Monday, December 26, 2005
A Tuscarora Christmas, 2005
This year we had what Calgarians refer to as a 'brown Christmas' - all that means is that there is no snow, and no ice (yo!), but it also means this year that it is unseasonably warm. I have to say that I am not complaining in the slightest - what it means for me is that there are no icy roads, and I don't have to dress in about 6 million layers any time I want to go outside. We know that it will change, but we're enjoying it while it lasts.
Just to prove what the weather is like:
Here is the back garden from the deck (with its lovely brown grass)...
And here is the 'in-out' thermo clock reading at about 2pm on Christmas Eve - about +17 in the house, and +13 outside. Just a wee bit of a difference from a couple of weeks ago.
And of course, the reason for this unseasonable weather... the Chinook arch as seen from the back upstairs window...
Indeed, it was warm enough for us to get out for a walk while wearing what in Northern Ireland would be considered normal clothes for going out for a walk in - no gloves, no hat, no scarf, no fur-lined boots - just normal clothes and a light waterproof coat. This is me outside the house at 6pm on Christmas Eve - the picture is a little blurry because we were trying to get the window lights, so we had to turn the flash off. Note that there is no snow or ice on the drive, or on the garden or on the house...
Anyway, before it got too warm, J managed to get his first skate of the season on Bowness Lagoon. I'm not sure it was officially open for skating, but we went anyway; he skated, and I acted as official photographer. We figured it was probably thick enough to skate on reasonably safely, as there was a Bobcat out on the middle of the ice, and we felt that if it didn't fall in to the Lagoon, that J would be okay as well. We think the Bobcat was used to take out the fire pits on to the middle of the ice, or perhaps its bucket was being used to scrape the ice to make it smoother - who knows? I wasn't too hot at taking the action shots - firstly because it was a bit dark, and secondly because each time I pressed the button on the camera just as he skated into view, he had managed to skate out of view again by the time the shutter actually activated. Maybe action photography isn't for me... flowers I can manage, but I'm a bit duff at things that move!
So, here is the speed skater on his first foray on to the outdoor ice (it is him - honest!)...
The Lagoon has a few rules...
We can't figure out why you're not allowed to have dogs on the ice...does this sign actually mean dogs only, or does it also refer to other small domestic animals? For example, would you be allowed to have a cat on the ice, or perhaps a hamster?? Also, no hockey sticks are allowed, but what about other sticks? Would they be okay? Who knows...?
Okay - less of the rambling (and I promise I haven't had any wine today yet!). Back to Christmas Day... first of all, a very big thank you to everyone who sent presents - we just loved them all! Everyone was very thoughtful, and we really appreciated everything we received. Thank you also to everyone who sent cards - all are displayed on the bookshelves in the downstairs living room.
Christmas morning was spent opening presents, and then catching up with people who now seem to be spread all over the world. We made use of the webcam, Skype, email - and I think the only mode of communication we didn't use was the regular telephone. I think Skype (or at least, something very like it) will eventually sound the death knell of the land line based telephone - it might take some time, as there are many skeptics out there who don't believe that making free (or virtually free) telephone calls over the internet is something that will catch on, but then people thought that email would never catch on!
Oh, by the way, the presents were opened to this on the TV...
Strange, but true! This, or something very like it, was playing on several of the TV cable channels for most of Christmas morning - the sound track is of a crackling fire, and I think the fire itself is probably on a continuous loop - funnily enough, we haven't watched it long enough to see if this hypothesis is correct. That might be a little sad!
Dinner was the usual - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, veg, gravy etc. We got the 16lb turkey on Christmas Eve and brought it home to be trimmed to a more manageable size - even we couldn't manage to eat all that turkey. The surgeon sharpened the knives, laid out the board (with the burn marks from when it was set on a hot cooker ring some time last year), and did the business... we ended up with a very neat 'crown', which takes less than half the time to cook, and only provides leftovers for about 4 days, rather than 10. Is it any wonder we only eat turkey once a year - by the time you've eaten turkey, cold cuts of turkey, turkey curry, turkey whatever else, you don't really want to see (never mind eat) turkey for a little while.
So here goes with the procedure...(apologies to any vegetarians - you might want to skip the next four or five pictures)
And here is the final product (we had started to cut it up before we took the picture)...
Here is the final dinner table, laid out buffet style. And no, it wasn't dinner for ten people - and no, we didn't eat it all (in fact, we probably didn't eat even half of it and it will be on the table in more or less the same fashion for Boxing Day!).
This is the wine buff of the house (proudly wearing his 'Green And White Army' teeshirt), pouring our very expensive bottle of wine.
Dinner and wine were consumed, TV was watched, and that was Christmas Day. It was all very relaxing and restful (apart from my usual fight with the roast potatoes where I managed to get the oven gloves wet, and then burnt my hand while trying to rescue the rapidly browning potatoes from the oven).
J and I both have holidays until the 3rd of January, so I suspect that the next few days will be spent reading new books, playing new Playstation games (he bought me my very own wireless controller!!), getting out for long walks, and simply winding down.
Finally, keeping up with the plant photography theme, here is the amaryllis on Christmas Day...
More later
P
Just to prove what the weather is like:
Here is the back garden from the deck (with its lovely brown grass)...
And here is the 'in-out' thermo clock reading at about 2pm on Christmas Eve - about +17 in the house, and +13 outside. Just a wee bit of a difference from a couple of weeks ago.
And of course, the reason for this unseasonable weather... the Chinook arch as seen from the back upstairs window...
Indeed, it was warm enough for us to get out for a walk while wearing what in Northern Ireland would be considered normal clothes for going out for a walk in - no gloves, no hat, no scarf, no fur-lined boots - just normal clothes and a light waterproof coat. This is me outside the house at 6pm on Christmas Eve - the picture is a little blurry because we were trying to get the window lights, so we had to turn the flash off. Note that there is no snow or ice on the drive, or on the garden or on the house...
Anyway, before it got too warm, J managed to get his first skate of the season on Bowness Lagoon. I'm not sure it was officially open for skating, but we went anyway; he skated, and I acted as official photographer. We figured it was probably thick enough to skate on reasonably safely, as there was a Bobcat out on the middle of the ice, and we felt that if it didn't fall in to the Lagoon, that J would be okay as well. We think the Bobcat was used to take out the fire pits on to the middle of the ice, or perhaps its bucket was being used to scrape the ice to make it smoother - who knows? I wasn't too hot at taking the action shots - firstly because it was a bit dark, and secondly because each time I pressed the button on the camera just as he skated into view, he had managed to skate out of view again by the time the shutter actually activated. Maybe action photography isn't for me... flowers I can manage, but I'm a bit duff at things that move!
So, here is the speed skater on his first foray on to the outdoor ice (it is him - honest!)...
The Lagoon has a few rules...
We can't figure out why you're not allowed to have dogs on the ice...does this sign actually mean dogs only, or does it also refer to other small domestic animals? For example, would you be allowed to have a cat on the ice, or perhaps a hamster?? Also, no hockey sticks are allowed, but what about other sticks? Would they be okay? Who knows...?
Okay - less of the rambling (and I promise I haven't had any wine today yet!). Back to Christmas Day... first of all, a very big thank you to everyone who sent presents - we just loved them all! Everyone was very thoughtful, and we really appreciated everything we received. Thank you also to everyone who sent cards - all are displayed on the bookshelves in the downstairs living room.
Christmas morning was spent opening presents, and then catching up with people who now seem to be spread all over the world. We made use of the webcam, Skype, email - and I think the only mode of communication we didn't use was the regular telephone. I think Skype (or at least, something very like it) will eventually sound the death knell of the land line based telephone - it might take some time, as there are many skeptics out there who don't believe that making free (or virtually free) telephone calls over the internet is something that will catch on, but then people thought that email would never catch on!
Oh, by the way, the presents were opened to this on the TV...
Strange, but true! This, or something very like it, was playing on several of the TV cable channels for most of Christmas morning - the sound track is of a crackling fire, and I think the fire itself is probably on a continuous loop - funnily enough, we haven't watched it long enough to see if this hypothesis is correct. That might be a little sad!
Dinner was the usual - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, veg, gravy etc. We got the 16lb turkey on Christmas Eve and brought it home to be trimmed to a more manageable size - even we couldn't manage to eat all that turkey. The surgeon sharpened the knives, laid out the board (with the burn marks from when it was set on a hot cooker ring some time last year), and did the business... we ended up with a very neat 'crown', which takes less than half the time to cook, and only provides leftovers for about 4 days, rather than 10. Is it any wonder we only eat turkey once a year - by the time you've eaten turkey, cold cuts of turkey, turkey curry, turkey whatever else, you don't really want to see (never mind eat) turkey for a little while.
So here goes with the procedure...(apologies to any vegetarians - you might want to skip the next four or five pictures)
And here is the final product (we had started to cut it up before we took the picture)...
Here is the final dinner table, laid out buffet style. And no, it wasn't dinner for ten people - and no, we didn't eat it all (in fact, we probably didn't eat even half of it and it will be on the table in more or less the same fashion for Boxing Day!).
This is the wine buff of the house (proudly wearing his 'Green And White Army' teeshirt), pouring our very expensive bottle of wine.
Dinner and wine were consumed, TV was watched, and that was Christmas Day. It was all very relaxing and restful (apart from my usual fight with the roast potatoes where I managed to get the oven gloves wet, and then burnt my hand while trying to rescue the rapidly browning potatoes from the oven).
J and I both have holidays until the 3rd of January, so I suspect that the next few days will be spent reading new books, playing new Playstation games (he bought me my very own wireless controller!!), getting out for long walks, and simply winding down.
Finally, keeping up with the plant photography theme, here is the amaryllis on Christmas Day...
More later
P
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