Fairmont Hot Springs vacay

We just got back from a week in Fairmont Hot Springs, a family favourite vacation spot. I have been going there since I was a baby and have always loved it. Mark and I started taking the boys several years ago and they are loving it just the same. It feels exactly as it did when I was a child. It's like time stands still there. The ambiance is just amazing...

Fairmont Hot Springs Resort


Usually we camp in the RV park but this time we stayed in the lodge. We were upgraded to the Queen Loft with Kitchenette, which had 2 Queen size beds and a kitchenette, then upstairs in the loft there were 2 singles beds for the boys. It overlooked the grounds and the pool and was amazing!

The weather was amazing every single day. And surprising, NO MOSQUITOES!!

We checked in and went straight to the pool, of course. The boys, all 3, spend the majority of their time in the pool, doing cannon ball after cannon ball, dives, jumps, spins and a few belly flops. One of the things I love about Fairmont is how people will line the walls of the diving pool to watch the jumpers, and cheer for them, groan when you smack the water and encourage the scared ones. Exactly like when I was little.

View from my lounger:

Shmoopie!

Gorgeous mountain view from the pool. This pic also gives you a good idea of how the diving board pool is separated from the hot springs pool and the regular pool (reg pool on the right).
The hot tub has a temperature of 39C, the large swimming pool is 32C and the diving pool is 30C.
Reputed health benefits of natural, mineral hot spring water: Health Benefits

Mark is VERY excited!

Here goes Zanz!

Off goes Rayden!

Mark loves the cannon ball:

The valley is so swollen right now, I've never seen it flood like this:

Went for a walk to see the Indian Bathhouse and saw this little beauty:

Hello!

There was a cougar and cub spotted up by the Indian Bathhouse so I didn't go up too far this time. Here are some of my most favourite pictures of the bathhouse. I'm sure I can't get any better pictures than these anyway!

I have this picture enlarged and framed, hanging in our main floor powder room.

Interesting history: 
History of the Hot Springs

Inside, the bathhouse is divided into three rooms, each with it's own bathtub carved out of the stone floor. Hot spring water flows in the front and out the back.

Each room has it's own sky light!

Outside and further up the hill is an outdoor tub. Water flows right in from the springs coming out of the ground.

Natural hot spring coming out of the ground:

On Tuesday night, we drove 45 minutes south to Kimberley, this cute, little Bavarian town to have supper at the ski hill with the Tings. Erika and I have been besties since we were...10? 11? And here we are, just a mere 20 years later ;-p with our babies.

Look at Averie, she is losing it by this point!

On Wednesday morning we took the kids golfing at Creekside, which is just a little Par 3, down at the bottom of the resort hill. This was the first time the kids have played 9 holes without help. We've done Texas scramble with them before, and gone to the driving range. Rayden has had a golf lesson in gym class but other than that, this was the first real game of golf.

Honestly, I don't intend to dress them as twins...

Marky:

This was my best hit of the day.

See the ball? Long and straight! Mark should have taken pictures of me every hole, if it produced shot like this!

Never played on a course with an Inukshuk before!

Very excited!

Last hole of the day:

Thursday afternoon we took the kids to the Hoodoos and let them hike up the side a bit. Those hoodoos are so amazing looking.

On our way home, we stopped in Radium Hot Springs for lunch (the Melting Pot, YUMMY! Best chicken burger ever!) and to visit the Radium Woodcarver's place. Radium Woodcarver We've been to his house/shop twice now and it is always a treat. This is the first piece we bought from him, 2 years ago:

Rolf is a totally eccentric hippy from Switzerland who is an amazing artist. He lives in a pieced together half shack, half treehouse, with his 2 goats. He is self sustaining, with a roof top garden and hot tub! He carves all of his incredible pieces with a chainsaw! His house/workshop is rigged with hoses that shoot water at you when you least expect it. Soon you DO expect it, but you never know where it is coming from!

Here is the east side of the house/workshop.

Look! It's Osama!

The outside has all of these funny signs and one proclaiming his house has been featured on HGTV's "Weird Homes". I believe it!

Hello Sweety, Have a Seaty. See the water spout right behind Zander's head?

Entrance:

Up top is the hot tub and you can also see the goat runs that run the whole perimeter of the property.

This is Rolf and our kids. Yes, he really does wear dresses and crazy hats. Don't be scared of him, he's really nice.

Zander was taking a look at this cool sculpture:

And got blasted!

This guy is about 7 feet tall.

Nice hat:

This is the piece we bought this time:

Right across the street is a beautiful old church. Just wanted a few pictures of it.

The roof is a cobalt blue with green/yellow/brown moss growing all over it.

On our way through Banff we decided to take a little side jaunt over to Banff Springs Hotel and go for a walk inside. So beautiful. The kids thought we were at Hogwarts.

Field of Dreams

Cool pano I took with my iPhone and stitched together. 6 images. Click to see a bigger image of it.

Little visitor

This beautiful little guy let me get my lens within a few inches of him. So patient!
Click the pictures to see him really close up!

Gutter Garden Tutorial

I've been asked by so many people about my Gutter Garden that I thought posting a tutorial would be very helpful to those that want to do it.
Up front, this was not my genius idea, I wish I could take credit for such a clever idea. I read it on a blog last year, by a woman in Alaska who was tired of fighting the cold, rocky ground, slugs, cats and deer, all who wanted a piece of her garden. She thought that if she could get the plants off the ground, that would solve most of her problems. She posted pictures of her gutter garden and all I did was copy it!

These are just regular gutters that you can by from any hardware store. They typically come in 10 foot lengths which is perfect for this application. Our fence posts are 10 feet apart, and you want something strong like that to screw into. This saved us having to cut any length off.

Decide how much gutter you will need and if needed, the store can even cut them to length for you.

Also purchase the gutter caps, U clips, equal length boards and screws.

I bought 4 - 10 foot lengths of gutters, 2 gutter caps for each length (so 8 gutter caps in all) and 3 U clips for each gutter. I also purchased 4 - 10 foot lengths of board for support.

My husband screwed the 10' long boards to the fence, using the posts as studs. The boards are used for stability. Attach the gutters to the board.



Next, attach the end caps to the gutters. You could do this before screwing them to the boards, if you wish.



Attach the U clips to the gutters. These will help support the gutters and not allow them to bow outward once filled with all that heavy soil. We used 3 clips per section and can see bowing. Could have used 4, evenly spaced U clips. Regardless, 3 works just fine.



Drill drainage holes about every 8-10" in the bottom of each gutter, to allow for drainage. This is very important. If you don't do this, you risk root rot if excess water has no were to drain.



Fill the gutters with a good vegetable potting soil. One that has moisture lock is very helpful for the gutters, as they need watering often, given the shallowness of the container. Add soil and fill up to within 2 cm from the very top. Make sure the soil is nice and compact as it will settle with time and watering. You need as much soil in there to allow for the roots and to protect the veggies. I made the mistake last year of not adding enough soil and after it settled down, I ended up with onions and radishes sticking a bit out of the soil.



Run a trowel, or even a chop stick, down the length of the gutter, about 1/2 - 1" deep. Drop seeds in according to the directions on the package. Almost all say to leave 2.5cm spacing between seeds. I am way to impatient for that and I end up just lightly sprinkling them in there. Once they start coming up, you will see where you have to thin them out by literally plucking the excess out with your fingers. This allows for space to grow properly. They don't like being crowded in there!



I planted the Gutter Gardens for the first time last year and had 2 gutters on the west fence and 2 gutters on the east fence. I planted the west fence gutters first, waited 2 weeks and then planted the east fence gutters. Since the east fence gutters got the most sun, they took off growing and did WAY better than the west fence. In fact, some of the radishes on the west fence never grew enough to actually make radishes. So this year, I had my husband move the 2 west fence gutters over onto the east fence. It gets the best sun for the most hours, it all makes a difference.

Here are the gutters, planted on May 21st.
Top row - onions
Second row left side - mixed lettuce (radiation, endive, spinach, etc)
Second row right side - spinach
Third row - lettuce
Bottom row - strawberries



Week 1, the lettuce is popping up already! When the lettuce is ready, all you do it cut it off at the base, and it will grow back again and again.



I planted the strawberries out of purchased baskets. I don't know if I've ever seen strawberry seeds. Even so, I do not have the space in this house to start things indoors so sometimes, I have to resort to buying already grown.



Strawberries are the perfect candidate for gutter gardens as you can obviously control the trailers. Trail away, strawberries! Run and be free.



Here is a list of some produce that are shallow-rooted and would do well in a gutter garden:

Onions
Radish
All varieties of lettuce
Spinach
Strawberries
Herbs (peppermint, spearmint, thyme, sage, etc)

There is more, I am sure. Google "shallow root vegetable" to read more ideas.

Remember, anything grown in the gutter garden will not be very drought resistant. They will need watering more often, but of course, they won't require a lot of water. I like to start at the top gutter and work my way down to the bottom, then start all over again. They get a good watering and that will last several days (depending on how hot it is, of course. Water more often when it is really hot out.)

I hope others try this idea out. It has worked so well for us. I love to grow things, even if I don't eat them all. I'm what my father-in-law calls "an urban farmer".

Devon Days 2011

It's that time of year again!
Devon Days is here and for us, one of the highlights is the piddly little fireworks display, which is pretty descent for a little town. They spent a budget-busting $8000 on this years display and it did not disappoint!
I forgot to bring my tripod up on the roof of the garage and by time I remembered, the show was starting. I only got a couple descent pictures but was happy with getting this good of quality, hand held.

I heart Devon Days!

Waiting for the parade to start:

Such mischief in those eyes...

Army trucks:

Mayor Fisher promoting Bike Town:



Here come the crazy Shiners:

Our neighbour is a red belt in TaeKwon Do. He is demoing his mad board breaking skillz:

The midway:

Wack-a-mole winner!

Balloon darts:

Mark spent about $10 trying to stand up the bottle:

Another successful Devon Days has come and gone. The weather was great, there were new rides, and our spirit is alive and well in our wonderful little town. I love living here!

Finally time to garden

It's May long weekend and it is gorgeous outside! Time to plant my tiny gardens.
The Gutter Garden is making it's 2nd annual appearance, much to my neighbours delight. They thought I was coo-coo bananas last year, when I put these up. But once they saw how well everything grew, they thought I was a genius! I admitted, it was not my idea. I saw it posted online last spring and thought it was the perfect solution to my tiny yard. Last year, I had 2 gutters on the west facing fence and two on the east facing fence. Even though I planted the west facing fence first, the east facing fence grew faster and better. More sun.
So at the end of the season, I had Mark move the 2 gutters on the west fence over to the east. I expect much better result, all around, this year.

I made sure to write down what I planted in each gutter this year, so it isn't a guessing game like last!

Top row - onions.
Second from top - left side is a mix salad, right side is spinach.
Third row - all lettuce.
Bottom row - strawberries. These were the only ones I didn't plant from seed.



Strawberries:



I use my strawberry pot to plant herbs:



Parsley on the top:



Lemon Thyme:



Here is a virginia creeper and above it in the boxes is peppermint. Plenty of peppermint for summertime mojitos on the back deck!



Just a few other plants and flowers:







Peter enjoying is favourite treat as I garden:

Spring in Alberta

I'm sure other places in Alberta have a bigger jump on spring, but we still have snow in the yard. And it's April 25th!
Just a few shots around my yard, to see what spring looks like in central/norther Alberta in April :(

This is snow mould. Yes. Mould. From the snow. Growing up in southern Alberta, you never, ever see such a thing, because the snow doesn't sit on the ground that long to actually mould. In southern Alberta, it snows, and melts, snows and melts. Here, it snows and stays for 8 months. Once it finally starts to melt, this is what you see underneath. For those with allergies, watch out.



About 8 years ago I planted tulip and hyacinth bulbs. The first spring, half of them came up and bloomed. Every year since then, I will get one tulip and one hyacinth come up. Both grow green leaves but never produce flowers anymore. Oh well, at least it's green!



This is my mock orange. Dormant and brittle. Please wake up!



It's gorgeous and green in BC right now, and just about everywhere else in Canada is at least starting to resemble spring...