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 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 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 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!!

January 22nd

4pm: A colder, foggy day in the valley today- the thick mist taking an age to dissipate in the morning before rolling in again at dusk. I captured the golden glow of the setting sun on the northern side of the valley, the evocatively named Squaws Tit peak visible on the left. This was taken around 5pm as I was on my way for a couple of laps at the Nordic Centre, the wind chill around -15C.....

January 17th

5pm: Canmore Nordic Centre on the way to a quick cross-country ski, not really the perfect time in a near deserted, forested wilderness surrounded area. Twilight is the time they say that cougar's are most active & given our neighbour made the headlines in the paper this week by bumping into a big cat just down the road, I was a little bit sensitive to every rustle in the bushes.

January 2nd

An incredibly mild afternoon at the Canmore Nordic Centre for a couple of laps of the Banff Trail, classic style.......