About Me

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Delta, British Columbia, Canada
I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Monday, September 07, 2015

I is for ICE

This is an updated version of I is for ICE that I posted in September, 2009.  Sometimes the creative juices fail, so in this case, I went back to reread some of my old posts and thought this would work.  Hope you enjoy it.

Living in Canada as I do, ice is an expected form of precipitation. However, in this little corner of the country, known locally as Lotusland, we don't get as much of it as in the rest of Canada. Here, one would usually find ice in a cold drink in the form of cubes in any season throughout the year.

It does occasionally get cold enough for ice to form on top of the puddles in the fields. And when we were kids, there were ditches in front of the residential area where I grew up so we'd put on our ice skates and go bumping along, trying to avoid the overhanging bushes or tree branches that got in our way. Also, every Saturday afternoon we would get on the bus to travel into the city of Vancouver to go ice skating at Kerrisdale Arena. Until we got our very own figure skates for Christmas one year, we would rent dirty old ones at the rink. I remember one c-c-c-cold January weekend, we gathered up a bunch of friends and drove out to Fry's Corner (the "real" country) and skated and played a sort of hockey on the farmer's field. (That's me in the middle with my late husband on the right and his best friend on the left.)

Of course, ice hockey is almost our national sport! I say "almost" as it isn't officially our national sport because lacrosse takes that honour. But if you think of Canada, you'll usually think HOCKEY. (Did you happen to notice we all have hockey sticks in the photo above?) My Dad was a great hockey fan and every Saturday at 5:00 pm, we'd hear the familiar tune of "Hockey Night in Canada" playing just before the national anthem(s) were sung and the game began.
When my daughters were young, they were involved in figure skating with my older daughter competing at provincial and national levels for her age category. We have an entire photo album of her skating "career," starting with when she learned how to ice skate at the age of 3 and her Daddy would push her around the ice rink as she held onto a sliding frame. Then as she got older, we'd proudly watch her as she pirouetted, spun, and glided herself to many medals and cups.
My younger daughter was on a precision team both here in BC and when we lived temporarily in Ontario. Again, our hearts burst with pride as we watched her participate in many ice competitions. Her ice skating album is right beside her sister's. By the way, I actually made that red and grey polka-dot skating outfit for her when she was about 3 years old.

Did you hear that southern Alberta got snow already this month and the mountains at Whistler, BC, already have snow on their peaks?  Both these bits of news have never been heard of before! I don't mind the cold weather sometimes, but no one around here (except the skiers) like snow because it's so unusual that the city practically grinds to a halt.

So you see, ice is an important item in my world. When it's hot, we put ice in our drinks and if it's cold enough, some of us will venture out to ice skate or play ice hockey.

Thanks to the imaginative Denise Nesbitt who created ABC Wednesday ice ages ago and to the inimitable Roger, our illustrious administrator.

45 comments:

EG CameraGirl said...

Yes, ice is indeed important, I agree, and I can certainly understand why you think so too. ;-)

ArneA said...

I don´t hope Ice not will come to Oslo until next year.
Hate winter. Leaving for Spain if possible

Leslie: said...

Hi ArneA, I certainly don't blame you! lol

mrsnesbitt said...

Icing on the cake lesie! lol!

nonizamboni said...

Loved this post and since moving to Minnesota I love watching hockey in 'real life.' Yours is certainly a life filled with an icy history!

nancygrayce said...

No ice here! I've always wanted to ice skate, oh, I mean try!

Beverley Baird said...

I can so relate - my dad always made a rink in our backyardevery winter while I was growing up. My own kids had hockey or figure skating.
Now it is skating 2x a year with my class for fun.
I remember those hockey night in Canada nights as well - when there were 6 teams!

Janie said...

It's amazing how much fun you can have with ice. Impressive!

Hildred said...

One of my nicest memories is skating at a rink in Edmonton on Wednesday nights when the band played all evening and the frost made everything twinkle and nice boys held your hands crosswise as you twirled around and around. Lovely, - thanks for the memories.

Paula Scott Molokai Girl Studio said...

Not ready to think about ice! B rrr! Oh, who am I to complain? I live in NM. It doesn't get THAT cold here! Not like Canada.

Tumblewords: said...

Ice. I could do without. But I won't. It will be here before I can find my down booties. Argh. Ice-skating on the local lake was something that consumed winter in those days when I didn't worry about fractures. :)

Reader Wil said...

Great subject! We had some ice and skating this year!

magiceye said...

charming

Mimi said...

I dislike ice-in drinks it makes them too cold, and falling on it is sore.
But I can see that it has been a nICE part of your life, so good for you!

sema said...

interesting!

sema said...

interesting!

Trubes said...

That was interesting Leslie and how cute your daughter looks in her polka dot outfit.
I love Winter with accompanying snow and pretty hanging icicles.
Unfortunately, Winter doesn't love me, it plays havoc with my RA and makes it unsafe for walking.
However, we can drive out to our favourite 'Country Inn at Whitewell' in Lancashire so that I can still appreciate the crisp and 'icy' scenery.
My favourite Winter drink is, Brandy over ice with ginger wine.

Di.x

Rune Eide said...

Ice is for all seasons ;-)

Martha said...

Ice does hold a very special place in your life. I loved to ice skate and started very young. I wound up playing more hockey than being graceful. My daughter took lessons in FLORIDA for a bit too!

My ABC/Watery Wed

Roger Owen Green said...

My wife likes to skate. I went skating in order to woo her, but I really do hate it.

Jay said...

I prefer the 'in your drinks' kind of ice, I'm afraid! I did learn to sort of ice skate, but I was never very good and my ankles kept giving out on me.

Linda Jacobs said...

This was a fun read! Your daughters are adorable!

sally in norfolk said...

Ice .... I work with it all day ... love it in the summer, hate it in the winter :-)

Shrinky said...

Many congratulations on your worthy mention in David's Post of the Day for your last post.

I prefer to look at ice from behind a cosy window, I don't even like ice in my drinks! Brrrrrrrr.

Reader Wil said...

Ice is always important to the Dutch, as we have great skaters, who win often gold or silver.
It's the only sport I watch, although I can't skate. at all due to my childhood in Indonesia.
Thanks for your comment. I have more of those historic facts according to 6th graders.
Have a great week, Leslie!
Wil, ABCW Team.

Trubes said...

I thought I'd read that before and yet I still
found it delightful, and so lovely to see your
girls looking so cute in their skating costumes.

Best wishes,
Di.
ABCW team.

MERYL JAFFE, PhD - parent, psychologist, teacher, author... said...

N-Ice post! I tried figure skating as a girl but was never all that good at it. I had weak ankles which didn't help. Love watching it though.

Rajesh said...

That is nice. I wish we too here had ice floors.

photowannabe said...

I was reading your post about snow in Sept. way back in 2009.
I can't hardly Imagine that when our temps are predicted to reach 108F on Friday...
The letter I is a hard one to find words to use.

Gigi Ann said...

We had a pond near our home where we could Ice skate in the winter. But the one thing I didn't like about Ice skating my feet were always cold.

Hildred said...

Congratulations to your girls!! Loved skating, every day during the prairie winter, and I would ernjoy watching hockey for the skill - but not for the fighting...

Photo Cache said...

We'll take any kind of precipitation here in California.

My ABC WEDNESDAY

Arnoldo L. Romero, MLA said...

I love your ice princess photographs, especially the one with the red and white skating outfit. In SW Texas, snow is rare, and frozen over lakes are unknown. In over 15 years my family and I have lived here, we've only gotten snow 2-3 times, and it melted within a few hours. My girls loved visiting their grandparents in the DFW area during the holidays, because we were most likely to enjoy some snow. Blessings, my friend!

Roger Owen Green said...

Have some stupid Vanilla Ice song stuuck in my head - Ice, Ice Baby.
ROG ABCW

Anonymous said...

I love all forms of ice unless I have to drive on it. Ice Skating, ice in drinks, ice formations, ice hokey. Just make sure the roads I'm driving on don't have black ice or any kind of ice on them. Have a great week Leslie!

Anonymous said...

Nice old pictures. In Belgium winter is slowly arriving. Curious if we will have snow and ice. Greetings, Hilde
Visiting from ABC Wednesday http://stapjesonderweg.blogspot.be/2015/09/icecream.html

Ira said...

A warm post on ice!

Unknown said...

Goodmorning Leslie

Like i already wrote yesterday, i can not imagine your post to be 'not interesting'. Re-post something older is not a bad think for many people do not know them, like me.

Ice... i do not love it. Mostly because i have a very bad back and walking is always hazardous, especcialy on snowy / icy grounds.. and besides that i don't like the cold of winter.



Have a nice day!
♫ Mel☺dy ♫ (abc-w-team)

Bikram said...

Reminds me of the day I went Ice skating and had some great fallls :) lovely pics and warm post on ICE :)

Bikram's

Nabanita said...

I have never skated in my life but would like to try once...I'm scared though that I'll fall and break some bones, if not all! :)

Obsessivemom said...

Coming from the warmer Indian climate I find the idea of snow and ice very exciting.
BeatAboutThe Book

Su-sieee! Mac said...

Ice on fields! That's a very foreign concept to me. Puddles and floods, yes. One of the few things I would've loved to have done was be able to skate -- on ice or not. I tried when I was a young thing, but my brain, for some unknown reason, said, nope, not going to do this, and plop! I fell and fell.
The View from the Top of the Ladder

Deepa said...

Ice - nICE read

Indrani said...

Interesting post this.
Happy ABCW!

Ann said...

Ice is wonderful for ice skating and our drinks but driving on it is terrible. We get some pretty ice storms here in the winter and our roads are treacherous. Very sweet pictures.
Ann