14 days of joy

As regular readers of my blog will know, I've just got back from spending Christmas and New Year with my big sister and her family out in Canada. It was a fantastic holiday and - courtesy of Big Huge Labs  mosiac maker - I've gathered together a few shots that sum it up for me. The full photo album is available on my Flickr page.

It may only have been 14 days but it felt much longer (in a good way!) and I've come back feeling relaxed and at ease. I would say I'm feeling happy but I'm missing my sister too much at the moment for that, but my break has definitely helped my soul.

It's also been quite successful at helping my health too. Thanks to my sister's fantastic cooking I've managed to put back on all the weight I lost from my pre-Christmas 'flu episode.

So, now all that remains is to unpack, do the washing, get some supplies in and get ready for heading back to full reality (otherwise known as work) tomorrow. But for the time-being, I'll continue my holiday with a coffee and free WiFi at my latest Stirling haunt.

That's all folks ... for now!

Sadly, it's the last afternoon and almost time for me to head back to the UK. I have had a fantastic time and am really sad to be going. Mind you, with a view like this who wouldn't be?

A huge thank you to big sis, the Wee Guy and Mr Ebb for having me (again) for Christmas and New Year. It's been a blast. Looking forward to the summer now when I get to return the favour.

Every second passing is a second closer to summer according to the Wee Guy - what a great idea!

Art - day 2

Art day 2 involved a visit to the opening of a new exhibition at Port Moody Art Centre (where big sis will be having her own exhibition later in the spring). It was great fun - some of us explored the art, some of us watched the cable TV crew filming the proceedings and some of us just guzzled the buffet!

The exhibition was very good - 4 artists, 3 from British Columbia, of whom 2 were very local and one was from Kelowna, and 1 American. All the work was amazing - but special mention to Jennifer Macauley who painted the work you can just see behind the Wee Guy, and Kirsten Chursinoff who creates the most beautiful and delicate fibre art.

It was almost (but not quite) enough to take my mind off the fact that I fly home tomorrow (or later today if you're reading this in the UK, although it will also be your tomorrow by then anyway - eh?) and that I had to pack everything up tonight. The goodbyes don't get any easier unfortunately. But at least I have the prospect of a long visit from big sis and the Wee Guy to look forward to this summer.

And now for something completely different...

Guess what? It snowed overnight here and, even though I'd already had about a month of it before I left the UK, I was (am) still so excited!! There's not a huge amount and it's melting fast, but it was snow and that's what counts.

There was even more snow yesterday evening when we visited Cypress Mountain for the Jackrabbit's annual Lantern Ski night - cross country skiing on the night time trails with some additional ones lit by candle lanterns. Very beautiful if the conditions are right, but also very icy and hard work if they're not. Last year was the latter but this year was almost perfect. There'd been fresh snow and the trails were newly groomed, the night was clear and dry and while there were quite a few people out, it wasn't too busy.

And even better, I only fell over once and managed to get down (in one place and upright) the Roller Coaster slope that completely flummoxed me last year!

Earlier in the day we introduced our house guest (I consider myself a regular enough visitor to claim partial ownership of the houseguests by now!) another couple of the obligatory PoMo traditions - bottling wine and a quick walk on the Inlet Trail.

Of such things are relaxing family holidays made - and I love it. Thanks big sis xxx

Wild horses

Yesterday saw the first visit Outside since arriving in Canada - and it feels almost like the first outing since catching flu at the start of December. Apart from the brief walk from the terminal to the car park at Vancouver Airport and then a very brief stomp outdoors on Boxing Day to help Frances carry her luggage in from the car, today was the first day of breathing fresh air since Friday morning! And we did it in style.

Having been coming to PoMo for a few years now, the trips out now have a lovely comforting routine to them. Vancouver Aquarium, Fort Langley, (trendy) Newport Village, Metropolis and yesterday's destination, Burnaby Village Heritage Museum. (Today are another couple of old faithfuls - Cypress Mountain for cross country skiing and wine bottling at the Wine Shop!) Don't get me wrong, I'm not bored with any of them - far from it. There is something very homely and relaxing about visiting familiar sites.

The company always makes it special too. Yesterday, as well as the little person we were joined by Frances, our visitor for the week. I think she enjoyed it as much as we did and it was great to see it through new eyes.

The other difference with this visit was the holiday theme. I've been at Halloween before when they do all sorts of ghostie things, but never at Christmas. So yesterday, in the seasonal Pacific Wet Coast rain, we did the Christmas Scavenger Hunt, marvelled at the 1920s Christmas decorations and huddled inside the various houses marvelling at how warm the stoves could make the place!

And to finish off the trip in proper style, we all had a ride on the carousel. Great fun.

I even had time to nip into the chemist while I was there and pick up some potions to help us with our Turkey Challenge for the rest of December.

Originals

Today, not only did it stop raining, but we also took a trip out to Fort Langley, birthplace of British Columbia. It's an old trading post and settler fort, so it's the birthplace of European British Columbia. But what was good to see as well was the celebration of First Nation culture too.

In the main house there was an exhibition of First Nation dance masks like this one from the local Sto:lo people. I'll be posting more photos on my Flickr page soon and they're definitely worth a look. Along with a video clip of the wee man playing the part of 'wedding guest' at a fur trader's wedding.

And that brings us to the end me the holidays, but fortunately not the end of my holiday. Back to school/work for the boys tomorrow leaving big sis and I free for some girlie adventures. Yay!

Winter sports adventures

Cypress cross country trail
Originally uploaded by bexybeads

While we haven't got any snow at the house, this was what we had up at Cypress Mountain on Boxing Day. Plenty of snow on the cross country trails, and as you can see, brilliant crisp sunlight too. Definitely my favourite kind of weather.

We were there again last night for the Jack Rabbits Lantern Night Ski. No sunshine, but plenty of atmospheric candle light from the IKEA lanterns all down the sides of a couple of trails. It was really beautiful and actually not too cold for a winter night in Canada.

Unfortunately I managed to prove that the only way I can do a black run, whether it's downhill or cross country, is on my bum - some very inelegant skiing and a sore behind this morning as proof!

Cross country skiing was winter sport number 3 for me this holiday - downhill skiing at Whistler being number 1 and skating being number 2. I'm keeping fairly active this holiday, but sadly I suspect not enough to keep the pounds from creeping on as a result of my sister's excellent cooking and baking skills.

And looking out of the window now, it looks like the rain might just be trying to turn to sleet. Hopefully anytime soon it will evolve into snow (particularly now that we don't really need to go anywhere!).