Jack Frost and PEI

This latest trip is to Prince Edward Island on Canada's east coast. I am here as part of a team producing a winter children village for the Jack Frost festival. The weather is cooperating although the first day gave us rain and the second was unseasonable warm. The cold is very welcome and it sure helps to keep the ice and snow from melting, the man made snow. It seems that the warm weather has depleted most of the snow from a storm that blew through the area just a few days before our arrival.
It's great to be on the other coast of Canada. The people I am meeting are fantastic and I'm very excited to finally be on the opposite side of the country from where I live.

Korea

Well I'm sitting in the lounge close to leaving from Seoul Korea. This was an awesome trip with many new friends. Team Canada sculpted in Taebeck, north South Korea. The snow pile was not the greatest but all teams were dealing with the same stuff so we all persevered. The four teams from Canada, Japan, Hong Kong and the Netherlands all worked together on one piece which was praying hands. Each team also completed their own sculpture.
The experience was excellent and the people were fantastic. I would definitely recommend coming for a visit, which can be made quite inexpensively if you travel light and stay at the many saunas around the country.
Big cities like Seoul are a trip to be in. The shear volume of people and the freedom which they actually enjoy is a change compared to the repressed freedom we in North America have to deal with. There is so much activity, so much bustle and so much to see do and shop for, that weeks are really needed to make the most of it. None the less it was without question one of the best places I have been. It's a shame I have too leave, I will get used to the lack of freedom back home soon enough I'm sure.
I wish North American's weren't so easily swayed to think that there is freedom in these countries. Get out and see what freedom and choice are all about. The rest of the world has more freedom and they don't have too try to sell it.

Long time coming

I would have to say it has been a long time between updates. I am now doing sculpture full time. I have just spent eight weeks in Germany working in snow and ice. After the new year I will be off to Korea contest in for a snow sculpture event. Then back to Canada for a contest in Ottawa/Gatineu, followed by a trip to the Yukon for contest in Whitehorse.

Winterlude been there now back

Well winterlude was excellent.
We met new friends and created a piece that was worth some accolades.
The chain saw could help now that we have worked in the region and they let you use one.
Our block was a layer of ice between 8 and 12 inches thick on two sides. The chain saw would have mowed right through this like nothing. The sharp tools required that much more work to accomplish the same task of removal.
But we have finished and we are back home now.
Where will the next adventure be.

Winterlude

No it has nothing to do with anti-depressants nor running around naked in the snow. It is a winter carnival in the Capital region, Ottawa/Gatineau.
I will be joined by Craig Mutch in this competition, our other teammate is staying home with a bad back.
We have our flaky theme, and a big block of snow to sculpt.
Rules abound at this event, I guess because the government or capital region is in charge. All the rules however seem to deal with the use of a chain saw, which I can not see being of any real use. But some seem to think there is an advantage.
The regular sharp hand tools do the job and it allows the team to work together instead of one guy working with a chain saw and the others watching him.

And that's my comment.

Preparations

Well now we prepare for Chicago, The bagpipe player.
We will be working with a new guy from the Chicago area that would like to learn.
I hope we don't drive him nuts. We are a bit eccentric.
Well at least I am.
The holidays were good a primer for being in the cold all day while working.
I don't get much of that cold stuff where I live, it gets cold but not that cold.
Everyone has had a good holiday I trust.
Oh where is that summer thing that we love so much.

Back from Europe

Well that, I will say, was a lot of fun. We sculpted the story Kabouters. The gnomes of Lapland.
I have a copy of the book in Dutch, and will find the English version to compare the visual content. To see just how much it was edited for North America. Maybe not at all.
The gnomes were fun and I think the public will react very well to the sculpture. This now leads us to Christmas and then snow sculpture in Chicago , followed by Gatineau Quebec.
Then it's back to Belgium, Holland, Belgium, Germany.

Almost finished

It's been a few days now, I have almost finished what I have set out to do. The end of the month is coming soon and with that a whole lot of travel is in store. Yes I may also do some shopping.
I will be purchasing tickets to the homeland after I arrive back from Belgium. The land of beer and chocolate. Chocolate. It is so good. Like I do not know what exactly they do, but it is good, and the beer, well don't get me started. They take some simple ingredients and produce a range of beer styles and flavors not to be found anywhere else. If the taxes weren't so high I might like to live there. But alas I am a humble Canadian.