January Jaunts

It seems that January has just flown by and we're steaming head first into Feb! It took us a while to recover from our 8 days skiing in a row over Xmas but managed to fit another 3 dayer at Banff in mid Jan, interspersed with several Cross Country skiing sessions - which we are yet to master and are now in a bit of a rush to 'learn it properly' in preparation for the upcoming famous Birkie XC ski race in February.

On 6 January we were thrilled to celebrate the Ukrainian Xmas with friends and enjoyed the most delicious feast. Then the whole town braced itself for what was touted as the worst blizzard in 18 years... we were soooo excited,,, and it was incredible,,, we even went out walking in it one night! So we are now in the dead middle of winter here - by the way - Edmonton is about the same latitude at Macquarie Island - Australia's island antartic territory! - We are going white white white,,, and Ian has lost all his tan marks. He can never remember not having any! There has been snow constantly on the ground here since 18 Oct and no sign of it leaving anytime soon. The river is mostly frozen over, and occasionally a small channel appears (as in this picci). One of the real delights here is the hoar frost - where ice particles amass on the branches and create this gorgeous white landscape - truly magical!