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)

Entering into summer

With posts becoming few and far between you do wonder what we get up to all day.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my lovely parents came over for a week at the end of February - celebrating our 'Canniversary'. This celebration brought with it a number of enlightening moments, many of which will reveal themselves over the coming months and year.

March was a whirlwind personally as I moved to a new job. I am very fortunate to work for such a great organisation and the work they do is phenomenal - or phenomenally Canadian according to L. I work with Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative dealing with all things donation related. It is wonderful fun and I am continually learning every day about the projects that we lead or support on, from the tip of Yukon all the way down into America to Yellowstone National Park. For obvious reasons all things bear interest me the most though hearing about the destruction and damage of Dam's (Site C being the most current and horrific) on the environment is overwhelmingly sad. Yet the government see $$$$$ rather than nature. Plonkers.

April was by far my most cherished month here. The arrival of a beautiful baby boy and most beloved sister!! I haven't seen my nephew since he was three moths old and now he is a full year, they changes in him were astounding. He looks like a little man, or more specifically my dad. He is the cutest and most charming baby ever, and a super-duper flirt with the ladies! Waving and grinning
at every girl he saw! We had a wonderful time together and couldn't believe how quickly time flew by.

And here we are at the end of May. Yikes. This month we had L's mum visit us for a week and to take full advantage of the Holiday Monday we decided, at the last possible minute, that we would drive to Victoria. That is correct, a 14 hour drive EACH WAY for a 3 day break. On Friday night we strated our ambitious drive and stopped in Sicamous, then at 5am Saturday morning we continued the journey to reach Cordova Bay on Vancouver Island. It was the best decision ever as I have missed the ocean so much, I am truly a water person and lakes just do not have the same influence on me.

Sunday we explored downtown Victoria, enjoying Fisherman's Wharf and a marching band competition in front of the Legislative Building then on Monday morning 4am (after watching an amazing sunrise) we drove back to Canmore. Worth every minute.

Catching up almost to present - which would include the tale of L cutting his foot on a rock while climbing Saturday and 24 hours later being taken to hospital by moi with blood poisoning. He had to have 4 days of IV antibiotics, we are now friends with all A&E Dr's at Canmore Hospital, and now he has a further ten days of heavy duty oral antibiotics to make sue it doesn't come back.

As you can see we are keeping busy and continuing to explore Western Canada. With one more significant visitor booking to arrive in August for three weeks of climbing, hiking, kayaking and surfing who knows what stories we will come back with!

Time flies when life happens

As you can imagine, there has been lots going on at this end.

The remainder of November went by in a whirr, while December brought a little visitor from Scotland for a quick visit, then Christmas and New Year had been and gone before we knew it.

Now we are in February. What on earth happened? Where did the time go?

It was the first Christmas I have spent away from my family so it was interesting for L to watch and occasionally assist in the non-traditional dinner preparations. After the Thanks Giving turkey fiasco I refuse to deal with poultry... I have just had a giblets flash back and it still horrifies me.

New Year brought with it fireworks from the hill overlooking Canmore which was a giggle. Lots of crazy truckers were around us and they sang us the countdown which really puts a twist on the standard tick-tock countdown.

And now for February which marks our first year living in Canada. On the 24th February we will be having, dare I say it, our 'Canniversary'. I would like to thank L's colleague for this term and take no responsibility for it.

My parents are also coming over for a week at the end of this month, which will be filled with lots of snowy activities, or so we hope. The '9 month winter' we were warned about has been somewhat unexpectedly not true. Thank you Scotland for making me a grateful weather girl.

The '9 month winter' apparently means the 9 months when the temperature is below 20 degrees and you are unable to wear flip-flops - though I have actually seen several individuals in flip flops recently thanks to the sudden increase in temperature. We are above the Scottish spring temperatures and therefore I no longer listen to Canadians who say the winter is dragging on.

Many other visitors are either booked or planning to come across this year so Lewgi's Adventure Tours will begin again!

VIRUNGA

Normally I would never discuss films or things I see on television but things change, especially for this.

Last night we watched the Netflix documentary “Virunga”, which follows a group of incredible individuals who risk their lives to protect the last mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park located in the Democratic Republic of Congo. At least that is what the basis of the story is, as well as the most gut wrenching, saddening and devastating part.

The film then grows into something much greater - if I had read the synopsis then there might have been a 0.01% chance I could have prepared myself for what was to come.

As we are all aware, though not as much as we like to think, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been in an almost continual flux of war, either from internal political issues or external. The catastrophic attacks on communities and the expanding rebel fighting groups have made for a very unstable country and can be accountable for over 5.4 million civilian deaths.

The M23 Rebellion is the latest group that has been fighting against the government in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) since the formal end of the Second Congo War in 2003. This group, M23, is the one we see in Virunga and we are shown a driving force behind why they attack the National Park.

 

Virunga national park: 130 rangers have been killed in the last 20 years protecting the gorillas and other wild animals within the park. Photograph: Junior D. Kannah/AFP

A British oil company, SOCO International, were (and possibly still are) attempting to extract oil from Virunga National Park by any means possible. From bribing local security guards all the way up to the top Government Officials, from threatening locals who did not agree, to seemingly in talks with the M23 ‘Communication Leader’ in order for him to ‘calm the people down’.

What became apparent to me from watching the undercover footage shot by French investigative journalist, Mélanie Gouby, of her meeting with two SOCO employees/ contractors – one of which was a self-proclaimed mercenary - was that Virunga National Park is not just rich in oil but also abundant in iron ore and diamonds. Virunga National Park seems to be extremely plentiful in rare goods that the western world covets and therefore have little-to-no power to fight against such large corporations.

Just to make the situation even clearer for the viewer the mercenary, a somewhat evil man severely suffering from a backward conscious-compass, beautifully stated something along the lines of business is business and someone – SOCO International- was paying for the war. I will watch it again to find the exact quote, which will be much more poignant.

I love films like Blood Diamond and The Constant Gardener, and although they are based on truth and the horrific acts that are regularly happening in some African nations, you cannot help but feel a little disassociated as they have been ‘Hollywoodized’. The dramatic music, the actors you love and the somewhat happy ending all allow you to walk away at the end of the film and believe that all is well now.

Virunga does not give you such permission. It is calling on all those who watch it to act and to speak out for the rights of the communities who rely on the land and lake for farming and fishing and the wildlife.

I have honestly never felt so stunned and saddened by the way things are. It is not a worst-case scenario or the evil monster horror story, it is actually happening. Big corporations such as SOCO International have the power because they have the muscle and money to do so.

Upon looking into this I saw an article in The Guardian that explains: “Producers of the documentary Virunga, set in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) park which is home to many of the world’s remaining 800 mountain gorillas, will on Friday publish a list of all major British and international pension funds, companies and banks who back London-based Soco’s search for oil in some of the world’s most volatile regions. They include the Church of England investment fund, M&S, Aviva, Scottish Widows and several high street banks.”

I really hope The Guardian and  New York Times continue to keep readers up-to-date with the situation between SOCO and Virunga, and I too will continue to research what can be done.

 Emmanuel de Merode and Andre Bauma, caretaker of the gorillas in the park, attend the New York screening of Virunga. Photograph: Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images

A Little Something

As always things come up and blogs get somewhat forgotten. Oooops.

You will be delighted to know that it has not been through laziness and lack of exploring.

In the past few months we have had an array of Craighead family here for weeks at a time. It was absolutely amazing and when my dear other-half gives me photographs I shall upload them (my phone unfortunately broke so I have no photos to share).
Their visits allowed Lew and I to be tourists once again and explore new areas near and far. We even drove to my birth town of Lethbridge in a single day - epic trip of 10 hours driving!

The latest, and for me the proudest, news is that I recently launched my very own Pilates website. Last year I embarked on a mini adventure to become a Pilates instructor and after several trips to London I became a fully qualified Body Control Pilates Instructor.

Gi Pilates has been in the works since my lovely sister took me screen printing to Rhubarb & Ginger Textiles and I created my little business logo. This lovely swirly logo has inspired me to keep going and see where this new road takes me and I could not be happier.

It may not be a lot to many people but on the first day of the website's launch I had over 250 unique visitors and it keeps on going! Happy days!!

Lew, as always, knew all along that this is what I loved doing and keeps offering new ideas to make it bigger and better... watch out as some of his suggestions have stuck!

Please feel free to look around my (mine, all mine!) website.

The original Gi Pilates logo            The new 'computerised' version

     

Scooby is legally Albertan!

The past week has been another learning curve where we discovered the difference between a BC car and a Albertan car – apparently a lot.

Within 90 days of arriving in Alberta a person must change their drivers license to an Alberta license by sacrificing their original one in a not-so-romantic ceremony, apply for a form to arrange a car inspection. Yes, you apply for the form to permit you to get your car checked. Then you get your car checked and if it passes you have 14 days to pay for an Alberta registration and ta-da!! You are now legally driving in Alberta.

Scooby of course passed with flying colours and survived this process while I made friends with the girls working in the Canmore Registry Office with my extensive visits!

You didn’t think I was out playing amongst the mountains the whole time did you?

Out and Aboot

I honestly don’t think Canadians say ‘aboot’. They have a lovely soft way of saying it and to me it sounds more like ‘abowt’. Anyway I digress!

We have been managing to explore a little more of the area on our weekends, whether it is from the comfort of our front door or jumping in Scooby and driving to Lake Louise.

On a random Sunday night we decided to jump in the car and drive to Lake Louise for sunset as we thought the light would be perfect over the water. The light was perfect however the water wasn’t water, it was still ice. We hadn’t realised that the lake would still be frozen in June. It was beautiful nonetheless. 

Slushy Lake Louise

The best part of this impromptu trip was the massive, spectacular, rambling, grizzly bear that we saw at the side of the road a mere 100m away. It was amazing!! They are huge and I honestly think I could sit on it and it wouldn’t notice. They are also ridiculously camouflage amongst the trees and bushes as Lewis could not see it until it wobbled a branch on a tree. Phenomenal Sunday evening!

We have also been taken by the perfect light and long days that we have been lucky to experience in ‘Monsoon June’.

Happy June all!

What you do for a good photograph

Bloomin’ Banking

Upon arriving in Canada we have quickly realised why there was no massive economic crash within the Canadian economy – the banks charge for everything. Simply to hold money for you costs anything upwards of $3 a month.

Furthermore, should you want to use your debit card (the piece of plastic that is created to make spending easier) to buy something as simple as food you can either pay an additional $1 per transaction or change your account to include a set number of transactions, but guess what? This rockets your monthly fees up too. I am paying the bank to keep, spend and receive my own money. Well played Canadian Banks, well played.

Coming from the UK this baffles me. The we-don’t-charge-you-UK, where the majority of bank accounts are free and you can go to any ATM with any bank and take your money out for free. How good you guys have it and you don’t realise.

Here, I feel like the little boy in Mary Poppins who just wants to keep his tuppence. Should it be so hard?

Image from brookschamber.ab.ca

Funnily enough this is not actually the main reason for this ramble. The cause in actual fact is related to cheques or ‘checks’ as they spell it here. Lewis receives his pay in the form of good old-fashioned cheques, which takes an astounding 4-5 business days to clear, causing significant grief in trying to survive particularly before I started working.

This past week has been exceptionally tough as we have been surviving on $35 and as of this moment I believe we have $3 between us, no milk and minimal food to eat today.

The delightful and very-friendly (the people are actually lovely at the branch)  Scotiabank has decided to hold his pay cheque for another day, just because they can. We put it in to the bank on Tuesday morning, a whole week ago, 7 days ago, and it will be EIGHT days by the time the money is released. That is if they choose to release it tomorrow.

(Please fill in at least a minutes worth of blasphemy here should you understand our plight)

I am in a rather bad mood and as of this afternoon, I am firing Scotiabank and their services and moving to a much more forward thinking bank. Sorry friendly bank workers, but your banking approach is a joke.

Who will it be? Toronto Dominion, CIBC, ATB, RBC, BMO?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5Peaks

I am unbelievably fortunate to work where I do. They are an amazing group of people and it is such a relaxed environment around the office.

As part of what we sell we get to work with so many great events and one of them is the 5Peaks challenge. These challenges take place all over Canada from BC to Quebec.

A couple of weekends ago I was setting up the BUFF® tent at Canmore Nordic Centre where I got to meet some crazily fit and enthusiastic people. It is definitely true what they say, people who exercise are unquestionably happier than most.

Anyway, I took some pretty pictures of the event and had a wonderful morning. Maybe next time I will join in with the race (avec bear spray!)