Today the temperature sits at -4C and there is snow on the ground; it seems as if Mother Nature cannot make up her mind. This is a far cry from the nearly 20C temperatures we were enjoying three weeks ago. I’m sure it will sort itself out soon enough, I hope.

Anyway, a week ago I was standing in the pouring rain at Vimy Ridge; it’s hard to believe a week has already passed. It is good to be home and I’ve finally recovered from the jet lag. It was kinda touch and go there…I nearly fell asleep in class a few times on Wednesday. The pictures have all been downloaded from my camera, all 1316 images or nearly 6gb worth. Wow, I am shutter happy! All video I took is now on my computer too, 24gb of HD content. I was down to the last 10 minutes of recording time on the camera, so that 24gb is about 3 hours of video. I haven’t had time to sort through it all, but I did upload a few highlights to YouTube (From Ypres and Vimy). You can see them by clicking on the following links: Menin Gate Ceremony, Vimy Song by Lizzy Hoyt, Vimy Ceremony Last Post.

In front of the Eiffel Tower, April 2012.

I can honestly day that it was one of the best trips I’ve ever been on, and certainly one of the most special. I’ve already spoken to my classes about it, but I cannot wait to share

more of my experiences and photographs with them. We are already planning ahead to Vimy 2017 and are really hoping that there are similar tours that will be organized by EF. Now having experienced a student tour for the first time, I know what to expect and how to better prepare. Not that I wasn’t ready, I didn’t lose anyone, but there’s always those little things that you cannot anticipate unless you’ve actually done it.

So needless to say I did not get any railway related work done in the last week. I spent my time getting caught

up on all the things I left behind while I was gone and making YouTube videos. I’m sure I will make some time this week to get back to my other life. I still have a few tweaks left to do on the MN History article and then maybe I’ll starting on the Leeblain article for the Thunder Bay Historical Society.

If the weather cooperates, I’m hoping to get into some hiking soon. If the snow goes away this weekend, I’ll try and get out next weekend. I still need to get back to Rosslyn and the few remaining pieces of railway and shoot some video. With those rails obscured by the brush, it’s best to get at them now before everything leafs out and they are even harder to see. It will be May in a few weeks and that marks the beginning of hiking season. I know that it will be a busy spring and summer, but I am going to try and get out as much as I can.

Anyway, I must run. I’ll leave you with one of my favourite pics from the trip. Until then…

Cloth Hall in Ypres, Belgium April, 2012.