Wordsmith.org: the magic of words

Wordsmith Talk

About Us | What's New | Search | Site Map | Contact Us  

Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Page 3 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
So, Branny, you've got a lot of catching up to do!

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Yeh! But it's like an ice skating tour: Don't count the miles, just look at the beautiful horizon. Wait and see when I won't have to work no more.

Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
An ice skating tour? What the heck is that? I live far enough south that ice skating is available only in indoor rinks. VERY occasionally we'll have cold enough temps. that maybe the creeks and small ponds might freeze over, but I can't imagine going out on something where you might break through and fall into that icy water. Terror!

Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
B
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
B
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Ooo, Jackie, you have to come up to Ottawa in the dead of winter. You can skate along the Rideau Canal. Booths are set up for snacks and everything. It's quite pretty.

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Ice skating tours
http://img405.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1466qo1.jpg

http://img437.imageshack.us/img437/5213/img1471qy5.jpg

http://img468.imageshack.us/img468/8156/img1463ji0.jpg

These are pictures from the Grand Tour,(11 Towns'Tour) 150 miles long winding through small towns and villages and crossing a number of lakes. This one takes place only once in so many years as the ice has to be real strong. In milder winters there are smaller tours, organised all over the country and medals given for the different distances you choose. Hot chocolate and green pea soup and sandwiches along the route.
(My longest:60 miles,I never did the Grand.)But when the Grand Tour is on ,the whole country goes nuts and TV covers from 5 AM till midnight.

Happy to read that Canadians understand the magic!
Eyes on the horizon and Twilight on a frozen lake.(Dylan)
In prelapsarian days, before the warming-up times, we had better winters. Last one:1997

Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Ice skating tours pictures. Aaagh! [recoil in terror e] I can't even really imagine people ice skating outside...

So now all you northern people know that I don't really know what I'm talking about, all those times I've said I wanna move up north. But I do know I hate the heat (which we typically have here from the first of May till the end of October {more than one Halloween, I took the kids trick-or-treating in shirt sleeves}), and all those southern-hemisphereans who are now heading into summer have my pity.

Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Oh thank you BranShea! NY (the former New Amsterdam) has lots of ice skating rinks, and some places that are safe to iceskate, but often our winters are too mild--but i don't know of anywhere in US where there are ice skating tours of that sort!
but there have been (in my life) times when the north (hudson) river has frozen hard enough for people to walk over it. (its always discourage!)
(pretty impressive since a good deal of NYC's (treated) sewerage goes into the river (and is a good deal warmer))

Jackie, don't you know the story of Hans Brinker and the silver skates? its about a boy who longs to win a iceskating race/contest and win the prize of skates with silver blades. I guess i have always thought of the netherlands as being the home to:
tulips
canals
windmills
and skating.(and cookies)
when i went to amsterdam, i felt right at home, there is still a dutch flavor to parts of NY-enough so amsterdam had feeling of home.
(NYC's flag has a dutch windmill as one of its elements, as well as the color orange-(from the house of orange-the royal house of the netherlands in the 1600's)

(we've been having lovely cool weather, and the news reports have started posting "optimal color" maps for veiwing fall foliage. (the best now is up in maine, and northern NE- Wow (and southern NE have just entered the 'start' of the fall colors.)
in the spring, they report on the best time for cherry blossums, moving upward from DC to the northern suburbs of NY--

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
of troy; Thanks for the information about old new Amsterdam. In the prelapsarian period (in the discipline of this thread) in which I still travelled a lot I spent a few winters in the Berkshires (Mass). I always brought my speed skates.
Ultimate bucolic setting to me was a frozen lake near Great Barrington
(1979)where I was alone on the deep frozen ice on my skates. Not a soul to be seen. Only snow on the hills, grey sky and the sound of the irons touching the ice. Heaven!
Here I would not have a chance to be all alone on the ice. No way.
But when winters her really strike all the cliche numbers from your list are still there. I'm glad you felt at home in Amsterdam.
Alternative Grand Tours are now often done in west- Canada. The real long-distance addicts and professinels (they do excist)have no patience to wait for the good frost to come. They move to Austria Switserland or Canada. They also tried Finland and froze to bits.

Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Carpal Tunnel
OP Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jun 2006
Posts: 5,295
Error:TYPOTERROR: professionels of course.

Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
Offline
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Quote:

Error:TYPOTERROR: professionels of course.




are those, like, amateurish professionals?!

Page 3 of 6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Moderated by  Jackie 

Link Copied to Clipboard
Forum Statistics
Forums16
Topics13,912
Posts229,283
Members9,179
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
Newest Members
TRIALNERRA, befuddledmind, KILL_YOUR_SUV, Heather_Turey, Standy
9,179 Registered Users
Who's Online Now
0 members (), 302 guests, and 2 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Top Posters(30 Days)
Top Posters
wwh 13,858
Faldage 13,803
Jackie 11,613
tsuwm 10,542
wofahulicodoc 10,510
LukeJavan8 9,916
AnnaStrophic 6,511
Wordwind 6,296
of troy 5,400
Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site. Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.

Home | Today's Word | Yesterday's Word | Subscribe | FAQ | Archives | Search | Feedback
Wordsmith Talk | Wordsmith Chat

© 1994-2024 Wordsmith

Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5