January Canadian Scenes

 

These colours are completely natural.  I haven't tampered with the image at all!

Lake Minnewanka

Lake Minnewanka

Lake Louise

Snow covered trees

Lake Louise

Birch Trees

Banff

View from Bow River, Banff

Castle Mountain

View of the Rockies from 1A

I’ve just returned from a week in Canada and am suffering from a colossal case of jetlag.  Our ten hour prison sentence, ahem, I mean flight, was marred by the seemingly unbreakable vocal cords of a small, unhappy child.  That, and being squeezed into a space more suited to a cat than a human, meant sleep was unattainable for over 24hours!  On the plus side, we did manage to see the fabulous Northern Lights through the airplane window, which I’d have missed if my eye were shut!  Why thank you small, screaming devil child!

On arrival in the UK, all the stories of heavy snowfall were confirmed and although the flight wasn’t delayed, the plane’s hold doors froze shut so it took an hour and a half for our bags to arrive!  Surely they must be prepared for this type of scenario? It took so long that I started to have visions of baggage handling crew frantically licking the hold doors in a desperate attempt to free our bags!   I’m sure there’s a cartoon there somewhere.

Anyway,  apart from that, the holiday was fantastic.  The food was more than ample (as per North American quotas) and the scenery was breathtaking.  I have a few cartoons that I’m mulling over, but before I put pen to paper, I thought I’d share a few travel snapshots.

One more day

Berries in Frost
One of several fantastic wire sculptures over looking
Lac Leman (Geneva)

Christmas has passed and I only have one day left in the bosom of my family. We’ve been slothfully but pleasurably inactive over the last couple of weeks. A typical day would be little more than moving from the warmth of our beds to the breakfast table, to the sofa in front of the fire with a good book, back to the table for a hearty lunch, to the sofa for games, tea and nibbles, to the dinner table for leftovers and finally cradling our paunches, to the sofa again to veg in front of a movie (regardless of quality) before retiring to bed. Phew it makes me feel lethargic just writing it.

Ok, we did sprinkle the weeks with a couple of small walks to prevent our joints from seizing up completely… oh and a bout of last minute shopping to spend some vouchers before they expired. But generally, if it wasn’t our table we were munching at or our sofa we were sprawled across, it was someone else’s.

Bro doing an impression of
Mr Napkin head (relevant to anyone who’s
watched Holiday)

Of course, January 2007 will start with a concerted effort to get back into the gym regime that was abandoned somewhere around the time I started university. L and I are aiming to make some changes to our physique in preparation for my Brother’s wedding in May. We have 5 whole months to transform so how hard can it be?? Yes, you’ve heard it all before, but surely THIS time.

I should mention that I’m also a bridesmaid at ‘The’ wedding so unless I want to be remembered as ‘the wobbly one bringing up the rear’, I have to do something!!! All the fondues, mince pies, roast dinners, cold chicken sandwiches, curries, cheeses, chocolates, bottles of wine, biscuits, crepes and ice cream have merrily clung to my waist line in the last 10 days. So hear my war cry “BE GONE OH POISONOUS PLEASURES – no longer shall you seduce my gorged mid rift!”

I was actually supposed to be jetting home yesterday but couldn’t face the return to the UK. The comfortable isolation of this village helps to rest the mind and clease the soul. Plus, L is ‘on nights’ and most of my friends are celebrating New Year with family or on hot, sunny islands. I think I made the decision to change my plans with one hour to spare and was quite relieved that it only cost 6 pounds for the privilege.

I’m glad I stayed. We saw the sun for the first time in a week today! Boy was that a welcome relief! My parents house is not far from Lake Geneva, at the base of the Jura mountains so it’s often shrouded in thick fog during the winter. The last few days have been dull and grey with cold hard frosts but there’s still no sign of snow. This is usually the weekend that most French people set off for their first ski of the season but unless they’re heading for the highest peaks, they’ll be terribly disappointed.

A good view of the mist in the valley

 

Hard Frost

Dad and I did make it to the piste at the invitation of my cousin and his family on holiday in Le Gets. However, the snow was so poor, only one icey, gritty slope was open. I quickly passed up the offer to snowboard for fear my coccyx would not survive.

Anyway, I’ve had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas and feel a little guilty that L has been working her little socks off at the hospital. Not only is she ‘on nights’ for the New Year but she had her nose to the Grindstone over Christmas too – these doctors EH!