Sep 7 - 41st Wedding Anniversary

Another year of wedded bliss! We celebrated with a weekend in the mountains with Ted's mum Mary Foster, who has been coming here for almost 40 years. She enjoyed visiting some favourite places like Emerald Lake, Crowfood Glacier and Peyto Lake (seen here). With lunch at Deer Lodge for the first time, where the flowers amazed. Also a return to the Post Hotel for a great dinner (photo). And a walk at Chateau Lake Louise. We could have wished for better weather but did see some sun.

Sep 4 - Summer is fading fast!

We have Ted's 88-year-old mum Mary visiting from England and although we have seen a lot of sun, it's obvious from the trees along our boulevard that summer is fading fast. We will head to the mountains this weekend to see the new Joni Mitchell batte at Banff Centre and celebrate our 41st wedding anniversary. Mary is making her first trip in 3 years so enjoying being back in Calgary. We had had some nice one-day jaunts around Calgary and to nearby towns and lunches with friends. Labour Day we had richard, Raul and Elvira over for lunch. I am still good at lunches but fade fast in the evenings.
My MRI instead of mammorgram would rate slightly higher than having a root canal job done. I had a headache for two days but hopefully it's a better check than mammograms, which didn't do anything for me in the past.

Stampede Week - Yahoo

Had a great visit with Bruce and Kathy from London. We did a full Rodeo day Wednesday, which was sunny and warm. Unlike Thursday when the temperate dropped 15 degrees and we had heavy hail! B&K joined us for afternoon rodeo, serious beef at Smugglers, then watching the chuckwagon races from the front row seats of the Infield. It was exhausting but fun. I think we've taught them rodeo now, although I didn't hear an actual 'yahoo' out of either of them. I give them full marks for sporting cowboy/gaucho hats and bolo ties for the occasion.

July 11 - Bye to Tom Baker Cancer Treatment

I am finished with my active treatments at Tom Baker Cancer Centre! Only 18 months later! The results of my CAT scan did not identify any lymph problems. However, I am now scheduled for a PET scane. It is to see if I am a suitable owner of a dog, cat or parrot! Seriously, it will identify early any hot spots where cancer may have got a holding at remote sites in my body. I am pleased we will do that monitoring because my cancer was Stage IIIC, just below metastatic and uncurable cancer.
Dr. Tara Pickering will now monitor me at the outpatient clinic with another specialist, Dr. Pi - that's progress!
All my bloodwork and last MUGA cardiac monitoring test results were good.
I will now await a date for surgical removal of my port. It's been an easy way to get treatment but I am glad to say goodbye to it now. Yippee!

July - Yahoo again

It's time to party and this year, I am able to enjoy Stampede again. We are enjoying seeing the NZ Morris family, whose son Ben married Albertan Karla at Rafter Six Ranch July 4th. A great merger between a large Alberta family and NZ - a cultural melange of Maori meets line dancing at the wedding dance! Great to have his uncle Bruce and Kathy here from London to rodeo with us this year.
Banff Centre celebrates 75 years of cultural programs this year so lots of great performances in the beautiful Rockies. We are using our RV a lot to spend as much time in the mountains as possible.
July 8 sees the start of the Mount Royal College Music bridge program, bringing gifted students from Canada and China together, with a few from other countries too now. I am a supporter for this program so we enjoy the extremely gifted performances by students and faculty too.
July 18-28 e head north to spend time with Gerdy/Jacques in Edmonton, Nancy/Colin at Gull Lake then more concerts at Banff.

June - Summer in the mountains

Clearly I am enjoying life so much again I dont have time to post! This is good.
June 9 we took the new RW to Gull Lake for a day en route to a LTV rally of owners of similar RVs to ours. We learned a lot from some really neat people. A bunch of people like us who want to travel in their young-old age with minimal home comforts. We will look forward to keeping in touch, especially with Alberta LTV reps Pat and Henry, who oranized a great 3 days.
We are spending a lot of time at the Banff summer festival. It has worked well that we can overnight in the huge lot at our friends Pat and Bob's place in Banff. When we are there for any time, we camp up at Tunnel Mountain where we have lovely views and good facilities to plug in and get hot water and use the microwave and DVD player! Tikal is enjoying the mountains too!
Our wine society Lobsterfest, held in a backyard on a beautiful day, was a great way to kick off what we hope will now be summer, after a lot of rain. Also enjoying entertaining again, now my energy level is kicking back in.

May 30 - Another year rolls round

Enjoyed my birthday on a long weekend in Banff, with tickets for Ballet Jazz de Montreal (fantastic) and jazz festival wind up - loud!!! Camping in Banff for the first time in our new chateau on wheels was great. Must have had a good time as we broke the bed and ran out of wine. A nice afternoon Sunday, sitting on their deck by the river with Bob/Pat Allin, buds from our wine club. In future, we can park overnight in their huge lot, which will be very handy if we don't want to camp at Tunnel Mountain. Saturday a soak in the Banff Hot Springs. Getting the hang of driving an RV with all the technical stuff you have to learn about. Birthday dinner at the gorgeous little Ravens restaurant at the Banff Centre, surrounded by glass looking over Banff townsite and Banff Springs Hotel. Life is good!