Between seasons

I went for a walk in the neighbourhood tonight to fix in my mind  the changes that are beginning to happen. I pay little attention to the start of school now but I still think about cycling the Silver Triangle  on the long weekend in September. I think about how I wanted to squeeze as much out of the weekend as I could before heading back to the classroom.

I feel a little like that tonight,  as if I’ve been treading water this summer, not one hike, only a few bike rides, and one camping trip. No really good reason for not having made more of the summer. Somehow I lacked the motivation to get out and do things and now the summer is winding down.

It’s a strange time. Summer isn't gone and fall isn't here. We wait in between.

 

Wearing shorts at dusk

Many flowers are blooming.

 

Streetlights come on earlier

Leaves are beginning to turn.

S

Fruits are ripening.

Flowers are going to seed

and apparently so are some houses

To everything there is a season.

Family reunion: the events

Wow what a weekend that was! It was great to see people I haven’t seen for years. It’s one of those odd things: I look at them and think about what they looked like as kids and I wonder how they got so old so fast and then I realize that I have gotten just as old just as fast!

My uncle and aunt, Bruce and Phyllis, and my two cousins, David and Heather, arrived in Calgary a few days early and borrowed the van so they could visit the places Bruce remembered from growing up. They had the loading and unloading of the van all worked out and it was relatively easy to add the 5 people who arrived early Saturday morning into the two vehicles for transport. We travelled with 7 people in the van and 4 people in the Prius. It wouldn’t have worked for a long car trip but it was fine for running around the city.

Beano pays for his keep

It was great so see the wide range of ages. I think the youngest person was 8 and the oldest was 98. I’m guessing about the 8 year-old because that was one of the questions on the mixer bingo. I’m not really a games type of person but I did find it a fun way to get chatting to some of the people I hadn’t met before and I always like to help others with answers they might not have. Is that cheating? Oh well, too bad.

The gathering took place at the Elk’s campground in the ravine in Lethbridge. It was a perfect spot and the weather cooperated. We had no rain and, although it was hot at the beginning, clouds came in and moderated the temperature.

Reunion site

Robin, Neil, and Tim did a fabulous job organizing. They put up a large piece of paper on one wall of the shelter and invited folks to fill in the family tree. That was really interesting to see how everyone was related. There was a playground for the younger kids, a volleyball net, for the young adults and lots of places to sit for the older generations.

In addition to finding out how people’s lives have progressed since the last time I saw them, I had great conversations about travel, camper vans, and cycling. At one point we had a good natured debate about the pros and cons of riding a tandem. Of course, I’m absolutely biased on that one. On the pro side there is the ability to add to the average speed and to go really fast down hills. That isn’t necessarily desirable for some, however. You almost always know where your cycling buddy is, although I have been known to come out of a convenience store to find Richard and the tandem both gone. He was giving a ride to someone curious about the whole experience. Together two are stronger than one but in order for that to work you have to communicate, and I’d be lying if I said that there haven’t been some relationship-threatening incidents when couples tried to ride a tandem and weren’t prepared. It’s not like riding a single bike and it really helps if there’s someone who can give you some tips before you start. I remember on the Danube trip one guy got so frustrated that he picked up the tandem and threw it. Mind you, he was a bit of a nut case to begin with. Despite the fact that I’m very vocal about the joys of tandem riding if you switched the situation and told me why I should give up my car and go to one vehicle for both of us I’d get it right away. Some of the fondest memories I have of cycling holidays are those made on the tandem and you can’t fault me for being enthusiastic and wishing others the same joy and excitement we have experienced.

Then there was a long conversation about camper vans, another subject I love to talk about. I think it’s so much fun because I like to dwell in the realm of possibilities and I very much enjoy a conversation in which someone else will imagine with me. What if you laid it out so the kitchen was on the passenger side? What if you got one with all electric systems? What if you bought one with all the whistles and bells? What kind of storage do you need? Do you need a shower or is it more trouble than it’s worth? What if you just got a second hand van and threw in a cot, a portable power station and a cooler?. It doesn’t matter if none of those possibilities get realized: it’s just so much fun for me to imagine them.

At the brunch on Sunday August 17, the conversations turned to crafts and painting and one of the people at our table exchanged childhood stories with one of the volunteers who helped make the brunch possible. The volunteer didn’t have much family and noted rather wistfully how vital it is to spend time with the important people in your life.

Before we took the Vancouver crew to the airport we walked around a farm now situated in the middle of a new development. We saw horses in the distance and a sign on the fence cautioned people to only feed the horses things like apples and carrots and to do so at their own risk. I imagine the horses get to know the regular walkers quite well and are able to spot the ones who routinely bring treats.

When we got to the airport the sky was a brilliant blue with some clouds. I was taking photos at the door to the tarmac when one of the technicians told me we could go out and take photos of the plane. When we caught up with the others, one of the pilots offered to take a photo of all of us together. After we hugged our goodbyes, Richard and I returned to the vehicles and headed home. I kept glancing out my window hoping to see a small plane on the horizon. Of course, I wasn’t in the right place to see it as it took off and headed toward the mountains. I imagine they got some great views on the flight home

Cool plane

Shortly after we got home, David sent us a text to say that everyone else was also home. What a satisfying end to the weekend. As I scan memories there are those that seem a bit fractured or slightly dim and there are those that stand out in full colour and easily evoke the feelings and thoughts of the moment past. I’m sure this reunion will be one of the ones that shines brightly for years to come.

Grateful to be together

Family reunion: the drive

Note: I'm posting this after the fact.

This is going to be a bit of a test to see if I can get a blog post cranked out quickly before the day gets crazy. Yesterday we met the Vancouver relies at a little cafe in Okotoks.

The convoy begins

They have been driving Beano while they’re in town. From there we proceeded in tandem to Lethbridge taking the back roads and stopping to see grain elevators, take photos, and have lunch.

It wasn’t a perfect day i.e. no beautiful blue Alberta skies, but it wasn’t stinkin’ hot and we had an enjoyable trip. I especially liked poking around the grain elevators and taking photos.

A lot of the crops have been lodged, a term I didn’t know. It’s where the crops are lying down in the fields. The stems are permanently bent or broken which makes harvest difficult  and can reduce the price or even spoil the crops. I always thought it was called blow-down but I’m a city kid. Apparently lodging can be caused by a combination of factors including wind, heavy rain (that fits for this year), poor root development, or pest damage. Whatever the cause, a lot of the fields we passed were in this condition.

Heather wanted to see a field of canola in bloom and I was really surprised that the few we did see were just starting to bloom. The fields north of Calgary which I see each week are sporting the brilliant yellow of canola in full bloom. I’ll have to do some research about which areas of the province grow canola and what causes the difference in ripening times.

We stopped for lunch at the golf course in Vulcan. I never would have thought of that but it turned up as an eating spot when David googled eating places. It was the perfect spot. We had the place all to ourselves and there was neither music nor TV screens, just the way I like it, Bah humbug!

We arrived in Lethbridge, checked into the hotel, had dinner, and then some of us went to a get together a little way out of town. It was great to see people I haven’t seen for probably 20 years.

Today is the main gathering of the weekend. The rest of the Vancouver crew arrived early this morning on a shuttle from Calgary so the families will be in full force today. I have my phone and my camera and I plan to take a lot of photos. Stay tuned for whatever shenanigans we get up to.

In hindsight

Today marks our 39 wedding anniversary. Looking back, we wish we had kept track of how we spent all those anniversaries because we can remember what we were doing on only a few of them. There’s the famous ‘poop truck’ anniversary where we looked out Kermie’s (our green Westfalia camper van) upstairs window and watched the service truck pump out the outhouse in Kananaskis country. Hey, it may not be romantic but it has made us laugh almost every year since.

We spent a few anniversaries hiking at Lake O’Hara, first with Mum and one of her friends and then on our own. On our 29 anniversary we were on our first cruise with Adventure Canada. I remember that one because we said it was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Three years ago, just as restrictions from the pandemic were ending, we celebrated our anniversary aboard the Ocean Endeavour on another Arctic cruise. One of these days I’ll count up how many Adventure Canada cruises we’ve been on. I simply don’t remember offhand and I’m going to have to look back in my journals to figure it out.

A few days ago we looked at each other and asked what we were going to do to mark our anniversary this year. It’s so easy to just carry on with the day to day routines, have one of our standard suppers, watch some YouTube then retire to our studies for the evening. Richard asked me if I wanted to go out for dinner. I thought that would be a good idea and he suggested the revolving restaurant at the top of the Calgary Tower. The last time we were there we took Bill and Gerta, his first girlfriend, to dinner. That’s 9 or 10 years ago.

There are probably places in Calgary to get better food at cheaper rates but it’s fun to look down on the city and see the various landmarks from a different vantage point so tonight that’s where we went. It became clear within the first few minutes that we were in a line of tables whose inhabitants were all celebrating anniversaries of some sort. Two people seated behind me, came up as they were leaving to tell us they had overheard us telling the waiter that this was our 39 anniversary. They said it was theirs as well. We congratulated each other and they went on their way. I was facing a table of 6 and as they left one of the men came up and asked us if it was our anniversary too. He told us that it was his 50th and we agreed we had a way to go.

I had my phone at the ready and took a number of photos as the restaurant revolved. We chattered away as we normally do about a checkerboard pattern on the roof of one of the buildings, one train that was heading east and one train on a parallel track that was backing up. We tried to decide which church roof was which, and I noticed the angle of the pedestrians’ shadows when seen from that height. The mountains were only a faint outline in the haze but it didn’t seem to be smokey. We took pictures of the food and laughed at our foibles. We had a mathematical disagreement at the beginning of the evening when the waiter asked us how long we had been married. Suffice it to say that we each had a different number. I’m not terribly mathematically literate and Richard kindly explained to me that he was counting from zero whereas I was counting from one.

We spent about 2 hours in the restaurant and then came home. We immediately changed into comfy clothes. I emptied ash from the Solo Stove and pulled some creeping bell flower. We are now in our studies as we are on most nights. It hasn’t been the flashiest of anniversaries but we are both satisfied that we’ll remember this one. Here’s to the next 39 years.

Watching the trains

2 mains and 2 veg

Looking west

Richard's dessert

My dessert: huckleberry crumble turns your teeth blue

Looking north up centre street

People's feet on the glass floor of the observation platform