A Walk in the Woods

Have you ever read "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson (ISBN 978-030727946)? A friend of mine gave me the book several years ago as she knew I love hiking. I thoroughly enjoyed Bill Bryson's humour throughout his soul searching journey on the Appalacian Trail together with his pal Stephen Katz. While there is no deeper meaning to my hiking, I do feel it is food for the soul to be out in Nature's splendour.

My favourite "walk in the woods" is the redwoods without a doubt, but being surrounded by tall deciduous trees on a fall day in Ontario is a very close second. It felt like walking on a painter's palette from red to bronze to orange to yellow, with a little detour to green and brown and grey. Pictures do not do justice to the brilliant red of maple tees, although I tried many times!

Of the hundreds of pictures I took on our recent trip I keep coming back to one. It was taken from the top of the Dorset Fire Lookout Tower on Highway 35, a spectacular road to drive in the fall. 117 steps up the tower give you a 360 degree view of 824 square kilometers of trees and lakes, with a few roads thrown in there and there. It was breathtaking, so say the least. Some trees had already lost their leaves, giving a smoky appearance among all the colour, but that didn't take away from the beauty of the view at all.

But I don't have to travel to California or Ontario to go for a walk in the woods. There are some right here at the edge of our subdivision in Black Diamond. Songbirds, deer, wildflowers galore... I have it all a few steps from my front door. And if I drive for half an hour, I am in my beloved mountains. How lucky I am...

Black Diamond in a Day

On September 10, 2016 Canadians were encouraged to shoot videos that reflected our thoughts, hopes, and lives. The resulting CTV special will be shown in celebration of Canada’s 150^th anniversary next year. I did not shoot a video to share with the country, but that day was a pretty significant one for me and my own little world.

After two and a half months of intense and backbreaking work by my dear hubby our yard was ready for sod. Two pallets were delivered the day before. Family members, both immediate and extended, came armed with work gloves and good spirits, and within mere hours we had lawns! Where there was black before there is now green. What a difference that makes… this is the sight we have had in our minds for so long, and now our eyes actually see it—and it makes me smile every time I look out the window or walk outside. The colour green is a relaxing colour that represents growth, nature, and safety among other things (www.color-meanings.com). It is also said to have healing powers, and from the way I feel when I set eyes on our yard now, I can only concur.

To have my whole immediate family around me on September 10 was a treasure as it only happens a few times a year. Weekly electronic visiting with my eldest daughter is great, but face to face is better. I was able to give her a hug or two and share some heartfelt laughter. When I looked into her eyes I saw true happiness and contentment with the direction her life is taking with her partner. Living next door to my youngest daughter, my son-in-law, and my grandson for almost six months has been life-changing in a good way. The daily connection with my grandson is without a doubt Mormor’s dream come true!

When extended family members heard what we were up to on September 10, they offered to help. I have been absolutely blown away by the generosity shown to us by friends, first with the move and later with landscaping. As immigrants we learned early on to fend for ourselves, but without the friends we have made over the years, our life would be, oh so poor.

September 10… one day of 365 in 2016… a perfect day for me.

The red brick road connects our houses, and the troll who lives under the bridge over the Little Sheep River happily lets us cross!

Boxes and Foxes

Boxes and wrapping paper—those were my two constant companions for weeks! First packing everything down, then unpacking everything again after the move. Well, that last part is a job in progress and will most likely stay that way for months (or should I say years?). But the essentials were unpacked quickly and organized… and reorganized a couple of times!

While it was exciting to set up household in our new home, I was also getting tired of making decisions of where to put what and which box to open next after a couple of weeks. I needed a day off. The opportunity to take that day without feeling guilty came when I walked my grandson to school one morning. Passing right by the green area in town where a fox family has a den, I strapped my camera harness on and joined two other photographers on my way home. They had been staked out for hours already with their camouflaged gigantic lenses on camouflaged tripods wearing camouflaged hoodies. I felt a little self-conscious in my green redwoods jacket as I attached my tiny zoom lens in comparison to theirs to my camera, but one fellow said to me “as long as you are having fun, that’s all that matters.”

And what fun it was to finally have my patience rewarded when two little ears appeared behind the grassy mound where the den is located. The flurry of camera clicks didn’t seem to faze the young kit as he emerged, but he did take a good look at us. He went back in the den a couple of times and eventually persuaded a sibling to join him outside in the morning sunshine.

What a privilege it was to observe wildlife that close. I was enthralled and sometimes just stood there watching the fox kits instead of trying to get that once-in-a-lifetime photograph. When I returned home after two hours it was with renewed energy and a clearer head.  I was ready to tackle another box!

A New Beginning

Around this time 23 years ago Jan and I found ourselves in the first paragraphs of a very exciting new chapter of our lives. The house we have called home since September 1993 was taking shape in front of our eyes… and we went to see its progress almost every night after supper. We would walk around on the floors imagining the rooms through the framing skeleton and we would peek out the holes where the windows would go. It was one of the greatest days of our lives when we were handed the keys to our dream home and started living in it.

And so much living has happened here. Teenage girls grew into adults who flew the nest when it became “just too small!” Birthdays and anniversaries have been celebrated with garden parties. “The Danish Invasion” for our silver anniversary is still the talk of the neighbourhood! Small sticks grew into towering trees. The waterfall in the backyard was and is a magnet for songbirds. Walking on the pathway kept us in shape. The laughter of the grandson echoes even when he’s not here. The ambulance came only once! Tears fell as family departed after a visit, and after a life well lived. Friendships were formed with neighbours. Working careers came to an end. Retirement began.

When we built the house we saw ourselves living it in forever. No need to downsize as the house is the perfect size for a retired couple. Some people can’t wait to get out of Calgary and its climate, but we never felt that way. We loved our house, we loved its location, we loved the extra hours retirement allowed us to spend at home. BUT… all good things come to an end for one reason or another. Life is funny that way.

Perspectives have a way of changing as we grow older. In our younger camping days we wanted to travel across the country in a truck and fifth wheel when we retired. Now we couldn’t imagine doing that, preferring instead the comfort of three (or more!) stars and a cozy B&B. Having witnessed the support and care our parents, and the parents of friends, needed in their senior years, we took a hard look at our own lives and did some soul searching. As a result this is the last month we will spend in our beloved Hidden Valley home.

Seneca said “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” Our new beginning in Black Diamond is exciting for many reasons, the top of which is we will be living very close to family. That is a comforting and reassuring thought as we grow older. And for many years to come, hopefully, we are “young” enough to enjoy each other’s company and create memories together. We will come full circle and return to a small town—our first house was in Lacombe—and at this stage a quieter and slower pace of life is desirable.

The end of the 1993 beginning was bittersweet for me for a long time. From thinking I would never see that end alive to accepting it’s time to close that chapter took a lot of effort and sleepless nights, but I can honestly say now I am at peace with the decision. I am ready to let this house go. I am ready to make a new house our home. I am ready for a new beginning.

Branta Canadensis

The Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in Calgary was severely damaged during the 2013 flood. After the raging Bow River calmed, tons of debris from elsewhere found a resting place in the sanctuary, and its trails, bridges, and viewpoints were simply gone.

Since moving to Calgary in 1983 my family and I have walked the trails and pathways of the bird sanctuary numerous times, and it is one place we always take overseas visitors to. It is such a lovely green oasis in the middle of the city. My camera and Jan’s binoculars at the ready, we have seen many different birds and wildlife there over the years. So we were very happy when most of the sanctuary reopened in July 2015.

With cleats on our boots we took a wintry walk on the restored trails not so long ago. The ever-cheerful chickadees were flitting about us, one even landed on my toque for a second! Hundreds of mallards were resting at water’s edge, males by far outnumbering females strangely enough. Canada geese took to the air many times, giving me plenty of opportunity to practice photographing moving objects. As I looked at the downloaded pictures at home, I was in for a few surprises.

#1

When I took this picture I didn’t realize there was a plane in the frame, too. While I would have liked the picture without the plane, its presence adds so much more to the story. Man and bird, flying in opposite directions, each with a destination in mind; one consciously, one by instinct.

#2

Sometimes the Canada geese flew past very quickly close to the bench where I was sitting. In this photograph I sense speed through the blurry background and wings, yet the focused birds calm the overall feel of the image.

#3

My focus points didn’t always hit a bird which is very obvious in this last image! But the result reminds me of an abstract painting, so even though I didn’t consciously seek to create this effect, I am quite happy with this photograph. I know they are Canada geese in flight. Had I not told you, would you have guessed?

Wildlife in the City

In our neighbourhood a family of gray partridges wanders from house to house and finds leftover birdseed from feeders to eat. It has been our privilege to have them in our yard a couple of times this winter, all 19 of them. They are the same size now, but in the spring and summer it was easy to distinguish the adults from the babies. Just imagine 17 little baby birds running along as if their life depended on it… and sometimes it probably did!

Over the past 22 years I have seen our neighbourhood mature and there is now more wildlife around than in the early days when only jackrabbits and house sparrows called this place home. Tree swallows have attempted to build a nest in our birdhouse a few times over the years, and last year the house sparrows finally lost the battle. A few times a northern flicker woodpecker has tried to make the hole in the bird house bigger, much to our amusement. Robins have nested under the deck many years, and a few times cedar waxwings have graced our tree with a nest. Chickadees are welcome daily visitors year round, and house finches—my happy bird!—sing their hearts out in spring and summer. Their beautiful song always brings a smile to my face, no matter what my mood. This past year red breasted nuthatches have scurried up and down tree trunks looking for insects. Our bird book is littered with sticky notes of resident as well as migrating birds that have made a stop here and entertained us while drinking and bathing in our waterfall.

One of the two baby tree swallows had ventured out of the birdhouse for the first time and was less than thrilled his brother got fed first!

The baby cedar waxwing was newly out of the nest and waited anxiously to be fed

Jackrabbits are still around, and while I curse them in the spring when they nip off the tender shoots of tulips and crocuses, it is kind of cute to see one settled down in a little hollow it has made in the flowerbed and take a nap. “If I flatten myself, no one can see me” seems to be its thought! We’ve had our share of baby rabbits in the yard over the years, too, which is very sweet. The occasional squirrel races along the fence on its way to somewhere, and voles have the perfect home under the waterfall despite our best efforts to discourage that!

A clump of baby jackrabbits!

Occasionally the bizarre has happened. I recall the coyote trotting down the path behind us without a care in the world an early morning; another morning a deer took the same route. With no open water close by I can only imagine the journey ahead for the mama mallard and her seven ducklings. How the salamander ended up in our waterfall is still a mystery. And then there were the deer in the backyard, two of them, on a bright summer day. People said afterwards when they saw the pictures that I had photoshopped them in, but the broken electrical box by the waterfall and the hoof prints in the grass and flowerbeds told another story.

I really love all this wildlife around me in the city… and I really love my zoom lens and the continuous shoot setting on my camera!