Three months last Saturday!

Who would believe it three months since we landed, we seemed to have packed in so much. It's hard not to keep sending emails, and letters, to family and friends full of all the new things we have seen and done. The weather has been interesting to say the least here in Calgary with early snow falls and low temperatures followed by more 'normal' autumnal temperatures. We awake on Saturday expecting rain only to find snow. We reside on the western side of the City and quite high up, 0ver 4,000 ft, and so we received over 10 cms of snow! The weather forecast caught up with the weather once the snow had stopped falling, weather forecasters have he same problems here with getting it right.

We have been out exploring; Peter Lougheed Provincial Park and the areas around Bragg Creek. There are so many things to see, explore and do. Most of the Provincial Parks provide a variety of all year round use for example hikes in the summer become snow shoe routes and cross country skiing routes in the winter. The scenery is ever changing as winter nears, it is strange however to see snow trees fully laden with leaves which haven't dropped yet. In the garden we have a rowan tree full of leaf and berries, following the snows and low temperatures the leaves have turned brown but the berries by contrast are still bright red. Lots of the Canadian Robins have been flying through on their way to better weather. On our local walks through the ravines and green spaces, the aspen trees are the same although their leaves have curled and have turned a rather unpleasant shade of yucky green/brown but they still rustle in a breeze. The oddest sound is that of melting snow dropping from the trees and at the same time hearing the rustle of leaves!

We spent a pleasant day in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park,as it was a Monday there were very few travellers on the road and we had the park to ourselves most of the time. Our journey from Calgary was interesting as we travelled through rain, sleet and snow. There was very little snow on the ground in the Park and the clouds hung low, affording glimpses of the snow covered high mountains. Certainly come again weather.

We had a picnic lunch in one of the day use areas, it was a pleasure to sit and eat our lunch surrounded by awesome mountains and have only the sounds of nature for company. Our journey ended at Canmore, at the Nordic Centre, where there was a 400 metre track already available for skiing! They open officially on November 15th. we shall be visiting again and trying out those trails.

Three months on and one of us has a job, we have ups and downs (mostly Zof re:finding a job)but mostly ups. Home sick ? .... no time really too much to see and do!