Spring coming? Really?

Well, there is a little bit of spring inside the house anyway.  Still -17C (0 F) outside in the mornings and it snowed yesterday so I had to shovel again.

I like the combination of tulips and daffodils.

PS:  Maybe it is coming after all.  There is some brown grass showing these days, it's actually above freezing since I can't remember when, and yesterday I saw lots of Canadian geese out on the golf courses.

BRRRR

I think this has been the coldest weekend so far this year.  Here's what I look like after a 45 minute walk with Hannah at -30 C (-22 F).

I'm wearing two pairs of pants, two pairs of socks, my warmest pair of Uggs boots, two sweaters, of course hat and scarf and Rolo's motorcycle mittens, along with my big warm coat.  I can't wear my glasses because they fog up and then freeze.  The fur around my hood, my hair that hangs out and the scarf get all frosty from my breath.

Hannah goes out with just her beautiful wheetie coat - she doesn't seem to mind the extreme cold anymore, although we do limit the length of walks when it is this cold.

Wow, summer in Houston is going to be tough for her...

When above zero is still below zero

Today, FINALLY!!, the temperature went above -17C, which is 0F.  Hannah and I went out to the park for a nice walk in the sunshine at -6C which is 21F for you Americans.  It actually felt quite nice, although I was still wearing the Uggs, heavy coat, scarf, hat and gloves.  Now that the sun rises at a more reasonable time in the morning, we have been stopping at the doggie park for a run.  Before today, it's been pretty rough out there, often -27C - even Hannah feels that cold on her little feeties.

This is a picture Rolo took this morning while fording the river to get to work at -20C.  The Bow River is finally frozen over on both sides of Prince's Island.

This is one of my favorite sights in the morning.  This photo was taken from the north side of the Bow River looking south towards downtown.  You can see all the exhaust systems and cooling towers working on all the high rises as the steam rises from their roofs.

Driving our street is still kind of like 4-wheeling.  The ice is at least 6" thick on top of the pavement and snow holes have frozen to make impressive pot holes in the ice.  I'm sure glad Marilijn isn't here - she definitely wouldn't like it.  And that block heater on Ellen has come in handy during the last week when it was mostly -20C and below.  She likes do get a little warming shot before she has to go out and face the cold and ice.

We've heard from some locals that now that February 10 has passed, it will warm up.  I guess that depends on your definition of warm.  We shall see...

More Chilean moments

 

Sleeveless in January - oh, yeah. 

 

 

 

 

View from our hotel in Valparaiso.  It's an old Pacific port town, heyday before the Panama Canal.

Check out those Texas flags...

Ritzy rooftop bar in Santiago where we had wine and tapas.  Great ceviche, empanadas, and view of the Andes.  Again, shorts in January!

Sundays between 9 am and 2 pm, the city of Santiago blocks off a nice loop for cyclists, no cars and volunteers at each intersection to stop the cars.  We rented a beach cruiser and spent 3 hours riding around the city with the locals and checking out all the sites.  What a fantastic idea - maybe some cities in US will catch on to this. 

Interesting sculpture garden in Santiago along river bank.  This is one of the sites we rode by.

Easter Island

I had wanted to see Easter Island for a long time, so when we started planning this trip to Chile and I found out it was actually part of Chile, I knew we had to include it.  I didn't realize then that it would take a five hour flight to get there from Santiago, but that didn't stop me.  I had a little trouble finding a tour guide available, but was finally able to book two days of guided tour and the hotel.

We arrived at about 11 pm so we didn't get to see much then, but we were met at the airport with leis made of real, fresh flowers and driven to our hotel.  The next morning we discovered that we were staying in one of those hotels you see advertised in travel magazines with the individual cabanas that have large doors that open up to a view of the ocean.  I couldn't have chosen anything better.  We had two days of guided tours around the island and through the national parks.  The guide was great and we even met some friendly Italians on the trip.   Here are some photos of the famous Moai.

 There are over 300 of them scattered over the island.  This last photo was taken at the quarry where they carved them.  I'm so glad we made the trip to see this.  The island was fantastic, so laid back and friendly.  Only those who are descendants of the original tribes can own property, so there are no highrise condos, no Starbucks, no McDonalds,..., just a perfect place to go for vacation.

Chilean Discoveries

 

One of my favorites - Yugo Naturales.  This is one made from cantaloupe melon.  It's just a fruit drink made from frozen fruit.  I had a Yugo de frambuesca almost everyday - raspberries and delicious.

 

 

Our first day in Santiago we took a walking tour and went to the food markets.  It was great to see all the summer fruits and vegetables there for sale.  Every city I visit, I enjoy seeing the markets.

We drove to the coast, or rather Dago drove us to the coast to a great restaurant on a cove.  This is renata  - Chilean fish and really tasty.

 

We enjoyed some fantastic foods and local wines on our trip.  Rolo discovered Carmenere.  It's a varietal that was thought to be extinct and then several years ago they found it growing in Chile.  It's a really nice, earthy red.

After a dip in the Pacific, nothing better than a freshly peeled little pineapple - better than a popsicle.

The Bamboo Bike

In Valparaiso, Chile we were walking down the street and found this to attract attention.  What an artistic expression of a bicycle.  Somebody has some creativity.  Check out the detail all the way down to a chain and derailleurs front and rear.  How about those brakes?

Motorized Bicycles in Chile

The advances in batteries and efficiencies in electrical motors has caused lots of electrical driven vehicles from cars to scooters.   Old school would dictate a small 2-stroke engine (like from a chain saw) spewing smoke down the road grafted onto a bicycle frame.  If you want to get really fancy, a company could take it on and make it more professional.  While in Chile I saw several of these things and here are some pictures.  Pedal or spew smoke...your choice.

Graffiti or art?

We just got back from 2 weeks in Chile.  What a wonderful country Chile is.  Everyone seemed very happy and I was told by a local that Chile currently has the strongest economy for all of South America.  Don't know if that is true but the people on the streets were very happy.

Everyone has seen graffiti all over walls, garage doors or what not.  Chile is not immune from that either but the Chilean government passed some new laws that have had an impact.  The law basically classifies paintings on walls, garage doors, etc. as art.  Apparently there is different classes of offenses if you are caught putting graffiti on a blank wall or on top of art and if you do it on top of art the penalty is very steep.  This is what a local Chilean told me.  So what has happened is the emergence of art all over.  Here are some examples we saw so I ask you...graffiti or art?

Winter Wonderland

Just a few pictures taken in December.

 

Here is Hannah after a treasure hunt in the snow.  She is so proud of herself when she finds a ball buried in the snow, left behind by another dog.  This wasn't a successful day, but she still had fun.  Then we had to go home and jump in the tub so I could de-ice her.  Even with her awful schnauzer cut she doesn't mind the cold down to about -20 C, and she just adores fresh powder.

 

 

Our house early in December when I was working on my snow mountains out front.  I have become an expert snow shoveler.

The Bow River just south of Prince's Island, north of downtown.  They scraped the snow away and set up an ice rink.

Rolo doesn't cycle these days, but has a driver.  He's taken here and left to climb down the hill, ford the river, wade through the snow and ice, uphill both ways, in the wind, barefoot...

The shadows on the horizon are the mountains out west.

My big bad boy on its last ride in Europe

Europe is a great place to ride motorcycles and my big bad boy has always like to roam free.  I know there is another post of getting it into Canada and all of that is behind me now.  I just happened to come across this picture so I thought I'd post it.  And yes that is me taking off the license plate because I had to so I could turn it in to stop the Dutch government from direct drafting our account for the road tax.  Yes direct draft is the only way they do it.  I installed my old Texas plate after this picture and since then it now has a Canadian plate…eh!

Who's going to argue with this?

One of the last places we visited before leaving Europe had this place…just couldn't resist posing beside it.  In Europe the motto was "The world is going to end, the boat is going to sink and the platform was visiting the abyss of hell" and I guess I might have been at the center of everything.  I'm sure some of the people in the office might have thought this...

A spelling lesson

The other morning while walking Hannah in the park, we saw this.

Didn't realize that we were spelling ''eh'' incorrectly, but now we know.

Lots of frost that morning too - may have snow this weekend.

Canadian Wine Tour

The locals told us we needed to visit the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia in  order to try Canadian wines.  They said it was only an 8 hour drive through the mountains so we thought we would take a quick trip on one of Rolo's three day weekends.  Now that we are back in North America, he gets those every other week again.  So we went last weekend.

Well, it wasn't exactly 8 hours...  With all the rush to finish road construction projects before the winter starts, there were quite a few slow downs in the mountains, and we hit the only large city in our path right at Friday afternoon rush hour, so it was a 10 1/2 hour drive to get there on Friday.  But it was a beautiful drive through the mountains, and we had the opportunity to see lots of new stuff.

We stayed at a little hotel on the beach of Lake Okanagan, and found out from the owners that was their last weekend open before closing for the winter.  It wasn't very busy.  Saturday, we visited several wineries and were able to find some nice ones to bring home including ice wine, and port style wines for Rolo.

We took Hannah with us on the trip - she didn't find the wine tasting interesting, but she did enjoy chasing the Canadian geese off the beach back onto the lake.  In fact I think she really enjoyed the lake - kind of like her days in the canals.  Of course she smelled much better afterwards.

The drive home was much quicker on Sunday since all the construction sites were idle.  I think we might go back, but plan to take a few more days.  I'm still not adjusted back to those long distances and drives in the car.  But it's great to have a nice comfortable car to drive here.

Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump

Back in August, when we made our trek up from Montana, we saw a sign for this site and I was then determined to visit it.

 

Saturday we drove back south to Fort McLeod to have a look - about two hours south.  This is a site used by the locals, Blackfoot Indians for several thousand years for buffalo kills.  As the sign indicates, they would create a stampede and then corral the herd to the cliff so some would fall over the edge.

 

Here's Rolo with the cliff in the background.  According to the info, it's eroded a bit now but was much steeper in the past.  I think the last Buffalo Jump was some time in the 1870s.

 

 

While we were there, we tagged along with a docent, Edwin, who was really entertaining while telling us all about the history.  He's a Blackfoot who even knows the language so he was pretty knowledgeable.

 

We weren't able to find any buffalo to herd over the edge, so we had to stop at Five Guys for a burger and fries instead.

 

And as we've found while visiting other sites, the perennial bear warning sign.  Still haven't seen one, except on the signs...

 

Wildlife in the cemetery

Last week, I took Hannah over to the off leash area of the park for a run.  Once we got there and she was off lease, she was intent on sniffing a trail, but I could see her tail was tucked, which is a bit unusual when she's on a hare chase or something like that.  There were several other dogs around so she had a bit of a run and then we went over to the corner where I leash her up to leave.

I heard a strange bark/howl noise and couldn't place it at first.  Then I saw this in the cemetery.

That there's a COYOTE!  I know it's a bit difficult to see, but trust me, it was.  And he/she didn't seem to be concerned about the cemetery workers about 100 meters away. 

Later, I found out from another dog owner that the coyotes are known for sending one out to try and lure a dog away and into the pack for a kill.  I'm sure glad Hannah wasn't interested, in fact she was wary instead.

Update on the coyote front:  Last night when we took Hannah out for last call, we heard the coyote choir out in the graveyard and not very far from our house.  We walked down the street the other way, towards more street lighting and civilization and sure enough the zombies in the graveyard stopped the choir.  It's really kind of eerie to hear that so close...

Tour of Albert...aye

Here is a photo from the finish line at the Tour of Alberta - a six day bike race ending in downtown Calgary.

We rode our bikes down to view the finish.  And of course Rolo rode one of his Dutch custom bikes, the orange one, and got lots of envied looks and comments.  It was fun and exciting to be there, and a bit more relaxed than the other bike races we saw in Europe, of course not nearly as big.

Here's the bike used for the prologue - well our prologue anyway.  A few days before, we participated in a charity event with Chevron.  We collected money for the Heart and Stroke Foundation and then saddled up this bike with 28 of our close friends to ride around Prince's Island a few times, while shooting from water pistols at each other.  At one point in the ride, we came face to face with a truck on the path and had to detour off the path shooting the gap through the trees.  Ok, we skimmed a tree at one point, but no recordable injuries.

Lots of laughing...