Safe & sound eh?

Well I'm safe & sound and back in small town Manitoba after spending the last four days at the town of Wasagaming at Clear Lake in the Riding Mountains National Park. To use the word 'mountains' in the name of the national park is more a reflection of the fact that it is slightly elevated & somewhat hilly when compared to the rest of the province rather than as a descriptive term. The province of Manitoba is beautiful - dead flat, 'prairie' country with fields of canola, which flowers in an almost fluorescent yellow colour, in full bloom. Our cabin at the lake was beautiful and the lake itself is stunning - (as the name would suggest) clear and clean, surrounded by a national park full of elk, moose, deer, coyotes, bison and squirrells (all of which I've seen) and bears and skunks (which I didn't see). I've basically spent the last four days eating, drinking, sleeping, going on walks around the town (most of which included a trip to the ice cream shop), going on drives through the national park in the hope of seeing some of the wildlife & catching up with both families. The weather has also been perfect - Sunday morning we had rain (perfect for testing out the fireplace in the cabin & curling up in front of it with a good book) but otherwise the weather has been clear, still and in the high 20s to low 30s. After getting back this afternoon, we spent a couple of hours in deckchairs at M's place overlooking the river with a glass of vino - or two - in hand while the weather hovered in the mid-20s. Ahhhhhh. What a way to spend a week.

As I mentioned, there were fortunately no encounters with either bears or skunks - though the fact that I only ran once for 20mins somewhat reduced the odds. My hip is not happy - the less the said the better right now. I did make it to the gym on Friday for an upper body weights session and will get back there again before leaving for home on Friday. And yes, the gym is located in a women's clothing store. Strange but true. I've done nothing but eat since I got on the plane - E's mum is a great cook and has fed us pineapple upside-down cake, butter tarts, raspberry & coconut tarts and banana muffins to name a few things over the last few days. With my hip the way it is, it looks like I'll soon be a regular visitor at the pool to work off some of the weight that I've packed on. Oh well, life is short & I'm on holidays :-)