He got me again!

Before Lewis and I moved home the sneaky surprised me by getting down on one knee and asking me to spend the rest of my life with him. Of course I said yes!

The charmer proposed with a beautiful Sheila Fleet ring next to the Bow River in Canmore and I haven't quite been able to realise he has actually asked! Although the ring is absolutely stunning he wanted to take me engagement ring shopping for a traditional engagement ring when we returned home.

Several trips to the Glasgow Argyl Arcade jewellery stores and we decided on a ring style that we liked and then sent it off to be designed.

However unknown to me the ring was made and delivered to the man himself several weeks later giving him the opportunity to pounce once again!

We were having a lovely long-weekend in Glencoe on the shores of Loch Etive and Lewis was doing his usual photography hoopla with ISO and shutter speed (they may be the same thing but I cannot seem to retain this information everytime he tries to explain) and then he pulled out his bargain $10 film camera we bought in a thrift store in Revelstoke.

"Let's test out the timer" he announces while balancing the camera on the rock, "look out across the water and I will run at you!"

Being very well trained, off I totter down to the shore and look off into the distance while he fiddles with the vintage camera settings.

"READY?!?" he shouts from behind the boulder.

...... yet nothing happens.

And so I turn around and there he is, proposing with our beautiful ring that we designed and picked together - well done charmer, you got me again!

'Click'

We still have to finish the spool and have it developed but fingers crossed it worked!

Time flies

Wow - the last post was in June 2015! How time flies when you are changing jobs, hosting lovely guests and planning to move back home.

As much as we have loved living in Canmore, Alberta, we realised that Scotland is certainly our home and in October we made the return trip back home. To put it simply - it was CRAZY!

Foolishly we thought that when we got back things would be relatively straight forward and simple - oh how silly we are! It has been wonderful spending so much time with family particularly for Christmas and New Years however house hunting, job searching and general hoopla has been somewhat testing.

We have now moved into a house in a little Stirlingshire village and while Lewis is taking on his family business, I am establishing Pilates classes in the Stirlingshire area for pregnant and postnatal women which I am very excited about!

Watch this space!!

A photo to prove the sun does shine in Scotland!

An excuse not to exercise

Another bear story for you!

With my new job they expect all employees to take a full one hour lunch break. Having never had to take a one hour lunch break ever in my working life, I struggle to find things to do for this significant amount of time. Having pondered this dilemma for over a month (and having realised my winter plumage appears in Spring) I have decided I shall fill it with a delightful lunchtime jog.

This was the fifth lunchtime run I ventured out on and to be perfectly honest I was thoroughly enjoying them until I decided to try a new route - note to self, never try a new route, simply do laps of old faithful ones.

While running along  my known faithful route I decided to take a trail that led off to the right, a decision I regretted within five minutes after realising the trail quickly turned into a wildlife path by the number of hooves and paw prints on it. Not a shoe print in sight.

Starting to panic and seeing shadows everywhere (it was very much like the Snow White scene where she is running through the woods. Except it wasn't dark, an there were no angry trees, no cob webs and no man threatening to cut my heart out... or at least he hasn't appeared yet) I was officially lost in the woods. The Canadian Rocky Mountain woods.

Ten minutes, which felt like 30 minutes, of frantic bush-whacking running I noticed a larger path in a direction I had no intention of going but needs must and off I go. Another five minutes of 'Pheobe' running and whooping to make sure the bears and cougars know I am coming I finally reappear at the backside of Larch Island - note the 'island' part. I somehow managed to cross a riverbed and ended up on a random little island. This island incidentally actually does have a crazy man on it that will attack you but I was fortunate enough not to be greeted by him on this occasion.


It was just along from this epic adventure that I was came across the pictures scene - hilarious. Mrs Black Bear was having a picnic in the area and I was running along paths next to her.

I will certainly be sticking to the pram-trails from now on.

The Cave and Basin

During one of their last days in Canmore we went to the Cave and Basin in Banff National Park. I should note here that the entire time they were visiting I was assuring them that bears were not an issue, ooops.

We were welcomed by a delightful ranger who advised us that there was indeed a bear in the area and we were to just be cautious. My sister without blinking just responded with 'well that's that then, back to the car!' She wishes.

Off we toddled along the decking walkway that at points was easily 12 feet above the ground, when a ranger went running past us speaking into his walkie-talkie. Watching where he went - just to the viewpoint on the walkway - and pointing out over into the fields my brother-in-law swung his backpack over his shoulders and started to run along the path to the ranger where he was shown where there was a grizzly bear laying among some trees.

For ten minutes we were happy upon the decking taking photographs of this young female grizzly who appeared to be napping. Then she got up and decided to take a like walk toward us – might I repeat at this point we were at least 12-15ft above the ground on the platform walkway so we felt safe enough. The ranger was there with us too so all was well… that was until a fisherman appeared from halfway along the walkway. Without sounds panicked I squeaked ‘ehm.. where did you come from?’ to which he squinted at me and said ‘those stairs’ pointing to a set of stairs that led right down to where the bear was heading.

The bear wouldn’t come up the stairs would she…? Of course she did.

By this point I don’t know what was more funny, my brother-in-law squealing with delight that he got to stay near the ranger and photograph the grizzly or my sister hyperventilating while explaining ‘but my son has only been eating salmon! He must smell like salmon!’ Bloomin hilarious!! Of course my sister says this cheekily but I genuinely feel she may have been slightly serious.

We are ushered up toward the Visitor Center, but not before the ranger shouts at my sister and I (and several other tourists) to stop in case the grizzly makes a direct line off the decking up towards us. Again, it was hilarious watching my sister and all the while my nephew is grinning from ear-to-ear oblivious to what is going on around him. Obviously we all survived and my brother-in-law got some amazing shots of the bear who appeared in that weeks Rocky Mountain Outlook newspaper – the poor girl was just hiding from a frisky big male.

(Unfortunately I did not get any photos of this incident but my brother-in-law did)