Saturday, December 29, 2012


The zamboni cleaning the skating rink in the middle of town ~ on my way to work in the morning I stopped to take some photos. I love the rink ~ even though I never learned to ice skate. I love it because it gives a beating heart of community to this touristy town. I see neighbours as well as visitors all enjoying this quintessentially Canadian activity. Every time I see the rink I smile. Games of shinny, new little skaters hanging on to chairs being pulled around the rink as they take to the ice for the first time, couples swooping and gliding, and late night skates under a brilliant moon...ah love the mountain winters.

Monday, September 17, 2012

love the prairies and the best part may be the badger

We spent some of our holidays in the badlands around Drumheller and also in Dinosaur Provincial Park.

I love the prairies! and I love the badlands!...more photos of the landscape soon but, though it might seem odd, the best part of the holiday (for me if not for Charley) may have been the serendipitous sighting of a badger. We missed the turn off for Horse Thief Canyon and so we pulled into a road that led to an oil 'farm' or something and stopped to look at the map. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement and looked to see a very large creature digging in the verge by the road. We watched as it dug a huge hole, which eventually was larger than its whole body. It was a badger and I was thrilled as I had never seen a one before (except in all the English books I read as a child and Canadian badgers are definitely bigger). So we sat and watched this badger for a very long time. It was obviously digging into rodent warrens since would turn its head to listen and then it would dig furiously. Then it would come rapidly out of the hole run forward about 10 inches and dig furiously there. Then (and this was confounding - so now I will have to research badger behaviour) it would then back into the smaller hole and fill it in and run back to the big hole and dig furiously again. We were there for about 30 mintues watching. I saw a mouse jump up and run behind the badger and he (she?) did not see it, so it escaped. Such a lot of hard work and no meal by the time we left. Good hearing maybe but not good eyesight.
The pictures after the badger show his front yard - prairie and sky as far as the eye can see.... and his backyard - badlands canyons for miles and miles.

The dinosaur statue was at the corner of the street where we were staying.
















Sunday, September 2, 2012

Birthday Girl in Banff



Out for dinner on my
birthday with good friends - Kathy and Claudia. Good laughs, good food, good night.
(For some reason the blog has made all sorts of changes and I am still trying to figure out how to do what I used to so on it).

Friday, August 10, 2012

What a night









A night of glorious music in an equally glorious setting.
Emmylou Harris at the Banff Centre's open air Shaw Amphitheatre.
Surrounded by Mountains, surrounded by good friends, surrounded by air filled with music.
Emmylou Harris, beautiful songbird, sang for almost two hours backed by a band of great musicians.
At one point, ravens flying down the valley at dusk to roost, flew behind the stage and formed a lovely tableau behind Emmylou - whose voice soared like the birds.
Oh what a lovely evening.
Charley was able to take wonderful pictures from close to the stage.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Vermillion Lakes - Can spring be far off?


Woke up to snow, and it has snowed on and off all day. But my friend, Audrey and I went to Vermillion Lakes hoping to see spring through the snow.
Here is pussy-willow - one small drop of water (melted snow) on the tip. Though the lakes are mainly still ice/snow covered where there was open water there were a few mallards and many Canada Geese. One lone female mallard quacked plaintively...trying to locate her mate by the sound of her calls.
Saw robins too. When we went over towards the marshes at the Cave and Basin walk we heard a woodpecker (loud enough it was probably a pileated) and saw a white-tailed deer. First time I have seen one here - all the deer in town and around are mule deer...sorry to say I didn't get a photo of it.
So looking forward to the return of the warblers, the kinglets, the swans.....
We are so impatient for birdwatching to begin.....saw what may have been 2 male common mergansers on the river yesterday, heard red-winged-blackbirds - they don't head out to the bulrushes in Vermillion Lakes for another month or so.
Lovely to see green moss in the beaver pond, and on the stump..... looking for colour wherever we can find it.





Monday, April 9, 2012

Bright Colours & Happy Dogs

The tulips are like light on the dark days of winter - though today was as warm as +15 by afternoon though it started at -15 - very chilly this morning on the way to work.

The photos of Santiago and Ariel were taken several months ago, at Cascade Ponds. The ownership of the stick changed often.
Ariel is very young and the last photo shows how at the end of the day Santi was fed up with an exuberant pup and she told her off.
Happy Spring.














Sunday, April 8, 2012

Happy Easter

A series of photos from the past few months. Can't believe I haven't posted since January.
thank goodness for flowers from the supermarket -this is the time of year I crave colour and I took a great many photos of tulips through the past few months. We have had snow almost every day in March and April.
The elk have been on the grounds of the Centre frequently this spring and the deer.
Happy Spring.