Sharing the Flame

Last night, B and I went downtown to be a part of the festivities surrounding the arrival of the Olympic torch to Calgary.

I've always had a love for the Winter Olympics, starting with the 1994 Olympics in Norway, where for some reason I was cheering for Switzerland. During the 1998 Olympics in Japan, for a gym project I had to make a scrapbook of information about each Canadian medalist and his or her sport, which only served to get me more excited about winter olympic sports. While I haven't paid as much attention to more recent Olympics, the fact that they are held this year once again in Canada means they're a lot easier to get excited about.

It really was exciting to be a part of everything last night.

To join the hordes of people milling around downtown, all smiling and waving flags and wearing red or 1988 Olympic toques and coats or 2010 Olympic clothing.

To see the big flame on top of the Calgary Tower lit, presiding over everything, even though it has long lost its stature as the tallest building downtown.

To hear "his worship" our mayor Dave Bronconnier sidestep the host's gushy and annoying question about Canadian spirit, pointing to the crowds of Calgarians as proof of unifying Olympic spirit in our city.

To sing O Canada with everyone, albeit collectively slightly off-key .

To be told that 50% of the Canadians going to the Vancouver Olympics live and train in Alberta.

To hear that an estimated 20 000 Calgarians turned out last night and that Calgary's torch relay festivities were the biggest across Canada.

And to remember that Calgary is the only other city in Canada to have hosted the Winter Olympics.

Yes, I am proud to live in Calgary, uncool though it may be to buy into the uncritical excitement. It was fun to unabashedly be a part last night. I'm ok with being dorky like that. I like that we have an Olympic Plaza downtown.. I think that being the host of the 1988 Olympics symbolizes the energy that our city has contained in the past, and the legacy that event continues to bear. On a side note, trying out olympic sports have been on my "bucket list" of things to do in life for ages. I'd like to try bobsledding but unfortunately, that won't be happening any time soon--at least not while I'm pregnant. :D Trying speed-skating at the Olympic Oval--"the fastest ice in the world"--was also on my to-do list, but we did that last Valentine's Day and it was every bit as exhilarating as I had anticipated.

Flame fuels Olympic passions

Flame fuels Olympic passions

There will be more to come on our experience of Olympic pride in Calgary later, but for now I just wanted to post the link to the Calgary Herald article. Makes me pretty proud to be a Calgarian, when 20 000+ people show up to see the torch run into Olympic Plaza--apparently the biggest torch relay gathering across Canada. I got all choked up as we walked downtown with the flame on top of the Calgary Tower visible across the city, and with so many people turning out---many with 1988 Olympic clothing and paraphernalia--to cheer and sing O Canada and witness the arrival of the flame. It was a lovely thing to be a part of.

Engagement Photos

This past weekend we had a smashing time with J&M and I rented a nice lens to take some engagement photos of them. Here are a few of my favorites, though many many more turned out just great. We had a fun time in IKEA, and the next day downtown for a while, then down to Bowness for some skating.

Portraiture

On the weekend J&M came down for a visit and we had a fantastic time as usual. Brent rented a fancy camera lens with all the bells and whistles in order to take some engagement shots for them. I'll get him to post a couple examples at some point. They turned out fantastic. On Sunday we went skating in Bowness Park, which, apparently, is the largest outdoor rink in Calgary. It was pretty bumpy, but lots of fun. Brent got lots of skating shots of J&M, and also managed to get a picture of me. I think I've mentioned it before, but I'm always amazed at the pictures of me that he takes. "That's what I look like? That's a lot less awkward and goofy than I feel inside..."

Calgary Public Library

Check this CBC article out. "Calgary public libraries are doing a booming business, reporting record activity that puts them in the top six busiest civic systems in North America." And "Carole Marion, manager of the Forest Lawn Library, said branches expect to be even busier this year with the economic slowdown.

"That's very typical, actually, of people coming to the library when there is a recession," Marion said. "Because of the economy, people can't afford to buy as much material as before. But they're also looking at things like getting more information to upgrade their jobs."

One of these days I'll publish the long story I wrote about how important libraries have been in my life. I am very encouraged to read that the Calgary Public Library is doing so well. And that it is likely only to do better in the coming year. We're big fans of the library around here.

Skating

Every winter the City of Calgary provides the necessary equipment to local volunteers to flood small rinks throughout the city. There are TWO just down the street from us--one that is enclosed for hockey purposes, and one that is just open. Sunday when it was beautifully sunny and warm, we pulled out and dusted off our much-neglected skates, and walked down to re-learn how it's done. It was wonderful.

To Fish Creek Provincial Park and Back

For quite some time now I have wanted to take a looooong bike adventure along the Bow, since I knew that there are paved bike pathways all the way along, and recently have been inspired by another Calgary blogger to visit a teahouse in Fish Creek Park, so Sunday was the day we picked to make our trip.

The day did not dawn bright and sunny...there were threatening thunder clouds as we left and we biked through a storm on our return trip. We figure it was between forty and fifty km round trip from our house in the NW all the way down to Fish Creek and back. Technically we should have been able to bike along the Bow River Pathway the whole way, but at one point fairly close the park, without warning the trail was cut off by chainlink fence. We had to backtrack a long way in order to get around that section of the path. It made us so mad, I think I'm going to call 311 and complain about it. At least they could have given us some warning or suggested an alternate route.

Nevertheless, we saw a very beautiful side of Calgary. Old houses from several eras of building, the skyscape of downtown, the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Prince's Island Park, Carburn Park, lots and lots of wildlife and natural plant growth, and of course, our destination, the quiet grassland of Fish Creek Park. (Incidentally, my mum told us afterwards that she went to the first annual Calgary Folk Music Festival at Fish Creek Park in 1975. How about that?).

Pelicans on the weir; waiting for fish to come over:

Checking out the CPR yards:

Saskatoons are ripe! I tried some:

At last, we've arrived:

Above is the Bow Valley Ranche in the distance. Below is the inside of Annie's Bakery, which used to be the ranch foreman's house. I had tea and scones, which weren't quite as civilized as some of the ones we had in England, but were tasty nonetheless.

William Roper Hull's home at Midnapore. I wrote a paper about this house once. It's gorgeous. There was a wedding taking place while we were there, so we didn't get too close.

The park, in large and small:

Commemoration of women's efforts in the early farm economy:

Blue herons on the other side of the weir on our route homeward:

Reading the signs at the weir:

Shakespeare in the Park: The Tempest

Setting the stage

Donation box

While The Tempest is not my favourite Shakespeare play, I wasn't willing to pass up the opportunity to see it performed as part of the Shakespeare in the Park tradition in Prince's Island Park. And the play was indeed good, though some of the actors were a bit lacking in their voice projection skills. I'm looking forward to their other 2008 offering, The Merry Wives of Windsor, which we shall attend later this summer. Technically, there was a suggested donation of $20/person, but they could hardly stop anyone from watching for free, so this was another "free" event in Calgary.

Some more pictures:

A drunken sailor

And more drunken sailors

Non-drunken sailors

Prospero and Miranda

The view from our seats
Miranda and the Prince

Wuv, twue wov...

Ariel, the imprisoned spirit

The sunset on our way back home