A Magical Mothers Day

I trust all my lady friends and families had a nice Mothers Day. Although for many it can be a poignant day, for those missing a mother or child who has passed on.

Hopefully you will have enough happy memories to have made the day as sweet as possible. I am thinking especially of Kayla's Mom and also of our Friend and his six children who lost their mother a few months ago.

I have seen many an elderly lady or gent moved to tears on mothers day upon hearing the Flower Talk recited by a young boy in Demolay. So it is a special day of remembrance and appreciation.

I had a lovely Mothers Day. Heidi gave me the gift of a tour in the nearby forest in all its spring time glory.

This is Harry Hooge Park, just a two minute walk from the house. It is behind the local Elementary school. It is a fair size park that is a forested ravine with a small fish bearing creek at the bottom.

The creek eventually empties into the south Alouette River. There are occasional black bears that wander up the ravine, causing the schoolchildren to have to stay in at playtime. We have also seen deer and coyotes. But they all stayed out of sight Today. The wildlife only like to show themselves when I don't have a camera handy!

It has some formal type, easy paths that are open and surrounded my lawns and other well kept paths through the trees.

Some trails though are only accessible at this time of year, especially to the less adventurous types, such as myself.

One of my favorite plants in here is the ferns. They grow here by the hundreds and are so big and lush, I almost expect to see fairies sitting upon the fronds! Just a magical place.

Oh! But what do I see here? A wee fairy perched upon the root of a cedar tree!

During the rainy weather, these steep dirt paths are treacherously slippery. In the the height of summer, the undergrowth and brambles become too dense to get through.

Heidi wanted me to see the masses of wild flowers. We saw buttercups, bleeding hearts, Lady's mantle, forget me nots, some gorgeous fungi.

She also showed be the "butterfly" leaves and several nurse trees.

Nurse trees are fallen trees or rotten stumps that support a seedling such as this baby cedar tree.

Thank you Heidi for this wonderful gift. She also made me a fabulous breakfast and gave me a beautiful peice of driftwood >sculpture" for the garden. David called from Powell River to say hello and Andrew dropped in with a coffee and a gift card for Timmies Coffee Shop!

Have a good week everyone.

Wide Open Spaces

This is a wildlife overpass. A safe place for animals to cross the trans Canada Highway as it heads towards Canmore Alberta. There is a high fence all along the roadside to deter them from running over the road. If you look closely, you will see the overpass is covered in grass and trees. No cars allowed.

After a few days in the magnificent Rocky Mountains, we headed east into a whole different world.

Onto the open Canadian Prairies. "The Breadbasket of the World". Wheat fields as far as the eye can see for hundreds of miles. Here a cargo train heads south.

This is the most beautiful place I have ever been. It is impossible to capture in photos, the vastness of the plains. It is so quiet out there. Just the sound of grasshoppers, birds, and the wind! Sorry this video colour is not quite right.

Next stop...Family Reunion.

Rocky Mountain High

Keith perches on a boulder at Lake Louise . I still cant get over the blue of the water here.

Lake Louise boat shack. We should have brought our own canoe. They were renting these out for $40 an hour!!!!
The weather there is very changeable. It can be hot and sunny one minute then pouring down and chilly a moment later. Which makes for wonderful rainbows!

The dining room at the Lake Louise Chateau. Enormous arched windows framed the view of the lake and glacier.. Our budget didn't allow for a meal in here though. We ate our breakfast at the Husky gas station restaurant at the bottom of the road, which still had a nice view of the glacier.
This area is well known for grizzly sightings. As this sign says, it is against the law to hike in this area in groups of less than four. Being that we were only two, we made sure to stay close to other hikers. We did not see a grizzly bear though! If you really want to see bears, go visit my friend Deanna who lives in Port Coquitlam, just a 20 minute drive from my house. She sees bears all the time near her place. Black bears.

Morning Mist

This is the sun this morning.

Foggy friends.

Woken up at 0620 by a son whose alarm clock had let him down. Now too late to catch the bus, was begging me for a ride.
With a slight groan I rolled out of bed and drove the little fella off to work.

Thankfully, traffic was light. If I had stayed in bed, I would have missed the beautiful early morning mist. By 0900 it had burned off to a nice sunny morning.