purchased last year from Bragg Creek, so his little bronze friend was purchased this year from the same little hut in the woods...
Actually, they are a little incongrous, because on the same table, we have our German nativity scene - thanks to Anna and Johannes for many of the pieces. These little figures are made of wood, and the big metal Christmas trees don't really fit with the scene, but to my mind, that's kind of what our Christmas decorations are about. We can look at everything, and we know exactly where it came from, or who gave it to us, and it doesn't matter one bit that it doesn't conform to any particular style or colour scheme - in fact, that's what makes it all so good!
Plants are starting to make an impact as well - we have a poinsettia (clashing wonderfully with an orange paper Ikea light)...
There's an amaryllis on the kitchen table that just keeps producing stalks - number three is just starting to emerge...
And we also have a plant that was a gift from someone who we helped move house. Its called a lipstick plant
It produces deep purple coloured flowers, that are supposed to look like lipsticks...very pretty..
So there you go - only a week to go until Christmas (must remember to collect the turkey). J is hoping to make his first excursion out on his snowboard this week, and is also hoping to get skating on Bowness lagoon. Given the weather, its bound to be frozen solid by now. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to watching all of these activities while sipping hot chocolate!
More later (but not too much later!)
P
Also, we haven't made an out of town excursion anywhere since Labour Day...so we haven't got any exciting pictures or stories about new places and new experiences. However, we do have the beginnings of big plans to do some driving up the California coast at the end of March next year - he has a conference in San Diego, and it seems like too good an opportunity to miss. While we've been to San Diego and San Francisco before, we flew between the cities, and we think we might have missed out on some great coastal scenery. However, we'll keep you posted on that one...
Regular readers will also know that we spend an inordinate number of words talking about the weather. I think that this is because the weather is so 'in your face' here...and as such, has a greater potential to impact direcly on day to day life. For example, we range from baltic enough to literally freeze your flesh and skin if you are daft enough to expose anything other than your eyes for any length of time - to being flooded so badlly that we have to conserve water because the water treatment plants can't cope with all of the debris that has been stirred into the river - to being so hot in the summer that we need fans in the bedroom at night to guarantee a little bit of sleep. Therefore, when its really cold, I just can't resist passing comment because its so different from anything we ever experienced at home. Apparently the fact that its a dry cold here, means that it doesn't feel so bad, but believe me, when its below minus 20 with a north wind, it feels cold enough to me. I know I've said this before, but when you breathe in and your nostrils freeze up, its cold, and the fact that its dry just doesn't help.
So speaking about how the cold can impact on life, there was a good story yesterday about a child who managed to lick a metal gate post to see how cold it really was, and who then got stuck. I don't quite know how they got him freed up, but I'm sure it was sore. Apparently it happens every year. Or how about a fire at the Salvation Army Thrift Shop in High River yesterday - it was so cold that the water that the firemen were trying to spray on the fire froze almost as soon as it had left the hose. Several firefighters slipped and injured themselves on the ice created by their hoses, but they had to keep going to try to save the building. Or how about the ice jam in the Bow River just east of Calgary? When the river started to freeze, some big blocks of ice got caught up somewhere, effectively jamming up the river. The river that wasn't frozen then started to put pressure on the 'ice jam', meaning that it is likely to burst pretty soon, with the potential to flood the immediate area. Apparently, the people in the area just have to pray for a warm-up that is sufficient to melt the ice blocks even a little bit, so that they will float off down the river.
Anyway, I suppose that this cold weather is reasonably festive - currently we have bright blue skies...
as well as an icicle or two (which suggests that the temperature is starting to warm up a little again)
And (best of all) a Chinook wind forecast to start tomorrow and to last for a day or two... apparently we are to warm up from a current day time high of about minus 15 degrees C to something in the plus 4 or 5 range, at least until Thursday. Have to say that I hope our street will thaw out properly this time. After the last snow, we got just enough warm air to melt everything a little - just so it could form a horrible layer of clear ice right over the road surface. That ice has been sitting there for the last week, and they haven't been able to put out any salt on the roads, as it doesn't work at these sorts of temperatures. So, lets hope it melts and evaporates this time.
So, back to more festive matters... we got the tree up last weekend, and unwrapped the Christmas decorations.
I think these tree pictures are a bit of a re-run from last year, but here goes anyway...!
Unlit tree (with loads of presents - Santa is very organised this year - thanks to all who have sent gifts in the mail - we really appreciate it)
And lit tree...
The lights that you can see around the tree are our new LED lights which are stuck to the inside of the windows. Last year, we made a mistake by putting up lights with bulbs that heat up. They were very pretty, until we realised (with some horror) that they burned little marks into the white PVC window frames. Luckily, we caught on soon enough to take preventive measures ... and we only have two or three little pink and yellow spots in a couple of the frames (oops). This year, we discovered the LED lights, which don't heat up and don't burn the windows!
Some new additions this year are the bendy reindeers...I'm not sure if they're meant to stand up, but I actually like them better this way...
Other new additions were these three little trees, sent all the way from home (thanks mum!) - they're sitting on top of the telly...
The bronze tree is new - the silver one was purchased last year from Bragg Creek, so his little bronze friend was purchased this year from the same little hut in the woods...
Actually, they are a little incongrous, because on the same table, we have our German nativity scene - thanks to Anna and Johannes for many of the pieces. These little figures are made of wood, and the big metal Christmas trees don't really fit with the scene, but to my mind, that's kind of what our Christmas decorations are about. We can look at everything, and we know exactly where it came from, or who gave it to us, and it doesn't matter one bit that it doesn't conform to any particular style or colour scheme - in fact, that's what makes it all so good!
Plants are starting to make an impact as well - we have a poinsettia (clashing wonderfully with an orange paper Ikea light)...
There's an amaryllis on the kitchen table that just keeps producing stalks - number three is just starting to emerge...
And we also have a plant that was a gift from someone who we helped move house. Its called a lipstick plant
It produces deep purple coloured flowers, that are supposed to look like lipsticks...very pretty..
So there you go - only a week to go until Christmas (must remember to collect the turkey). J is hoping to make his first excursion out on his snowboard this week, and is also hoping to get skating on Bowness lagoon. Given the weather, its bound to be frozen solid by now. Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to watching all of these activities while sipping hot chocolate!
More later (but not too much later!)
P
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