Bears!!

This is a picture I took on that last walk we went on, it's just a view up the mountain of one of the ski runs.

And this is a picture taken from the school yesterday.....

It's the same run but there is a large dark shape at the top....you'll have to take my word for it a bit! Anyway, I'm reliably informed that it's a bear, it comes to the same spot, late afternoon every day to take in a bit of sun!! (Or, it's just a black bin bag and they're all having a laugh at the newbys expense!!)  
I know I'm gullible but I believe it!!  There are black and brown bears on the mountain which aren't too dangerous as long as you give them plenty of space, but recently a grizzly has been spotted and they are seriously scary as they are meat eaters...not to be messed with, maybe I won't be doing that hike up the hill after all!

Another gorgeous weekend

The children have finished their first week at school with 2 play dates already, they seem to do a lot of that here, I suppose because there isn't any after school clubs (or none at school anyway) so children just seem to congregate at each others houses.  Charlie is missing his beloved football, I did enquire if there was any team that he could join to be told that some of the boys played in a local team but the season finishes at the end of September and it only started in May!! Sounds like a blessing to me...and he tells me it's soccer, not football...oops!
It was a bit of a shock on Thursday to discover, however, that they don't go to school on Fridays so it's going to seem a very long weekend!
More exploring to be done though, this time Charlie, Lucy and I walked down to the village centre to see what it all looks like without the snow.  We walked down one of their favourite ski runs, bump alley, and can now see where all the bumps come from.... it's barely walkable as it's covered in fallen trees and has boulders the size of small cars!
The village certainly looks different...

Back up a different run to collect some huckleberries...the favourite food of BEARS!  More on that later!!

The next day...

This photo was taken on Wednesday 12th September.  Once I'd found all the ski gear, even though the temperatures had recovered and were now back up in the 20's Lucy seemed keen to wear her snow boots whatever the weather!

What the.....

Well, this was a bit of a surprise, after our beautiful sunny weekend, we woke this morning to snow! It was the children's first day at school and I had packed all their snow gear into one bag and left it at the back of a cupboard thinking I wouldn't have to find it for at least 6 weeks, but no, the snow is definitely here! Check out Jamie's photography...he just had to have his car in the photo too, although he would say that because it's black it showed off the snow better!

The view.

Unfortunately, our house doesn't have a view from our sitting room but from the top floor you can see over the houses in front. This was the view from my bedroom window one evening...

Our first few days...

We spent our first day pretty quietly...lots of walks exploring our new surroundings and catching up with Lucy's lovely teacher who lives 5 doors down and seeing 2 other children from school that Charlie and Ned remembered from last time.  After seeing her teacher Lucy was very keen to go to school the next day but Ned is having terrible trouble with his jet lag, waking at stupid o'clock the first morning.  I thought it best to give them the weekend to recover and then all start together on Monday, I don't want them falling asleep in class on their first day, that wouldn't give the right first impression.
This place is so different without the snow, there is no landscaping at all, just rocks and scrubland, all very rugged. The weather is beautiful, at least mid 20's, beautiful clear skies and spectacular views for miles.  The children are loving the climbing and exploring their favourite ski runs but with no snow, it's hard to get your bearings when it looks so different.

Our first encounters with wildlife.  I didn't even know what it was a first, I ignorantly thought it was just a small squirrel!!!  They are so tame, the children got within arms reach of them.  The chipmunk is sitting on the rock just in front of Charlie.

We're back!! Wednesday 5th September 2012

Due to popular demand the blog is back, so hopefully we will continue to post the events and experiences of our new life in Canada.  We all arrived safely although getting 8 huge bags (including of course, Jamie's golf clubs) to the airport and then collecting them at Toronto before checking them all back in again proved a bit challenging!
We finally arrived in Kelowna to be met by our lovely friends Don and Judy who had kindly offered to take me and the children to their house while Jamie went to sort out his car insurance so we could get up the hill.  Pizza and beer were very welcome while the children relaxed in front of the TV starting their long jet lag recovery.  We finally got to Big White some 24 hours after leaving Upottery and even though it was 10 at night here it was 6 in the morning UK time...time for the children to get up!!!  After lots of persuasion they finally agreed to try to get some sleep, but not for long...jet lag definitely a problem!!