Easter Weekend

With all the winter snow still lingering, and not a lot going on at work, I closed the shop for an extra day and we enjoyed a four-day long weekend for Easter.  I took my little day trip on Good Friday and attempted some photography out by Battle Lake.  It was very uninspiring and mostly I came back home with a dirty truck and an empty fuel tank.  Hopefully conditions improve soon and I can get out again to do some serious shooting.

On Saturday we had the Pohl family Easter get together.  Both of my brothers and their families were out at my Mom's place.  We brought my Dad out of his recent new residence at the St. Joseph Auxiliary hospital to spend the day with family.  We spent the day visiting and enjoyed a nice Easter dinner together while all the cousins ran around and played together.

On Sunday the girls spent the morning looking for all the Easter treats that had been hidden around our house by the Easter Bunny.  Some of these were also stashed the night before by Anna, after her sisters had fallen asleep.  Later in the evening we had another Easter dinner at our house for Margarit's side of the family.  Her brother and his two kids came over, and we also invited my Mom.  Once again it was an opportunity to visit, and to share a nice meal.

On Monday I worked on my Arts Federation application and my book project for a while, and then spent the rest of my time with the girls.  In the late afternoon Hailey and I went out for a walk to nearby Whitemud ravine.  I lived my teenage years near here and spent many a day wandering around in the valley with my first camera, teaching myself photography.  I marvelled at how much it had changed over the last 30 years.  What was once a hillside covered with a mature aspen forest is now an open brush covered slope, the result of clearing by both beavers, and a relatively recent bush fire.  What was once a nice open meadow in the valley bottom is now overgrown with a grove of young aspens.  Hailey and I wandered around through the still deep snow.  We startled a Great Blue Heron up off of the creek.  I was surprised to see it, considering the winter like conditions that we still have.  I didn't get a photograph of this large bird as it flew away too quickly, but I did get a shot of some Canada Geese sitting in the snow beside the creek.  We also saw some Chickadees, a flock of Waxwings, and lots of evidence of Beavers.

After dinner we were all somewhat disappointed that we had to go to bed and get up for school and work the next morning...