Short, chilly, bubbly and a bit festive. No, no, not me – this post. Enjoy the season, and happy holidays to you if you choose to celebrate!
Happy Holidays!
Author: plaidcamper
I am a would be outdoorsman - that is if I had more time, skills and knowledge. When I can, I love being outdoors, just camping, hiking, snowboarding, xc skiing, snowshoeing, paddling a canoe or trying something new. What I lack in ability, I make up for in enthusiasm and having a go. I'd never really survive for long out there in the wild, but I enjoy pretending I could if I had to...
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?
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!
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!
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.
December! Winter! Phew!
Phew! We got through the somewhat dull days of November, helped enormously by the very much appreciated end of month snowfall – for us, everything looks better with a light (or heavy) dusting of snow! Once the last leaves drop, it might as well snow, and, for now, it has!
So it’s goodbye November and welcome to winter!
I’ll keep it brief for this post and limit things to a few photos taken out and about the past week or so.
We have our fingers crossed that the temperature dip to more seasonal numbers is consistent, and that the promised snowy winter predicted by forecasters this season comes to pass…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Dizzy new heights
As we wait, and wait, and wait some more for real winter, I’ll be up a ladder, trying not to fall and doing some redecorating around our apartment. Since this will take far longer for me than properly competent decorators, I’ll be taking a short blogging break to get things done and be back in December. By then, the paint will have washed out of my hair and be scrubbed off the floor, and there’ll be more snow than I can imagine to go play in. Dizzy new heights up a ladder, and dizzy new heights on xc skis…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend and rest of the month. Yeah, I know – what hair?
Empty head
I’m working hard to stay patient, same as always this time of year. The most colourful part of the fall season is behind us, and it’s not quite properly cold enough for snow and snow related activities. November is, or has been, my boredom season!
Boredom season? That’s quite a childish approach to an entire month, but I’ll own it – years of teaching mostly Junior High and elementary school means childish is often my comfort zone. Still, this November I’m trying something different, and going for a glass half full (or more) month – it won’t be empty, not this time…
Getting out and about in the city, we’re aiming to fill the month with music, coffee, hockey, and some new beer haunts. We’ve already been to see a friend’s band, Magnolia Buckskin, play, and an added bonus was a new to me performer, Rory Makem, on the same bill. Both recommended if you get the chance to catch them live.
Getting along to watch some junior hockey is always a fun afternoon or evening, and our first Calgary Hitmen game in years was a good ‘un, with a fine home win!
Since the last time we lived here, it appears umpteen – possibly more – new microbreweries have started up, with at least three within walking distance of us. More to follow on those!
So perhaps November won’t be quite the empty month I sometimes think it is, and maybe I won’t have an empty head. I’ll go steady on the new beers though – wouldn’t want a sore head…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Neighbourhood horrors
Honestly, not too many horrors and this won’t be too scary; it’s mostly a collection of some frightful sights we’ve seen around the neighbourhood the past week or two. Many thanks to our neighbours for the fun seasonal scares! (Having downplayed the frights to come at the start of this, a word of warning to those of a sensitive disposition: the final image contains absolute horror, an unspeakable terror, as will become clear if you dare make it that far…)
Are you still here, with a racing heart and slightly sweaty? Ok, here comes the real scare – brace yourself:
Thank for reading, and I hope you have a great Halloween if you choose to celebrate, as well as a great weekend!
Fall flavours
I’ll start at the end this week, with a short piece on a day out last week, spent visiting a nearby park under bright blue skies. We’ve been able to enjoy so many blue sky days this fall, we feel most fortunate. The day last week ended with this little beauty:
I like the big Belgian style beers this time of year, particularly the doubles and triples made by monks, so this one above, a different take, intrigued. A single? A tiny monastery? A baby Belgian? A lot of questions? Why not?! A suitable saison for a splendid season, very good, not too strong, and probably perfect with a picnic lunch if you weren’t going to drive shortly after. We did drive to the park, so this was enjoyed at the end of the day back at home. A suitable saison for a splendid season enjoyed at supper time with soup. Super.
No idea what I’m on about in that last paragraph. Let’s get back to the park visit – we were after mountain views without driving all the way to the mountains, so into the foothills and a nearby park it was! We got there mid-morning, parking in an almost empty lot. Scout could not get out of the truck fast enough, likely because she’d remembered this place, a favourite of hers when she was a pup. We did what we could to keep up…
We wandered the trails through tree lined hills, stopping to listen to the last of the leaves rattling and rustling in light winds.
As we climbed to the top of the valley, the trees were almost totally leafless, their tough and twisted trunks and branches quite the arresting sight.
We didn’t spot any of the bald eagles that can sometimes be seen from the top of the valley, but we did enjoy sweeping views across to the Rockies.
What a day of brilliant big sky Alberta-style fall flavours! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Creaking…
Creaking? Like old bones? Is this an early Hallowe’en piece? Or an excuse for a poor pun later in the post? Hmm, I wonder…
We were camping in a southern section of Peter Lougheed Provincial Park a week or two ago, having set off from Calgary on a spectacular fall day. Goodness, that day – the light was so bright the aspens were shimmering gold and it felt as if you could reach out and run your hand along the mountain top horizon, they appeared so close. Razor sharp!
We stopped in the foothills for a lunchtime picnic, in shirtsleeves and sunglasses. Clearly, the forecasters had got it wrong – snow?! What snow? What a day, bright fall in the mountains:
Oh:
Erm…
Yes, I was cold and creaking, at least until the sun cleared the treetops and most of the snow melted away. A short, sharp shock for sure, but in a good way, it being a reminder that fall is brief out this way, and the brilliance of winter is almost here!
Extra layers on (meaning I wore all the clothes I’d brought, being poorly prepared compared to Mrs. PC) we did a short loop hike, not much more than a few kilometres, up one side and back down the other of nearby Boulton Creek. Creeking, hehehe. Very quiet, with just a couple of other hikers encountered on the trail, bear tracks and scat everywhere, but no bears spotted. Perfect!
We thoroughly enjoyed our last camping trip of this season, sunshine, snow and all, and look forward to the spring – but not until we’ve enjoyed winter!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Happy Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is here this coming Monday, and, once again, amongst all the ever increasing madness in the wider world, we’re very aware we’ve so much to be thankful for.
As I’ve written before, thanksgiving weekend more or less marks the anniversary of when we moved to Canada, a move we’ve never once regretted (well, maybe some regret related to my first and probably last slice of pumpkin pie all those years ago, shudder… the horrors of pumpkin pie – apologies to outraged traditionalists – but no, no, never again, I can’t, I just can’t…)
Pumpkin pie aside, each passing year we love where we live more and more. So if you choose to celebrate the coming holiday, happy thanksgiving!
Ok, let’s keep it brief this week – there’s an apple pie that needs our attention! The next photograph was also taken last weekend and I think it signals the end of the brief Alberta mountain fall and our current camping season?! More to follow…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Silly
Silly? Silly?! Oh no, dull, dull, and dull… What’s going on? Have you had a vocabulary breakdown, OldPlaidCamper? Silly? Ugh… is silly the new dreary? It’s not a word I use very often – most likely because I’m distantly acquainted with one or two people I’m not overly fond of who do use it (they’d probably say I’m silly if they were being kind, although kindness isn’t really one of their strengths…) Anyway, why silly? What prompted this silliness? Why, because I couldn’t resist this beer:
We’ve certainly found the weather a bit silly throughout September, in that it was way above seasonal almost every day. Trips along the river and to nearby parks have been pleasant enough, and the planted gardens have certainly held on longer – perhaps due to the silly weather?
In just the last few days we’ve seen more of a fall arrival, and most definitely on our quick trip earlier this week to see friends in Canmore. The cool fall temperatures were a relief, and the dashes of colourful larches on the slopes were very pretty. A deciduous conifer? Is that a bit silly? Not at all!
We’re off to K country for a few days of quiet camping – no cell coverage or wifi, some beer, some short hikes, a few good books, and maybe spotting a bear or two in the distance. Not too silly…
Thanks for reading – I’ll aim for a wider vocabulary next time – and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
OldPlaidCamper 