An afternoon at the park, Fort Edmonton Park, that is.

It looks like the Park is finally growing. I've been waiting for a long time to see the 1920's Street change and finally they are adding a theatre and a couple more shops.  Another restaurant would be nice too. A Chinese restaurant!  Was there one in Edmonton in the '20's?  There must have been.
Which era would have been best to live in, I wonder. I think the 1920's would be my choice, if I had to pick an era from Fort Ed.  There are trollies, after all.  And there are motor cars.
It's fun to imagine, but the reality is that I would make a very poor time traveller. I have trouble just dealing with the present!  Being on holiday makes me disoriented; it always has. There is a part of me that would just like to be in one spot for all of my life, to make my home my castle.  Travelling changes the way a person perceives the world, and sometimes it is hard to adjust.  I have moved several times in my life, and it has always been a stressful experience.
So when I travel I think I should try to maybe bring along favourite objects. I understand, rather late in life, the attraction of a teddy bear.  I feel I tend to start drifting, after a while. You hear of people who forget who they are, who become other people.  They drive off one day and forget who they are.  I should do some checking into this.  What sends someone off like that?

The Culture of Summer Holiday Travel

I think it would have been quite something to travel across Canada in the 50's and 60's.  Big cars and motels. Hamburger drive-ins.  No collecting air miles and flying off to "exotic" destinations, which is the supposed preferred holiday of choice these days.  However, we do have still have trailers and RVs, which gives the summer holiday feel to a Canadian vacation.  Some people have a cottage by a lake, but there is something so nice and gypsy-ish about having a compact home on wheels. Next to travelling in a big old car, and staying at quaint little motels, I think this is the best way to roam around the country.

 Of course, there were holiday trailers back then too. Notice the kerosene lamp hanging by the dining area?

Check out the old type of gas pumps. 

I love the architecture of this motel, especially the entryway. The sign says it all!

Does anyone know if there are any "retro" motels out there.  The older motels you can find these days usually quite run-down and musty-smelling.  It would be great if some enterprising soul out there built an old-style motel like this.  I'd certainly stay there.

So much depends on a red window frame...

 

This is a wonderful photograph, because the window frame matches the maltese cross in the flowerbed below. I appreciate that someone would deliberately create this little side vignette to catch the viewer's eye - I like to imagine that the colour of the trim for this house was actually chosen to match the very vivid colour of the flowers in the bed.  Wouldn't that be an amazing example of a person who loves their garden very much?

A woodland garden...

This beautiful little path to the Athabasca River (where you approach Jasper) has so many wildflowers that it rivals any cultivated garden.  If I had this in my backyard, I wouldn't change a thing!

July road trip

So we packed up and decided to drive through southern BC and Alberta.  We will be coming back north via Edmonton. So far, we have driven up through Grande Cache and Hinton, then Jasper, and over to Revelstoke, continuing down through Vernon,  Kelowna, Lake Country, Summerland, and Penticton, then down through Creston, and back over into Alberta to Fort Macleod and a tour of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and finally through Kananaskis to Calgary. We have been very lucky with just a few rain showers along the way, although it looks like there could be a mean thunderstorm in Calgary tonight.
Now I am not a water person, but I really liked driving through the lake country. And also seeing all the wineries that have cropped up. (Pun intended.)  It's really amazing to see how the wineries have become as popular as the fruit orchards.  My favourite place this trip has been Creston, B.C. and area.  There's something about the combination of farmland and forest that I like. I took some pics but have not downloaded them yet.
Tomorrow we're hoping to take in the Heritage Village, and the zoo, and the Glenbow Museum.  Then onward to Edmonton.  Maybe it will be time for a couple of movies.  Perhaps a stroll down Whyte Ave the day after tomorrow.  I wonder if that little second-hand bookstore over at the Hub Mall is still around. After that, it will be time to go home for a while.

Buffalohead Hills in July

Just before the rains came down through northern Alberta, we took a day trip out to the Buffalo Head Hills. Looking down on the colourful canola patches of the farming quilt spread out below us, it felt like a perfect summer day in July.  Vast clouds were building up all around us, but we managed to miss the rain until we were almost home. Our trip included a ferry ride across the Peace, a tour of the new campsite out by Tompkins Landing, a picnic at the top of the hills, and a quick visit at the store out that way to check out the herbals for sale.  Then a drive through LaCrete, a stop at the cemetery, a quick tour of Buttertown, and on our way home again.
Day-long summer drives are great, especially if new sights are included along with the old familiar ones.  I had never been up to the top of the hills before, and it was quite a steep climb.  The road was very well graveled.  There were wild ferns growing up at the top, as well as what I think were wild cranberry bushes.  There is still a fire tower manned and operated up there too. Maybe I will go back once more before the summer is over, or, possibly, in early fall.

Weeding. Weeds and bugs ..... make for itchy skin.

The flowers more than make up for it though.  I finally tackled my neglected garden(s) today. I have the front garden, the perennial side garden - which is now also allowed to be home to some rather pretty wildflowers, the perennial front garden - oh dear, what to do, and my poor old vegetable garden in the back, which is now home only to a giant rhubarb plant, a sorrel? plant, and some wild rose bushes.  Being sick in May meant I missed the optimum time for preparing the old raised beds,which means the weeds have thus been able to run riot through my yard.  (I don't use weed killer.)
No, there will be no vegetable garden this year, just one big pot filled with herbs and an one old bed in front of said veggie garden, filled with chives. (I just had this odd thought pop into my head.  I actually remembered learning how to spell the word vegetable, and I also remembered spelling potatoes as potatos on my spelling test and getting it marked wrong -for the last time.  Although, I sometimes think that keyboarding has made me into a terrible speller.)
Here are a few close-up pics of my perennials.  I like these spidery looking flowers.