Jasper Anew

Brent and I have been to Jasper multiple times, when we were dating, on our honeymoon and every summer but one since then. So we've seen a lot of what the area has to offer.

This time, however, we found several new things to do.

For the first time, we visited to Miette Hotsprings, northeast on the Yellowhead Highway. It was a coldish rainy evening when we went and I was recovering from the flu. It was a longer drive from Jasper than we expected, around 60 kilometers. The end of the drive was along a windy narrow road up through the valley. It took a long time, but was worth it in the end. The hotsprings were enclosed in fog and mist. They're heated by heat exchange, so you don't actually get to sit in the hotspring itself (too bad!). There's not many commercialized hotsprings that you can...I've only ever done it once, and it was by far the best hotspring experience I've ever had. Anyway, Miette. It only cost six dollars to get in (that's the same price as getting into our local outdoor pool!). There are four pools there: a really hot one, a sort of hot one and two little cold pools. It poured rain while we were there, so we got cold water from above and warm from below. It was lovely.

We visited the Jasper Cemetery. We like to tour cemeteries everywhere we travel, to get a better sense of the history of a community. This was particularly fun in England and in my family's plot in Denmark. Jasper's cemetery was very well kept and had a map so you could see where everyone was buried.

We also attempted a very gentle mountain bike ride, which I'd never done before. For that matter, I'd never done biking of any kind in the mountains before. My poor hybrid bike took a bit of a beating, and Brent managed to split his tires, but it was really enjoyable. Far more than when you're hiking, you have to watch out for bears when you're biking. A lot of the bear maulings that occur in the Banff/Canmore area involve bikers who catch the bears offguard. But we saw no bears whilst biking. I did literally almost ran into an elk, as I mentioned before. We biked from our campsite at Wapiti Campground all the way to Maligne Canyon and then back through the Jasper lakes area and through Jasper Park Lodge.

I'd never seen the Jasper's lakes or Jasper Park Lodge before either, so two more firsts.

We visited Pyramid Lake Island at dusk the last evening we were in Jasper.

It was unbelievably beautiful, with the gentle sound of fish jumping in the lake, with the loons calling and other birds calling in the surrounding forest. We watched the sun go down behind Pyramid Mountain, shedding its final rays on the steep sides of Mount Edith Cavell off in the southern distance. The air smelled sweetly of pine and flowers and the world was at peace. It was so beautiful. A good way to end our stay, though we were loath to leave.

Bad Dreams Are Good

Joni Mitchell -- Bad Dreams The cats are in the flower bed A red hawk rides the sky I guess I should be happy Just to be alive... But we have poisoned everything And oblivious to it all The cell phone zombies babble Through the shopping malls While condors fall from Indian skies Whales beach and die in sand... Bad dreams are good In the great plan. You cannot be trusted Do you even know you're lying It's dangerous to kid yourself You go deaf and dumb and blind. You take with such entitlement. You give bad attitude. You have no grace No empathy No gratitude You have no sense of consequence Oh my head is in my hands... Bad dreams are good In the great plan. Before that altering apple We were one with everything No sense of self and other No self-consciousness. But now we have to grapple With our man-made world backfiring Keeping one eye on our brother's deadly selfishness. And everyone's a victim! Nobody's hands are clean. There's so very little left of wild Eden Earth So near the jaws of our machines. We live in these electric scabs. These lesions once were lakes. No one knows how to shoulder the blame Or learn from past mistakes... So who will come to save the day? Mighty Mouse? Superman? Bad dreams are good in the great plan.

Rhubarb farming

I like that rhubarb has a silent h in it. Sometimes I want to pronounce that h. R-hubarb. Say it with me. Speaking of silent h, I realized this morning that in my head, yogurt should be spelled yoghurt. But that's not the proper way to spell it, at least not according to the Mozilla spell-check. But I like it better. It looks more...ethnic. Yoghurt. So there. Anyway, what I came to say was that we harvested our second crop of r-hubarb today. Mostly because it was shading the oregano and squishing the carrots, not because we needed r-hubarb right at this moment. So I chopped it up, measured it, and put it in the freezer in a labelled bag. And tonight we went to the Hillhurst-Sunnyside farmer's market and got raspberries. They're laid out on a cookie sheet in the freezer. I'm looking forward to a bounty of fruit this winter.

Pleasures of Blueberries

One of my greatest joys and pleasures of summertime is fresh fruit. Especially with cereal and yogurt.

The recipe:

1 part small or chopped fruit

1 part plain Greek-style yogurt (not low-fat)

1 part Harvest Crunch granola

I prefer this with raspberries, blueberries or chopped nectarines. But peaches or cut-up strawberries will also work.

Mmm. Fruit is my favourite.

Jasper: Questions

Ahh Jasper. Did I mention it's one of my favourite places? Brent even named and submitted to a photo contest in Jasper's honour. Four days is an awfully short time to be in your favourite place, especially when it's five hours away. Our Thursday and Sunday were largely spent in transit. Nevertheless, we got some great visits in with the beautiful area. A fellow-blogger, Briton and acquaintance (Hi A!) asked if we went to the Bear's Paw Bakery? Heck yes we went to the Bear's Paw Bakery. Twice, as a matter of fact. I had a steamer once, and a latte the second time. And a raspberry white chocolate scone (one of my all-time favourite treats). And a cinnamon bun (also good, but not my favourite). We also had spicy sausage rolls on our way home that were purchased at the aforementioned bakery. I love how many varied people go there. The locals go early in the morning before the tourists are up and around. The mainland Europeans go there for their daily bread (although they don't have rye bread--they should). The big street-wandering crowds stop in the afternoon for a dessert. And we went there whenever we felt like tasty pastries and yummy hot drinks. I've had several ask, "Did you frolick with the elk, as per several pre-trip comments you made?" Nope. Brent ruled that one out. And actually, I've had a run-in with elk in the past by getting between a mama and her baby (accidentally!) and would rather not repeat that. All frolicking was done from a distance. Well, except for one incident. We went biking on Friday and I almost ran into a Mama just chilaxing on the trail. She wasn't too thrilled by my slightly-out-of-breath trundling-along cycling presence, but she also didn't really move at all as I maneuvered past her. This is a good thing. Elk are large. [But Brent thinks I could have out-pedalled her if I had needed to]. In keeping with our Danish family's favourite mountain past-time, there's also the standard "Did you see any bears?!?" As a matter of fact, yes we did. I saw a baby bear waddle across the road on the way up to Maligne Lake. (It was hard to miss with all the tourists out trying to cuddle with it). We even resisted the urge to honk loudly and scold the silly people out running after the cub. Seemed like none of them stopped to wonder where the Mum was and what she would think about them getting human germs all over her baby. Brent also saw another bear cooling off in a stream, but I missed it. We also saw a lot of other wildlife...more than we usually see. In addition to elk and bears, we saw deer, several chubby attention-seeking marmots, all-too-tame chipmunks, gray jays [Brent says they're actually called something else], crows, two coyotes, and squirrels . Some of these anyone familiar with the mountain parks will say EVERYONE sees. But not so of marmots and coyotes. I've never actually seen a coyote in the park before. Oh yes, and we also saw PLENTY of the species of ordinary everyday tourist. Lots more to come on our trip to Jasper. But I thought I would start there.

BBC Book List

A friend had this on her online journal and I'm stealing it. An interesting selection; there are several I'm adding to my "to-read" or "to re-read" list. Have I mentioned I love reading fiction? I can't actually find this list on BBC although in 2003 they published a list of their viewers favourite 100 books, which is slightly different. I should use this opportunity to mention Goodreads. It's a website for tracking your read/reading/to-read book list that I use. I also have a link to it on the right side of the blog. The BBC believes most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up? Instructions: Look at the list and put an 'x' after those you have read. 1 – Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen (x) 2 – The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien (x) 3 – Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte (x) 4 – Harry Potter series – JK Rowling 5 – To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee (x) 6 – The Bible (x) 7 – Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte (x) 8 – Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell 9 – His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman (x) 10 – Great Expectations – Charles Dickens (x) 11 – Little Women – Louisa M Alcott (x) 12 – Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy (x) 13 – Catch 22 – Joseph Heller (x) 14 – Complete Works of Shakespeare (most of them, but not all) 15 – Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier 16 – The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien (x) 17 – Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk 18 – Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 19 – The Time Traveller’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger (x) 20 – Middlemarch – George Eliot (x) 21 – Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell (x) 22 – The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald (x) 23 – Bleak House – Charles Dickens 24 – War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy (x) 25 – The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams (nope, the movie was wacky enough for me...) 26 – Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh (again, seen the movie, but not the book) 27 – Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky (x) 28 – Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck (x) 29 – Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll (x) 30 – The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame (x) 31 – Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy (x) 32 – David Copperfield – Charles Dickens (x) 33 – Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis – (x) 34 – Emma – Jane Austen (x) 35 – Persuasion – Jane Austen (x) 36 – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – CS Lewis (huh isn’t this part of 33?) 37 – The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini 38 – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres 39 – Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden (x) 40 – Winnie the Pooh – AA Milne (x) 41 – Animal Farm – George Orwell (x) 42 – The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown (x) 43 – One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 44 – A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving 45 – The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins (x) 46 – Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery (x) 47 – Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy (x) 48 – The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (x) 49 – Lord of the Flies – William Golding (x) 50 – Atonement – Ian McEwan (another movie seen) 51 – Life of Pi – Yann Martel 52 – Dune – Frank Herbert 53 – Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons 54 – Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen (x) 55 – A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth 56 – The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zifon 57 – A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens (x) 58 – Brave New World – Aldous Huxley (x) 59 – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon 60 – Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez (x) 61 – Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck 62 – Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov (x) 63 – The Secret History – Donna Tartt 64 – The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold (x) 65 – Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas (x) 66 – On The Road – Jack Kerouac 67 – Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy (x) 68 – Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding (x) 69 – Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie 70 – Moby Dick – Herman Melville 71 – Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens (x) 72 – Dracula – Bram Stoker 73 – The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett (x) 74 – Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson 75 – Ulysses – James Joyce 76 – The Inferno – Dante 77 – Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome (x) 78 – Germinal – Emile Zola 79 – Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray (x) 80 – Possession – AS Byatt 81 – A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens (x) 82 – Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell 83 – The Color Purple – Alice Walker 84 – The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro 85 – Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert 86 – A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry (x) 87 – Charlotte’s Web – EB White (x) 88 – The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom 89 – Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (x) 90 – The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton (x) 91 – Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad 92 – The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery (x) 93 – The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks 94 – Watership Down – Richard Adam 95 – A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole 96 – A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute 97 – The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas 98 – Hamlet – William Shakespeare (x another doubled one) 99 – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl (x) 100 – Les Miserables – Victor Hugo (x)

Frolicking

To Jasper! To Jasper! We're off to Jasper tonight! Jasper National Park is definitely one my favourite places in the world. We didn't get to go there last summer since we did two other very expensive trips, but we're going for FOUR DAYS this year! In my devotions yesterday I came across this: Romans 1:20 ²⁰For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. It is in the mountains that God's eternal power and divine nature are most visible to me. I have no excuse not to believe in His omnipotence. I can't wait to go.

Our hometown

Brent entered a photo contest in which the theme was "your hometown." While Lacombe is our real hometown, Calgary is where we call home right now. We had an opportunity to go downtown with brother T on Sunday afternoon, which gave Brent lots of opportunity to get shots of one aspect of our widely varying city.

The Peculiar Phenomenon of Youtube

Joan of Arc

Here's a song that has been on high rotation in our car for a couple of weeks. I was talking to a friend recently about real female heroines, as opposed to the helpless ignorant (but beautiful and pure) women often portrayed in fairy tales. Here's an interesting perspective on one strong female in our history. I love the poetry of the song. Now the flames they followed Joan of Arc As she came riding through the dark; No moon to keep her armour bright, No man to get her through this very smoky night. She said, I'm tired of the war, I want the kind of work I had before, A wedding dress or something white To wear upon my swollen appetite. Well, I'm glad to hear you talk this way, You know I've watched you riding every day And something in me yearns to win Such a cold and lonesome heroine. And who are you? she sternly spoke To the one beneath the smoke. Why, I'm fire, he replied, And I love your solitude, I love your pride. Then fire, make your body cold, I'm going to give you mine to hold, Saying this she climbed inside To be his one, to be his only bride. And deep into his fiery heart He took the dust of Joan of Arc, And high above the wedding guests He hung the ashes of her wedding dress. It was deep into his fiery heart He took the dust of Joan of Arc, And then she clearly understood If he was fire, oh then she must be wood. I saw her wince, I saw her cry, I saw the glory in her eye. Myself I long for love and light, But must it come so cruel, and oh so bright?

End of June

Today marks the last day of school for many of our small friends. A momentous day indeed! It is a gloriously sunny day today and sunny is on the forecast for many days to come by the looks of it. Looks wonderful, but also a little scary...some rain interspersed in there would be nice too. Today is also cause for celebration because I finished chapter four of four total chapters of my thesis. There's still lots to do yet, including introduction, conclusion, bibliography and many many revisions, but it is definitely a milestone to be this far. And finally, the painted daisies, the peonies, the lilacs, the bachelor buttons and the scarlet runner beans are all in bloom.

I'm so glad God has a creative mind and made the world beautiful, not just functional and practical.

In Which Two Great People Get Hitched

I love

I love little baby ducks, old pick-up trucks, slow-moving trains, and rain I love little country streams, sleep without dreams, Sunday school in May, And hay And I love you too. I love leaves in the wind, pictures of my friends, birds in the world, and squirrels I love coffee in a cup, little fuzzy pups, bourbon in a glass, and grass And I love you too. I love honest open smiles, kisses from a child, tomatoes on the vine, and onions I love winners when they cry, losers when they try, music when it's good, and life And I love you too.

Political Unrest

Do you know what's going on in Iran? Does anyone really know what the truth of what's going on there? If you think of it, pray for the people there. It's a scary scary world we live in. Yahoo News Report Thousands rally for, against Ahmadinejad's regime in Tehran Shared via AddThis Pictures More Pictures

Coldplay meets Taylor Swift

This is about the most beautiful piece of music I've heard in a while. For the record, we're huge Coldplay fans. They've got some really thoughtful, well-orchestrated music. Viva La Vida and the latest album as a whole is no exception. Taylor Swift, on the other hand...well let's just say the original of this song makes little sense. [Big gripe starting] It's called Love Story, but its main characters are Romeo and Juliet. I hate to break it to you, Taylor, but Romeo and Juliet do not live happily ever after, they die. Also, she talks about being a "scarlet letter." Do you know the reference that comes from? A book written in the nineteenth century by Nathaniel Hawthorne about a woman who commits adultery. Suddenly the "love story" doesn't sound so cute and innocent hey? [/ok, ok, gripe ending]. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. That said, "Love Story" is a beautiful sounding song, and the two songs combined and played by piano and cello (a fantastic musical match)...it's gorgeous.

Festlighed

This weekend was busy. We went to a stag (B did), a stagette (K did), a wedding, a family photo shoot, and a shower. And got lots of family visiting time in there too! The wedding was one of the best I'd ever been to. It was small, relaxed, friendly and beautiful. It was a perfect day for an outdoor wedding. The wedding and reception both took place at the bride's parents' house. There were around fifty people there, so you quickly got a sense of who everyone was. The reception was in the afternoon and we just all hung out together after the meal. The bride and groom seemed really relaxed and had time to chat with everyone. Finally, the decorating was fantastic. Attention to detail, anyone? Lovely. I've said it before, A&C, but I'll say it again. We're excited to hang out with the two of you lots in the coming months. Sunday was another stinking hot day. Central Alberta needs.rain.badly. Badly. Things are pretty crunchy and dust. But it looks like rain is in the forecast for this week, thank God. We spent the morning doing decorating for another wedding and then headed out to some friends' acreage where B did another photoshoot. We have lots of really great memories of this family in years past and it was great to see them again, however how briefly. We're so proud of the kids...in the years since we've moved to Calgary, they've grown up to be really neat young people. And then starts another week. We've got lots to pack into the week too, before we head back to Central Alberta for another weekend of wedding. It's going to be Awesome. One might even say Legendary.

Clafouti, anyone?

Yesterday I made an experiment dessert and tested it out on the women from Bible Study. It was called Cherry Clafouti and I got it from Simply Recipes. This was the first time we've purchased cherries this year. I managed to resist the urge to just eat the whole bag of them raw. The colour of cherries and cherry juice is almost as good as that of cranberries. Almost. A lot of juice gets splattered when you de-pit cherries. Especially when you're using a chopstick to de-pit. I am a fairly freckled person to begin with, but I added to the collection with some lovely purple freckles courtesy of the cherries. Too bad we didn't get a picture of the finished product. It didn't look quite as good as the recipe picture, I think because we cooked it too long. It was supposed to be a baked custard-like dessert, tasting of cherries and almonds. I think I need to buy a bag of cherries just to eat soon. But I thought it was a little early for cherries yet. I wonder when BC cherries will be ready?

Den Første Gang Jeg Så Dig

We borrowed a CD by Kim Larsen from K's mom a while ago, and recently found it again. It came from our family in Denmark, and is a great collection of Danish children songs. We've tried to find it to buy a copy for ourselves, but it is hard to come by. Since K is working with Danish all the time she is able to pick out some of the translations, and they are fun. Anyways, here is a sample of the music, hope you enjoy, even though you won't understand the lyrics.

Firsts

This weekend was one of firsts. First rhubarb crop of the season harvested. It was put to good use in a combination with some strawberries for a crisp for our small group. My favourite dessert. Ever. First time seeing the town of Okotoks' namesake. The Big Rock. An erratic dragged by the glaciers all the way to the beautiful rolling hills of southern Alberta (see the picture above). What a wonder to admire. We decided that this is something worth showing family visiting from abroad. ...And the reason we were even near Okotoks is because we got to be a part of another first. The first high school graduation in the family for some dear friends. Thanks for inviting us, friends. And congratulations again, J! First tomato on the vine. Our tomato plant has decided to brave all the snow/sleet/rain/hail/being-hauled-inside-and-out and begin to set fruit. Cause for celebration indeed. First "game" of tennis of the season. B and I are enthusiastic occasional tennis "players." Players and game need quotation marks because 1) Neither of us know the rules of the game -- well B does sort of, but I really don't have a clue and 2) Both of us, and especially me, have to focus so hard on getting the ball over the net and still within the tennis court, that you can't actually call what we're doing "playing" a tennis "game." We just work on hitting the ball back and forth at each other. But man do we have fun. :)

To Do This Summer/Why I love Calgary

It's another beautiful beautiful day in the city of Calgary, which got me thinking about all our plans for this summer, and how much I love Calgary in the summer. It's hard to choose whether to go camping/hiking all summer (one of our favourite things) or to stay at home in Calgary and enjoy our garden and alllll the things going on here. So, following is a combined "to do" list on the subjects. - Finishing my thesis by the end of July. - Four days in Jasper National Park, camping. - Shakespeare in the Park - Calgary Farmers' Markets-- multiple times please - Stephen Avenue at lunch time, on breaks from working at the Glenbow - Our birthdays - Road trip to Glacier National Park (we love Montana, Grandma Marci!) - J&M's wedding - A&C's wedding - Riley Park, just wandering, or watching Cricket-playing - Calgary Folk Music Festival (though I'm not sure we can afford to go this year...) - Running a 10km race - Siebenga 80 years in Canada Reunion - July 1st in Prince's Island Park - Gardening. :D - Nose Hill Park (perfect for biking, and walking, and flower-discovering and picnicking)