Nearly March already

Where has the last couple of months gone?  

Christmas, New Year, January and now February - poof!

The three weeks around Christmas time was chilly in Calgary - temps in the -20'sºC, but since then, I've had no reason to complain.  This was the view from my office window taken in December.  Pretty, in a frigid kind of way.

The Bow River running through Cochrane was only frozen in little bits this year - the above picture from mid-January is the worst it ever got.  It really hasn't been that cold this winter (and yes, I know it's still only February, and Mother Nature has a knack of making me look smug and stupid on any given day of the year).  

2013 started with new windows throughout our house.  The team of guys were very fast and very good, but even they couldn't divert me from questioning why I had agreed to have them installed in January, when it was -9ºC outside.

But we are delighted with the results.  Triple-glazed, upvc, sunscreen coating - you name it, we got it.  And now we just have to finish paying for it.

February also means two birthdays in this household for our daughters - we now officially have two teenagers in the house (though it has felt like that for some time, on some days, to be honest).  A 13 year old and a 15 year old.  Oh boy!

I was very surpirsed to see flocks of the Bohemian Waxwings in my garden again in early February.  I tell you every year how they feed in November and then migrate  (to who-knows-where) - but I have never seen them again so early in the year.

And today - just above freezing, sunshine and nearly clear blue skies, 

hardly a scrap of snow to be found, except on those newly layered mountains in the distance

and the knowledge that we turn our clocks back (almost my favourite day of the year) in a couple of weeks' time.  The mornings are lighter, the evenings are lighter, and my mood is lighter!

Linking to Our World Tuesday

and SkyWatch Friday

Have a great week.

SkyWatch Friday

Skywatch Friday pictures this week 

come to you, courtesy of my 

12 year old daughter... 

who grabbed the camera early one evening, just before I got home from work.

I had been watching the stunning skies on my drive home, muttering under my breath that I did not have my camera with me.

Thank you, young lady!

Happy SkyWatch Friday

It goes like this

Hey Smudge!  Come over here.  Watch this.

First you lie down in it, like this.

Then you squirm around and rub your back like crazy. It feels awesome.

No - that's a pathetic effort - you're not even trying.

Aw, c'mon - come and play.

Yes, I know the view is great, 

but really, this rub-your-back thing...

Yeah! Now we're talking.  

Told ya!

Hey, where'd the snow go?

Linking to Camera Critters 

- have a great week.

Les Miserables, Part Deux

If I couldn't tempt you before, 

maybe this will change your mind!

I love a good parody as well 

as le next homme.

Les Miserables

Old story, new movie.  Seen the stage show, what's all the fuss about?

Good grief - bloody brilliant - that's all I can say.

Take tissues.  Several.  And, hint, don't buy the large diet coke before you go in as it's a long film.

Anne Hathaway and Eddie Redmayne had me bawling; Russell "The Gladiator" Crowe was holding his own in a songfest, and frankly, everyone was superbly cast.  It was beautifully filmed and everyone sang "live".

Comedy came from Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen and everyone else brought sweet, agonising heartache.  I was quite exhausted afterwards, and could barely keep the tears away.  But in a good, rewarding kinda way!


I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.  

If you like that sort of thing.

SkyWatch Friday

Happy New Year to you - I truly hope 2013 is a peaceful and healthy one for you.

On the third day of January, my little piece of southern Alberta welcomed in a warming chinook wind after a frigid few weeks - 
and with the breezes came temperatures up to 8ºC and the heavenly colours of the Chinook arch.

These two were taken from 

my front door step.

One with a "regular" setting on the camera,

and the other with the "vivid colour" setting.

Reality was somewhere between the two!

Happy SkyWatch Friday to you.

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?