This morning I took my daughter to her band class at 06:30. During the night it had been frosty (as opposed to just plain cold) and the trees stood like ghosts along the road. Later in the day, as the sun rose, the white branches stood out starkly against the dark trunks, sparkling like diamonds until the frost melted. There are times when even winter in Edmonton is a wonderful time to be here!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 16, 2003

Answers

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-- For those (who@dont.check.new.questions), January 16, 2003.

I like your imagery, Tricia! Maybe someday you'll be writing stories too ;-)

It's a bit on the cool side here now. The low was about 4 degrees yesterday and it's gonna stay 'chilly' for a while longer.

-- (sonofdust@winter.chill), January 16, 2003.

What a beautiful picture Tricia and what a good Mum you are.

Today our temperature hit the old century mark again. It is late afternoon and I've just been out to refill the birdbaths. There was a line of black and yellow honey-eaters waiting on the fence for me. Now they are jostling and carrying on, taking turns to jump in. They remind me of a bunch of school-kids on the first hot day at the pool.

-- Carol (ain't@summer.great.com), January 17, 2003.

BRRRRRRR!!!!!

It's 17 degrees with a wind chill of SEVEN this morning. At least the wind has died down a little, though. Yesterday it stayed around 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. I thought maybe Tricia might blow in. ;-) We had a few snowflakes, but they were blowing sideways and never stuck. It's a little too hot where you are, Carol... maybe Aunt Bee's would be a good place to go. I loved your description of the birds waiting for water. :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), January 17, 2003.

My place ya say? You all are welcome to come down anytime! I just came in from the brilliant sunshine where I was watering the yarden and spraying the weedlets with weedkiller/soap. The yellow daffodils at the end of the pool have sprung this week, showing their bright sunny faces! The iris are in bud stage and should be showing their splendor in a week or so. It is 77 clear beautiful degrees! Nary a cloud in the sky! Although this time of year, the mesquite trees are losing their leaves, and beginning their lonesome skeletal stage.

On my way to work this morning, in the dark, I was still in awe of the golden moon's aura over the desert. The owls hooting as I picked up the paper at 4:30am and read the headlines by moonlight was still glowing two hours later on the trip in. Truly magic as Mother Nature intended~!

As I was driving home from work this afternoon, all the nurseries were doing a bustling business! It's these springtime-like days in January that make folks from back east love to winter here! Many decide to retire and watch the shadows change on the Santa Catalina Mountains to the north (they say the shadows change every 7 minutes). The Bobowhite quail are scurrying about the desert floor in lines of 7 or 9, looking for places to lay their speckled eggs somewhere on the ground. The mourning doves have already begun nesting in preparation for their spring brood.

I planted sunflower seeds today, just so I can see their big, brilliant yellow heads come spring, when I look out the kitchen window, while I'm doing dishes come April. Come May, they will be natural birdseed.

Tonight it will be chilly, in the forties, but I have the fireplace ready to go, and woodbox filled, just so we can be comfy out here in the quiet desert I so love.

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), January 18, 2003.

Rob, you never know :-) I have written stories before, but not for a long time. They never turn out as well on paper as they do in my head, so I get frustrated and rip them up :-(

Carol, your imagery is great! I can see those birds(?) in my head and I've never even heard of them before :-) I'm not such a great mom, I just like my kids to be involved in music and I pay the price (sometimes very unwillingly!)

Gayla, even 17 with a windchill down to 7 is an improvement over what we have here today. But it's snowing again and I'm so grateful to see it that I'd happily have it even colder as long the snow flew. We have gotten about 6" (15 cm) in the past week... more than we've had yet this season! Our snow cover was down to about a 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) until this snow fall, and we're in the midst of the most severe drought on record, so the snow is neccessary and welcome.

Aunt Bee, I love trees, so living on the desert really doesn't appeal to me a whole lot. But your description of the moonlight makes it more tempting than I'd have thought possible!

All this wonderful snow is whirling up some haiku in my head - hopefully I'll get it out before it melts :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.ent), January 20, 2003.

Brrr Tricia, and I thought I was cold! I cannot even imagine what it is like where you are. Though I did spend one frozen night in Zermatt on a Thanksgiving eve many years ago! The little Swiss Inn where we had raclette melted by the fire, along with steamed new potatoes, homemade bread, and hot glogg warmed my innards!

BTW, the desert isn't treeless ya know! I actually live in a part of town that is called the Verde Valley, because it is a mesquite bosque. I'll have to e you a pic or two, if ya got room in yer mailbox!

I have another internet friend who thinks where I live is all sand- LOL! I have to BUY sand to mix with the clay soil just for aeration and drainage!

Tricia, don't let that haiku melt! We'll be waiting for it ya know! Anyone for fudge in the meantime?

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), January 20, 2003.

We got a temporary break today from the severe cold with temps going up into the twenties, but it looks like it's back to single digits/ teens tonight.

Awaiting the Her Princessness's HighKoo---

-- (sonofdust@imiss.thebeach!), January 20, 2003.

"Guess-June's-height!" the carnival barker sneezed.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@achoo.com), January 20, 2003.

Brrr indeed, Gayla! You'd better hope this Siberian High doesn't become an Alberta norther.

Aunt Bee, although your fudge sounds yummy, I think I'll let someone else have my piece - I need to lose some excess Christmas still :-)

.

Wicked winter wind

Withers wistful warm wishes

With worse weather warnings.

.

Snow shrouded spruce trees

Stand frigid - stiff and tall

Spring's warmth awaiting.

.

Snow covered valley

Reflect soft blue and pink dawn

Still life in pastels.

.

There. A few winter sneezes to warm your cold days.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 21, 2003.

Hmmmn.

Sure Lon Frankenstein hasn't got that still already?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), January 21, 2003.

Where is LON??

-- helen (running@in.place), January 22, 2003.

Robert, that's still *life* not still death - it has nothing at all to do with Lon F's jiggle juice!

Helen, Lon is lonely. He needs a story! :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplaent.tne), January 22, 2003.

I've actually worked on ... it ... but I won't post it until it's completely finished. No more serials from me.

-- helen (it@remains.unfinished), January 23, 2003.

Love your haiku as always, Tricia! Thought you might enjoy the postcard written by CanadaSue over on TB:

Link

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), January 26, 2003.

You're right, Gayla, I did enjoy that piece! She's a very good descriptive writer, isn't she?

It has warmed up some here, today. We were in Calgary over the weekend, and a chinook came in so the temperature was up well over freezing there. It didn't make it quite as far north as Edmonton, so we're still at -9C (~=16F I think). However, the drive was gorgeous! The sky was blue with scattered clouds and as the sun went down, the clouds changed to slate gray/blue with peach highlights. The snowy fields reflected the colours in a muted fashion, accented with gold tree trunks and black-looking evergreens. Although I hate the cold, I do have to admit that the beauty of winter feeds my soul.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 27, 2003.

Tricia your winter countryside sounds beautiful. It's lovely to sit here and picture snowy fields.

We don't ever see snow here and last Saturday our temp. went up to 44C (111F) which is pretty warm in anyone's language. Fortunately it was good clear heat, but even I appreciated the cool change that blew in Sat. night.

We had a constant haze for about a week from bushfires hundreds of kms away. It made the sun and moon appear a fiery red, a brilliant sight, but also an eerie reminder of the terrible fires in our area 20 years ago.

-- Carol (c@sizzled.com), January 29, 2003.

Oh well sure, if the brush fires are that close (I mean really, hundreds of km's away is practically across he street in "real distances") you're going to get soot and flames all over the place.

Did you hose down the front yard so the grass didn't catch fire? 8<)

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@kmsarenotlong.miles), January 29, 2003.

Brush fires? I have a brush but it never caught fire! And it's red. Are there comb fires too? If you lost your brush in a bush would you have to comb the bush for the brush? And what would happen then if the bush caught fire?

-- (sonofdust@being.silly), January 29, 2003.

Sorry Robert I did it again didn't I? I should have said the nearest fires were about 400 miles away and have been burning for about 3 weeks.

Hosing down the front yard would do SFA to stop a bushfire.

Lol Rob. I guess that means you are still young enough to have hair to brush. My husband would be jealous. As for burning bushes, they've had so many in the Eastern States that even Moses would be impressed.

-- Carol (c@oz.com.au), January 29, 2003.

I can't imagine living in that kind of heat, Carol! Even in Africa, we lived at quite high altitude and it didn't get that hot. At least here, we can turn up the central heating and put on another sweater - there's just not a whole lot you can do to get comfortable at +44C!

Robert, hosing down the yard is probably a good idea - especially if there's a good-looking woman in a tee-shirt in it ;-)

Rob - you, being silly!?! Impossible I'm sure :-)

Today our temperature was up to -4C or so (26F). And tomorrow our high is supposed to be up to +2C (37F), so I'm looking forward to going for a walk in the river valley. So far the weather change has been very gentle instead of windy as is usual. The trees have kept their branches piled with snow and the contrast is beautiful. I'll see if I can write some more postcards or haiku after my walk tomorrow. Of course, it'll have to wait 'til after I get my Christmas tree down...

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), January 30, 2003.

"what would happen then if the bush caught fire?"

God would begin to speak. ;-)

CHRISTMAS TREE?????????? January 30th? ROTFL!

Carol, that is WAY too hot for me. But then Tricia is usually way too COLD for me. Why is it I suddenly sound like Goldilocks and the three bears? :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), January 30, 2003.

One too hot for him. One too cold for him.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn.

Notice that he DIDN'T say what helen feels like to him.....

(Another long suspicious Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn ensues.)

(Combs the thread for other searing thoughts...... Dander if Ui what what's up.)

---

Is a bird's T-shirt in the hand worth two wet bushes in the front yard?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), January 31, 2003.

eh???

-- helen (what@wuz.zat?), January 31, 2003.

Speakin' of T-shirts--- Marie says I got lots of T-shirts, but I just looked at a few of them, and guess what?

None of them have any "T"s on them!!!! Fact is, they ain't got no letters at all!

So why are they called T-shirts, huh? Questions, questions, and more questions. Maybe only birds in wet bushes have shirts with "T"s.

Wonder what kind of shirts Stealth Geese have. That's it!!! My T- shirts have "T"s on 'em but they are Stealthy "T"s !!!!---I think---

-- (sonofdust@lways.confused), January 31, 2003.

Well, Rob... the letters may be stealth, but for us females, the t's had better not be!! ;-)

.

Bright blue sky beaming

On streets, the ice is steaming

Sunlit warmth gleaming.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayels@telusplaent.ent), February 01, 2003.

The last few days I've been remembering some of the favorite things I've seen:

From an airplane:

The blue, snow-capped peak of Mt. Rainier illuminated by a full moon.

Rising to meet the green and red streaks of the Aurora Borealis as we took off from the airport in Anchorage, Alaska.

Fire-red walls of the Grand Canyon at sunset.

On the ground:

A double rainbow after a storm in Paris.

Eagles, startled by the ferry horn's blast, flying out of trees to soar through the air.

Brilliant pink and purple clouds as the sun set over the Canadian Rockies.

A moon-bow created in the mist of Yosemite Falls by a full moon.

The sun slowing disappearing into a golden ocean in Mazatlan, Mexico.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), February 01, 2003.

Wow, Gayla! What spectacular memories to have engraved into your mind. Thanks for polishing them up and showing us some too :-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (Tricia@telusplandt.net), February 02, 2003.

Tricia and Gayla, please don't think our summer is always that hot. Last year we had hardly any summer at all and this year we are getting the extremes. This week it's back around +30C (80-90F), very livable.

You ladies certainly have seen some interesting countries and sights and you have a wonderful way of sharing them with those more sedentary souls among us.

Africa to Canada Tricia, that must have been quite an adjustment to make.

-- Carol (c@oz.com), February 02, 2003.

This is such a nice thread. I've come back to it a dozen times in the last week. My earliest memories are of my grandmother's house, sitting next to the big fireplace and looking through her collection of dozens of "viewmaster" reels. I remember seeing the Taj Mahal, Niagra Falls, Japanese temples, elephants and Eskimos. All I've really lusted for my whole life is to travel, but for the most part, that has been a rare luxury.

Now, I can come to this forum and find postcards and pictures of wonderful places and people who have become my friends. I can see the majesty of the Canadian Rockies with Trish, feed exotic birds with Carol, share a winter evening by Abbies fire, and fly off to a moonbow over Yosemite with Gayla. Now, if I can just get Rob to take me surf fishing, then spend a day on the farm with Helen (and Mike), I'll have it made.

And there's lots of others who have left snapshots for us before that I miss. Mebs, Kritter, Lars, Robert and many more. I look forward to our trips together, each and every one. Thank you all.

-- Lon (lgal@exp.net), February 02, 2003.

For Lon, from Yosemite. (Looking down on the mist trail from the top of Vernal Falls. If you look closely, you can see the steps on the left that we had just climbed.)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), February 02, 2003.

That's a lovely sentiment Lon. I always look forward to visiting here.

Wow Gayla that was some climb, but well worth it I'm sure for the beautiful view and photo.

-- Carol (never@been.anywhere.com), February 04, 2003.

Beautiful photo, Gayla. I remember when I walked up those same steps and we were lucky to see a double rainbow that afternoon. And I remember there were lots of these colorful small birds around too. They flitted around us foraging for a crumb as we took a bite to eat from our packs. Yosemite remains one of the most awesome places I've ever been.

-- (sonofdust@t.yosemite), February 04, 2003.

Wow, Rob! I didn't know you had been to Yosemite. It's an incredible place! The sound from the spot where I took the picture is SO loud in April and May when the melted snow causes the falls to swell. In the right-hand corner of the picture you can see just a bit of the water flow. I have a picture taken more to the right that shows the water, but it hasn't been scanned. (Not to mention that it's in another state.) ;-) Did you get soaked by the mist climbing the stairs? We did!

It's quite a climb to the top, Carol, but well worth it! We went on from there to climb to the top of Nevada Falls. Another WOW! :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), February 04, 2003.

Very, very dry when we were there about 16 years ago. reservoirs were 50-100 feet down with bare rock showing.

Almost no water in the creek at all, and the "falls" were a light sprinkle!

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), February 04, 2003.

I'll never forget the rush I got from base-jumping El Capitan. I sure wish I hadn't lost the pics. No one believes me.

-- (lars@indy.net), February 04, 2003.

Okay - So you forgot the pictures. Don't worry about it.

Look, anybody can make a mistake in all that excitement of jumping off of a sheer cliff several tousand feet high.

(Did you, uhm, remember the parachute?)

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), February 04, 2003.

Parachute?

-- (lars@indy.net), February 05, 2003.

Yeah, you know---parachutes, like the ones we used back in the ol' Hundred and First Airborne...them there things that open on impact.

-- (sonofdust@screaming.eagle), February 05, 2003.

Uhm.... Sir Lars of the Chuteless.

A question please.

Did you land okay, or did you pass on to that big empty parachute pack in the sky?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), February 05, 2003.

The National Park Service arrested me in mid-plummet.

-- (lars@indy.net), February 06, 2003.

LOL, Lars!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@*telusplanet.net*), February 06, 2003.

Ya know, Sir Lars, if the NPS tried that arrested-in-mid-plummet trick with me, I'd face trial as a plumbob, and probably wind up with a suspended sentence.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), February 06, 2003.

Spoken like a true PE, Robert. Tricia, the days are getting longer. Soon the midnite sun.

-- (lars@indy.net), February 06, 2003.

Lol you guys are too much. It must take enormous courage to try parachuting. What's it like? I would need someone to go with me to push me out of the plane. Whaddya reckon Robert, I have a feeling you'd volunteer for that job? Are you nodding?

-- Carol (c@oz.com), February 06, 2003.

Life is a series of compromises. I would never willingly jump out of a plane, but staying in a plummeting plane is completely out of the question where a parachute is available.

-- helen (you@want.me.to.WHAT?), February 07, 2003.

This morning I awoke to a winter wonderland of incredible beauty. I looked outside to see the tall dark Oaks’ bark covered with contrasting pure white snow. The Pines stand like proud brides dressed in their flowing white gowns. All around, everything is covered with the still-falling white flakes. Only bumps and rises along the ground give any clue to where certain things now lay vieled in a powdery mystery. The scene is enough to make you just sit there and gaze at it all.

Large flakes continue to fall with intensity, reminding me of one of those glass balls you shake to watch all of the tiny snowflakes zipping around in a mock snowstorm. That’s the way it looks. It snowing hard and there’s lots of it. Big flakes are drifting lazily down, carressed by a gentle winter breeze. Every so often, this breeze becomes just enough to displace some of the snow on the trees, which fall suddenly down in clumps to the nearby Earth.

It’s not only beautiful, but it’s silent too. Even the birds, squirrels, and other wildlife seem content with being observers of this postcard scene.

-- (sonofdust@post.card), February 07, 2003.

Rob, that's lovely, and just how it was here (only warmer :-)

Here's a little glimpse into my work life...

Last night at work, I had a patient get up at about 4:30. There is a policy in place stating that if a patient wants to leave between midnight and 6 am, that they must sign a (prepared) statement that says that they take responsibility on themselves for leaving at that time with an incomplete test. The patient wouldn’t sign that paper, he said he’d just sit and have a coffee, instead. I responded, "There isn’t any coffee here; the coffee shop downstairs doesn’t open until after 7, and if you want to go out to Tim Horton’s (Canada's own donut shoppes), I have to get you to sign the release form." "No, I’ll just have some of your coffee," he responded.

"But there isn’t any coffee. No one here tonight was drinking coffee. Tom was drinking pop, June and I were drinking tea." I said.

"Oh, but the last time I was here, June made coffee, so you must have coffee," he said.

"We bring in our own coffee. There may be some here, that someone has brought in, but it might be all out. If no one on nights is drinking coffee, we could be out."

"Well, you can check, right? And make me some?" I couldn’t believe his persistence. I finally agreed to check, and to make him a cup if I found the coffee. What balls! but it did get the response he wanted :-)

Another patient told me he was unimpressed with our attitude that CPAP was the solution to all his ills. I had recommended that he get a CPAP machine, told him that it was the most certain treatment of his sleep apnea. When he left in the morning, he said that as far as he was concerned, the sleep lab was just a PR front for the CPAP supply companies. Since earlier, he had told me that all the provincial politicians had "Bermuda slush funds", his cynicism didn’t surprise me (nor offend me), but one of my co-workers was very offended. We do get some odd ducks at times :-)

(Names have been changed to protect the author ;-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@*telusplanet.net*), February 07, 2003.

Thought you sent all the odd ducks south (to FL) for the winter....

...---... Changing subjects in mid-parenthesis

Now, now, Misstress Carol.

I've only free-rappelled out of perfectly good helicopters (assuming anything that complicated was actually "good" ...) on ropes, I've not parachute jumped out of broken airplanes.

Our NJ jumper is son-of-dust, and our CA jumper is Lars-of-dust.

If either hit the ground, they'ed be full-of-duct.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (cook.r@watchLondrinking.glug), February 07, 2003.