How’s this for a blast from the past? This song’s been stuck in my head all day, ever since my producer brought in a whole whack of 90s-candy like Pop Rocks, Fun Dip and Garbage Can-dy. Some PR person was trying to bribe her to do a segment on them but we just ate the candy. Apparently, it’s not technically a bribe if it’s edible, or something.

Well, summer has (fingers crossed) sort of arrived here in Calgary. The last two weeks have been absolutely HOT, with temperatures hitting between 17 and 30 degrees! Talk about a quick turnaround eh? Winter pulled the fleece over spring’s eyes and just jumped straight in to summer. “Wummer,” maybe … but it’s starting to look like our long, drawn-out “sprinter” is behind us. I’ve been lucky enough to wake up to skies like this:

And this …

Until we got this …

Ominous eh? I just had to stop and grab a shot, it was an eerie sort of day. Calgary is under a big fire ban right now, both municipally and also the province issued a rare fire weather advisory this weekend. Apparently we’ve had what they call “30/30″ conditions- temperatures hitting 30 degrees combined with less than 30 per cent humidity means that everything here is tinder dry and ready to spark. There have been a few big grassfires in parks to the southeast and west of the studio, and there’s a big one burning a ways north of Calgary. Definitely alarming at first but then you kind of get used to it.

Also, you might have noticed earlier that I mentioned my “producer” brought in candy. That’s because for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been producing on CBC’s afternoon show, The Homestretch! It’s so much fun, I had mentioned to the station’s director during my interview how badly I want to be a radio current affairs producer and so I was able to meet with the current affairs exec and he set up training for me. Now, I generally work two days a week there, in addition to my three days on the weekend as a web writer. It’s the perfect set up and I’m ridiculously happy with it. I’ve literally become one of those people who bounces up in the morning and is excited to get to work. The team is small, two hosts and two other producers, which means I’ve got the chance to tackle some great story segments, booking and pre-interviewing terrorism experts, city councillors, researchers and even do a piece about a chuckwagon racer! The hosts are awesome too, really nice people and funny.

Nevertheless, on my days off it’s become a bit of a habit to go and relax on a patio or in a park. We’re really lucky here to have a giant park right smack dab in the middle of the city. It’s a three minute walk out my door and is just gorgeous, really quiet and there’s always some street performer playing the fiddle and hot dog vendors and such. Calgary has an awesome path system around the Bow River so I usually run along it a few times a week, and now that the weather is so nice the paths are PACKED with people. Here are some shots I took last weekend during a walk …

And of course, what better way to unwind at the end of a busy day than with a glass of wine? With the warm weather here, I’m loving the rosé. With a liquor store across the street from my house, it can be dangerously tempting to buy new bottles and I’m trying to cut down on it, what with summer coming. It’s hard to believe that I’m almost half-way through my contract with CBC. I’m not sure what I’ll do once it’s over, whether it will be renewed or what, but I’m trying not to overanalyze things and think too far in the future. All I can do is enjoy everything as it comes and for now, there’s nothing I’d rather do than what I’m doing right here!

One of the things I’ve learned since moving to Calgary is to take the little pleasures as they come. The weather here is very bipolar- one day it’s 15 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, and the next you get a dump of snow and freezing rain. On the bright side, most of the gross weather days also have a cloudless, clear blue sky, so it all evens out in the end- even if Calgary refuses to salt the sidewalks. I’ve wiped out a couple of times, since one snowfall tends to melt then freeze again then get covered over by a fresh layer of snow, until it melts completely and the whole cycle begins again. Who knew de-iced sidewalks were a novelty?

Despite the, at times, treacherous nature of the city sidewalks, there’s nothing better than getting out and about when the weather gives us a break. Today was the first time in about two weeks that it’s been above zero and when Calgary does gorgeous weather, it DOES gorgeous weather. Clear sky, plus 15, and plenty of seats open on patios. Because I work Friday-Tuesday, my ‘weekend’ leaves most grocery stores and cafes way less crowded than they would be on the real-world weekend. Today I went for a walk to my favourite bookstore near 17th Avenue (hands-down, the best neighbourhood I’ve been in yet) to interview the manager for my next Avenue Magazine blog. I bought a book while there and wandered over to my favourite cafe. I had planned to sit inside to read but it was packed, which forced me to find the little chairs they had lined outside along the sidewalk.

The quaint little green tables and rickety chairs reminded me of the ones strewn about in the Jardin du Luxembourg and I spent the afternoon people-watching and enjoying my new book.

Another cool thing about Calgary is the food truck scene. Coming from Toronto, where we lack pretty much any food trucks other than the ones selling fries and hot dogs, this is a huge novelty to me and I’m really excited to try them out. They’re just starting to come out of hibernation and the group YYC Food Trucks, which coordinates their social media presence, arranged a sort of ‘warm up’ food truck party. Four or five of them parked in one lot and everyone came to take their pick.

There was everything from jambalaya and Cajun food (above) to Italian calzones, Greek yogurt and gelato. A few cops and paramedics even stopped by for a bite! Being the gelato fiend that I am, I went for the cappuccino and cherry flavours from Fiasco Gelato. The cappuccino was a little bland but the cherry was fantastic and I’ll definitely be hitting them up again over the summer.

Final thing- I came across this little quote online and think it’s just fantastic. One of the girls I met while travelling last summer shared it, so I’m sharing it with you in the spirit of this ‘food for thought’ post.

I’m very excited to share some news that I’ve been sitting on for the last couple of weeks. Avenue Magazine has asked that I write for them about my adventures in Calgary and my posts will be published in the MeetYYC blog, based off all the fantastic responses I got from Calgarians during my earlier Twitter challenge. For my first post, I visited Wild Rose Brewery, a local craft beer operation that is wildly popular here in Alberta and produces some really great, versatile beers. You can read all about my adventures here.