A belated bloggy birthday!

It's Mouse's Meanderings' 4th birthday (well, a week ago), and its really fun to look back on how things change... Lots has been going on since that fateful day when I decided to communicate the meanderings and ramblings of my life, and I've grown to love this exercise... Sometimes I look back to the adventures and it encourages me to do more cool stuff, and other times I've written about some ambitious goal which I then feel committed to, which helps in its execution and completion. I really appreciate having this creative outlet too, (especially in times of dire procrastination, when writing ANYTHING seems like a grand accomplishment!).... So, in short, happy birthday euromouse.blogspot.com , "nog vele jaren"(many happy years to come)!!

I've been practicing my Dutch. Nice and easy now that I have a live-in tutor! My Dutchie import (Joost) arrived just last weekend, and we had a pretty sweet reunion in Calgary (just seemed more epic in sepia).

I've never seen a world championship of anything before, but conveniently the Calgary Olympic Oval was hosting the world tournament of the Dutch national sport: speed skating. We saw the worlds' fastest skaters race amongst an encouraging crowd of orange-clad expats, and their own home-bread cheering brass band: the Kleintje Pils (yes, they're called "The Small Pilsener").

There were some exciting twists, such as last year's Czech female world champion catching a wrong edge and falling off the track... but still she got right up, finished her race and secured third place overall! With a speedy Canadian girl (Christine Nesbitt) in second, and the Dutch sweetheart Ireen Wust in first.... But anyway this isn't a sports blog... It was just fun to get into the spirit, with Calgary's "little Holland" and the very few Canada supporters which I joined gladly with my cheek tattoo (which took me quite a while and some intensive scrubbing to remove later that night after the drive back to Edmonton).

So now, a new chapter has begun in Edmonton... Having decided that living in my little bachelor would cause more trouble than it was worth, we embarked on the apartment hunting adventure.... and not even a week later, we somehow landed in the right place at the right time for the perfect new pad! Skyline view over the river valley... But I think an apartment post is due for another day...

Signing off, from cold -26 degree Edmonton....

The fathomless splendour of spaces between rocks.

Jasper National Park. I am lucky to live just a few hours from this amazing natural wonder, and world-renowned heritage site. This past weekend was one of discussion and enlightenment. Thoughts were engaged and encouraged about our environment, and the roles we play in creating, destroying, maintaining and appreciating it.  Many steams and springs run from the mighty Athabasca. Maligne lake and canyon are part of this long system of flowing, moving, life giving water- which gurgles with rushing urgency in springtime, and drips slowly into cristal ice walls in the dead of winter... 

The forms of past life remain frozen on the rocks, like this stonefly encasement- a hollow reminder of summer soon to come...

Constantly reminding that life is just around the bend, some mosses are resilient to frost bite and cold rock...

In small spaces, ice stalagmites and -tites glow in the frosty crevasses...

And between the cracks in rocks, and inside long tunnelled past-caves, huge ice waterfalls stand majestically as if time has stopped- and we can all walk around in limbo for a while...

Yet the lines shaping the rock show that time can not stop, but can compress life, time after time, year after year... And can rise up from the deepest of oceans into the tallest of gorges or mountains...

Back on track... or trackin' on back...

Ok, so I fail at posting in January... I really wanted to start the year off with a solid effort to post every month (at least two) but January was full of 'getting back into the swing of things' at school. Also full of   other attempted resolutions, such as being more active and getting to yoga at least once a week and learning squash. Luckily I still haven't "squashed" those two resolutions, but sadly the blog thing has been put slightly on the wayside.
So anyway, enough complaining... I'm back, and I'd love to present the fruits of my DIY project, some highlights of the winter break, and some food for thought (or thoughts of food.. either way works).

Here are my pretty clocks (which I could not post pre-Christmas since they were gifts for my most avid readers- parents and grandparents)

The cracks in the wood were really a drag... I asked a friend to use the chainsaw to cut those cookies from a bolt, and right after I sanded them, they were smooth, flat, and whole... Not 24 hours later, a crack appeared in every single piece. I thought maybe a sealer would have prevented it, but it turns out that that having a piece of wood dry out without cracks is a more difficult process than I expected. The stain around the rim is the "blue stain fungus", a characteristic trait of mountain pine beetle infested wood. Looking closely at the edge of the bark and the wood you might see a little hole- from the galleries these insects form when they feed. Of course all the insects have emerged from this wood and it had been autoclaved for good measure... but I thought that using this wood was a nice trait of the West, with an interesting story of it's own.

I came to Ottawa to present these ticking cookies to their lucky recipients.... and here's a few glimpses of my Christmas in Ottawa, starting with some microniches of the christmas tree (I couldn't pick which one I liked best):

Some beautiful crimson blooms...

And here's the gang lining up for the delicious feast...

My parents' backyard looking as beautiful as ever

It was a tastilicious time; and we were also lucky to have a visit from my aunt from Toronto, who brought her gorgeous smile and hilarious circus antics, feather earrings and other such giggly puffs. 

Shortly after Christmas, I flew to Europe. This was one of the worst flying experiences I've had though... Since the storms caused delays out of Ottawa and my connecting flight left without me on it. I was one of the lucky ones, and was rerouted the same night, so I didn't have to sleep in the airport (much), and I arrived only 12 hours after I was supposed to, rather than a full 24... Of course, my luggage wasn't so lucky, and it finally caught up with me three days before I flew home...

After I arrived, had a whirlwind graduation party dinner/drinks for Joost, we got in the car and drove to northeastern Czech Republic, to a chalet type lodge which was home to a biathlon training centre. Biathlon is a sport consisting of cross country skiing and range shooting... One of which I vaguely remembered disliking in the past, the other I have never attempted to try. 

 Here is one of our first friends we met there.

 After a couple of evenings of liquid courage (from the very slow and foamy Czech tap), we attempted the first of the biathlon sports. I, naively saw this as a fresh chance to redeem myself at this sport, and was quite frankly excited to get outside. The lodge was surrounded by great trails and winter-wonderland forest... 

Here we are... still together with the group.

After about 30 seconds, I realized the group was moving, and I was moving my legs... but getting nowhere... I quickly fell behind, despite our new friends' efforts to keep us together...

Much frustration and anger later, a piggy back (with skiis on) across the country road, and a whole lot of sweaty cursing... we were in the wintery forest, and looking around, I could only smile. 

Ahhhh! The weather is great, the air smells fresh... So what if I can't ski...!

Joost, having decided that the best course of action was to stick with me, ended up in a pole dilemma. (I debated putting up the photo of how this happened... but I suffice it to say, I wasn't the only one going backwards, sideways and down on my skiis)

Didn't matter though, 6km and 2.5 hours later (haha), we limped back to the lodge with skis, poles (bent and all), one large blue hulk-swollen thumb and grins from ear to ear (well, kinda)... We warmed up by the cozy fire, and everything was grand by the time we were all yelling "Šťastný nový rok!"

So after the pole replacement and a scenic drive up to the mountains nearby... We headed to Prague, just for the night at our new friends' flat. We had a drink at a local watering hole, stopped off quick at Václavské náměstí for some shopping in the morning, and were back on the long road across Germany...

Back to Utrecht, which was rainy and still beautiful. 

And then back to Ottawa, and then back to Edmonton.... And then back to school... šťastný nový školní rok!