leaving January 2024 behind

What have I got to show for January 2024?  I have loads to be thankful for given how wild and crazy the month was!  I am making good progress on the Grand Canyon Virtual Challenge and as you can see, I am ahead of plan.  It has been quite the task finding local paths and trails to walk that are not sheets of ice.  On one occasion it took hand holding between friends to make our way along sections.  Another day it was all about purposely becoming one with the ground to gingerly shimmy my way down a slope.  For another "out & about", I was thankful to find a parking spot in the grass off to the side of the lot to avoid crossing metres and metres and metres of ice to get to the trail.  My spikes have not been serving me safely on sheer ice.  Some outdoor skating rinks have closed due to inclement weather!  The ice has deteriorated from the plus double digit temperatures we are having!  I wish the ice was where it should be!  Rant done!  Yet, I carry on virtually floating down the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon!

Here we are, my community of conquerors!  The orange star is just above my marker.  A few members of our community have already crossed the finish line. Two conquerors reported in our private chat that they just received their medals.

three recent postcards

Knitting squares has been providing much pleasure!  To-date I have knitted 24 squares of the 35 that I need to make the blanket.  The stack is growing and the higher it gets, the more excited I get!  I did a test run of laying them all out to begin coming up with some kind of a pattern and figuring out what shades of yarn I need to buy more of.  What I am finding is that I can get lost in knitting and knit away my cares and worries.  

❆ ❆ ❆ ❆ ❆

I have a few final photos to share from my last days at Lake Louise this past week.  On my second last morning there, I captured a selfie sitting in the throne by the Ice Castle.  I wasn't going to but thought what the heck just do it!  Have no regrets!  

On my final morning, January 25th,  I drove up to have one last look at Lake Louise and the Ice Castle, before walking the Lake shore and then doing some hiking around the Village.  It snowed over night and the skating surface was covered in a blanket of white gold.  I captured this photo of the Ice Castle shortly before sunrise.  It looked glorious and regal!  

Upon my return from walking the trail across the Lake to the far end and back, the groomer was now out clearing the snow off the skating rink.  I watched for awhile, at times he and his plow were lost in a cloud of snow.  Not quite ready to leave, I cleared snow of a bench then sat for awhile to just breathe it all in!  

Five days later on January 30th the Ice Castle was no longer!  It was actually taken down on the 29th.  After I left Lake Louise on the 25th, the area received rain and above freezing temperatures throughout the day and night.  The Ice Castle was melting and pieces were falling off.  For safety reasons, it needed to be taken down and the area cleared.  I took a screen shot of what the webcam showed on the morning of January 30th.  The brown area at bottom right is where the Ice Castle was.  Also reported was that the ice sculptures that were carved on the 26th and 27th by teams from various corners of the earth, for the Annual Ice Sculpture competition, melted before the judging even took place.  All this is just a part of the wild and crazy month that January was.   

🖌🖌🖌🖌🖌

I am looking forward to February!  This is a rough sketch for my "over the Snow Moon" watercolour painting.  I used a photo from a number of years ago that I took while on a snowshoe trek. February's full moon is called the "Snow Moon" because it is known to be the month with the most snowfall.  Will that hold true this year?  Stay tuned, my painting will be ready soon!