Winter's Wonderland

We've had a week full of winter activities and I need to include this photo to make everyone aware that the sun can actually shine in the Kootenays in December! This picture was taken on Christmas Day at the lake near Fletcher Falls. We had an early morning walk there (well 10 o'clockish) before opening presents. A quick trek to the inukshuks (sorry no good photos in that light) and the beautiful Fletcher Falls themselves rounded out the a.m. journey. Other activities this week have included a few hours of back country skiing on my new touring skis while I break in the boots. On the 23rd we all spent the day at Whitewater Ski Resort so I had a chance to use the skis as downhillers. The skis are way too advanced for me and my son-in-law refers to them as "boats" but they do manage powder really well. We're also getting out the snowshoes and enjoying the deep snow pack only 15 minutes from home. I used to only get to do those winter wonderland walks a couple of times a year and now they are becoming a daily ritual. So good to spend some time within a Robert Frost poem.

pro on pst

We're almost to the shortest day of the year - I think it's only two days away! We are really into the darks in this part of the world and it's partly because we live on the eastern edge of the Pacific Time Zone. Across the lake, the good citizens have opted to go onto Mountain Time and they get to be light until 5:30 p.m. while we have the dark totally descend by 4:30 p.m. As well, we've had 8 days of very low cloud and I've missed seeing "my mountains" - the amazing Purcells across the lake. In this kind of weather - lots of gray cloud against gray rock and a somewhat gray lake I'm supposed to call it silver - it's a silver day, as my walking friend Candace remarks. I'd have to say that I'm generally pissed right off on pst in the winter, but the good things are that it's light at 7 a.m. when I usually get out of bed and I get to put the Christmas lights on in the middle of the afternoon. Somehow, I think NOT having a picture accompany this post really suits the mood of it.

Taking On Bragging Rights

My daughter, Andrea, never gets around to blogging and after our phone conversation last night I figured I'd take on the task of bragging to the world about her latest race results. Going to Las Vegas seemed an odd choice for Andrea and Demitri but they went with more of their athletic friends and celebrated one of the clan turning 30! Can a 30 year old run a marathon must have been the cause? Andrea entered into the half-marathon (as a mere 27 year old) in Las Vegas and had great results - she was 41st out of 4, 776 women and 9th out of 806 women in her age group. You go, girl!! Demitri did the full marathon and finished in 3:03 - will the next step be Boston?