The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Apricots and blackberries to be exact.
The blackberries were a little worse for wear after two days of plus 35 prior to getting home, but the apricots survived the trip perfectly.
Not only that, but they sealed really well in the canner.
Then, apricots.
I really like this jam-making business.
The boys in their kilts.
Us with my parents' grain truck.
The unity candles (it was too windy outside to light them there, so we had to wait til later in the tent).
And a picture of Brent taking pictures. He got some really gorgeous landscape shots over the course of the weekend.
One example of Brent's fabulous images. A chance shot, when the sunset pierced the rainy clouds, spotlighting the snow-covered mountains.
My favourite way to travel: with my feet on the dash.
One last streetscape of Jasper. It's not the best picture of the town, but it gives you a sense of it being a town plunked into the middle of the mountains. This was just before we left to head home.
We bought a bike rack from MEC for our car just before we left. We don't have a hitch on the car, so we had to get a bike rack that fits onto the hatch. It's pretty stable and easy to use...although it's also easy to steal, which is a downside. However, we're really glad that we're able to bring our bikes with us on trips now.
It's my firm belief that all Canadians--at least all Albertans/British Columbians--should see the Icefields once in their lives. They are truly breath-taking and awe-inspiring. And besides their inherent awesomeness, the icefields are quickly disappearing--they could be gone in my lifetime. So see them before it's too late, people. It's definitely worth it. The Snocoach tour would be fun, but it's REALLY expensive. You can see just as much from below, walking up the glacier, or from the ridge of Wilcox Peak, which is a short extension to the Wilcox Pass hike.
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 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.
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.
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.
One of my greatest joys and pleasures of summertime is fresh fruit. Especially with cereal and yogurt.
The recipe:
Mmm. Fruit is my favourite.
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.
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.
