Maybe this will clarify things....

So Julia, I know it is confusing when I talk about what I am up to and where, since I do move around a lot. I hope this map is clear enough, could not get it any bigger. It takes me about 45 minutes to drive from my sister's to my parents, and about 40 minutes from my parents to work (with no traffic).

Gilmore Girls

Ah ha! I TOLD you!!!

a weekend at my sister's...

Gavin and Daniel taking shots on Sue (in net).

Gavin and Me

Samy (likes the attention we think)

Princess Chloe
Chloe is helping me bake Swedish Lemon Squares.... (involves lots of icing sugar)

Chloe at Gavin's bday party

John, playing house.

Gavin thinking about his birthday wish

Rambling the moors

Yes, and now it is February. Where is the year going? I'm not working right now (because I am waiting for a delayed visa to wing its way over the sea to me) and so each individual day seems rather long, but the weeks fly by. In an effort to stave off boredom last weekend I went hiking in Settle. It's in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, one I have not been to since we were all out hiking with the outdoor soc. I ususally prefer moors. But how foolish I was to assume that the Dales would have only lush green valleys and docile sheep! I found the most moor-ish of moors and the craggiest of crags in Settle and I think it is possibly one of the lovliest corners of this small island. So, pictures.

Moors!

Crags!


The top of the crag and the fog coming in.
(Because I am a prairie girl and anything larger than a small hill is novel and exciting and must not under any circumstances be neglected as one never knows if another will appear.)

By the way, I am happy to report that it is spring here in York. I went for a wander in the Museum Gardens yesterday and found crocuses and snowdrops. Of course, I would not presume to suggest that seasons follow each other in a logical, sequential order on this continent, so it may well be winter again tomorrow.

Nearly February, already!

This month has really gone by fast, eh? Mom was asking me the other day what I would have been doing a year ago. I think I was starting to try and figure out where my placement would be.

Anyways, I do not have a lot of recent photo's to show. I do have one from Christmas that I really like. It is of me and Gavin sporting our new John Deere Hats (I know you'll appreciate this Sanne! Mine is brown with pink mesh, totally awesome) - this is taken at my sisters house on Christmas day.

New Years I spent with Steph and her brother in Hamilton at a really cute Irish Pub. Cute might not be the right term - it was just a really good spot. Steph really likes me eh? :)

Nothing is really overly new with me. I guess I am still absorbing the fact that I am staying in Ontario for a while now. I like my job at ARA, my built heritage associated projects are fairly interesting and as long as the Ministry of Culture doesn't get me down - I would like to stick this out and make something of it. This past weekend I spent in Port Perry visiting my Aunt Brenda and Uncle Mike with my parents. It was like a weekend on vacation so I had a really relaxing time, though I kinda miss those snowmobiles.

It's been cold here, and snowy - I like it. Even if I'm not much of a winter sports person... well... just skating and toboganning...

Snow in Manitoba

It also snowed in Manitoba! Patrick and I went camping for three days over the New Year's weekend, and it was lovely weather until the morning we were supposed to get up in enough time to drive back to the city for a massive New Year's brunch. I cannot emphasize the importance of this brunch...picture everything you would normally put in a brunch, and then add little luxuries like an omlette bar, curry, dessert table and endless cups of tea. Think of a brunch worth driving through a blizzard for, and you get the general idea.

So. The first two days were lovely and clear, and really freakishly warm for that time of year, around 15 below. Here are some pictures.




Then, on that fateful final day, we slept in! I woke up around half seven and noticed how warm and dark it was in the tent and concluded that it must still be very early, that I didn't really need the loo, and that I could safely doze for a nice long time. Some time later, Patrick had the presence of mind to check his watch and realized we had slept an hour too long. Why, you may ask? Because the tent was completely covered in snow! About a foot of snow, in fact. A blizzard had blown in the night before and covered everything. So we skipped breakfast, packed up and trudged back across the lake (which was in a complete white-out, by the way) and found the van also covered in a foot of snow and the highways closed.

This is what the lake look liked as we got to shore:


But to cut a long story short, we braved the back highways, which were not closed, dashed into the house to change (but not shower) and arrived at brunch only half an hour late (and stinky). It was a very dramatic entrance.

But it seems I got lucky. I received an e-mail from Winnipeg today telling me that the temperature has dropped to -48 with windchill.

Frivolities

One of the things I really like about England is the unusual frequency of fancy-dress parties. I have gone to two this term already. The first was, of course, the annual epic that is the Constantine House Hallowe'en party. Throwing to the wind the English custom of dressing in a scary manner for this holiday (which, we must admit, does make perfect sense), I became my 19th-century alter-ego Elizabeth Bennet with a little help from a costume I made a couple of years ago. Thus:



The most illustrious inhabitants of 2, Precentor's Court: Miss Elizabeth Bennet, the man from The Deerhunter, and a random guy dressed in black, already a little intoxicated by the early evening. Good times were had by all.

The other fancy-dress party was one with a nautical theme. I only heard about it 24 hours before the fact, so my ingenuity was a wee bit challenged until I pinched a straw boater hat from the fudge shop and became a lady gondolier:


Best costume, however, went to housemate John, for being a lighthouse. He spent most of Saturday morning making a rather impressive cardboard contraption, which had a torch in the top to make it light up. Points for creativity and sheer bloody-mindedness, minus points for wearing it only for the first 30 seconds of the party. Oh, and that's his friend Alex, who stayed with us for the weekend and went to the party as the Captain from the fish fingers box.