Category Archives: Canada

Sunshine Coast in the Canadian Rockies

Posted on January 17, 2014 by BarryH

The sleep I was looking forward to when I finally arrived in Banff wasn’t refreshing.  I had temporarily forgotten that sleeping at altitude (albeit only 1400 metres) messes with my sleeping pattern.  The lapse of memory was only short lived.  … Continue reading →

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Time plays with the mind: the Canadian Rockies

Posted on January 16, 2014 by BarryH

It’s 23.30 Rocky Mountain Time, 06.30 GMT and 08.30 in Greece.  After 30 hours without sleep I’m now in Banff and ready to go to bed, the first time before midnight for years.  But then it’s another midnight not the … Continue reading →

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…………. at least I had mown the lawn

Posted on January 12, 2014 by BarryH

The weather in my neck of the woods, indeed throughout the UK, has been crazy.  With the exception of a very occasional overnight dive to near zero with accompanying ground frost, temperatures have continued above freezing for weeks, sometimes hitting … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Landscape, Pontypool, Wales, Winter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

A grey start to the year

Posted on January 6, 2014 by BarryH

I don’t believe in omens.  The fact that the new year continues grey, wet and windy may be a sign, but if it is, it’s a sign of global climate change and of shifting ocean currents and the jet stream … Continue reading →

Posted in Canada, Grey Britain, Hiking, Landscape, Mountains, Pontypool, Wales, Winter | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Sport, politics, history: when the underdog gets revenge

Posted on March 19, 2013 by BarryH

I don’t watch sport of any kind either on TV or in the flesh.  For a start I found that I was getting too-uptight but more importantly I decided a long time ago that I preferred to be doing something … Continue reading →

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Grey Britain, Canada, Greece: a philosophy of travel

Posted on March 4, 2013 by BarryH

It is widely believed that in the UK when the weather is dominated by high pressure the sky is blue and the sun shines, luxuriatingly hot in the summer, icy cold and exhilarating in winter.  It can be but is … Continue reading →

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Vancouver: surviving a grey, wet Family Day

Posted on February 16, 2013 by BarryH

In his book ‘Notes from a Small Island’ Bill Bryson records that when he arrived one Sunday in Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales that it was raining and that it was closed (I paraphrase from memory because someone has borrowed … Continue reading →

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Vancouver on a sunny Sunday in February

Posted on February 12, 2013 by BarryH

A month skiing in the Rockies is at an end.  My visit to Canada is nearly at an end. I had heard so many good things about Vancouver that I decided to spend a few days in the city before … Continue reading →

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Whistler in brief

Posted on February 11, 2013 by BarryH

Whistler is very different from Banff in many respects.  It has a resident population of 10,500 compared with Banff’s 7,500 yet styles itself a village and nurtures that image.  Banff retains the character of a ‘frontier’ town, a place which … Continue reading →

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Given the bird

Posted on February 9, 2013 by BarryH

Skiing finished now.  I survived relatively intact.  Tomorrow I’ll post impressions of Whistler but this is just a very brief note to correct a mistake In the last post on the blog I included photos of a bird which I … Continue reading →

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