Although I love Alberta, the very heart of my family is in the southern counties of Ontario. We have such a history there most town lines have names associated with the family, there are houses that have been in the family for a century or so and one hundred year old ketchup (hello botulism!) my great grandmother made stored away in the cellar.

I will be in Ontario until August 8th however feel free to connect with me through my contact page.

Because I am sure you are dying of curiosity to know who these fine looking people are I will tell you. The fellow to the left with the death grip and welcoming grin is my great great great great grandfather John Ferguson (b. 1804) with his cane from Mississippi. In the middle is the Wigle home in the late 1800s, third from the left is my great great grandfather Norman Iler, to his right modeling the rocking chair Vanna White style is his wife Linnie Wigle Iler, and second from the right is her mother Mary Wright Wigle. The image on the far right is my grandfather, Murrary Ferguson, looking quite suave in his overalls.

Pictures provided by my Aunt Joan. The family genealogist extraordinaire.

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn to drive to Canmore for a session with recently married Les and Charlene.  It may have taken the aid of a large Tim Horton’s coffee but it was entirely worth it. The early morning mountain air, the sweet light, the sheet of dew. Oh it was just divinity.

Also, if you are wanting to contact me this weekend it may take me a couple of days to reply as I am participating in the 60km Weekend to End Women’s Cancers. If you happen to see the hundreds of walkers in Calgary either Saturday or Sunday honk your horn, break out the sprinklers on your front lawn, or smuggle one of them (aka. me) into your car to the last pit stop (okay maybe not so sure about that last one). Every word or jester of appreciation is awesome!

Here are two images from this morning – I can hardly wait to put the rest up!

Below is just one image. Taken in the Siq leading to the old city of Petra, Jordan.

Well, it might have been planned a bit before this week, but due to being bitten by a certain travel bug I will be leaving for Israel, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates tomorrow.  I promise I won’t leave a 200 foot sinkhole in the middle of the road this time. Sorry about that!

Please feel free to get a hold of me through my contact page as I will have internet access. I will be back on the 24th.

I leave you with this image of me as a camel jockey in 1996 (it was a short-lived career).  For all you dedicated blog readers I promise to try and take a picture of myself with a camel. Scouts honour!

I’m back and I am so excited to see you here!  Emails are being replied to and phone calls are being returned – in short we are back in business!

I just spent a marvelous two and a half weeks in the western highlands of Guatemala – images (and stories of ridiculously low door frames and chicken buses) to come soon.

Have a marvelous day!

I am going to be away until May 20 and will have limited email access. Feel free to email me at britstaddon (@) gmail.com (although I believe all my email issues have been resolved this is the safest way to insure I receive any emails) and I will get back to you as soon as possible.

All emails will be responded to by tomorrow night in case you sent one recently and haven’t heard a reply :)

Have a wonderful day and expect to see some interesting posts in the coming weeks!

Sorry for any inconvenience! I am now off to find and flog the coding error that has caused this.

I hope this holiday season has been treating you well. I just want to quickly announce that due to final exams I have been a bit slow getting to my emails. All emails will be responded to on or before December 21 :)

I leave you with an image of myself at 3 or 4 in a pretty rad tie-dye shirt meeting Santa at Southcentre Mall.

Happy Holidays!

Mind you, my last few drives to the University have proven this a fact. All Calgarians know that at the very mention of snow all driving ability flies out the window with the last chinook that passed through town.  Suddenly that itty-bit of ice becomes a flipping skating rink resulting in buses going the wrong direction on roads and cars getting a bit too cozy for insurance-companies’ comfort. Well, it’s here until at least July so, might as well embrace it right? Say hello to those corny Christmas jingles, lineups at the mall that stretch about as long as luge tracks and deadlines. Oh yes. Deadlines. My favourite!

To celebrate the season I am going to participate in a great cause called Cans for Comments.  In short, all comments left on my blog (any post!) between now (yes, right now) and December 15 will equal one can or item of equivalent value being donated to the Calgary Food Bank.  So, get at it people. Start leaving some blog love and at the same time generate some community love :)

Now, we all know a photographer is incapable of putting up a post sans an image so, I will horrify you with these recent captures of myself. Let me tell you this, there is a very good reason I am behind the camera! Here I am giving my best Bubbles impersonation in addition to wielding a sword instead of a camera with my good friend Virginia at a little get together.

Enjoy and comment! Happy Holidays everyone!

So! Let’s kick this thing off!  I am happy to announce that Katie and Tim‘s package will be the donation of 2009 and is going to a great organization in Thailand and Cambodia, Mercy Ministries Foundation.  Katie and I first became friends while helping out at the Chiang Saen Babies’ Home in the good ol’ days of 2006, and since, have both been back to volunteer solo (and I am certain there may be more to come!).  Instead of giving favours to the guests at the reception, Katie and Tim donated those funds, in addition to the ‘kiss-moolah’ as I so fondly refer to it, to the Foundation. (Nothing like kissing for a cause!)  There is no comparison to the joy the kids who live in the home share and  I doubt there is a more fulfilling duty then raising children with such vivaciousness for life.  I can hardly think of a better organization to get this thing rolling!

I dug out the photo album from our time in 2006 and scanned in some (very crumby) images.

The image on the left is of Katie and I directly after coming out from having our hair washed (complete with a head massage, oh how divine!), dried and straightened in Chiang Saen. When I mean straightened I mean stick straight. All for $3 (that is with a pretty big tip). As you can see, I step outside and my hair already started going frizzy. at the ends.  The image on the right is Katie with Rachel who she sponsors. :)

Here I am earlier this summer with just a few of the kids. :)

Keep checking back! In the new year (oh and you say that is a far way off. Believe me.. we will be there before you can say “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” — I always wanted an excuse to blog that word) I will be making another announcement :)