Icefields and Idiots

We were blessed this week to drive along one of the world's most spectacular mountain highways. Paralleling the Continental Divide which we've viewed while skiing at Sunshine Village (see earlier post) we drove on the Icefields Parkway by the melting Columbia Icefields, hanging Bow and Crowfoot Glaciers, and gushing Athabasca Falls. Impossible as it is to capture the grandeur of Jasper National Park in amateur photos here are a few attempts. So sad that although Banff is a world-class destination for millions of tourists each year so many miss the drive just a little further north to Jasper...even those who have it right in their own backyard.


Now here's where the IDIOT part comes in: We saw a mind-boggling 19 black bears including 2 different sets of mamas with twin cubs. With the telephoto I got some amazing shots but this one show a truly stupid human trick. The bear did finally charge a bit just to make 'em cream their drawers! ... oooh so close they were to being bear take-out.




"You are Here!" and we have to go where? I was a really good sport until hour 3 1/2 and my toes wanted to belong to a couch potato.






Finally we spotted a series of breaktaking teal-colored lakes and oh yeah...that way-cool canyon waterfall making the whole back-breaking, knee-splitting, toe-crunching experience completely worthwhile... truly... yeah..that's it... for real. And the souvenir photos of all the bear cub, moose, elk, Bighorn sheep, Rocky Mountain goat, more idiot photos, waterfalls, glaciers, lake, and random mountain photos can be viewed upon request.

Does Size Matter?

Here I am starting to make a wee bit o' spaghetti sauce for me and Sean Connery, but I ended up with about 14 1/2 litres. And yes you can you get carpal tunnel from opening these industrial size purees. But whose diabolical idea was those mini-sized tomato paste cans? Whuts up with that??

So for my world-famous sauce...ok..it has a small following of my hubby and our daughter in Texas, only the freshest ingredients will do! Sean Connery and I can't eat all this ourselves so we dole it out to unsuspecting friends and neighbors. Here I am just calmly grinding India Extra Bold peppercorns into the sauce, when ..look closely... see the dangling wedding ring? A narrowly averted mishap or I'd have been knocking on my neighbors' doors.... do ya mind if I search yo spaghetti sauce?" Stay tuned: Online ordering available soon.

Dog clippers and Dominoes

So I decided to take the dog clippers to my hair and chop all the gray off! First, the Before shot (with my sister in law) and After the shearing ... now it costs me about one cent per shampoo and I can take a shower faster than a pack of dogs on a three-legged cat.

and speaking of a pack of dogs: Here's our latest Mexican dominoes endeavor with Sir Tom and Lady Sharon Higgins. Note the absence of HRH Hillary .. Sir Tom took the match in some sleight of hand - next time I'm not serving any dark chocolate! BTW - what kind of refereeing did we have? and now we'll have to travel to Toronto to cheat our way into bringing the Tiara back to Alberta!

Hillhurst Happenings

So not that much news except while Charlie's BBQ'ing in the rain on our little balcony, we saw this! A side benefit to all this rain and now hail! But, the geese and ducks are out on the river and makin' babies and we're hoping that it will try just a little harder to feel like Summer. Did we even have Spring yet? The sun doesn't set till after 10pm so it's nearly bedtime by then. The grass is green once again and the hanging baskets are out on the path, so all is well.



These were taken at our minister's houseparty. He's the one with all the hair behind Charlie. The United Church is really progressive which suits us well and we're discovering that being a Christian and standing for social justice as Jesus did doesn't have to be coupled with rigid beliefs and regressive politics... how refreshing! Most Sundays finds us and our pewmates with teary eyes. (that's you guys, Higgins team) I'm thinking we'll take out stock in Kleenex.

Two fun buddies, Crazed Christine and Who Hugh