Photo Series #4: Winter '01 - My reading week getaway to PEI. Or at least one afternoon of it. (11 pictures)

What is PEI? A very good question. PEI stands for Prince Edward Island, a tiny island province in the country of Canada. It gets special treatment on willmatheson.com because I grew up there. PEI is at its best during the summer, but it can be a fun (albeit cold, dry, and windy) place in the winter as well.

To get us started, let's have a look out the windshield of my Aunt Shirley's Corolla. We are stopped at the end of my Grandmother Matheson's driveway, looking across First-Class Highway 4 in Albion Cross. You'll probably notice the snowdrift. It is duly impressive in its own way, but unfortunately, it is nothing. What I really wanted to get a picture of was the truly massive snowdrifts surrounding the Souris Causeway (Highway 2 into Souris, check out the map). Snow surrounded the road like a half-pipe, going up fifteen feet in the air in some places, and staying like that for many many seconds of driving pleasure; you just wouldn't want to be in there when the wind picked up, let me tell you. Accidents happened. Hopefully sometime I'll run into someone else who did take something like the photos I was longing to shoot myself.

Here's the family again. Now, I must tell you this, my father and Melaney are normally more ambitious sledders than this - there's an actual hill a few hundred metres to my right that makes a dandy sledding hill. The reason we didn't go any further than outside the barn doors was because Aunt Shirley and I were about to leave, but I wanted to take some pictures first. So now I've got some photographic evidence that "yes, as a matter of fact I do have a family, and they're not deranged or anything (except possibly my mother)." You'll also notice that I had a finger over the lens - I tend to make this mistake a lot, especially when I'm wearing gloves and it's ten below. From left to right: Melaney, Dad, Aunt Shirley.

Without any further delay, let's introduce my little sister: Ila Mae. She's about two years old now as I put willmatheson.com together, and she isn't quite old enough to completely follow me when I talk to her, though she does do a better job then a few people I've talked to over the years. =) I think that's my problem, though. That's her parents' car there, and of course we can also see Sirius, Melaney's Golden Retriever who had a star named after him.

And there's my father, and a better look at Sirius. He was unusually antsy that day for some reason.

And here's Melaney again. Family occupations rundown: Dad - insurance claims adjuster, farmer; Melaney - United Church of Canada minister (I suppose I should drop in a Rev. on her name, but since I didn't put RN in for Aunt Shirley or any other titles for anyone else, we'll abandon the title of putting in any titles for anyone... except perhaps for Right Honourable as in "The Right Honourable Joe Clark"), farmer; Aunt Shirley - registered nurse; Ila Mae - toddler; Sirius - dog.

And here's Ila again, set against the backdrop of a lot of snow. You can't see it, but my Grandmother Matheson's house is over there a bit, a few dozen metres behind my sister's house as seen in the photo.

Clearwater Farms: Hay and Sheep (though the sheep are around more for hobby reasons). Of course, Clearwater Farms owns and/or leases many more barns than this for square bale storage, but this is the only barn on the home property. From left to right: Ila Mae, Dad, "Dinner", "Lamb Chops". Yes, those shining reflections on the black shapes are actually sheep, but none of them actually have names - it kind of pays not to get too attached to the critters, if you know what I mean. Actually, Brandy (my uncle's niece) befriended one of the younger lambs a while back, and gave it a name. No, unfortunately we do not have any pictures of Brandy on here yet - we'll get one someday, though, I promise. That'll be part of our next site goals, to be sure.

Here's everyone again.

And here's Ila prematurely finishing a sled run.

Here is Aunt Shirley's fabulous 1998 Toyota Corolla. It's not a Supra RZ-S, but it's pretty fun to drive just the same. (I hope Aunt Shirley doesn't think I'm insulting her Corolla...) Change of setting here: This is the front porch of my Grand Uncle Neil and my Grand Aunt Pearl's house.

And, finally, one special picture to finish it off. We're sill at the farm, and here you can see a rather large pile of Snow which does a good job of burying the expensive Farm Equipment that I am sure must still be trapped in there somewhere. But why is this picture so special? Well, see that brick building behind the trees to the right? That's Dundas Consolidated Elementary School, where I attended my Grades One through Six. <sob> <boo-hoo!> Okay, I'm finished crying now... <sob sob sob> ohhhh whyyyyyyyy... <sob sob sob> =(

Well, enough of that. Crying about it won't get me anywhere. See you next time.

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