Spring sunshine

A couple of months since our last post, and spring has arrived proper. We've had a few weeks of sunny days, although with some cold winds too. Still, the dry weather and sun has been most welcome.

Our big weekend in Whistler was absolutely great. There were 20 of us staying in three separate places, including one larger house where we cooked food for everybody on one evening - excellent fun. We completely lucked out with the conditions too, as the snow had been thin and hard the week previously but it snowed pretty much non-stop for the whole long weekend we were there, which meant lots of fresh snow every day - we couldn't have asked for more! I've uploaded a few pictures and a video from that weekend - wish we had taken more of our friends though!

Since then, we've been spending a lot of weekends out shopping for food, or cooking food, and always eating food. Yes, we love food. We've made some of our old favourites like lentil and turkey stews, some cracking pizza slices, and a fab mac and cheese. Steph also made a Linzertorte (a kind of almond tart with raspberry jam) that is gorgeous. Last night we also knocked up a lamb curry made from happy lambs from an organic butcher we discovered. Yep, we're not going hungry. Fortunately the good weather means we are getting enough exercise to stop us getting fat - I am still doing gym class twice a week, plus plenty of walking to work (about 40 minutes), and Steph has been swimming and taking yoga classes.

The allotment is coming along slowly. We've had some kale already which is nice in salads, and the garlic is growing very well. This month, Steph and her friend Marissa will probably harvest the remaining kale, and plant a bunch more stuff (vegetables and greens) that they've already started in pots, so fingers-crossed they will do well. There have been a bunch of failures so far, with some of the winter crops not coming up, but it's a learning experience so there's no real loss. I've uploaded some photos of how things are doing taken at the middle and the end of April.

Just this last week, my friend Matt who I have known for years has been visiting Vancouver with his friend Lee, and we met up one evening for food and lots of gassing about what we've all been up to. It was great to catch up after several years.

One last bit of photographic goodness with this post - some pictures and a video from a recent walk we took in Lynn Canyon Park.

Trip to Cypress Mountain

We went to Cypress Mountain on Saturday with our friends Conor and Brit. They both snowboard, and Steph skis of course, so they went off and did their thing in the Downhill area. I got dropped off in the Nordic area and did some snowshoeing in and around the cross-country ski trails. It was sunny and bright in the morning, but clouded over as the day went on. Thanks to a heap of snow last week, the conditions were great for everybody - skiing and snowboarding was good, and I had lots of soft fresh snow to tramp through. It was good practice for our big weekend in Whistler we have arranged for March.

I took a couple of photos and a few videos, and I've uploaded them to Flickr.

Wedding photos

Here are the pictures we took at the wedding of our friends Jon and Marissa last weekend. The civil ceremony was outdoors at Locarno Beach, and the weather even decided to cooperate, being bright and dry - hooray! Afterwards, there was a reception at Radha (a great vegetarian restaurant near Downtown). All in all, there was much rejoicing.

Happy Pancake Day!

For yesterday, obviously :)



What a long time it's been since my last blog post. It's almost the end of February already. So what's been happening?

Weather wise, we are having a most unseasonably dry Winter. We've had little or no rain at all to speak of which is very unusual for Vancouver, and the slopes of the local mountains are green - hardly a drop of snow in sight. A bad year for skiing so far. The last day or so it has actually started raining again, and there's been some snowfall at higher elevations. We are probably going to Cypress Mountain on Saturday (one of the local mountains) so that Steph can ski and I can maybe do my first snowshoeing of the season. We also have a big Whistler trip booked for mid-March with 18 0ther friends. That ought to be lively - let's hope there has been plenty more snow by then!

I am busy finishing Prototype which is the video game I am currently working on. Steph is still working too - her contract got extended a few weeks into March which was good news. Not much work around at the moment for when she finishes her current contract, but we are crossing our fingers.

My Mum has finally decided to come visit me this year - hooray! My grandmother might also come too which would be nice. We are currently sorting out flights and suchlike. I think it will be my Mum's first transatlantic flight - quite an adventure I expect.

Steph and I are in reasonably fine fettle, though I've been having a bunch of problems with my shoulder recently. I've always had trouble with it, but it has been a lot worse over the last month. I've had some massage which helped a little, but I'm going to the doctor's this week I expect to see what they can do, if anything.

Oh yeah - our friends Jon and Marissa got married! It was a very simple affair, but very pleasant indeed. We have a few photos that I will post when I get some time. Congratulations guys!

Until next time...

New Year Photos

Here's a bunch of pictures on Flickr that we took at New Year. Steph and I went to Whitstable in Kent for a "Shipwrecked" party at the Duke of Cumberland pub. How wonderfully English! Some of the photos are a bit small because I nicked them off our friend Tamsin's Facebook page :)

Vancouver fog

Happy New Year, by the way!

First post of 2009. Woohoo - exciting. To start the year, here's another weather image showing the fog over Downtown Vancouver over the past few days. We live near to the buildings sticking out, but under the fog sadly. It's been like this on and off since we got back.

Steph and I had a cracking Christmas and New Year. We visited England for two weeks to see all our friends and family, which was wonderful. I have some New Year's Eve photos coming shortly, and at some point hopefully Steph will sort out her Christmas pictures to upload too.

Another exciting thing happening is that Steph is working again. She started a short-term contract the day after we returned to Canada, and is enjoying the rat race once more :)

Vancouver snow

Just a couple of pictures of Downtown Vancouver after the recent snow.

Merry Christmas!

The year is almost over, and the last few months have been lean on posts, I know. We've been occupied with job and life stuff I'm afraid.

Winter has landed hard on Vancouver - yesterday was -20C with wind chill. I thought my nose was going to freeze off! Today we've been watching the snow fall from our apartment and wondering whether our flight home to England is going to leave tomorrow. There have been loads of cancellations and delays today. Tomorrow's weather forecast is a little better so we are crossing our fingers.

We are flying home for a fortnight to see family and a few friends in the UK. We originally had our flights with Zoom.... and then they went bust. Our new itinerary means less time at home, so we won't get to see everyone that we'd like to.

A big Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me and Steph to all our friends and family, and just for you here's a delightful Canadian treat - a grizzly bear tree ornament :)

See you in 2009!

Halloween (better late than never)

It was almost a month ago now, but here are this year's Halloween pics.

Firstly, there are a few photos from our pumpkin carving efforts that I've uploaded to Flickr. We went over to our friends' place for lots of food and drink, some pumpkin carving, and also to watch Halloween (the original movie). It was a very enjoyable evening.

Secondly, we went to a Halloween fancy dress party with some other friends of ours. You can see the pictures on our friend's website.

Photos from Big Island

We uploaded two more sets of photos from our Hawaii holiday to Flickr.

The first set of photos are from our stay on the east side of the island, near Hilo. The highlight on this side was undoubtedly the volcano, but we also did lots of sight-seeing too.

The second set of photos are from our time on the west side of the island, close to Kona. The end of our holiday was deliberately more relaxed, with lots more beach time. Highlights of this last part of the holiday were probably our trip to the summit of Mauna Kea, and the lovely self-catered apartment we stayed in at Chez Marquis.

Ah Hawaii... we miss you!