I think most of us know that last Sunday was Mother’s Day, but did you also know it was  Clean Up The Sturgeon day?  What better way to celebrate Mother’s Day then to say thanks to Mother Nature by helping clean up some litter, plant some trees, and spend some time with the family? Sure, brunch would have been nice, but how could I say no to a bike ride, BBQ lunch and the chance to make a bit of difference in the city with my kid right beside me?

We decided to start our day at St.Albert Place and  move down the river to tree planting and a BBQ lunch at St. Albert Centre. Of course the fact that we also knew ice cream (courtesy of Dairy Queen) was at St. Albert Place also weighed into our decision of...

I have to say one of my favorite things to do in the summer in St. Albert is Art Walk.  Art Walk happens downtown the first Thursday of the month though the summer.  May 3rd was the season opener for 2012.  I didn’t have a huge amount of time to spend as my daughter had skating practice but I just didn’t want to miss it, so we headed downtown.  

There are so many galleries and shops hosting artists downtown that I don’t know I could get to them all in one night even if I didn’t have my daughter with me.  I really love that the artists are there and happy to chat and tell you about their works.   I hope to head back again later in the summer with a couple of friends to really take the time to see all the art, shop, and chat with some of the artists.  That...

I had big plans for this first blog post of my adventures in St. Albert! There are so many things to do, I wanted to pack as much as possible into one day with my daughter!

Instead of a shopping trip outside we decided to spend most of the afternoon in St. Albert Place (home of city hall, the library, museum, and the Arden Theatre).  The  Musée Heritage Museum is one of those hidden gems in St. Albert that I have really enjoyed discovering. The first time we went was in 2010 during the Girl Guides of Canada 100 year anniversary.  I was pretty involved in planning their Alberta events and when I saw the small but beautiful Girl Guides in St. Albert Display I knew I was going to be a big fan of the Musée Heritage Museum for life!     The...

The art show put on by the St. Albert Artist’s Guild is an anticipated event in my house. My husband and I attend together; but as soon as we get our ballots for people’s choice we become strangers. We each start in a different section, perusing the art in detail. If I turn a corner and see my husband, I immediately turn the other way. For us, one of the joys of the art show is comparing our ballots; and laughing at how different our taste is. After intense inspection of every piece we meet at one of the tables to compare the results. This year; when my husband sat down he said “If by chance our number one choice is mutual, I think we should purchase it.”  I agreed with this statement; our tastes are usually so different, I did not anticipate that my visa card would need to be withdrawn from my purse.  

And the envelope please....much astonishment on both of our parts when we realized that we had agreed not only on our number one choice, but on number three as well. Alas a red dot was already posted...

Family Day!  An extra day off work to allow you to unplug and connect with your Family; and what a wonderful day it was, with perfect weather to partake in the festivities that the City of St. Albert had planned.  This year was the first year our family took part in the Frostival’s activities, including the evening at Grosvenor Park on Sunday night, and then at Lacombe Lake Park on Monday.  Sunday night my son and I rolled down the hill to the skating rink at Grosvenor and tried our hand at throwing a couple of milk jug curling rocks.  It was a bit touch and go there for awhile, but with skill and luck we managed to pin one “on the button” and win the game!  We thought a reward was in order and decided a s’more and hot chocolate would do the trick.  At one of the firepits set up around the rink we roasted and munched.  My son watched longingly at the kids who brought skates and were playing a game of scrimmage, while I marveled at the five year old who could skate better than I.

The next day the whole...

I do not make New Years Resolutions… but every January 1st. I do promise myself that I will exercise more, eat better, be kinder, etc. and I really do try. In support of eating better on January 1st I threw the remaining Christmas baking in the compost. All as been well until recently when I started thinking about cake…I don’t know why, because I really do prefer cookies. However, it is cake that has been on my mind. In fact I am attaching a picture of a particularly delicious and festive cake that Michelle in our office made before Christmas to contribute to the department potluck.

 Curious on how she made this…send us a comment and we will send you her secret.

 Of course, posting this picture has once again piqued my desire for cake, but all is well, my daughter reminded me the other night that we have cake occasion coming up…my birthday! I had completely forgotten this…and for good reason. You see my birthday is really December 21st; however a couple of years ago I made the decision to officially...

I confess, for this blog I have ventured out of St. Albert and into Edmonton, and to top it off I am wearing red hoodie and a foam finger. So where does one go where this outfit is appropriate…well the World Juniors of course. I love everything about the World Juniors, I cry when they play the National Anthem, and I cry once again when Team Canada salutes the fans at the end of the game. I marvel at the copious amounts of beer that are consumed around me and the element that has caused me great delight this year is the line-up to the men’s bathroom. Seriously ladies, it is so wonderful to see men standing in a huge line, while I cruise on by directly into the ladies…

 Another thing that has caused me great amusement is the Goal – But! that comes up on the giant screen when a goal is scored. At first I was But What? Then my bi-lingual daughter informed all us Anglophones that But is goal in French. Now every time it comes up on the big screen I laugh.  

 Hockey unites Canadians, and just like the Olympics, at this given time we are not Oiler fans, or Canuck fans, we are Canadian Fans…we cheer, we sing, we drink too much beer and then we can hardly wait do it again the next night.

...

Chestnuts Roasting on a Open fire….

This song tends to bring a certain period in time to mind for me.  Not necessarily a simpler time, but a slower paced time when things weren’t so rushed, and how much you spent and gifts weren’t the focus of the season. 

 

A little bit of that time was evoked and shared with my son this past weekend at the St. Albert Grain Elevator and Train Station, where they had a telegrapher send his wish list to Santa in the North Pole via Telegraph!  Man, the Operators fingers sure knew what they were doing as they tapped out this great long list….We opted out writing the list with an old fashioned pen and ink and went with good ol’ lead!  I could see messes happening with ink in a 4 year olds hands and a wandering mind, especially since the great man in red was sitting in the next room waiting to talk and see if you had been good or naughty.

 

We created a couple of crafts and ornaments and decorated a gingerbread cookie (deliciously from Grandin Bakery),...

What a wonderful weekend to head out of St. Albert to the third annual “A Very Cherdarchuk Christmas”; another event that added to the magic of Christmas for our family.   

 

No, no you are correct it wasn’t in St. Albert, but St. Albert sponsored the Winter Garden that included some very intricate and beautiful ice sculptures within it.    Kicking off the excitement was a hayride from the parking field to the nursery.  Kris Kringle and his elves greeted us all from behind a beautiful ice podium with a great big Merry Christmas.  With kid’s passport in hand we found the hot chocolate, wonderfully sponsored by local business and free for those who needed an internal warm up.  The garden centre was transformed into a Christmas cornucopia of wonderful, crazy and delightful items to purchase.  Christmas had exploded! 

 

Outside my son dug for Christmas balls, played candy cane baseball, antler toss decorated a cookie and created another Christmas decoration – gaining a check mark for each...

Last week in Jim Hole’s newsletter he spoke to the fact that carrots can be planted now so that they pop through the ground as soon as spring arrives; ironically reading this article spurred me onto harvest my crop of carrots. As you know from my previous carrot chronicles, vegetable gardening does not seem to be my thing. I discovered the joy of seed tapes this year, but a combination of late seeding, poor soil and who knows what did not lead to a bumper crop. In fact the picture below illustrates my entire crop. The second picture shows the largest and the smallest of the carrots I harvested…yes indeed world hunger is not going to be solved by my growing efforts.

However, I have plans for 2012…a big bag of compost, some manure and a plant date that does not start with J should get me back in the carrot business! Stay tuned.