Maybe Spending Another $100??

I couldn't help but think that perhaps VANOC could have spent just a little more money on giving John Furlong some French lessons before presenting his speech at the closing ceremonies on Feb. 28th. I don't think I've heard French spoken like that since my last year teaching grade 7!! The organizers did a good job, they put on a great show, and it was a bit embarrassing to have someone speaking French that poorly. The organizers overspent by millions of dollars - another $100 wouldn't have been noticeable and a couple of hours of coaching French might have been worth it, I think. More about the Olympics in future posts.

Olympic Sunshine!

Vancouver has been showing itself off with the terrific sunshine and snow clad mountains. We're getting the same thing over here. Friday, we skied at my favorite x-country place in the entire area - near Blueberry/Paulson summit. This picture is the very attractive Mud Lake! Readers can see that the Kootenays is getting the same weather as the west coast - who'd think that would happen in mid-February? Had a great several km ski on Friday and Saturday I got to hang out clothes for the first time in 2010 - let's hear it for Olympic sunshine!

February 17th: Gardening!

Today we had a sunny day in the Koots and this afternoon I actually got out to work in a sunny area of my garden. We decided to create a little extension on an already existing rock wall and have a place to put a few more tomato plants, for a year at least. It was so lovely to work in that sun in shirtsleeves - my first time gardening in February - well, I might have done a bit in the Isle of Man in 2004 but that wasn't MY garden. So exciting to think of things starting to sprout. We've decided to dig up the rhubarb and replant it in the same spot - it's never really thrived and we know that the ground has to be too rocky. Sigh - that means another year without collecting tons of rhubarb and people around here don't grow it like the prairie gardeners!

Another Blue Sky Day in the Koots

We don't get a heck of a lot of sunshine in the Kootenays during winter but yesterday was one of those perfect days. I used to call it an "Alberta blue sky day" but now I tend to use "Arizona blue". A friend and I headed up the Wagon Road at Rossiter Creek (pictured here) and then climbed up the Rossiter Creek Forest Service Road. It was very encouraging to be up there in the early afternoon and the sun had not sunk behind the mountains ..... spring must be nearly here!

Living at Lost Ledge

This past Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we spent some time at the cabin at Lost Ledge. It was lovely to get above the valley cloud for a couple of days and Monday was a relatively bright day. Part of our group headed up Mt. Schroeder for a big 8-hour ski while the other group stayed on the gentle slopes below the cabin. My powder skiing leaves much to be desired and I still snowplow all my turns, but I do feel more confident with the trees around. The snow was good, but we do need a lot more. The cabin is a really pleasant place to stay if the group size is small - we had six people and that was perfect. Thanks to Mary and Gerald for inviting us to be guests!