Early Morning Sunrise/Evening Sunset

The Western sunset skies are glorious but the morning sunrises are spectacular. I don't ever remember seeing a rainbow with the morning sun, but this is what greeted us last Friday morning. WOW! The skies over Spruce Grove threatened rain, but the sun from the East cast light, producing this distinctly colourful rainbow. The colours remained until the sun was fully "up" and cast light on the golden leaves of the trees in our park giving the park its name "Glowing Embers".







This was the sunset at day's end. We have had some very cool nights with hard frost, so days with sunshine are very welcome. We know that there will not be too many more warm days this season, so we "drink" in days like this. In fact, a day of rain followed by a day of high winds scattered the leaves to and fro. The "glow" lasted sadly, only a couple of days! It was beautiful, though, while the colour lasted. The colours are very different to Muskoka; yellows are predominant; only mountain ash gives the oranges to reds. Still gorgeous...God's masterpiece!

Kendra Returns from Ghana

August 29th, Kendra safely returned from Ghana where she spent July and August working in a clinic, mostly for new moms and babies. She is pictured here with Esther, her "go-to" girl that would help her communicate in the language, Twi. Kendra landed in the capital city, Accra, spent a week or so in orientation, then travelled to Nsuta where her clinic was located. She has many stories to tell us. Although she is enrolled in Pharmacy at UBC, she acquired maternity experience, helping to deliver twins with no midwife present, weighing babies in the outreach programme, recording and giving innoculations, to name a few. Of course, she travelled, sometimes with the other volunteers and sometimes just she and Esther. Kendra lived in the top floor of a house and the little boys from the family down the street brought her meals to her each day. Kendra was known as "Obruni" which means "white person"; she was so greeted each morning as she walked to work and in her words, "possibly the best morning walk to work, ever"!
As most of you know, Kendra has very thick curly hair, but while there, she decided to have it braided. It took four women, six hours to braid her hair and three women, four hours to remove the braids, a month later. She had it braided twice as it was much easier to care for, as clean water to wash/rinse is not plentiful. In all, she reports a wonderful time and has a deeper appreciation for the amenities that we, as Canadians enjoy, especially fresh, clean water.

Back to Daniel

After a month of travel it was really great to get back to Spruce Grove to see our grandson, Daniel. Amazing changes in a six week period! Now, he is smiling and recognizes his mommy and daddy's voices and is beginning to reach out and grasp, not to mention smiling. He has had his first inoculation, which went well. Granddad can hardly wait to see him each and every time we go for groceries. He certainly has a captive audience when we visit. Bill and I had our first baby-sitting opportunity; what fun! Both of us on the floor playing; a young'un sure brings the "kid" back to life! Daniel loves his vibrating chair and play-mat. Everything is so colourful! Baby stuff has come a long way in 30 years!

Fort Macleod and Cardston

I have been very lax in keeping up with my blog! Time flies when we are having fun!
Further to our trip to southern Alberta, we visited the town of Fort Macleod and our friends, Doug and Jean. While there, we visited the North West Mounted Police Museum. If you look closely, you will see goats eating the grass from the sod roof. Not sure if there is enough sod to supply three goats for the summer; they are very sure-footed and enjoying their afternoon in the sun.

The Musical Ride, all teenaged girls, was a delightful highlight of this visit. The Ride was very precise with complex configurations which would have demanded hours and hours of practice. Very enjoyable!




Next day, we were off to Cardston to visit the Remington Carriage Museum. Can you believe that the carriage pictured here came in kit form and could be purchased from the Sears-Roebuck catalogue for $25.00! Imagine!
Mr Remington donated his life-long collection to the Alberta Government if they would build the museum and keep his collection together. An in-house repair facility restores many of the carriages, including the wheels. This is a dying art. Amazing!
Thanks, Doug and Jean, for a very enjoyable visit and stay in your driveway!

Spruce Meadows

What a fantastic jumping facility! Bill and I were fortunate to visit this facility for the RBC Cup! Such notable jumpers were Eric LaMaze and Ian Millar, the latter our age, who has been jumping horses for a very long time, even when Bill was an equestrian hopeful for the Olympics. We also viewed the Junior Barrage in which a young gal from Okotoks took a third. It was exciting to see the horsemanship...I felt myself "helping" the riders over the jumps! Such skill!
Spruce Meadows was established from meagre beginnings, a small horse farm, located on Calgary's southern city limits, in the foothills of the Rockies. The venue covers 360 acres, 200 of which are for pasture and the rest encompasses the tournament grounds. Owned by the Southern family, it was officially opened in 1975 with the first tournament in 1976. The family welcomes all families with open arms; it is free to all Seniors. A fantastic afternoon!

Drumheller

Celebrating its 25th anniversary, The Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller which opened September 25th, 1985, the day after Kendra was born, has greatly expanded since our last visit in 1987. Now a National Historic Site, the Museum holds over 125,000 fossil vertebrates, invertebrates, plants and geologic specimens. As an active scientific research facility, the collections grow by approximately 2,000 specimens annually. Scientists demonstrated examples of the tedious and tireless preparation of a speciman for identification and display. This is a very worthwhile museum, world renowned for its study of fossils and prehistoric times for young and old alike.

Southern Alberta

As part of the Chapter 44 Escapees Rally held in Millarville AB, we toured first The Saskatoon Farm, where they grow, cultivate and harvest Saskatoon berries, and then the Chinook Arch Meadery where honey is made into wine or mead. Seen here, are the stainlees tanks used to hold the mead or "honey wine" from which it is processed into tasty dinner wines. Mead is the oldest art of fermentation. The term “honeymoon” has been associated with drinking mead during the month long celebration following a wedding in pagan times. It is the bee’s tireless search for nectar from thousands of blossoms that creates the honey in each bottle of mead. 100% natural honey is diluted with pure water and spices or berry juice to add further dimension and complexity. Special yeast cultures are added to this medieval style of Mead. A fermentation and slow aging process in European oak barrels occurs for up to three years before bottling. Bill, Kendra and I thoroughly enjoyed this outing to learn about, view and sample the mead at Chinook, "from bee to bottle". Yes, we purchased a couple of bottles to take home.

Kendra had never experienced a rodeo, so off to High River we went. Many of the rodeo cowboys that compete here, also compete in the Calgary Stampede. Barrel racing, calf and steer roping, bull riding and the chuckwagon races thrill the crowds.

The "chucks" are an exciting climax to the rodeo. Four at a time start, make a figure eight then race the track with outriders in pursuit. I am hearing some of the same names in the finish at the Stampede, currently underway. The cowboys love the thrill, but this sure is a tough way to make a living, especially the bull riding!