Rainy Sheldon Island

Incredibly, I'm sitting in the Frost Cottage at Sheldon Island, North Georgian Bay, Lake Huron.  Yes, it's raining, but that's ok as we're sitting chatting and catching up the last 18 years since I've visited.  Had a fine party last night over at the Ogden cottage with Mac & Donna, Andy Scott, JVL and Gisele and a number of other Bayfield friends.  I should have done this a long time ago.  Rob Frost is here with his wife Donna and her son Galen.  Her daughter Alex (16) is on a 28 day canoe trip from North of Superior to Hudson Bay.  Wow.  

Otherwise, we're at Shadow Lake.  David has his birthday on Thursday and he'll be 12.  James and he are having another great adventure, and we are having a great time at the cottage with the family.  Grandparents are doing very well.

I'll try to post again before 2010...

Reminded of the blog

I was reminded by Christine Sherwin today that this blog still exists. I haven't updated it obviously in some time. For those interested, I'm now th AP at Branton School in NW Calgary and am still doing many of the same activities as I have with other schools - west coast sailing, music with kids and coaching a bit. Deirdre has been working on a contract with Worley Parsons International for the last year; David and James continue to have many adventures and are growing like the corn. Recently we were out on the Coast for a family sailing trip - lots of fun and some good wind too. Our next travel will take us back to Ontario cottage country in the summer to reconnect with the family and friends still clinging to the East...

I'll add a few recent pictures, and as always, commit to making more frequent entries.

New pictures of summer adventures.

Summer vacations

For any who are still reading (Gordon) we are having a great summer full of many cool activities. David completed 2 weeks of sailing camp at the Glenmore Sailing School and James learned how to dive at his swim lessons. We camped at Waterfowl Lakes in Banff Park for a few days, hiked 10km to Cirque Lake and checked out the shrinking Columbia Ice Fields.

We left for Ontario July 24th and spent three action-packed days at Ontario Place, the ROM and also took in a Blue Jays game. We drove to Montreal to visit Deirdre's family friend Eleanor, and checked out the Botanical Gardens, Insectorium, Biodome, Old Montreal and the Archaeological museum - all in two days! From there we headed to Ottawa to see Gordon Filewych and to check out the new stuff at the National Gallery. We also went to the air collection at Rockcliffe and saw many cool old airplanes, and also made kites.

From Ottawa we blazed across to Bancroft and Baptiste lake for a fine visit with the Redford Clan. One highlight was Bill's amazing MP3 recording of the Big Rock Candy Mountain taken off the old wind-up gramophone and now available as an MP3, maybe even off this site.

Then to Shadow Lake via Kinmount. For two weeks, we lounged, swam, sailed, canoed, kayaked, played tennis and beach ball volleyball, watched the Olympics and ate some very fine meals. A great visit with Mom and Dad, Kathy and Jeff, Hil and Grace.

Back in Calgary now, and gearing up for another busy year. Boys are into COP camp for the last week of the summer, and there will be one more camping trip at least before we are all back at school full time.

Pictures will follow one they are downloaded.

May Showers Bring June Flowers?

It's hard sometimes to adjust sayings to the foothills. We are being soaked today in real Irish type rain. This after several days of hot hot heat - summer weather in Cowtown. Recent events include a garden party for Mother's Day and a bowling party for James on his birthday. James has many new Hot Wheels and Lego sets, and a cool-looking blue guitar in honour of his favourite artist - Picasso. Also, the massive EKG Spring Fling where I, once again, got to be the DJ.

We are looking forward to summer, and travels back to Ontario to see friends and family

Spring... winter... spring ... winter

The Foothills are living up to their reputation of teasing us with very nice weather alternated with heavy snow! Yesterday, we played outside in the sunshine and even had a day of 21 degrees last week. Today, the temperature will drop to -8 and the snow will start, and continue for a week or so. Perhaps an indicator that we need to get out in the mountains one more time to enjoy the powder. We spent a weekend down at Iris and Neil's cabin in the Porcupine Hills and skiied the last weekend at Castle - a variety of snow - everything from light powder up top to heavy mashed spuds in the middle, to slushy slurpee at the bottom. James mastered 'Tumbleweed', a run which defeated him at the beginning of the season.

We'll post some photos of the snow, when it arrives...

Snowy West Coast Adventure

Hola to any still checking in... April can be a cruel month in Calgary, but so is pretty sunny and fair. We've had a lot of great adventures recently, including ski trips to Fernie, Kicking Horse, Nakiska, Lake Louise and Sunshine. We also drove to the coast via Kamloops and Vancouver for a trip on the Roue Schooner Passing Cloud, one of our homes away from home. Some photos will be on board here too. This weekend, thanks to the graciousness of friends Iris and Neil, we're on our way South to the Porcupine Hills to stay in their cabin, and close out the Castle Mountain ski season. Lots of snow still in them Rockies. Deirdre is back to work at Komex (Worley Parsons). On Wednesday night, we celebrated this by all heading out to see a live show by Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans at the Jubilee Auditorium. http://www.corblund.com/site.php if you want to see and hear what the best music from Sothern Alberta is all about. "I'm gonna shine up my boots, I'm gonna head into town, gonna take my twenty dollars and spread it around..."
Hope someone's still checking in on us.