Christmas images, and 2013 plans...

It's been a cold and frosty one this year

 - most definitely a White Christmas, 

with temps at least -21ºC all week.

That has made for very short and functional dog-walking sessions.  

They don't look too bothered though, do they?

Honey prefers to sport the Santa hat.

So warm evenings at home with the family have been welcome, watching movies and catching up on recorded episodes of various tv series.

Following her rather dramatic and worrying mobility issues over the past few months, Daughter Number One began to walk normally last week.  And hurray for that.

The wibbly-wobbly post-concussion symptoms have almost completely gone, and her physio gave her the green light to return to her ballet classes, very gently.  Which of course she did not comply with, and came back home from class with a video of her doing a full contemporary routine.  Just because.

However, "Just Dance 4" on the Wii has provided laughter and exercise for both the girls this week.  And much hilarity as my husband and I attempted to copy some moves.  

Two left feet, each!

Too much chocolate has been consumed.  The long sought-after pyjama mornings have been realised. And I still have another week off work.  This is good.

New Year's Day will be a mad rush to remove all Christmas decorations, inside and out, followed by taking down all curtains and blinds on every window in the house. 

We will kick off 2013 with more "house work" - we are having new windows fitted on 2nd January (brrrrr, good job the forecast is for above freezing) and, as sad as it sounds, I am very excited to see what they will be like.  White UPVC (no more sanding and staining the ice-soaked and rotting wood cills), triple glazed (this better feel warmer) and a sun-stop style coating on the front windows, to alleviate that just-cooked feeling in the summer months.

However, as we remove all the golden oak architrave surrounds on the windows, and replace them with a simple, modern white wood, it's going to have a dramatic knock-on effect around the whole home, which I suspect may take the best part of 2013 to change and match up.  Oh goody, more painting.

And how is your in-between week going?

Pretty, or bleak?

It's become a bit of a tradition since we moved to Canada, to drive out to Banff just before Christmas and soak up the majesty of the mountains, all the twinkly lights in the town, and enjoy a nice meal.

Despite some more snow last night and potentially not-very-great road conditions, we headed out there again today.

This week it has been cold.  

It was minus 21ºC today.

So does this landscape inspire you ... 

or send a shiver down your spine?

You know that expression when it's raining? "It's good weather for ducks".

I think this week it's bloody brilliant weather for polar bears!  Stay warm everybody.

Work is tough!

It's been a rough couple of weeks at work: 

fun and frivolity at every turn.  

And calories. Damn!

There was the inter-office decorating competition.  

Serious contenders only need apply - that is, only those willing to haul a full-size working fireplace up to the tenth floor. 

Next, a nail-biting game of "Wine Survivor".  

I came away empty-handed, which was a poor show and proves I am terrible at cheating because it was me running the game!

Then came the Gingerbread House Decorating competition.  

I was impressed that all four were so completely different.  Which is your favourite?

Work, you say?  Oh no, no time for that ol' stuff.  

Anyway - phew - I'm exhausted.  

It's a good job I have two weeks off now to recover.

Windswept

The snow on the hillsides has been tickled 

with the Chinook winds this week.

No human intervention. 

It always reminds me of a sandy beach, 

apart from the lack of ocean 

and no trace of soaring temperatures I guess.

The sun shines and the warm winds tease the snow 

to melting point, carving away tiny little caves and crevices - and then it freezes again overnight.

And I am tall and skinny, if only for about half an hour 

(yes, it felt good). 

Annual Waxwing Party

Every year the Bohemian Waxwings 

come and devour every berry 

on my mountain ash tree.

They arrived two weeks ago 

and had another celebratory 

and pre-migratory stuffing session.

Linking to OurWorld Tuesday 

and Camera Critters.

Snow Scapes and Footprints

Smudge Snow Beard

I was walking the dogs around my neighbourhood last night when a deer came running out of a garden, across the road right in front of us and flew off down the path through the park. The dogs were momentarily enthralled - "woah - let me at 'im" as they both attempted to run after it. Good job I had hold of their leads nice and tight!  So we then followed and sniffed its hoof prints in the snow.  

I followed, and they sniffed, you understand.

Honey, the Red Nosed Spaniel

Which brings me to a little snow show taken during another walk last week.

Hoof prints?  Small, deep, round and even, but surely they don't walk in such a straight line? 

There are not many birds here right now, so I'm guessing this is either one of those large pain-in-the-butt big black ravens (they really bug me - noisy things with few redeeming features!) or an American Robin.

A Raven Rave?  A Rockin' Robin?

A lonely figure on a frigid day.

At first I assumed these were from another dog.  But we were walking across virgin snow and there were no accompanying human prints so I think this must have been a coyote.  We sometimes hear them howling in the evenings.

The views are just one big 

Christmas card scene-scape right now.

Branches weighed down by the layers of snow and frost.

Winter shadows on a snowy hillside

And a print from yours truly.

Linking to Our World Tuesday 

and Camera Critters this week.

Clink on the links and find some other treasures from across the world.