2 stories : ending & beginning

ending

Today I will retire my skates to the basement until next season!  Lots of savouring went into skating at Lake Louise on Tuesday, sensing it would be my last skating session for this season.  Yesterday upon arriving home from an amazing few days get-away, I checked the ice conditions for The Lagoon and The Ice Trail at Bowness and saw they were closed.  This was not a surprise seeing as the local temperatures have been reaching plus double digits celsius each day.  There are no cold forecasted temperatures in the foreseeable future.

How do I describe this skating season? The easy answer to that question is I covered more kilometres this season than I have in any season in the past.  Between December 16, 2024 and February 25, 2025 I skated 241.5 kilometres. Twenty times I laced up my skates and excitedly etched away.  That's the easy answer!  It is a challenge to put into words the feeling that comes from each skating session throughout the season.  It does me the world of good, especially this season when our world needs good!   A collage of photos tells the story best of the beauty to be seen and felt! 

beginning

This past Saturday, I teased you with this photo!  I had just learned to cable knit and this latest project would incorporate that latest lesson. I want to begin this story with this photo.  I began this project before leaving for Lake Louise this past Monday.  I had a few rows done and the plan was to pass a little time by knitting at the beginning of my get-away days before heading out to the ice or the tracks or the trails.  Yesterday before leaving to hit the highway home, I drove up to Lake Louise one last time for one last visit.

It was during this last visit that I noticed an ice sculpture that I did not see when I arrived on Monday.  

I was not quite sure what the sculpture was until I read the display that was near it.  

The display says this:

"The great horned owl, a top predator in the Banff and Lake Louise area of the Rocky Mountains, plays a vital role in maintaining ecological balance by regulating prey populations, which is crucial for local biodiversity.  

These owls hold cultural significance for Indigenous communities, symbolizing wisdom and strength.  Conservation efforts in the region aim to protect their habitats, underscoring their ecological culture, and recreational importance."

This is my photo of the Great Horned Owl. You can understand why I was not sure what I was looking at.  Since the sculpture was completed, weather took a toll, now with one wing missing and a light layer of snow covering it.  After reading the display and realizing it was a Great Horned Owl, I felt a tinge of tingles!  

This photo of the Great Horned Owl ice sculpture is from the Lake Louise Tourism site. 

The cause for feeling the tinge of tingles was no doubt due to the fact I just finished knitting my latest project before packing up and checking out of my home away from home in Lake Louise.  This is my cable knit Great Horned Owl!  I finished knitting it at Lake Louise but blocked it for a few hours when I got home and then added the eyes.  Learning to cable knit this Owl is the beginning of a new project I have in mind. 

The Great Horned Owl square measures 9" by 9".  I would like to knit more projects similar to this one not necessarily the same size and I don't know how many squares I want to do. I want the squares to incorporate nature in some way.  I want to include cable knitting and I also want to begin to learn other stitch patterns.  Eventually, I would like to attach the squares together and create a wall hanging.  And so this journey begins!