Scenic Sunday - We are melting

A few weeks ago I showed you some pictures of the frozen Bow River.

The seemingly never-ending winter had taken it's toll, 

and for the first time in many a year, it had become ice-packed with overlapping layers, causing an ice-jam 

and a few anxious headaches for the locals.

We are now in early April and all is well.

The river has been melting and flowing fast, but you can still see great walls of ice at the riverside which continue to break off in huge chunks.

Some of them are still five and six foot thick.

If you look really carefully across the sparkling water, two geese have come for a quick wash and brush up, and a honking session.

Now, I just long for the return of green, grassy banks, wild flowers to bloom again and some fluttering butterflies to complete the scene.

Have a super Scenic weekend.

12 Facts about Florida

This is a serious post and at no point are there any sweeping generalizations, glib observations or flippant comments.  Maybe.  If you are researching a trip to Florida, I'm your woman.  Search no more.  Here are 12 Facts about an Orlando-based holiday, told from a slightly winter-stir-crazy Albertan point of view.

FACT: Florida is always gorgeous and warm and sunny and everyone is always happy happy happy because of this.  

FACT: It never rains in Florida.  
Except for when they have terrific thunder storms and tornado warnings - and lightening shows that would rival any Disney fireworks display - with accompanying torrential 14-hour downpours, almost enough to set sail in your Arc.  The storms were large scale and slightly showy-offy to be honest.  But apart from that, it never rains.  

FACT: Long trousers are surplus to requirements.  
This is obviously because, as previously mentioned, it is always gorgeous and warm and sunny and it never rains.  Shorts are the suit de jour.  Toes breathe a sigh of relief in their flip-flops and shoulders and cleavage blush (or is that burn?) in strappy tops.  Ahhhh.


FACT: Florida is full of new and shiny cars.  There is no dirt, or rain, or snow or grit.
That every other vehicle on the road has been rented from Orlando Airport and no cars are over 12 months old may have something to do with this observation, but I prefer to view everyone as a proud and happy, shiny-vehicle owner. 


FACT:  Florida highways eat tyres.  
The beautifully smooth and pothole-less highways are littered with shredded rubber.  What are these guys doing?  I have never seen so many broken down and punctured cars sitting sadly at the side of the road.  I deduce it is the heat.  Or someone has been secretly firing nail guns from the sidelines.

FACT: Swimming pools are essential to life.


FACT: Florida is full of people from somewhere else.  
No-one is actually born in Florida.  Ever.  

The only creatures born in Florida are dolphins and killer whales who are "successfully" bred in captivity.  This creates enormous conflict in your author, who appreciates the educational efforts to enhance learning about them, but is overwhelmed by the slick commerciality of keeping these gorgeous creatures performing for their supper.  It brought tears to my eyes. 

FACT: Orlando is the land of make-believe.  
And shopping.  
And giant 6-foot Mice and Princesses.  And even Harry Potter has moved here now.
Reality is just a figment of your imagination.


FACT: Disney put glitter in the tarmac on the I-4.  
Truly, that road really sparkles.  This may be something to do with the composition of the heat-resistant black top or it could just be another sparkly Disney take-over bid.  

FACT: You can grow absolutely any plant or tree you want in Florida.  
It is green and lush and palm trees grow like weeds.  For a green-fingered and garden-loving displaced Brit living in frozen or parched Alberta - well, it just sticks in your throat really.  You lucky buggers. 

FACT: Olive Garden was invented just for me.
Salad and bread sticks anyone?  Yummo!

FACT: You cannot just visit one time.
It is a worm-hole of fun and warmth and escapism that sucks in us holiday-makers by the thousand, and leaves us wanting more.  Slick and commercial don't go halfway to explaining the allure of this peninsula.

There must be something in the air.  It makes you feel like a super-hero.

Back from a holiday

Returned last night to my snow-laden and cool home after spending a wonderful, busy and HOT two weeks in Orlando.  

I am all "parked" out.  Disney, Universal, Hollywood, water parks, just quite happily knackered.  And poor.  And only 3lbs heavier which is something of a miracle. 


I had never been to Florida before and I have lots of observations and hundreds of photos to sort out. 

Look at this strange and long-forgotten colour.  

Green, I think they call it.

I also have much blog reading and catching up to do so I hope you are all well.  


Today will consist of opening mail, reading and deleting tons of emails - and my old favourite of unpacking and putting away three overflowing suitcases. It's the "putting away" bit I struggle with - my husband is very organized, but I could look resentfully at the last remnants in a suitcase for weeks.  It's like a closure issue - the holiday IS actually over.


I also need to pop next door to thank my neighbour for shovelling our driveway, otherwise I would have had to paddle through about 5 inches of wet snow in my sandals last night!


In the meantime, for those of you still awaiting the arrival of Spring, look at this picture and then close your eyes and just imagine the heat of the sun on your back, and the soft waves lapping over your toes.

It was hell, I tell you.

Back soon!

And then it was March...

I have been so busy the past few weeks - if I was a dog, I would be dizzy from chasing my tail.  

No time to fart, as my dear mum would have said!

One weekend spent painting a basement.  

One cold, dull blue bedroom transformed into warm inviting guest room.  Woe betide any child that dares even breathe in there.

Then two weekends spent ferrying children to rehearsals 

and photo days - with all of us getting into practice again for the dreaded Dance Competition Season (that I hate, and they love) which kicks off next month.  

Four costume changes, each...

 add curly ponytail, remove curly ponytail, 

add ear rings, no ear rings, 

black tights, beige tights - are you paying attention back there?

I am now becoming expert on 

"How-to-make-your-sweet-innocent-child-look-10-years-older-by-slathering-her-in-lipstick-and-make-up-and-false-eyelashes".  

Just a bit too much of the "Tantrums and Tiaras" for my liking!

I then dedicated last weekend just to me - soothing my stressed out soul.  I sing alto with a local choral group - very low-key (ha ha, geddit) and just a lovely community choir numbering about 35 on a good day.   

We sing just about anything, from pop to traditional hymns, 

to funky spirituals and jazz and a  

touch of the Chattanooga Choo Choos!

(That's me in the centre with pink glasses, looking so bloomin' serious!!)

We were all invited to take part in a whole weekend workshop with Calgary's Mount Royal University choral group Kantorei - and what a treat that was.  

They are all, like, proper singers! 

And I finally realized one of my ambitions - to sing a "big" choral number.  This one was Achieved Is the Glorious Work from The Creation by Haydn.  

Somewhat overwhelming for an amateur like me, if I'm honest - but enormous fun trying to keep up!

And I just loved the windows at St Matthews United Church (26a Street SW, Calgary) where we did our mini concert.  

Very contemporary. 

And as the afternoon sun moved, we were all singing and our shirts were bathed in bright patches of colour.  

I had a blue arm and a red chest.

And finally, last night, one more concert raising money for our local foodbank. 

I tell you, I am pooped.  I need a holiday.

Oh wait, I have a holiday.  In about 26 hours.  Yay!

  

It'll be Spring in Calgary when I return.  

Perhaps.  Allegedly. Maybe.

SkyWatch Friday - Relief

Here comes another one - a chinook 

rolling in this morning and a welcome break 

- up to 5 degrees C this afternoon.  Finally.

And I want you to truly appreciate my photos this week, because I have suffered for my art! 

As I was on my way to work, 

I quickly pulled my car over and jumped out to take these.  

When I returned to my car, all the doors were locked, 

with the engine running.  Excellent!

So I had to walk back to my house 

and grab the spare keys, then

walk back to the car, get in, 

drive back home, drop off the spare keys then 

finally actually go to work.  What a pain!

So today, it is a relief for me to see the break in temperature, and a relief also that I hadn't parked up on the side of a highway miles from anywhere!

Have a super SkyWatch Friday.

Cochrane Ice Jam

The Cochrane Ice Jam sounds like some cool winter music festival. Alas, not a leather-clad lead guitarist in sight.

The Bow River runs through Cochrane in Alberta and is a fast-flowing waterway which carves it's way through the heart of our town and then snakes eastwards through Calgary city centre before continuing further east, eventually becoming the South Saskatchewan River.

I have featured the river many times in previous posts and photos (some of which I shamelessly reproduce here for your viewing pleasure) - it is a wide and sparkling blue ribbon, and in the summer there are easy pathways and lush, grassy borders scattered with wild flowers, butterflies and little yellow birds that never sit still long enough for me to look them up in a book.

And in the autumn, the oranges and golds make it a colourful place to hang out.  The water is too cold and fast for swimming, unless you are a bouncy and senseless canine with no temperature gauge - but it's a good place for the humans to paddle near the edges.

Come wintertime, the water usually looks like one of those iced slushy drinks, and the edges become blurred with frozen shelves of ice.


But this year it all looks a little different.  And it is causing some concern.  I have only been here for four winters, but I have not seen anything like this.

Due to the continuing chilly weather (not sure if I happened to mention that before?!), it has all become a tad frozen. Great chunks of iced water have solidified, over-lapping each other like angry tectonic plates in a frozen wonderland - and the accumulated mini ice-bergs have recently raised the surface height of the river. 

The "river" is now level with footpaths, some of which have been closed off.

It does look quite impressive, if a little worrying for those who live nearby.

And if the levels rise much further, the pipelines along that bridge will have to be shut off.  


We could be heading for an "iceberg dead ahead" Titanic-stylee disaster!

My World Tuesday

Still bored ...

Have seen brutally low temperatures again for the past 

two and a half weeks (-25 degrees consistently) - slight sense of humour failure at this end it must be said, and it's not just me commenting - even the locals have had enough, 

so I feel OK moaning for five minutes!

And I work indoors - have some sympathy for my poor hubby who is out and about in this each day - no wonder his frostbitten nose and fingers are searching out a few more Starbucks stops these days!