Skating And Ice At Winterlude!

Although I live only two hours from Ottawa, I have not been to Winterlude since 2008.  With a little encouragement from an old friend from university, I made some time for a day trip to catch up with her and enjoy two of my favorite parts of Winterlude: skating on the canal and ice sculptures.

Of course, I took a few pictures from the day:

Skating the Rideau Canal - the world's largest outdoor skating rink

A lot more crowded downtown.  Canada's parliament buildings in the background.

Recognize her?  She's the queen from the movie "Alien"

Love the spirit of this sculpture

Hanging out by the fountain... and the power box.

The park benches had to be dug out of the snow from a recent storm

Fête Des Neiges

When I first moved to Montreal, I was looking forward to attending Fête Des Neiges, the annual winter festival encouraging kids and kids-at-heart to get out and enjoy the season.  Unfortunately, it was cancelled that year due to a labour dispute.  When it was finally brought back, I never found the time to go - until this year.  After a freezing cold week, the weather warmed up to a balmy -13C, so I grabbed my skates, my camera and my snow gear and checked out the fun in Parc Jean Drapeau.

Here are some photos from that afternoon:

The previous week was SO cold that even the snow sculptures were shivering!

Snow sculptor in action

Snow creations

Awesome skating path along the St. Lawrence River - 1.5km total length

View of the river and Notre Dame bridge from the skating path

Beaver Tail with cinnamon, sugar and a squeeze of lemon. Best way to wind up the afternoon!

Mini-Bloggiesta Time

This weekend the bloggers behind It's All About Books and There's A Book are hosting a mini-Bloggiesta - a weekend dedicated to improving your blog in the company of fabulous bloggers doing the same thing all around the world. I've participated in the last three and loved it!  I always look forward to when the event rolls around again.

Unfortunately, I have to work and have other commitments this weekend, so I will not be able to spend as much time on Bloggiesta as I would like.  Still, I will try to fit in whatever I can.  I plan to be home in time for the Twitter chat at 10pm tonight and I want to check out the mini-challenge on marketing your blog.  No matter what, I need to write posts, both for this blog and my business blog.

So, if you need to spend some time updating your blog, check out Bloggiesta this weekend. Hope to see you at the starting or finish line!
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Finish Line Update:

Considering I had work and other commitments this past weekend, it turned out to be more of a micro-Bloggiesta for me.  Still, I made some progress:

• Participated in the Twitter chat, met some fabulous bloggers and had a great time!
• Participated in the Marketing Your Blog and Comments Love mini-challenges.
• Wrote my February post for this blog.
• Started writing posts for my business blog, but didn't finish.  I'll chip away at those during the week.
• Tried to set up MyFreeCopyright.com, but never received the confirmation email.  I would love to hear if anyone has any advice on that service.  For those of you who use it, do you find it valuable?

Next Bloggiesta is March 22-24.  I'll make sure I keep the whole weekend reserved for blogging.