Been on me hols ...

Have been on a wee road trip with the family this past week or so and I will no doubt post tons of photos of not-another-mountain-mum and but-it's-just-another-lake-dad, plus some others of god, do-I-have-to-stop-the-car-again flowers.

We travelled south from Banff, and then crossed the US border into Idaho, turned east for a while, ended up in Montana, did a wobbly route north-ish and then back into sunny Alberta again - just shy of 2,000km in all.

We saw lots of wildlife - invariably when the camera was inaccessible - but sadly, no bears this time. The weather was beautiful, cooperative and in perfect keeping for throwing oneself into cool lakes and the hotels were all obligingly equipped with air con which, frankly, was a saviour.

Which firstly brings me to the title of my blog.

Here's a photo of my in-car thermometer taken in January 2009. Please note the "minus" symbol.

And here's a photo from July 2009.

Here is a place in the world that swings wildly from temperature extremes during the course of your average year.

Growing up the south of England, -6 degrees would be "very cold indeed" and involve hunting out the worn-three-times-a-year gloves, some moth-eaten grandma knitted scarf (sorry to all busy-bee knitting grandmas, no offence) and contemplating a day off school. And anything above about 29 degrees in the summer would involve three showers a day and an afternoon nap. Oh, and a large glass of something very chilled and very alcoholic by about 4pm. Even if we were at work.

Canada, and specifically my adopted chunk of Alberta, will throw -25 degrees at you for a week or three and we won't bat an eyelid (that's 'cos we can't - the lashes are all frozen). And for the few years that I have been here anyway, we get a pretty hot few weeks in July too - sufficiently humid and uncomfortable for us to de-camp to the cool basement to sleep.

I never thought I'd be complaining about heat in Canada. No - honestly! Everyone is so busy trying to put you off with treacherous tales of snow and ice (which afterall, is all that anyone knows of the country), that they omitted to tell me about gorgeous summers. OK, so they are a bit short - the summers, that is - but by god, the inhabitants wring it out for all it's worth.

Anyway - I've sidetracked. Holiday piccies to follow in due course. I need some kip ....