Ice & Fire Carnival

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Downtown Ice & Fire Carnival in Victoria Park. It's a festival where they use the lure of giant snow sculptures, face painting, ice carving, meat pies, hot chocolate and a bonfire to get people out of their houses and into the freezing cold. And you know what? It worked.

Here's a sculpture depicting what happens to fire when it freezes.

C and I took the dogs out and had a pretty fun time. A lot of the snow sculptures were made by her fellow graduate students at the university. A crowd favourite was the giant marshmallow next to the fire scuplture.

"I need a snow shovel full of chocolate and a graham cracker the size of a sled."

Luckily, the temperatures were merciful. After about two weeks of crazy cold weather ranging from highs of around -25° celsius (-5° F) to lows of -35° (-30° F), this weekend saw afternoon highs at a balmy -5°. And today it actually got up as high as +4°! Zowie! It made for walking around the park a bit more bearable.

"What do you see, Moxie?"

It wouldn't be an official carnival without someone walking around in some ridiculous mascot suit. There were these two reindeer-looking things representing some local company or something. I'm not sure, and I didn't really want to hang around to find out.

"Hello, I'm Rudolph's retarded half-cousin. Does this jacket make me look fat?"

There was a sighting of Bon Homme, the mascot of the winter festival in Quebec. Bon Homme translates into "Good Man," which I guess fits. I really couldn't imagine this thing robbing a bank or passing a bad check or getting an old lady in a headlock or anything like that.

Sing along with Bon Homme: "There must be better ways of earning minimum wage."

I'm told Bon Homme usually looks better in Quebec. The road trip to Saskatchewan must've been a rough one for him. "Hey Mr. Homme, have a hot chocolate and a meat pie, you'll feel better."

When they ran out of wood for the bonfire, they had to use ice.

Here a city worker cuts down one of Regina's majestic, 600-year old Redwood Ice Blocks.

Ha ha, just kidding. This guy was an ice sculptor across the street on Scarth working on his next creation: a gigantic ice cube. Looks good so far, dude!

Besides the hot chocolate booth, the most popular attraction was the bonfire. Mmmmm, waaaaarm. It got pretty frickin' hot too if you stood there long enough.

"Ooooo... aaaaaah... I remember warmth."

As captivating as the snow scupltures and creepy mascots were, C and I spent most of the time hanging around the fire. I just wish I had a pack of firecrackers to throw in there, that would've livened things up.

Hot dog

This was the first time the dogs got to go out and meet a lot of people at once. The most exposure they get, ever since the winter dropped in, is the handfuls of folks at the nearby dog park or whoever walks by in the Sobey's parking lot when they're waiting for us in the car.

When we first got to Victoria Park Moxie and Django were a bit rattled and were really shy toward all the different strangers. But by the end they became accustomed to the crowds of people and began allowing folks to pet them more. Except for those doofy reindeer, of course.

"If you call her a poodle one more time, lady, she'll rip your face off."

People were very interested in the dogs. It seems like most people here in Regina had never seen a Blue Heeler before. C and I spent all of our time explaining that they were just over 6 months old and that they're just about full grown now. And yes, they're very smart. The dogs, that is, not the people. Well, some of them were smart I guess. Anyway, the pups got a lot of compliments which made C and I very proud.

There was supposed to be a play/reenactment of the The Little Pigs & The Big Bad Wolf story, but the Little Pigs were taking their sweet time getting suited up and C's and my toes were feeling a bit on the frostbitten side so we decided to call it a day.

We wish everyone a happy Family Day and we miss you all a bunch!

Until next time... adventure!
R--