Winterlude is here again!

(You watching, Mo-Wo? You did give me my marching orders, and ever the diligent blogger, I’ve come through. Actually, my sweetie has come through. These are his pictures.

Update: if you want to see more, he’s got some great pictures of the ice sculptures, with a short video clip of one being made. Well, being begun! Go now! Have a look – they’re great.)

For the rest of you who may not be familiar, we’ve begun our annual “making lemons from lemonade” festival. Given that winter lasts a solid five months in this city, we’ve learned to make the most of it – the result? Winterlude.

Much of Winterlude occurs on the Canal – the world’s longest skating rink. (Really. Guinness World Records made it official in August 2005.)

Boats don’t frequent it this time of year, so the city grooms it for ice skating instead.

That’s the still shot. Here’s the live action version:

After an hour or two of freezing your butt off, it’s traditional to warm up with a deep fried beaver tail.

Finally, I can’t resist sharing this photo with you. The streets are not filled with Inuit folks, even in Canada. Some have migrated to the urban centres, but most still live in the far north. But these two guys were here to see a friend of theirs, whose ice sculptures were being created in a neighbouring park.

Want to see some sculptures? You can go here, and later, after work hours (because just as I don’t drink during work hours, he doesn’t blog during them!) check out here.