Jewel of the West, 1882

"A more lovely spot it would be difficult to pick out, as we stood at the door of his ranch; the view of the Rocky Mountains rising up from the plateau reminded me very much of the view of the Alps from the terrace at Berne.  I think, however, that the comparison is in favour of the view that I am now describing, though the hills are of course not so high.  Beginning with Crow's Nest Hill, which gives its name to the pass, it is a curiously roundheaded hill and rises above the pass on the right hand; from this point, running the eye from right to left, comes a bold pyramidal peak [the Frank Slide had yet to occur], after this one or two finely outlined conical heights, and next the Castle Mountain, looking like a rampart, walls with high round towers rising at each angle; next to this, further to the south, is Victoria Peak, also a fine pyramidal hill, until the view ends in the Chief Mountain, with its squareish head, something like that of Ingleborough, in Yorkshire."  From Home to Home, Autumn Wanderings in the North-West, 1881-1884, by Alexander Staveley Hill (1825-1905).

Jewel of the West, 1881

"After passing the cutbanks, the place where we again approach the Willow Creek on its passage down to Macleod, we caught sight for the first time of the Rocky Mountains, extending along in a magnificent series of snowy peaks standing out against the pure blue sky, with snow clouds gathered around their summits, and bearing out more fully than I had ever seen before the Homeric phrase of the hill of cloud-collecting Jove.  They form at this place as beautiful a panorama as could be found of scenery of this character."  From Home to Home, Autumn Wanderings in the North-West 1881-1884, by Alexander Staveley Hill.

Just Wait A Minute ...

... if you don't like the weather out here, that is.  Literally.  Last Sunday as we drove east we were enjoying +7 degrees C, a welcome respite (finally) from weeks in the deep freeze.  (I was even a bit hesitant to leave in the throes of a "big melt" because we have a !@#$-pile of snow out there just waiting to overwhelm our drains.)  It was still +7 as we started up the Brocket hill and get this, minus 18 C at the top!  A 25 degree C change in less than a mile!  And it remained at least that cold for the rest of the day.  Arriving back out here around 7 pm as we did, the evidence of the big melt followed by the "big freeze" was evident in the hockey rink formerly known as our driveway.  Now fast forward to Monday morning, with -23 degrees C at around 7am but plus 6 C predicted by that afternoon.  Could Buddha pull it off twice in twenty-four hours?  Sure enough, although it stayed cold all morning, at 1pm all the windows in the house suddenly fogged up - a portent of warmth to come!  The temperature skyrocketed to +5 degrees within a matter of minutes (another 20-plus degree reversal!) and the big melt resumed.  Instant defrost, out here style!

Un-Canadian Geese

They're a major hazard to airplanes and golf courses, they defile public parks with their leavings and out-honk every other migratory bird in North America.  Their V-shaped flying formation is familiar to us all as a harbinger of the season to come.  The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis).  Golf courses everywhere annually spend their members' hard-earned money on eradication schemes aimed at these wetland giants - and cities wish they could spend our tax dollars doing the same.  They're pests and everyone knows it.  (Even if they do have some laudable qualities.  First, they mate for life, although they may take a new mate if their original one passes away.  Second ...well actually that's it - they have no other laudable qualities.)  But please, they're not necessarily Canadian, ie. born in Canada, for many of them nest in the northern U.S. and never grace a Canuck sky during their laudably loyal lives according to the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America.  What we need, it's painfully obvious, is to make wild Canada Goose a "dish of the month" like turkey.  Attach it to a national holiday like Labor Day.  Every family could do their patriotic duty; go out and shoot one, cook it up and celebrate cleaner parks and public places.  No farm-raised CG's please, wild ones only.  Hell of an idea.  Of course, we'd have to screen for bird flu...and everyone (in Canada at least) isn't a gun owner...okay, the idea needs work, I'll admit it.