2008: Week 16

OK, so we were a little premature putting the patio furniture outside last weekend :) There were a few calls to try bocce in the snow, but no one was really that keen. Matt and I did brave the cold and wind today and went for a short walk. The wind had made some really interesting patterns and textures in the snow, very similar to patterns I've seen in sand at the beach. Most surprising was a patch of very smooth, flat snow which proved to have a hard outer surface over soft snow. Something I've often seen on the beach, but never before in the snow.

Best of the week
- John Butler Trio on Tuesday night.
- An email from a former adviser saying "no more changes, submit the paper"!
- A new session at French, already improved from last time.

Worst of the week
- Feeling tired and unwell.
- Finding the last few details so I can submit that paper.

April showers?

This is what I woke up to today!

2008: Week 14

This week seemed long. The weather has turned a little colder again, and despite the appearance of tulip shoots in many of the gardens I pass each day, it feels that spring will never arrive. Don't be fooled by the photos though, they were taken at the Sunshine ski resort, high in the Rockies. The ski season will continue until the end of May - hopefully Calgary will be green again by then!

I have been enjoying two books this week - A Lineage of Grace and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. The first was a Birthday gift from a very dear friend - well chosen and well timed once again - and I'm enjoying it very much. The second is Anne Rice's follow up to a novel she wrote after her returning to the Christian faith of her youth. I admire her integrity in writing about what is significant to her, even though it is a quite a change from her earlier work! She spends some time exploring what it meant in a practical sense for Jesus to find places of solitude - very relevant given my never-quiet household.

Best of the week
- A new recipe for Cranberry and Zucchini muffins - I'll take a picture next time and post the recipe on eatdrinkcook.
- A lovely day skiing at Sunshine.
- Ottawa [just] scraped in to the NHL playoffs.

Worst of the week
- Lab work on Saturday and Sunday because my cells decided that Friday was the perfect day to be ready for an experiment.
- More strange interactions at work - do I somehow attract weird behaviour?

Me, skiing at Sunshine

2008: Week 3

This week Calgary plunged into a more typical winter weather pattern - cold and more cold! My thermometer reads -20.5C as I write this, and there is quite a bit of snow outside. For now, the snow brings the challenge of driving on compacted snow and working out how to melt the frozen slush that has accumulated behind the wheels. I can hear the tyres scraping on it every time I turn. The real fun begins in a few days when the weather warms up enough to melt the snow. It takes quite a while to melt completely, so there is a cycle of melting and re-freezing overnight to give a road surface similar to a skating rink.

Other events of note include 2 restaurant dinners - Italian on Friday for a work function, and Ethiopian tonight with work friends. The Ethiopian was very good. It's a small local place, not very fancy, but around half the patrons appeared to be African, and food was excellent and reasonably priced. The Italian was good, but not as good as you'd expect for a $35 main dish. I don't think I'd be spending my own money there.

Best of the week
- New recipes - cannelloni and BBQ pork soup - which both turned out well. Filling the cannelloni was particularly fun.
- Varied teaching style in our French class with a substitute teacher who gave some very helpful critiques of our speaking skills.
- Sending off a second long-overdue paper to my PhD supervisor.
- Views of the snow covered Rocky Mountains on clear mornings.

Worst of the week
- Cold gray days. Calgary is usually sunny even when it's freezing - gray days are much harder to endure.
- Being far away from most of my good friends :(

Sisters in the Snow

One of the highlights of the last few weeks was a visit to Lynda, who is working at Teen Ranch in Ontario.

The swimming hole in winter.

The weather was good when I arrived, but a late night snow storm followed by rain and and a cold snap left us with plenty of snow to play in. Oh, and roads like a sheet of glass, and tree branches coated in ice. Very pretty!

Ice covered branches.

Spring at Last!

Happy first day of Spring! Even though I did wake up to several inches of fresh snow. I suppose that's what you get for living so close to the Arctic. Most of it melted during the day.

In other news, welcome Netta, born to some beloved Ithacan friends on March 13th. Can't wait to meet you in person!

This picture is from my first flowering bulbs in Calgary - grown inside of course.

Snow pictures

Beautiful snow

Calgary is the white city today. It's the third day of fairly consistent snow, so everything is covered! Quite beautiful, but getting around on the roads is an adventure. As for shovelling the footpath - it's a necessary but somewhat futile effort. It's always a little discouraging when your freshly shovelled path is immediately covered in snow again. Not as discouraging as trying to walk through snow 20cm deep (and rising) to get out of the house!