Simon says

The blog has been on another holiday to accommodate its' author's turkey eating and present unwrapping.  I could post some pictures of green grass, the result of 3 days of warm weather that has put paid to our ski season and rendered the Christmas holidays an orgy of consumption with no compensatory exercise regime.  I don't actually exercise for that reason.  I just like being outside doing an enjoyable sport.  I do also like food.  Happy holidays and let it snow.

This was Sunday and the park really did look like an elaborately forested Christmas cake that had been lavishly sprinkled with icing sugar. First chariot-free ski of the year. Dejan dragged me around the 20k inner loop. Conditions were great.

Another beauty. Great day. More than 5 hrs sleep would have been nice but I flooded our neighbourhood rink at 6am then Crystal took Felicity downhill skiing while I took Toby cross country. The two car parks are 300m apart. Here's our trip:

I grumbled about the weather yesterday. Well today we are back in business. -5C, wall to wall sunshine and a trail. Earlier in the day, while I was putting Toby down for his nap someone else was putting Francine down for her nap, blanket and all...

I am often defending the Ottawa winters, extolling the virtues of the endless days of cold, crisp sunshine reflecting off a blanket of cotton white snow, the sharp crunch of ice skates on the endless ribbon of frozen canal and the pristine dusted pines that hug the fairytale trails and snug, fire-warmed wooden huts of of the park.  Not yesterday.  Yesterday it was bloody awful.  The temperature fluctuated between -1 and +1 and the precipitation changed its mood as often as a two-year old child (I'm just guessing on that one, ours is as stable as you like).  Freezing rain overnight turned to drizzle in the morning, ice pellets by noon, then wet sleet and finally snow-hail.  It was cold, windy, damp and grey, deeply, darkly grey.  Grey above, grey below and grey in your very soul's own heart. All of which may make it seem a curious decision to head out on foot to the shopping mall, churning as it is at this time of year with unhappy and unrelenting shopp...

Tuesday, December 16th, 2014 Last night we waved Grandpa off for his lengthy journey back to the Isle of Mull.  Thus concluded 12 days of bearing witness to the somewhat controlled chaos of life in the Ferguson household.  It was wonderful to have the opportunity for the kids to spend so much time with Grandpa.  We did all the usual activities, visiting museums, get out in the snow, eating, playing, buying a Christmas tree and visiting family. Today was a day of two halves, the first being a sleepy, slow morning around the house.  The second being a chance meeting with Christine and an afternoon of sledding in the nearby park followed by some hot chocolate and re-warming.  It's hovering around freezing which by Ottawa winter standards is quite mild but it's damp and windy so it feels like a British bone chiller. As we were settling down to get the kids to bed the doorbell rang.  The was a police car on the road, no lights, just sitting there.  An...

The blog has been taking a short break as we have Grandpa Ian in town visiting from the Isle of Mull.  Also I've been trying to write the Christmas letter.  Expect a resurrection later this week.  And I owe you a lot of photos.   Update:  Not a lot of photos, but a few... We somehow didn't take any pics at Halloween so I was tasked with dressing the monkeys up and taking required picture.  I suppose it is called an entertainment unit for a reason. A mildly unsure Felicity receiving her present from Mr and Mrs Claus at Crystal's school's kids party.

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2014 I thought I had it today.  I put Toby down for his nap at 7.50am but he didn't wake up until 9.10 which was to late to make swimming.  So the grand excursion of the day was to the shopping mall.  Back at home we took on industrial scale cooking, baking mince and making a giant chilli.  Felicity is sous-chef extraordinaire and I took lot of pictures of our efforts, some of which may appear here in due course. Update: due course...

Monday, December 1st, 2014 Things I don't take photos of:  Felicity straddling Toby's back bashing him on the head with her fist before pulling his hair and then slapping his head.  I am sure this is normal 2 year old sibling behaviour (no I'm not!) but it still makes me angry which is probably the wrong reaction. A few words about the weekend. It was our 6th wedding anniversary as I mentioned on Friday.  The kids went to the grandparents and we took off for the hills.  We hiked to a hut (non-stop), hiked back, sat in Chelsea's finest coffee shop, read the paper, went to the pub for supper and then drove straight to the cinema to see the intense, slightly disturbing but very captivating Gone Girl.  Then we slept for nearly 9 uninterrupted, gloriously wonderful hours.  All that was required on Sunday morning was to get up, run togerth with the dog, drive to eat breakfast, wander some art galleries and drink tea on the sofa.  It was all as good as it...

Friday, November 28th, 2014 Yesterday we had the car, the freedom of the great open road and the wind on our sails. All that excitement led me to break out the good camera but it's so darn convoluted getting the photos onto this here blog that it been done yet. We celebrated our vehicular autonomy by heading north into the hills of Gatineau to join Catherine and baby Isaac for her birthday. It's just really nice to have someone to meet up with, something to do and a nice place to do it. I am wedded to the ideal of single car family status but there is no doubt that we would have a better time with a car at disposal. And I would spend a lot more money on drive through coffee and donuts. So that was a nice Thursday followed by a rubbish disturbed night to usher in our anniversary. Number six. Iron or candy. We were both very grumpy this morning. I'm now too tired to bore you with the details but we missed swimming as Toby slept through it in my arms, had a ...

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014 My blog writing has been succinct of late.  I've been really tired.  I think it may be the lack of sun in the last few days or perhaps the treadmill of domestic chores that are never really finished.  Grumble, grumble.  We are in eager anticipation of the arrival of Grandpa Ian from Scotland next week and soon the excitement of the holiday season will lift our spirits. In the meantime we went on a top secret mission today related to Crystal's Christmas present.  She doesn't normally read my blog so she may well not see this anyway but hopefully this picture is not giving too much away.  Suffice to say what I thought would happen and what did happen were some worlds apart.  There will be a big reveal at some point around Christmas time. Satisfied bus customer.  Well he would be, he gets to ride for free and to take his own personal reclining seat along too.

Monday, November 24th, 2014 Having been cross country skiing on Saturday we went to the Children's Museum (which is amazingly excellent) on Sunday to escape the rain we then had temperatures of 18C today. This meant more rain for our bus to play group this morning and a visit to the park this afternoon.

Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 A whole week earlier than last year we took to the hills for our first cross country ski of the season.  This last week has been very wintery and the conditions were great.  However, as I write this on Sunday it is 7 degrees, most of the snow is gone and it is forecast to be 15 tomorrow.  It may be some time before we get out again.  All the more reason to be grateful for yesterday's wonder.