Winter, Christmas/NYE and our UK Trip

The Cold Part of the Year - Winter.

We began preparing for winter in November - and how glad we are that we did as mid November we had snow and a cold snap of -20c to -28c for a few days.
Alastair bought a new car for his commute to work and we begun to kit out our vehicles with winter tyres. Something we never had to think about in the UK - but an absolute must do over here as not only do the tyres help you move in the snow they are also critical to the safety of yourself when suddenly stopping. One test of tyres I read said stopping from 40 mph snow tyres did it in 156 feet, All season tyres in 184-foot and the summer tyres (what we would normally use year round in the UK) - skate to an ultimate distance of 351 feet.

We had a really bad wind at the end of November when out buying snow boots. There was damage to buildings across the city and part of downtown was closed as some window's in one of the sky scrapers had blown through shattering glass onto the street below. Calgary is a windy town because of its proximity to the mountains but this day was particularly bad with winds up to130km/h    and weather warnings across this part of the province.

Standard winter attire: snow boots and descent winter jackets, gloves, hats and thermals - and a sledge!!!

Imogen all nice and snug for a walk around the lake across the road

We had bought a new snow shovel for the drive after struggling with just the battered one the land lord left - and oh how happy we did as shortly after we had this snow fall:

Most people will shovel their drive as soon as the snow stops falling. We have tried to do this every time. If you don't and drive over the snow it compacts into ice and is even more difficult to remove when you eventually get round to it. So there have been days for me which have started by shovelling the drive and scraping the ice off that Alastair has created on his way to work at 6.30am. It is city by law that if you have a public pathway that boarders onto your property that you have to clear the foot path within 24hrs of the snow fall stopping (the foot path on our street is over the road - yey). Although I can imagine this being a pain it also in a lot of ways makes sense. Can you imagine this idea being brought to the UK - especially with the bouts of snow the country has been having over the past few years.
As soon as the snow is falling all of the major roads have snow ploughs/gritters out keeping the population moving. The main bus routes are cleared and eventually after a few days you will see ploughs out on residential streets.


Fun in the Mountains

In November I took some Ski lessons at the Calgary Olympic Park which is a 5-10min drive from our house and can be seen from the upstairs windows. 
Putting the lessons to good use at the beginning of December Alastair and I headed to Nakiska - a ski resort about an hours drive away. We put Imogen in the crèche and headed to the slopes. We had lots of fun but unfortunately on his last run Alastair fell and bruised his ribs badly. He spent the next 2-3weeks in agony and not being very mobile! This affected our Christmas break as he couldn't move much so our plans to go to the slopes again and spend time in the mountains doing activities were cancelled.

What a difference a season makes - this is a photo taken at Bow Falls in Banff.

And here is a photo taken in December.

When we got back from the UK we went to Lake Louise to check out the Ice Magic Festival.

Ice Magic Festival - Lake Louise

The British Entry

The road to Lake Minnewanka

2 Jacks Lake

Just chillin by the road.

Bow Falls Banff

Walking on the Bow River - Down town Banff

 Ice Skating

All around the city when the lakes have frozen many of them are turned into rinks for use by the public - for free. here is the one down town. I made it to Lake Louise for a spot of skating.

Ice Skating - Princes Island Park, Down town Calgary

Christmas & New years

The Holiday Train

Holidays are coming holidays are coming.....The Canadian Pacific Railway dedicate a train every year to travel across Canada stopping in communities to collect money and donations for local food banks. We decided to head on down to see it. The train is lit from beginning to end in festive lights, opening in the middle to reveal a band playing festive songs. It is called the Canadaian Pacific Holiday Train. We had a great evening taking part in the festivity, the weather was nice too!

Festivities & Celebrations

Like many in our neighbourhood we put lights up on the exterior of our house to celebrate the holiday season. Most houses in the area did this. Some where more extravagant than others.We kept it simple.

We had a very quiet Christmas compared to our normal dashing between England and Northern Ireland  to catch up with friends and family. We enjoyed our Christmas morning together in our home and then we were invited to Lesley-Anne's for Christmas Dinner. And what a feast she had been kind enough to prepare.

We had a quiet new Years eve at home. We made steak for our evening meal, played a board game and watched a film. We decided to make more of New Years day and had planned to go out to Lake Louise to Ice Skate. Unfortunately whilst getting ready to leave the house I had injured my toe so badly that I could barely walk on it - so there was no way I was going to be able to Ice Skate - we spent the whole day in the house :-(

Our trip to the UK to share in a very special day and to meet our niece.

Earlier than anticipated we were made our way back to the UK to share in Frances and David's wedding day.   We thought getting an evening flight would be best for all - Imogen would be too tired and hopefully fall asleep and by the time we arrive in the UK we could easily get over the jet lag - as its much harder to get over travelling east. How wrong we were! Imogen did not sleep until 2.30am and then woke every hour trying to turn over. By the time we arrived in the UK we had had little over 2 1/2hrs sleep. However we were greeted by 'Gregs' and soon after Rob and Erin who welcomed us into the comfort of their home for our stop over - a proper English brew and non aeroplane food!

We were very glad to arrive in Northern Ireland and to our home for the next week. It took us longer than normal to get over jet lag as Imogen would wake and want to play between 12-am and 3 for the first few nights - play time mama!! Once we were over this we could enjoy our time here and relax a little.

We made a trip out to Giants Causeway taking the coast road:

Hanging around the farm:

 A belated Christmas Dinner:

 And of course - the big day which was great:

  After leaving Northern Ireland we ventured across to England and split our time between, Manchester, London and Leeds - and for some reason didn't manage to get very many pictures of this leg of our trip. No wonder though as we were very very busy meeting with people, changing accommodation 3times and making sure we had some fun too. Needless to say as much as we were missing every one we were very happy to be on our way home by the end of it - no matter where that was - i wanted my own bed.

Before we went to the UK I joked to Ally ' wouldn't it be great if we missed a really cold snap whilst here!' Well we did - we missed a week long of -30c!!!!


We are definitely beginning to look forward to summer. Especially as we hear how warm it is getting back home and cant wait to float down the bow - tho we have spring to go through which is sleet, snow and rain!!

I promise to update soon!!!

I know I know - management of this type of thing has never been my strong point!!
I have so much to catch up on, I promise to do this soon. I've been really busy with lots of different things - including selling hand made goodies for kids!

Imogen's 2nd Birthday - a reflection.

There was a week in June 2009 that changed my life forever. It was the week that I found out I was pregnant, and not many people know it was also the week we received our medical requests from the Canadian Embassy! Fear of the un-kown and the massive change that was about to happen to us set in. We already had a wedding to plan, and now the final stages of our application were beginning. Could we do it, do we still want to go - how are we going to manage this with a child? when will we go? Should we still get married or wait or move it forward? What are we going to do about work?? and breath.....

There were many times we considered not making the move here, being away from family and friends with out a child is hard enough but now being so far away from our support network with a child is not a decision you take litghtly. We had spoken about it for so long. We wanted this for so long - every one was expecting this to happen - and now it is! We soon found our self asking - is this going to be a positive move for our child?

Today is Imogen's 2nds Birthday - Is this move a positive one for Imogen? The answer is not conclusive - not being able to share in the day in its wholeness with our family and friends in the UK is a sacrifice we knew we were making when we made the decision to move here. It was a hard one. But I know we make up for it as much as we can by skyping often - making sure she knows who her family are by talking about them all the time, showing pictures and being involved in their special events in what ever way we can.

So after having many of my friends and their children around to celebrate I am sat here reflecting on our decision to move here. The photo's you see and the activities I write about in my blog are only part of the picture. There are the appointments you need to make and then to find some one to look after Imogen, the crisis days when you want to go round your good friends for a brew and a talk to get it all out.  Missing the big and small birthdays, births, marriages and not being able to physically comfort those close to you in times of sadness are all things we miss.

But here we are - 2 years and 9months after that life changing week - I am sat writing this as Mrs Gray in our home in Canada after a party to celebrate our daughters second birthday. I am so happy we moved here - yet so sad to leave our UK life behind us. Was it right - I don't know- but I believe it was wrong to not even try.