February 28th

3pm: Tabby spent the day at her first ski-racing coaching camp at Norquay, she is for a 5 year old a truly amazing skier. Confident on any terrain, fast & very stable I cannot ski as well as she can. A future Olympian - who knows?! Talking of The Olympics I really have to admit I had very little interest in the final of the ice hockey, in which Canada beat the USA in extra-time. I know it is not very Canadian of me, but I simply cannot pretend to be that taken with the sport. I definitely like it more than Gridiron, Basketball or Baseball - and I was pleased for Canada as a whole - but (the real) football is my sport, as is cricket and to pretend otherwise is just faking it.

February 27th

10am: Looking after the kids, while Nicky & her friend Michelle are out running. Rene, Sidney, Tabby & Charlie were impecabbly behaved - bingo, painting & chasing balloons were the order of proceedings.

February 26th

10pm : A rare Charlton victory as reported online, it's increasingly frustrating following my team from afar as we are blighted with poor management, terrible commentary & a team adept at throwing themselves under the bus at every opportunity. Nice to see therefore a Friday night win far, far away in Southend on the East Coast of England. Is this the commencement of a promotion surge, I kind of doubt it, but it would be nice to be proved wrong.....

February 25th

5pm ; Heading out of Calgary on my way home from work, westwards to the mountains, one of my favourite views as you crest the Old Banff Coach Road just east off Springbank. The whole vista opens up with stunning views of the Rocky Mountains & that big old Alberta sky.

February 24th

6pm : The Nordic Centre in Canmore, normally a hive of activity is absolutely deserted due to the Olympic ice hockey game between Canada & Russia.....

February 23rd

9pm: Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans on stage at the Eric Harvie Theatre in Banff. It was a most entertaining concert in front of an appreciative audience - the guitarist was absolutely masterful switching between lap steel, lead & banjo. Corb served up a whole host of Alberta themed songs & some inspired covers including an excellent Perpetrators song that sounded like something Bob Wills or Hank Snow would have been proud to call their own. Earlier I invested several hundred dollars in my first set of XC skate skis & boots - I am slowly mastering the technique, it is not in any way easy but I will get there! )

ps - I know it's a poor picture but the security folks were cracking down on cameras & so I really  had no time to compose this shot, taking it while they were looking elsewhere, there was an excellent upright bass player but he got chopped from this picture as I only had half of him in the frame!)

February 22nd

12pm: Westward bound on the Trans Canada, another glorious day weather wise!

February 21st

3pm: My kids love Uncle Pete, he spent the weekend with us in Canmore & they hardly left his side - he is going to make a great daddy one day!! Today we spent several hours at the Canmore Nordic Centre, Pete went Cross Country skiing for the first time & did very well indeed. I finally got the hang of the skate style of skiing & had a great afternoon with my instructor, the incredibly patient Tricia. The weather was just phenomenal, hot & sunny - Tabby & Charlie wrestled each other & Pete after we had done skiing, a perfect afternoon rounded off with chocolate milk & a homemade curry....

February 20th

10pm: Yukon Blonde play a set at Communitea in Canmore, in front of myself, Pete, George & about 10 others. Possibly the lowest attended gig I have ever been to! However they rocked & it was akin to having a full band play just for you in your living room - weary from a full day of skiing, we sipped coffee & ate rhubarb cake while the Kelowna based rockers thrashed away in front of us......

February 19th

7.00pm: Pete Morey warms up the crowd at the Uptown Stage & Screen Theatre. Pete was producing the latest edition of Go! for the CBC, recorded in front of 500+ enthusiastic fans & broadcast the following morning. I know most of his team by now, lovely people & after an excellent show we all went out in Calgary for dinner & drinks ending up at the rowdy Rose & Crown just off 17th Ave. A long, tiring day but fun nonetheless!!

February 18th

8.30am . This innocuous shot is actually a momentous day in the family calendar, it marks the first day in about 4 months that we get sun in our back garden as the sun finally rises high enough to shine over the mountains & forest that we back onto. Here the sun is shining on my little herb patch. From now on we get sunnier & sunnier mornings, culminating in the beautiful mornings we enjoy here in the summer as the sun hits our side of The Valley first & breakfast is taken outside as often as possible. Another momentous day for other reasons, as Charlie was introduced to the potty & took to it like a duck to water - not sure if that figure of speech is the best descriptor, but he seemed to enjoy the new experience anyway.

February 17th

11.35pm: Nearly forgot today's picture. We had George & MJ, Paul & Anastasia & their kids round for a really fun, but hectic supper & after a few beers I forgot all about daily pictures until just before bedtime. Was great to see Stefan achieve an excellent result at The Olympics earlier today in the cross country sprints.

February 16th

10pm: Wilco come to the finale of their set at The Jubilee in Calgary. A good show in front of an enthusiastic crowd, particularly enjoyed their cover of Broken Arrow in the encore. Only negative point was the idiots around me who didn't stop talking throughout their set & that of excellent openers, Califone. I hate people talking at all seated gigs as you have no option to move away from them. Was nice to see Pete & his CBC gang in town for their show this week - more of Pete later this week.

February 15th

2pm - George Grey of Canada prepares to set off in his 15km Olympic Cross Country race as we cheer him on in front of the TV, he came a very respectable 29th. Seems amazing he is even there considering the injuries he has put up with this season. George & Lesley were neighbours of ours until last summer, when they moved over to the other, sunnier, side of Canmore. A nicer couple you could not wish to meet, Tabby idolises George & maybe one day she will follow in his Olympian footsteps!!

February 14th

3pm: First bike ride of the year today thanks to the ongoing good weather, the roads were clear of snow & ice & I completed a 20km loop in decent time. Back in time to catch up on the Olympics & a thrilling first gold medal on Canadian soil for one of our athletes - Alex Bilodeau in the Freestyle skiing. Now in my life I have seen a lot of great sporting moments, great football matches, unbelievable cricketing thrillers, boxing, summer Olympics even snooker when Alex Hurricane Higgins was at his peak, and this was right up there with them for drama & emotion. Here's hoping that one of our local Canmore athletes can go one notch higher in the next few days.......I have this funny feeling that they just might.

February 13th

3pm. Charlie in the tracks at the Canmore Nordic Centre - an insanely beautiful day again, with hardly a cloud in the sky. I did two laps of the Banff Trail, the first one in my quickest ever time - the kids romped around the stadium in the sunshine, before Charlie fell into a large, muddy puddle - a habit of his.

February 12th

3pm: On the short hike to the Skoko Bowl on Eagle Ridge way above the base lodge - I spent a great day at Lake Louise with Brent from the CBC, a friend of Pete in Toronto & an all round nice chap! This is probably the only time I have ridden without a helmet in the past 10 years, a slightly strange feeling of vulnerability especially as the hill was extremely icy in parts. We ended up at the Iron Goat in Canmore, where we learned of the tragic death of the Georgian Luge competitor on the opening day of The Olympics. Yet again the weather was extremely mild, can't remember the last snowy day......

February 11th

9pm: I'm working my way through the sumptuous Beatles Mono boxset - $200 from Amazon & worth every penny. I spend far, far too much money on Cd's but one day the kids will inherit a vast library of excellent & diverse music - they'll probably flog it on e-bay but at least I will have tried in my quest to provide them a musical education!

February 10th

5.45pm: The long drive from Edmonton to Canmore takes me through Olds, a small town about an hour's drive north of Calgary. Old's itself is pretty nondescript but I love the grain terminal just to the north of the town - it's pretty photogenic & here I stooped down onto the railroad tracks to get a different angle. I wanted to get a sunset picture but the sun had gone down & this barely represents what was a stunning sunset. I had also taken some really nice pictures using the orange lenses of my sunglasses as an ad-hoc filter, but it's strictly one a day on here..............

February 9th

4.15pm. Me & my shadow......on the Highway upto Edmonton I noticed the car's shadow ahead, alongside and behind us depending on the heading of the road. It was a 3 hour straight trip from Calgary, no traffic, perfect driving conditions but little scenery of note to take pictures of & I knew it would be dark by the time I got to E-town, so this was a good way to depict my day of driving.

February 8th

5pm: On my way to indoor soccer I popped down to our summer pitch to check it out - as I suspected an unhealthy mixture of ice & elk poo covered the dead grass!! Only about 3 months to go before it's warm enough to train & play outdoors....the ice will (hopefully) be gone but we'll still be dodging the piles of elk droppings they kindly deposit around the turf for us!!

February 7th

1pm: Canmore's Olympians assemble before the adoring masses prior to their departure for Vancouver later this week. Tabby is bottom right in this picture, with the pale blue ski pants on!! She is not participating in any Olympic events of course, but was one of the local kids - from the XC Skiing club - who paraded earlier down Main Street with the team & formed a guard of honour as they approached the Town Hall. A stupendously beautiful day in Canmore, warm , sunny & as usual a tremendous sense of community abounded - Main Street itself had been converted into a cross country ski course & we spent an hour or so afterwards shuttling up & down the tracks with family & friends. Credit here also to Paul for taking the picture, I couldn't get near the front - so passed him my camera. So good luck to George, Stef, Ivan & the rest of the team - bring back some medals guys!!

February 6th

9.45am: Listening to Charlton scrape an undeserved draw this morning on the radio in their League One game away at Swindon, my mind cast back to happier football supporting days following them around England when they used to be a force to reckon with......nowadays it's Saturday mornings on the radio over the internet, the very occasional game live on TV & the excellent Charlton Life website.....

February 5th

2.15pm: Toronto Airport. Finally the plane that would take me home, after the best part of two weeks on the road. I had a great time, visited New York caught up with wonderful friends & enjoyed myself with my work colleagues - a really nice bunch of people - however I need to get back & see Nicky, Tabby & Charlie & resume life in the Rockies!!

February 4th

3pm : A rather enjoyable team-building exercise with my work colleagues. We ended up in a downtown Toronto indoor climbing centre - something I had never done before & found really good fun. We started off on the small walls, learning safety & rope work - before playing a few games on the taller walls - I think I will take this up here in Canmore, which is after all one of the best climbing destinations in North America. The evening was rounded off in a beautiful Portuguese restaurant where I enjoyed some of the best seafood I have ever had the pleasure to experience.