across the world

merry meet

here at the roundhouse there is always a slight feeling of despondancy during december.

prior to my illness december was always the time to be changing money into dollars, american or canadian, and a great flurry of packing for the trip we would take in january to either Lake Tahoe or Banff.

the main purpose of these trips would be to snowboard, but the areas were so beautiful, and, surprisingly peaceful that the trips were always more than just for sport.

one place in Tahoe we would always visit daily, sometimes as early as 7am was a log cabin coffee shop, it sold a huge range of coffee and herbal teas but our greatest delight was to buy white, hot chocolate and sit at the wooden bar by the big window and drink while looking out at the mountains that surrounded us. then we would take ourslves off to a small cafe called the driftwood for a breakfast that would keep us going until lunch.

in the evenings we would often drift to a bookshop that was open until late and there i would sit and look at the books on american heritage.

one book i bought was about the women pioneers, taken across vast distances by their husbands in search of a new life and what they wrote in their letters and diaries are amazing.

one sound that always haunts me and gives a feeling of lonliness is from the nights spent sleeping in Banff...every night as the snow fell outside we could hear the sound of a train horn in the distance, you know the classic sound of the horn...it may sound odd it but its a noise we miss.

i was thinking of pioneers in other countries a few days back when i was researching my granddads (on my mum's side) history. i discovered that my great x 4 grandad, Charles married when his first wife died and moved to australia. through a family history website i was able to make contact with people trying to link their family tree's and i now find myself with a cousin, who i am in e-mail contact with and many other relatives directly decended from charles.

i never thought my research would take me so far away!