Teresa's landing down in Cow Town & Teresa's train adventures (pt. 2)

near Mount Shasta during the road trip part of my travels with my dear friend Antonia & her little red car

Hello Everyone,

It's been quite a "full on" ride this past month, winding down my big train trip over to the east coast & then bouncing back up to Calgary (Cow Town) to find a place to live & then get a good chunk of my stuff moved out of my folks' garage & from a few friends' places, who were so very kind to store my particles and/or use the big items for awhile.

As you know from my earlier note, I found a very comfortable basement suite to move into & it is working well so far. I get about 30 minutes of walking to get to the LRT (train) station & then from the LRT to work and another 30 minutes for my return home. My walks to work have often been highlighted by the spotting of snow shoe hares in a big field near the LRT station that I walk past to head to the office.

One morning I saw a total of 9 white, very large snow shoe hares!! The next day, I saw 8 of them resting in a few spots of the big field. On my way home, which I now call "goose time" instead of home time, ... the Canada geese have been greeting me & drawing my attention skyward, where I have enjoyed the splendid sights of the moon in full view (including last week's lunar eclipse!), as well as some fairly awesome sunsets over & behind the downtown skyscrapers.

I am finding myself feeling somewhat cramped & closed in at times, if I am hanging about inside for too long, especially if it is a small or very warm space. My twice daily walking routine is helping balance this a little but the smaller windows in the basement of my new "digs" are adding to this challenge at times.

In line with all things "new" ... I have given my BLOG a new look to spruce things up, I hope you like it :)

All in all, my transition back from Land of Oz has been immensely helped by the time I took to bounce about down south of the 49th parallel. Not only for the temporal (slower pace) side of things, but also the climate, & the reconnecting with such dear friends & the members of my family scattered further afield than Alberta.

Here's a few more pic's from my big train trek across the U.S. ... where winter travel conditions & snow storms caused significant delays and each station stop I made along the way provided new opportunities to reconnect with many splendid people & pets in my life. Thanks again to all of you that welcomed me so warmly and made my visits so absolutely enjoyable :) You are splendid!!

Winston, my sister Xenia's pride & joy

Antonia, me, & Joan when we met up briefly north of San Francisco

Joan looking out over the big "community" garden/farm near her lovely home in Sebastopol

Joan, Me, & Judith enjoying a sunny day at "the farm"

one of the many monarch butterflies in Santa Cruz ... heaps of them hanging in the trees!

Kristin & Gabriel enjoying some of the big storm winds that were building out along the coast ... we ended up with a power outage for 10 hours that day because of a fallen branch from a Sequoia tree.

big waves crashing ashore through the rock arch on "Dog Beach"

two terrific Tiggers having heaps of FUN!

Karly, the 18-20 year old kitty enjoying the warmth of the fireplace during the big storm

Kristin, Claudette, Isabel, & me in Santa Cruz

Visiting with my Dharma friends Cheryl, Gleb, & their son Aidan was also very splendid!!

Aidan posing as a shark after we put this awesome floor puzzle together

Aidan & I having heaps of fun :)

ARRRGH ... it's pirate Aidan decked out in his very excellent Halloween costume

it was great to reconnect with Cheryl in her new California home

Gleb & Cheryl in Palo Alto, CA

Thanks heaps for having my dear friends & family, it was great to reconnect with you again & see how you are!!!

More pic's & stories on my train trek in my next posting ... that's enough for this segment.

Be well & keep doing what you do to contribute your uniqueness to this world we call home!

Teresa

Teresa's 1st Ghost River Rediscovery course ... out near the Rockies

Hello my dear friends & family,

How great is this picture & the inscription? ... it's the latest welcome page picture on the GRR website http://www.ghostriverrediscovery.org

This picture is apparently also on everyone's time sheets!!
(if you click on the picture you can make it bigger to help read/see it)

I just finished my first (short) course with Ghost River Rediscovery ... we were able to get the 5 "youth at risk" participants out snowshoeing & cross-country skiing, plus over the 3 days, we built a quinzhee (snow hut) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinzhee ... that would kick butt in stormy weather on any stormy Canadian Winter weather you might encounter with walls ~30cm thick!!

This course went well given some of the attitude & behavioural challenges that the 5, grade 10 guys posed at various times. Much was reinforced for me from my Outward Bound training that I will be even more fully embracing as I get in a more active roleout with future course. My main role with GRR will be with GRR in their Community Development & Specialized Training group, more on that as I undertake my first days with them in the coming week! At this point, I will be focused on developing, coordinating, & facilitating new workshops, courses, & training we can offer through GRR to help build traditional, community principles & skills fostered by Ghost River Rediscovery.

It was pretty darn great winding down my 1st day with Ghost River as we did our evening "talking stick" check in around the warmth of our Council Fire. Especially when I looked up into the night sky & saw the Big Dipper overhead!! It's been over a year since I've been able to see this wonderful celestial sentinel & friend :) ... (there was a little twinge of emptiness though as well, since the sky was not nearly as star filled as the jam packed southern hemisphere night sky & I was reminded that I am away from many dear friends who are sleeping under the Souther Cross & the more extensive stretch of the Milky Way!)

All in all, the wonder & gratitude I was feeling on this 1st night & throughout my 1st GRR course were quite splendid. How great it is to be on board for my own inner Rediscovery experiences as well as that with the staff & participants of Ghost River Rediscovery! A most excellent complement to my Outward Bound experiences with OBA last year ;)

It was great to jump into the fold for this short course with GRR out in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies so soon after my fairly intense moving week-end last week. Now I get a chance to settle into my home space a little more & unpack what I have brought down so far from Edmonton.

We're supposed to get another deep freeze starting today through the week-end. Into the low minus 20's for the temperature & mid minus 30's with the wind chill! YIKES! Very grateful I have such a cozy place to hide out in when I am not "out & about."

No phone number yet but I have hooked myself up with Skype, so if you are inclined to download it, we could talk through our 'puters for FREE :)

My NEW address is:

Teresa Chilkowich
424 - 6th Street N.E. (basement)
Calgary, Alberta
T2E 3Y4
CANADA

Skype ... tchilkowich
e-mail ... sherpadoginoz@care2com
iChats (webcam) ... sherpadoginoz@mac.com

Hope all is well for you & your work, play, etc. Looking forward to hearing how you are doing!

Take good care & stay warm or cool, depending on which hemisphere you are in :)

Love,

Teresa

p.s. more pic's from my this course & my big rail trip this week-end as I get a chance to post more here on my blog :)