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As spring is around the corner and the snow is melting (but you never know, we can still get new snow!), we went away for a weekend to Moose Mountain Provincial Park. We’ve camped there before and had breakfasts in the Inn – now we actually stayed in one of the Inn’s pretty queen rooms.
It was just a perfect little weekend. We got there around 2pm on Friday, which was a few hours before check-in time, but the room was already available. We spent the rest of the day there, sitting outside in the sun in my t-shirt (with 3°C, only in Canada!!), enjoying the view over Kenosee Lake and the deer walking by! We had some sandwiches for supper, watched TV, had internet, and watched the sun set over the park.
On Saturday we went for an auto tour after breakfast, to check out a bit more than what we normally do with the motorhome and bicycles. The weather was great, we saw some nice scenery and lots of deer! In the afternoon we had a nap and when we woke up again, fog was rolling in out of nowhere! DUDE, where’s my LAKE?!?! But that didn’t ruin anything… we had a nice evening and after a brunch buffet on Sunday we headed back home again. The fog was still there, but once we descended onto the prairie we got out of the clouds and into the sun again!
 album 03/12 – 03/14 Kenosee Lake, Moose Mountain Provincial Park (SK) (82 pictures)
Nederlandse tekst “weekend in the Kenosee Lake Inn, Moose Mountain Prov. Park (SK)” »
Right now we’re in full Olympics mode!! The openingsshow in Vancouver was fantastic and made us so proud to be a Canadian resident!! And thanks to our wonderful neighbours Mike and Alison we finally have the Olympic mittens too now! As for the games… Dutch speedskater Sven Kramer has Gold and mogul skier Alex Bilodeau just now got the first ever Canadian Gold Medal on Canadian soil… woohoooo!!!
Op dit moment zijn we helemaal in Olympics stemming!! De openings ceremonie in Vancouver was fantastisch en we zijn erg trots Canadese inwoners te zijn!! En dankzij onze geweldige buren Mike en Alison hebben we nu eindelijk ook de Olympische wanten! Wat de Spelen betreft… schaatser Sven Kramer heeft Goud gehaald en de Canadese mogul skieër Alex Bilodeau heeft zojuist de allereerste Canadese Gouden Medaille gehaald op Canadese bodem… wooohoooo!
Time for some winter shots. We had a big storm 3 weeks ago with 27 cm of snow and snowdrifts many feet high, which left many people stranded in their own driveway or street for a day. Lots of digging to do, like Nico and Randy from acrosse the street are doing here.
Tijd voor wat winter foto’s. We hadden een flinke storm 3 weken geleden met 27 cm sneeuw en sneeuwophopingen van enkele meters hoog, die vele mensen deden stranden in hun oprit of straat voor een dag. Er was veel uit te graven, zoals Nico en Randy van de overkant hier doen.
Moose near Regina! Unfortunately we did not see any yet, this photo was uploaded to the Weathernetwork website on Feb 5 by Todd Harder, photo was taken near Grand Coulee.
Elanden in de buurt van Regina! Helaas hebben we er nog geen gezien, deze foto was opgeladen op de Weathernetwork website op 5 februari door Todd Harder, foto is vlakbij Grand Coulee genomen.
And when it gets too cold, we’ll just go to the new Walmart Supercentre that just opened.. it’s HUGE!
En als het te koud wordt, gaan we toch naar het nieuwe Walmart Supercenter wat net geopend is.. het is ENORM!
Further updates: medical went well as far as we can tell, we learned that our file has been moved from Buffalo to LA (Buffalo’s too busy) and little Smokey went back home after 10 days. That’s it right now!
Verdere updates: de medical ging goed zover we konden zeggen, we hebben gehoord dat ons dossier van Buffalo naar LA verhuisd is (Buffalo had het te druk) en kleine Smokey was na 10 dagen weer naar huis gegaan. Dat was het!
SPECULAAS SPICES MIX
mix ground:
90 g cinnamon
30 g nutmeg
30 g cloves
10 g white pepper
10 g anis
10 g coriander
5 g ginger
5 g cardamom
ALMOND PASTE
150 g ground almonds
150 g sugar
1 egg
zest of a lemon plus 1 or 2 tbsp juice (optional)
mix ingredients, taste increases when put in container in fridge for a few days, but you can also use it directly (you can keep the paste in fridge for up to 3 weeks)
SPECULAAS DOUGH
1,5 cup / 200 g all-purpose flour
0,5 cup / 100 g brown sugar
100 g butter
15 g speculaas spices mix
1 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
(square) baking pan 8″ or 20 cm
decoration: appr. 16 almonds, egg (lighty beaten)
- preheat oven: 175C/350F, grease baking pan
- mix all ingredients for dough to a smooth ball (it’s good if it stays crumbly as you will press it into the pan and it will become more firm then)
- divide in two UNEVEN parts, press the smallest part into an even layer in the pan
- put the almond paste on top of the dough, make even layer but stay about 1/4 inch away from the sides
- press the rest of the dough on top of the almond paste into an even layer, esp. on the sides where it touches the bottom layer
- smoothen the top with a wet spoon (or fingers), paint with some beaten egg, put the almonds in as decoration and paint with egg again
- bake in middle of oven in about 35 minutes, cut AFTER cooling in (16) squares
Nederlandse tekst “Gevulde Speculaas (spicy biscuit w/almond filling)” »
(serves about 12)
360 g dark chocolate (regular sweetened, take part milk chocolate if desired)
12-13 eggs (room temperature)
12 tbsp sugar
- seperate egg yolks from whites (don’t let any yolk get in the whites!)
- melt chocolate (au bain marie or carefully in the microwave)
- beat egg whites with the sugar until totally stiff (adding a pinch of salt may help, you should be able to hold the bowl upside down without problems)
- lightly beat egg yolks, and quickly mix with the melted chocolate (as it cools off then)
- gently fold in with the stiff egg whites until completely mixed
- refrigerate for at least a few hours to set (in the big bowl or poured out into small serving bowls)
Nederlandse tekst “Chocolate Mousse” »
 RIP Melissa
Our hearts broke when we learned of our friend Barbara’s daughter Melissa’s unexpected passing at age 23. We don’t know what happened, and no one should ever have to deal with something like this, but Bar least of all. She just had a hard year after getting a new kidney, lost her dad and just when she was excited to start a new year (“it’s like a fresh set of sheets on your bed, wonderful!”) this happens… hang in there Bar, we love you and you’re in our thoughts! *hugs*
Request for medical received!!!
We also have good news: 4.5 months after we sent our paperwork to Buffalo NY, we received the request to have a medical! This means everything else was fine and it’s the last step in getting the permanent visa! We made an appointment for February 8th!
Houseguests
Our house has gotten a bit livelier with 2 houseguests, one human and one feline. The human one is called Mark, he’s also a Dutch immigrant who lived in Lloydminster, but has been transfered to Regina. While his house in Lloyd is still for sale, he used to stay at a co-worker’s place and after that guy moved to Alberta, Mark came to stay with us. We already loved his company and knew it would work well. Soon we found out the old guestroom gets pretty cold in the winter, so we swapped rooms with our ‘office’ room and that worked out well for both 
  
Our feline houseguest is a friend’s 5 month old kitty that we’re babysitting for a few weeks. Smokey’s a sweethearts and it’s going well with our own cats too
 
And just a little bonus photo of sundogs… it’s not a glare in the camera lens, the spots around the sun (‘extra’ suns) are called sundogs. There was even a bit of a second ring, we saw a rainbow like part close to the ground. Beautiful winter phenomenon.
Nederlandse tekst “RIP Melissa / request for medical received!!! / houseguests” »
Happy Holidays everybody! Click on the card to see the big version!
Fijne feestdagen allemaal! Klik op de kaart voor de grote versie!
Our second year in Canada was fantastic! We enjoyed the winter wonderland in the first months, sadly had to say goodbye to Spooky (who was almost 22 though!!), and by the time it was March we were ready for spring (but had to wait a bit longer).
Although the weather wasn’t always the best, we still had the summer of our lives, since we bought a 30 ft motorhome in April and have been camping a LOT (incl. the cats ) until the end of September! We’ve discovered some beautiful places in our province, esp. in the Provincial Parks! And in July my family came over and we’ve been camping together in the Rockies as well. We had an amazing time together (also here in Regina) and it was hard to let them go again!
Right now it’s winter again and we’ve already had a bunch of days in the -30’s. It’s only -8 now and that feels so warm that you leave your coat open  Not tonight though.. there is a snowfall warning in effect. I hope that everybody who needs to travel in the next days will be safe! We are having some friends over on Christmas Eve for what we call ‘gourmetten’ which is preparing food on the table on a raclette/table grill. We’re looking forward to that! Nico is working on Christmas though and I’ll be going to the Stephenson’s for Christmas supper. On New Year’s Eve Nico is off and we’re having a house party here
We hope that next year will bring us much more camping trips and hopefully also our permanent visa. We had been nominated by the province of Saskatchewan in February and finally in September we had sent that package plus some extra documents to the federal government – so far no sign from the visa office in Buffalo, New York who is handling it (at least we sent it with Fedex so we know it arrived). We’ll just have to be patient and at least our workvisa had been extended for two more years.
With all the camping and such I again didn’t stay in touch as well as I wanted to. I have worked hard to keep our weblog and photo gallery updated though, I only have a ton of “miscellaneous” pictures from the past year left to upload. But now that I’m on Facebook I’m doing a much better job with staying in touch with people and it’s so much fun there! If you’re not there already, please check it out and hopefully you’ll join!
Happy Holidays and all the best wishes for 2010!
Pictures on the card, clockwise, starting at the top left corner:
- our home with the new white ‘icycle’ Christmas lights
- our motorhome in the Rockies (Jasper, Alberta)
- Loch Leven in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Saskatchewan) in the snow a few weeks ago
- Rider, Gandalf and Tess on the campground in Waskesiu (Prince Albert National Park, SK)
- my reflection in a Christmas ornament
- family picture in the Rockies (Lake Louise, Alberta)
- sunset in Greenwater Lake Provincial Park (SK)
- campsite in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (SK)
- in the picturesque village of Waskesiu (Prince Albert National Park, SK)
- the cats on the campsite at Rowan’s Ravine Provincial Park (SK)
- early snowfall in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (SK) a few weeks ago
- Kenosee Lake (Moose Mountain Provincial Park, SK)
- our home in the snow in January
- yours truly on an Ugly Xmas Sweater Party last Saturday
- yours truly at the Athabasca Falls in Alberta
- gorgeous sunset in Waskesiu (Prince Albert National Park, SK)
- campsite in Moose Mountain Provincial Park (SK)
Nederlandse tekst “Happy Holidays!” »
Finally we put our pictures online from our last Cypress Hills trip. We didn’t get completely snowed in and were able to drive around in Winter Wonderland a bit before going home. We didn’t spot any moose, but we did see several deer.
Eindelijk hebben we onze foto’s van onze laatste Cypress Hills trip online gezet. We waren niet helemaal ingesneeuwd en konden nog wat in Winter Wonderland rondrijden voor we naar huis gingen. We zagen geen elanden, maar wel verschillende herten.
album 11/20 – 11/22 Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Centre Block, SK) (101 pictures)
We’re in Cypress Hills for the weekend! Last minute decision.. we rented a condo from the Cypress Park Resort Inn.
We zijn in Cypress Hills voor dit weekend! Op het laatste moment besloten.. we hebben een apartement gehuurd van de Cypress Park Resort Inn.
This morning we went for a walk in gorgeous sunny weather…. and then 3 hrs later everything was white! So ehm.. if we don’t show up at work on Monday, we’re snowed in here!
Vanmorgen gingen we wandelen in schitterend weer…. en 3 uur later was alles wit! Dus uh… als we maandag niet op het werk komen, dan zijn we hier ingesneeuwd!
It’s our second Halloween here, but the first time I’m giving out candy to trick-or-treaters! Unfortunately there weren’t a whole lot out tonight.. I had 17 kids, but it was fun
Here some pics from me being the Crazy Cat Lady at work, my carved pumpkins (first time ever, not bad huh?) and one of my trick-or-treaters
album 10/30 – 10/31 Halloween (59 pictures)
Nederlandse tekst “Happy Halloween!!” »
The Cypress Hills rise up about 600m above the prairie, with lodgepole pine trees and a.o. deer, elk, moose and cougars. A good destination for our last trip of this year!
Monday September 21
 Nico came out of nightshift this day, so he still had to sleep for half a day before we could head out to Cypress Hills. We hoped to get there before dark, but we also had to pick up my bike at the bike shop and get gas before we could hit the highway. Around 6 we were getting close to Swift Current and we decided to stop there for the night. We rolled into the Trail Campground there, a nice campground right next to the town. As it was my birthday, I had been looking forward to a nice dinner at the resort on Cypress Hills, but I had to settle for a nearby Houston Pizza
Tuesday September 22
 We had a nice and relaxed night, and after a chat with the lady (Wies) in the campground office, who moved here from Holland in ‘54, we went for groceries in town and then continued our trip to the Centre Block of Cypress Hills. Only two campgrounds were still open and we picked a nice spot on the Rainbow Campground. The weather was gorgeous, we just relaxed there and barbecued. Then we got a visit by a very curious buck deer. He came over to our site, dared to come close and sniffed Tess (almost nose to nose) and startled when she hissed at him He walked around the cats and towards Nico by the picnic table. Then he looked at the cats again and figured he’d better get out of here We weren’t sure if he was just curious or trying to intimidate us (as it’s rutting season), it was probably a mix of both
Wednesday September 23
 What a great place to wake up. Not only is it a nice campsite and is the weather great, but the pine trees also smell so good. In the afternoon we went for a little bike ride in the park. We went to the small lake (Loch Leven) and biked around it, then went to the visitor centre and the restaurant at the Cypress Hills Resort Inn. We went in for coffee, but ended up having supper already Nice people, nice building, nice food!
Thursday September 24
 A very lazy day today, the only acitivity today was a short hike over the Woodland Trail from our campground to the resort (and back), and Nico’s firewood chopping
Friday September 25
We had breakfast at the resort and felt like going for a drive (the Centre Block Auto Tour). Of course we wanted to see wildlife and we knew our chances were much smaller during the day than in the evening, but we didn’t want to wait. It was a very scenic drive, at first over a bumpy gravel/cobblestone road past the boy scout’s camp, then a paved part past two truly spectacular viewpoints and the rest was over pretty good gravel roads over the fescue prairie on top of the Cypress Hills plateau. Those viewpoints were Lookout Point and Bald Butte, where you have stunning views over the  prairie to the north. You can see Maple Creek and even a bit of the Great Sand Hills that are 100 km to the north! From Bald Butte you can also see the Gap (the valley between the Centre and West Blocks) and the West Block itself.
At the end of our drive we went to the Highland Trail and hiked around the ponds in that little valley there. No moose to be seen, but gorgeous scenery with the fall colours.
On the campground we started a fire and cooked on there for a change. We decided to winterize the motorhome after this trip, so this was the last camping evening for this season!
Saturday September 26
We could’ve stayed one more night, but decided to leave today, so we’d have some time at home too, before we had to work on Monday again. We left at 9.15am, grabbed a coffee at Caroline’s in Maple Creek (but we both didn’t like our coffees much) and I made some sandwiches once we were on the highway again. After another brief stop in Swift Current (for gas and better coffees ) we kept going until we got home around 3. After cleaning and winterizing the motorhome, we’ll be hibernating for the winter and regularly looking at the pictures of all the great trips we have made this first season!!
album motorhoming! 09/21 – 09/26 Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Centre Block, SK) (120 pictures)
Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park – Rainbow Campground
One of the many campgrounds in the Centre Block, in a gorgeous forest setting. Rainbow was the last one with services to be open after the main season, it was 1-1.5 km away from the core area. We picked a full service site as they seemed a bit more level than most other spots. Despite the extra services in the park being closed (grocery store, cafe, food etc) we still had to pay the full rate of $26 (normal provincial rate). We didn’t have to pay park entrance anymore (but we had a year pass anyway). The only extra service in the park that was still open (besides the visitor centre) was the Cypress Hills Resort Inn with its (good) restaurant. We did not check out the small toilet buildings on the campground, only the service centre (with toilets and showers) that was very nice and very clean! Beautiful park, just a bit too hilly to bike much.
Nederlandse tekst “motorhoming! – Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park (Centre Block, SK)” »
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welcome! We are Nico and Marlies Wobben and in February 2008 we moved from the Netherlands to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada on work permits. Nico is an RN at the General Hospital and I (Marlies) am an administrator at Canada Life. And we have 3 cats!
Wij zijn Nico en Marlies Wobben en in februari 2008 zijn we verhuisd van Nederland naar Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada op werkvergunningen! Nico is verpleegkundige in het General Hospital en ik (Marlies) ben administrator bij Canada Life. En we hebben 3 katten!
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