“Bling, bling, baby!”

“And the same to you, sir!”

We decided to take a wander along the Bow the other day, encouraged by the bright blue skies and warm – for February – temperatures. It certainly felt more like spring than winter, to the point we were in woolly sweaters instead of the more usual coats.

By the Bow

Birds were singing, perhaps as confused as us about the warmth, and squirrels scampered left, right and centre, and who could blame them?

There were far more than the normal number of walkers enjoying the pathways, as well as cyclists and even a scooter or two. As we approached one underpass, a colourful chap emerged from the shadows, and he was clearly having a fine day. Dressed in a leopard print jacket and orange and black trousers, he was absolutely beaming. And gleaming. He had several bright gold chains around his neck, and lots of shiny rings on his fingers.

There’s a colourful character under the next bridge…

I nodded and smiled, not being the chatty sort – you’ll sometimes get a “good morning” or perhaps a “hi, how’s it going?” from me, but I like to keep moving, and a smile and nod does the trick. Anyway, instead of a smile and nod, this dazzling character waved his hands about, did a little dance as he passed and said – you’ve already guessed it – “bling, bling, baby!” then continued on his merry way.

Not quite spring

Almost impossible to disagree, so I didn’t – it really was a bling bling sort of a day, not that I’d thought of it that way before…

It might not be proper winter or anywhere close, but if we encounter more sunny natured people along the river banks, then all will be well.

“Come on in, the water’s lovely!”

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Bling, bling, baby!

Adult day care!

Day care? Yes, somewhere to go when the weather doesn’t cooperate and there’s no xc skiing in the nearby parks to be had. So, what to do? Visit the “day care” of course! A new to us – it’s been there years – coffee shop that roasts on site, and they have a wide range of dark beans. Just the thing!

Adult day care – Mrs. PC likes the cappuccino here!

Most of January we’ve enjoyed (endured?!) a series of chinooks, keeping temperatures way above seasonal and eating all the snow in the city. This morning, we were able to have our coffee (beans from the place above) outside, shirtsleeves and sunglasses. Is it really February?!

Strangely warm…(the weather, not the coffee – that was just right!)

Here’s hoping winter returns soon. In the meantime, espresso it is.

I’m with this guy:

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

“Where’s winter? Not under here…”

A short trip…

…and a tale of adventure and bravery. (One that ended in a fall, tee-hee! Who said that? Not those squirrels again?)

Don’t listen to them, it’s not true. The fall, if it could even be called that – it was more of a graceful tumble or delicate descent – came at the midpoint of the trip, but it is fair to say it was the end of the outward leg. And the end of a fully functional left leg, but that happened later. Goodness, does this all sound mildly cryptic? No? Just confusing, then? Stick around if you want – it gets less exciting.

Mighty (old photo)

I thought I’d try an easy cross country ski trail, one with a trailhead a short walk from the cabin we were staying in. The trail runs along a flat (almost flat – I’ll get to that shortly) valley, one overlooked by the mighty Castle mountain in the Bow Valley. I’d been on this trail before, more than ten years ago, and I remembered it as a fairly gentle there and back again outing.

Plodding

Once I’d found my steady plodding xc ski rhythm, the going was pretty good. I was upright, balanced, and making steady progress along the trail. I paused to allow one or two skiers on the return part of their outing to get by, nodding a greeting and agreeing on the perfect conditions. That was about right, given the cold but not too cold afternoon, and the very light snowfall – barely falling in truth, mostly flakes floating on a light breeze. “Why,” I thought to myself, “why hadn’t I been out here sooner this winter? I’ve clearly cracked this xc skiing lark at last!” With that, on I went, a happy and jolly super little skier.

Gentle slope

After about 45 minutes of gentle skiing and gliding, it occurred to me that I’d have to turn around at some point, head back to base before it got dark or I got too tired. It’s when I’m tired on skis that I (very occasionally) fall over, and I didn’t want to get to that point. I slowed to a stop and started to turn around, carefully lifting one ski out of the tracks, then the other. Then I fell over.

“But I’m not even tired yet!” I thought to myself. Nearby squirrels laughed as I fumed silently, untangling my legs and pushing myself back to my feet. Other than the squirrels, there was no one around to witness this embarrassment, and I’m certainly not about to tell anyone, let me tell you.

You can’t see them, or hear them, but they were in there, laughing

Oh my, the long slog back! It turns out maybe I haven’t conquered xc skiing after all. And I haven’t got the same mighty legs I had ten years ago. Goodness, it was hard work. That 45 minutes of gentle gliding must have been more than an hour of very steep uphill return struggle. (Erm, if it was a gentle glide down, it can hardly have been a steep slope back, right OldPlaidCamper? What’s that? Have you been talking to those gossipy squirrels? Anyway, I’m not taking questions right now!)

“Has he mentioned his legs yet? Wake me when it’s over…”

The most important thing about it all was that I was a very brave boy and I didn’t complain for days and days after about my poor aching legs. Just the left one. And only for one or two days. Oh, ok – three!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Striding out…

…and staggering back? Maybe…

Striding out

Blue skies with a few gathering white clouds – it did snow later in the day – combined with cold, but not too cold temperatures, made for great snowshoe conditions the other day. It had been more than a year since we last found ourselves in properly deep snow, so this was a great chance to see how our legs would hold up!

Being in a river valley, we opted to stay low and follow the river rather than go for steep slopes and sore muscles. I got those later anyway, but not snowshoeing. More on that another time.

Keep moving!

Helpfully, there was a trail to assist us, and we followed whoever had been out the days before, their tracks leading over the tracks and down to the river.

To the river

We could see a single set of footprints that occasionally stepped out of the tracks, leaving deep holes on the side. Fair play to the person – we said hi when we met them retracing their steps a little later, the only person we saw all morning – but it must have been hard going without snowshoes.

Easy going, as always!

As I mentioned last week, it was so quiet – we weren’t huffing and puffing too much after the first few minutes – and when we eventually stopped to sit and take it all in (and enjoy an all important caffeine and chocolate boost, ‘cos how else would we have made it back?) the silence was wonderful.

Rest stop

By the time we returned to the cabin, we’d probably been actually walking for a couple of hours, and I’ll admit it felt quite the workout. Still, I was ready for more, and, later that day, I set off to find a nearby trailhead, convinced I had enough left in me to tackle an “easy” there and back again ski trail. I wonder how that went?

Bow river beauty

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Winter mountain hush

What a relief it was to arrive at Baker Creek, check into our little cabin, and smile when we were told internet was spotty at best due to limited satellite uplink capacity (or something) and cell phone service was basically zero. Imagine our disappointment…

No cell service?! Oh our disappointment, teehee…

It was hard to see who was more gleeful to be out in the mountains, and to be running helter skelter through the deep snow, but I think Scout edged it. She was able to make slightly faster progress with four leg drive than we did on two. And yes, instead of dumping bags and heading straight out the door to explore the immediate surroundings, a short pause to don snow pants and snowshoes would have been sensible. Sensible? Nope, no time for that!

Sensible? No time for that!

We stumbled and postholed around the perimeter, trying to stay in the middle of snowmobile tracks, but with Scout leading and pulling, we weren’t able to keep from drifting into drifts. Mother had mentioned, before we left, not to fall into any deep drifts. Good advice! (We saw, from the road on the way home a few days later, an elk caught in a deep drift and bulldozing – elk-dozing? – it’s way out. Hope it made it…)

A still space to sit and think

Poorly equipped for even a short walk as we were, we still enjoyed how silent and still (our mad stumbling aside) everything was. The blanket of snow was so pretty, muffling most noise. Winter mountain hush! Blessed quiet! We could just about hear the tinkling chuckle-gurgle of the creek, and, luckily, see it in a few places where it hadn’t been snowed over. Scout desperately wanted to get closer, odd for her, given she doesn’t enjoy the water, but we resisted her efforts. Sorry, Scout – wet feet and minus fifteen don’t mix!

The creek

Eventually, slightly wet legged due to snowmelt on lower jeans, and ready to admit we should have put on snowshoes, we returned to our cabin to unpack, find dry pants, and get warmed up by the fire. Oh, and crack open a red ale we’d been saving as a fireside sipper. It was just the thing as we planned a proper snowshoe adventure for the following day!

Planning aide

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

The following morning – snowshoe time!

Two bridges and a slice of cake

Another year older, another year wider, and that’s how it goes! So said a friend the other day, wishing me a happy birthday. Wider? I think it was a typo?

View from the Peace Bridge

Exiting mince pie season, in need of a longer walk, and with a couple of library books due, I decided to return them to my favourite library located over the river and down in Memorial Park. There are two closer libraries, but being a year wider was on my mind.

Approaching the Wobbly Bridge (you won’t find that name on the maps)

I like the walk down to Memorial Park as it includes two bridges over the Bow, one each end of Prince’s Island Park, making for a pleasant circular stroll.

Covered in frizzle

The recent mists had finally lifted, and what a sight they left behind! The mist, snowy drizzle and frost (snizzle? smozzle? frizzle? I think these are meteorological words?) had combined to cover everything in a layer of brilliant white.

Go with the floe…

It seemed like the world had turned silver and blue, with ice extending from the river banks, some piled up in floes, and the lagoon perfectly frozen for skating.

I can see the attraction, but avoided temptation – I still have bruises from that time on Canmore pond…

What a splendid winter walk! I returned the books – no overdue notices – enjoyed a moment watching the skaters, and then bounced home over the wobbly bridge.

Sun’s dropping, and so is the temperature – time to head home!

Once home, being a year older and wiser, I did the sensible thing and warmed up with a cup of strong black coffee and the last slice of Basque cheesecake. Older and wider takes commitment.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

PS Barely more than a week into the new year, and, news wise, it’s dreadful, hard to ignore, and shouldn’t be ignored. I’m not going to comment any more than that on that – you’ve seen what’s happening, it’s quite clear – and I’ll stick with trying to keep this little corner a pleasant place to be. Stay safe, wherever you are.

Foggy

We thought we’d head out for a brisk walk in the park, all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the start of the year, continuing a week of walks enjoyed in bright, if a tad chilly, conditions. Oh:

A lovely view of downtown – it is there, honest!

The view from where we live looks out over the downtown, and at night we can enjoy the lit up Calgary skyline, even if the waste of electricity makes us wince a bit. Yesterday, it was as if Calgary had disappeared!

Bright on other days, low winter sun and all

We’ll be disappearing ourselves for a little while, as we head out into the mountains for a short stay. Looking at lots of snow, quiet trails, and a warm cabin at the end of the day! New year, same old us…

Essential cabin supplies. Dry January? Nope.

Thanks for reading, happy new year, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Looking upstream

Lights

More daylight hours are coming as we pass the solstice, and no complaints about that here. That said, winter is probably my favourite season when there’s snow on the ground and nostrils freeze when you breathe in. I know, enjoying that is slightly odd…

Hadn’t even had a beer… maybe try again?
Really liked the lights on this house

Anyway, here are a few photographs to share, mostly of lights and sights we’ve enjoyed in the neighbourhood the past little while.

It might be minus a gazillion degrees, but here’s a warm glow!

Keeping it brief, so I’ll end by wishing you all the very best for the coming year!

“We’re light on our feet!” (photo: Mrs. PC)
Happy New Year, everyone!

Belgian style

Style – if you haven’t got it, then there’s no need to worry about it. That’s what I tell myself. Belgian style? Not sure what it is exactly, but having investigated, I think I could get to like it?

From up on the bluff, and it really was a bit chilly

Oh, ok, this isn’t a fashion thing, you’ll be relieved to know. It’s a beer thing, you’ll be shocked to read. We set off on a quite chilly late morning last week to discover for ourselves a nearby microbrewery promising beers in a Belgian style. Given the properly seasonal weather, we were hoping for a glass (or two?) of strong, dark, monkish beer, and we were not disappointed!

A strong golden, and a strong dark, my strong recommendations

Should you be in the area, and you like a well made big beer, then Two Pillars could be for you. We liked it! If we were feeling the cold and had to move fast to keep warm on our walk over, we were well insulated (or even ever-so-slightly inebriated – those were some mighty big beers in small glasses) and taking extra care in the slippery conditions walking home. We might have dozed off for the rest of the afternoon – must have been all that exercise…

We bought a few fireside sippers home with us in preparation for a couple of winter cabin trips we’ve got coming up soon, and they’ll be just the thing after an hour or two of snowy playtime. Yum!

Imperial porter and a Christmas red ale – yum

Let’s keep it short and sweet, not unlike a shared after dinner winter porter. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

Like looking in a mirror – is this Belgian style?