In Asia several countries celebrate a number of national
holidays in what they call The Golden
Week at various times of the year. In China it is this week, but in Japan
the week of holidays starts in late April. Students and most working people
have the whole week off and travel near and far to visit family and friends, or
just travel somewhere to get away. And why do I know this? Because I was trying
to come up with a title for this blog post and googled “golden week,” just to
see if I infringed on someone by using the phrase.
Alberta celebrated a different type of golden week last
week. Anyone who spent any time outdoors would have noticed how leaves on trees
and bushes within days changed colour from a pale green to a dull yellow to a vibrant
gold with a few splashes of red and orange thrown in here and there. Every day
on my morning walk in the neighbourhood at sunrise I could see the difference,
and on Saturday morning what met my eyes was absolutely spectacular. I just had
to capture the beauty on my iPhone since I didn’t bring my camera. The light
was perfect and lasted for such a short time.
Late that afternoon Jan and I took a drive in the country
around here, and this time I took my camera with me. The angry sky to the north
and a recent rain shower lent some drama to the fall splendour.
Sadly, after today’s winter storm, all of this will be but a
memory until next year. But I'm glad I had Saturday...
