What's your passion?

When you meet a person who is passionate about something, you cannot help but become at least a little bit interested in what it is that sparks that fire in them. When you are surrounded by a few hundred people with the same passion for four days, the energy in the room is undeniable and you get caught up in it. I believe I am passionate about photography, but what I feel is nothing compared to the knitters and spinners, crocheters and felters, weavers and whatever else one can do with fibre, who attend the Olds College Fibre Week the last full week in June.

A big part of Fibre Week is the Merchant Mall for the first four days.  This was the third year we had a booth with Jan’s wooden “quality tools for discerning fibre artists.” And those fibre artists are a mixed lot—young and old, and yes, a couple of men thrown in for good measure among the women. They come from all walks of life, some even take the leap and make a business out of their passion, but the one thing they all have in common is the soothing calmness they get out of their particular fibre art. Feeding batt through your fingers onto a spinning wheel and creating “pretty string” as one person described it, is meditative for most. The stresses of the day seem to be spun out of your mind, the tension leaves your shoulders, and you enter a very relaxed space as your bare feet rhythmically go up and down on the treadles of your spinning wheel.

I have a long way to go with my photography before I can get to such a place… don’t know that I ever will. But in the meantime I’ll continue to look for interesting subjects to photograph, experiment with manual settings, read some articles, and most of all have fun with it.

A Curious Spin lets you create your own batt from fibre in delicious colours

Hiking on a Monday

One of the activities Jan and I have looked forward to when both of us retired is hiking on a weekday. The hiking season is short enough as it is, and to be able to get up in the morning, look out the window, check the weather forecast for the rest of the day, and decide to take off, just like that, seemed to us to be the epitome of being retired.

Last Monday was such a day. Mid-morning we headed off towards Elbow Valley, excited about the day before us. But as we were driving west, this strange feeling suddenly came over me: this is so wrong! It felt very weird to be heading for the hills on a Monday instead of a Saturday or Sunday. Traffic wasn't bumper to bumper, and there was no one in the parking lot when we arrived. The most lovely birdsong filled the quiet as we got out of the car.

With the description of the 7.3 km loop in the Mustang Hills from Gillian Daffern's Kananaskis Country Trail Guide, 4th edition, in my mind--and the book in Jan's backpack--we set off, boots on our feet, poles in our hands, lunch in our backpacks, and sunhat on our heads. My camera was harnessed on my chest as usual, and the wildflower geek that I am, I was on the lookout for what is in bloom now, on this trail. I found many of the common wildflowers I see on many trails, but also some intricate ones like the silky scorpionweed.

Early June is when the calypso orchid usually flowers in these parts, but the ground was fairly dry and they like their feet a bit damp, so I was not sure if there would be any on this trail. But one can always hope. On the first of the three hills--west, centre, and east--the ground cover of the forest changed dramatically to being more mossy, and a feast for the eye soon appeared : a pink carpet of calypso orchids in bloom by the hundreds. Never in my life have I seen so many calypsos in one place, and I marveled at this delicate little spring flower's proliferation. In the heat of summer all living traces of the plant disappear. In the fall, a single leaf is produced, persisting under winter snows until spring blooming [Royal Botanical Gardens, www.osrbg.ca]. Such a short time this beautiful wild orchid graces the forest floor, and I consider myself very lucky to have laid eyes so many in bloom in one spot.

The Mustang Hills Trail is an unofficial trail and as such is not maintained by the province. We fared well on the first half and enjoyed the view of the Elbow River Valley from each of the three hills. Coming down from the east hill is where the trail became a little obscure, less and less defined, deadfall to step across, but we finally made it down to the river, not quite where the book said we'd exit the forest! While we were never in any danger, it might be better to stick to official trails from now on...