Christmas 2014 | Griffith Woods Walk

I'm just home from Calgary, where, immersed in family, I dined out on great home cooking: Dennis' carefully steamed Manitoba pickerel (not to be confused with walleye), a sweet-hot bean dip, chunky tart home-made cranberry sauce, and an amazing gf and dairy free lemon curd roll-up from Donnie's kitchen; a fine turkey dinner complete with gf gravy and dressing in "La Salle Jean Deere; and more gf baking than one girl needs or deserves. Thank you Sylvia for making that special effort. And of course there were games, games, and more games washed down with wine, wine and more wine. All that was missing were the John Deere plates and napkins! Sylvia says that Christmas is about family and friends, eating and drinking, and games. We had it all. Go, Dennis, go!

There was walking involved. On boxing day, Mat, Sylvia, Dennis, Gracie and I  headed out to Griffith Woods. It's a short drive west on Highway 8, then a left turn into Discovery Ridge and then a left into the park.


You can follow the wide, flat trails, and you can sneak over on to the reserve by following one of many sketchy footpaths in the snow--or finding your own--and track the iced-over Elbow River. Dogs on leash of course. We pondered briefly (very briefly) following the river back through to the Weaselhead, but then we'd have a hike back to the car! Snow cleats of some kind are a must, and maybe walking sticks for off- course.

I was playing with my camera, trying to get comfortable with the positions of all the dials, and using the manual settings more, so there were lots of lousy shots, but here are a few of the better ones.