Anyway, so what’s happened this week? The massage leaflet drop last week helped to kick things off, but it’s slow at the moment but that’s only because at the start of a business like this she has to rely heavily on word-of-mouth. Things are moving though, and she has had a few appointments already this week. You can imagine that she has a natural flair for meet and greet, and she quickly puts people at ease before giving them a good pummelling. I know I’ve been done  few times and it’s really helped my back.

We have guests! The house was cleaned by Cath to within an inch of it’s life by Cath while I was laid up with a 24 hour illness – I had uncontrollable shakes and almost collapsed in the bathroom. I ended up on the sofa with a hot water bottle called Andre, a tub of ice-cream and a tin of peaches for the rest of the day. It took a second day to get over it, and the benefit was that I am now below 14st

Oh yes, the guests. They’re a nice couple that have been here for a couple of nights. I’ve finally started cooking breakfasts, and was pretty nervous to on the first morning so I thought I’d start with something easy. Well there’s nothing easier than a full English so there I was grilling bacon (well, I say bacon) and sausages (hah!), poachng eggs and boiling up beans. They were a bit worried that I might throw some fried bread on the plate, but I told them that there was not a lot of chance of that – that’s for the older generation, eh dad? You would think I’ve never cooked before. I’ve certainly never had anyone pay for my cooking before,  so the night before I did breakfast we had a full English for tea. Today I’ve just upped the ante and produced Eggs Benedict – is there no end to my talents? Guess what we had for dinner last night?

Cath meanwhile has a bad back. It’s been brewing for a little while, but became worse after a trip to a massage therapist; in fact she could hardly walk the other day. It’s been brought on by a lot of things – partly cycling, partly having to paint a load of fencing for me to put up later, and partly, well probably genetic what with her backward-bendy legs ‘n’ all.  We have a meet and greet with a doctor this week who is an athlete himself and is very good with physical conditions, so I think Cath will be in good hands there. I think a trip to a physiotherapist is on the cards though.

Meanwhile, snow! It keeps coming down you know, a good thing for a ski resort (I think the base at the top is over a metre already) and it keeps my snow moving muscles honed. I broke out the blower the other day and reacquainted myself with it idiosyncrasies. Once started I found I could clear the whole drive within an hour and get the see the family of white tailed dear that have been hanging around the neighbourhood. They look like young siblings that come around most evenings looking for bits of grass under trees.

I’ve now updated this post to include some photos of the sunrise this morning. Not great, but I’ve found a good spot for next time – though it involves wading through a part of the Elk River – note to self, take wellies next time. I had to leave in the end because I was getting shouted out by some stressed birds for standing in the middle of their breakfast area.

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Aiiiyeeee don’t believe it! Fantastic weather for photos this morning and there I was racing south west without a camera to Cranbrook to buy plywood. I know, I know, I have such a hedonistic celebrity lifestyle.

The snow lay on the ground, and the big wet flakes landed softly on the ground as I jumped into the van and headed south. First stop the ski hill for a bit of research. I didn’t realise that they are still filming up there so was surprised to see that the base area looks fantastic all dressed up  – if a little American. The clock tower looks good, as do the snowflake decorations. I hope they get to keep them because they do jolly the place up.

Well, I carried on towards Elko; driving through mountains clothed in spruce and pine, the wispy clouds curling around the treetops. Mountain sheep were grazing by the road as passed through the tunnel and continued towards Jaffray. It was really beautiful – so you can imagine that I was more than slightly peeved at not being able to take a photo.

Oh well, c’est la vie. I managed to get everything I need in Cranbrook  – including something I didn’t realise I needed until I saw it – a 1¾ inch split flange for my pipes! All I need to do is screw them to the wall and jobs a good’un!

Anyway, sun’s out now, so no chance of good, saturated photos. I’d best shift Hercule’s out the way and start on my shelving while CBC is wittering on about dogs being able to predict death. Nice.

On the way back, I had to stop a couple of times while road maintenance were cleaning the road of the stone chippings that are scattered over winter. This allowed me to take a couple of photos, so here they are in all their glory.

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The day started interestingly because we had to park up on the slip road going up to the ski hill while they dragged a 4×4 out of a ditch, and then the hill hadn’t heard that Cat was supposed to pick up a half price ticket, so she only just got to the group in time.

Anyway, that was a few hours ago now. I’m now sat in the guest living room, waiting for the call to let me know that she’s ready to be picked up, so I’ll find out how she got on and let you know later…

THERE IS A POTENTIAL FOR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH HEAVY DOWNPOURS..DAMAGING WINDS..INTENSE LIGHTNING AND LARGE HAIL TONIGHT. THIS IS AN ALERT TO THE POTENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. MONITOR WEATHER CONDITIONS..LISTEN FOR UPDATED STATEMENTS. IF THREATENING WEATHER APPROACHES TAKE IMMEDIATE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS.

Thank god I had the roof done. I hope the place stands up to the battering it’s possibly going to get! I’m sure we’ll hear from our Canadian readers if there are problems.

You know how you can be in one place and it can look just like somewhere else entirely (e.g. almost any high street in any mid size British town), well the trail we walked yesterday reminded us of our trips to Lake Garda in Italy – blazing sun, bleached gravel roads and meadows all around.

We decided to go out for a trek to look for waterfalls and rapids on the Elk River over near Elko. After parking up, the path took us along the top of the Elk River Gorge where the white water rafting companies routinely scare the bejeesus out of their paying guests. The rapids start at the dam and carry on for miles, twisting and turning as they churn the river bed with a thundering roar. The shale walls of the gorge rise like multicoloured towerblocks with only the trees giving a sense of scale. Unfortunately because of the shale, the sides of the gorge are quite unstable, further down the walls are made of what appears to be sand or dust, with little pretence of being stone. Consequently the walls here regularly give up their mass and look like Carol Smilie has been round buffing the place up. The thin veneer of trees and plants at the top live a precarious lives with the only certainty of the ones on the edge being that they will eventually have the soil washed out from them and they will eventually plummet down into the river.

Around us up at the top of the gorge spring is definitely here. There are flower meadows that Heidi* would have been proud of, and lambs played by the side of the road while the rest of the herd looked on. Butterflies crossed our paths as did different of birds almost the entire length of the route.

Our destination, shown in the second picture, allowed us to come down from the top of the gorge so that we could sit with our aching feet in the river. I took a few photos (justifying the 3kg pack on my back!), and Cath dozed in the afternoon sun.

*hmm, some of you who didn’t watch kids tv in the ’70s might want to look that up.

I was in the bath reading a book the other morning, minding my own business when there was an almighty clatter outside and then the strangest noise. Well it went on for ten minutes and made me loose my place, so I girded myself, climbed out and wandered over to the window. There was the bloody squirrel sat on a fence post quacking like a duck! Seemingly going into convulsions with each one, he carried on quacking away for a bit longer before seeing me and high-tailing it out of there. Honestly I don’t know what gets into him sometimes. He’s either confused, bilingual or it’s some part of the mating ritual.

We’re really looking forward to popping back over to Canada in three weeks. Although we are having a good time, it’s difficult knowing what’s waiting for us. We will be there for a week this time, so aren’t going to attempt to get over the jet-lag (early mornings and late nights will be de rigeur), andtwe are going to do absolutely no work at all on the place – well that’s the plan anyway, things have a history of just happening while we are there – remember sewage anyone (ok Lesley, not you). Mind you, before that we have the Welsh triathlon to get to next weekend, so I’m looking forward to that. There’s only going to be me and Cath this time, so I’ll have to make twice as much noise – maybe I’ll take a klaxon along with me!