2009-01-18

MTM: Put on your woolies!

It is time for the Ice on Whyte Festival! Although with our little warm spell, they aren't doing very well. For better photos click on the link above, those were taken when the carvings were fresh. Click on any photo to enlarge.

This poor fellow has lost one antler and both of this friends (an Eagle & Big Horn Sheep).



The stegosaurus seems to have lost a bit of his ridge too.



The slide is very popular with both young and old. (Yes, that is the line up to slide down)



Don't worry, they didn't forget the little ones. (More my size too!)



There is a maze, but most of the kids were just stepping over the walls.


This little igloo has a rabbit inside.



This is the bridge over the moat to the castle. (The moat is filled with blocks naming the sponsors of the event)


The Castle entrance, the statues to either side have lost any recognizable qualities.



A feast laid out for the guests .



The last remaining intact torch.


The fireplace didn't put out a lot of heat though - good thing.


A nice cosy bed.



And no castle is complete without a throne!



These were not made of ice, they were just around the perimeter, but I thought they looked pretty.


There were several other carvings, but the sun had done them too much damage to tell what they had been. The festival continues on until the 25th, they will be having carving contests throughout and classes. There will be Jazz one night and every night there is a tent set up to get hot drinks for a donation to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation.


MTM is the brainchild of Travis Erwin. It is currently being co-hosted by Sepiru Chris and Junosmom while Travis rebuilds.


Have a good day all.

19 comments:

Sepiru Chris said...

Hi Reb,

I do not remember this festival from when I lived in Edmonchuk (admittedly almost two decades ago).

Great images and thanks for guiding us through.

Tschuess,
Chris

PS Junosmom of Lifetime Learning is cohosting with me too. You can find her via my site.

Hilary said...

Great post and cool photos, Reb. It reminded me of waaaay back when I was a kid. My Dad would take my sister and me to see the ice castles and other sculptures wherever they were at the time. Also complete with S-shaped slide. It's among my fondest winter memories. Thanks for that. :)

Frank Baron said...

Very nifty Reb. I've never been to a winter carnival-type thing and never seen ice sculptures in the flesh (so to speak). Thanks for letting me experience one vicariously. :)

the Bag Lady said...

Great photos, sis! What a shame about the sculptures melting so quickly! Our crazy weather - if they had held the festival LAST week, they wouldn't have had this problem....

Jay said...

Those are all so amazing. I would love to see those things in person.

Barbara Martin said...

The ice sculptures are new for me too. But beautiful idea, whoever it was that thought this one up. Great photos, Reb.

NAVAL LANGA said...

I have come to your blog from Mr. Travis Ervin's Blog.

I have read some of your posts and seen the photos. I would like to revisit.

If you like reading short stories from an Indian writer, then a visit to my blogs would be an interesting one for you.

Naval Langa
SHORT STORIES by NAVAL LANGA
Another Interesting Blog
BIG CITIES OF INDIA

Reb said...

Chris, you are a true Edmontonian lol, I haven't heard it called that in a long time ;) The festival is quite young yet, only five years. I will link to Junosmom and let her know too. Thanks for keeping me in the loop.

Hilary, I am glad you enjoyed it. It was really quite nice seeing all the sculptures.

Frank, anytime. You could drop over next winter, it's only what a few thousand kms?

Sis, they started carving on the 15th when it was so very cold! Alberta weather!

Jay, you will just have to brave a cold winter in AB next year. Well, you might be able to find one somewhat closer to home ;)

Barbara, thanks. They really are quite lovely.

Naval, welcome, glad you dropped by. I will check out your blogs, thank you.

Barrie said...

Thank you for the photos. You have ice carvings; we have sand carvings!

debra said...

These are great, Reb. So are you sending a warming trend to NE Ohio? It's 4 degreesF here right now.

Gary's third pottery blog said...

wow, esp. that table!

pattinase (abbott) said...

We had ours two weeks ago and with the cold weather, none of it has melted. The ice sculptors must be in strong demand.

fiwa said...

Ok, the stegosaurus was my favorite, but they were all seriously cool. And that ice slide!

Reb said...

Barrie, trade?

Debra, thanks. It should be warmer there in a few days, we are expecting cold by Thursday.

Gary, yes, just amazing.

Patti, they must be. I am not going to complain about our warm spell though.

Fiwa, they are very cool. I wish we had seen some of the others before they melted too much.

Lauren said...

I ran into this from a MTM link list. This is such a neat festival. I laughed when you said that the kids just stepped over the walls of the maze. It's too bad that the ice melted so quickly. Looks like a lot of time and talent was put into them.

Reb said...

Lauren, thanks for dropping in. The kids were rather funny about that.

Sepiru Chris said...

Hi Reb,

I just came back for another look.

It looks like it was a blast. With ice melting that fast, you can imagine I almost thought you had found or captured a lost Chinook.

I have always wondered why Calgary never had the cultural background that Edmonchuk has had. I hope that the Edmonton Fringe (in old Strathcona?) is still going strong.

Take care, and enjoy the relative warmth.

Tschuess,
Chris

Anonymous said...

Those are really cool! (pun intended...sorry)

Reb said...

Chris, thanks. The fringe is bigger than ever.

Kcinnova, thanks ;)