The snow, ice, and cold weather have kept me indoors for a few weeks, so I started looking online for boots that would make walking safer. I have had a couple of bad falls, so I have become nervous about walking on sidewalks, especially since not everyone clears away the snow from in front of […]
In August 2019 I took some photos of graffiti murals that I didn’t understand. At first I thought it was a sentence, but I decided eventually that I was looking at a series of names. This week I noticed that all but one of those names have been painted over. The new murals are bright […]
A few days ago I wanted to go for a walk somewhere that had the snow shovelled from the sidewalks. My son recommended the Alberta Legislature grounds, and it was a good suggestion. Most of the sidewalks were clear and it felt safe to walk around there. As we were about to leave, we passed […]
A fascinating art work that appeared recently in Edmonton is called The Meeting by the artist Wang Shugang. It is made up of seven crouching figures in a circle. An eighth figure is placed alone across the street from The Meeting. At one time, one of these figures was holding a circular mirror but it […]
A new art installation has appeared less than a block from my home. It is called Walking Figures and it is by the Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. I saw a television news item about the installation and one of the comments that stood out for me was that the figures represent our shared humanity and […]
Like most people, I’ve been watching the US election results trickle in over the last few days. It is a very close competition in some states as I write this, and the media exaggerates this by referring to it as a race. So, it is exciting both because of the significance of the vote and […]
Some of my neighbours have really scary stuff in front of their houses. Most of it has to do with Hallowe’en. But then there is this. What is it? And, more importantly, what the flaming heck is it doing in my residential neighbourhood? The canoe and the propane tanks make me think it is someone’s […]
One of the distinguishing features of a northern winter is that the sun is very low in the sky, even at noon. On Sunday, while walking in Borden Park in Edmonton, I noticed how long the shadows were. These pictures were taken at around midday on October 25th. Edmonton is above the 53rd parallel, or […]
As we passed this sculpture today, I asked my son to guess what it was called. He said “Berlin,” which I thought was both funny and appropriate. It turns out, the sculpture is called Living In Between and it is the work of Agnieszka Koziarz. As we were looking at it, I read aloud the […]
Despite the fact that it was -14C (7F) and snowing today, I went to see something new. My eldest son had noticed a work of sculpture that he was intrigued by and that he thought I would enjoy. He was right. On the roof of the Edmonton Transit System’s new Kathleen Andrews Transit Garage are […]
There is a stretch of road near my home that doesn’t seem to know what to do with itself. It is near the football stadium and borders several residential neighbourhoods, so you would think this location would give it all kinds of reasons to be a real going concern. In fact, though, it doesn’t seem […]
The Rossdale Brewery building was originally the Edmonton Brewing and Malting Company. It was built in 1905 by the owner of the Strathcona Hotel, W.H. Shephard. He was so successful at making and selling the product that the company moved to a bigger location in 1913. The Rossdale Brewery building was then taken over by […]
The North Saskatchewan River valley in Edmonton, a couple of weeks before Hallowe’en, with Van Morrison’s Autumn Song.
While walking along the North Saskatchewan River valley yesterday, I was delighted to find some wonderful murals under the James MacDonald Bridge between Rossdale Park and Irene Parlby Park. The artwork is by Nomadic Alternatives.
Today I saw some places where all the local fall colours were on display at once.
There are eighteen churches of various Christian denominations within a mile of my house. Here are numbers sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen, plus one that used to be a church but is no longer, I think. It’s hard to tell. The principal character in Candide, by Voltaire, is travelling the cruel and savage world when he […]
Apparently, this part of Edmonton was once in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the greatest number of churches. I cannot prove this because I can’t find that record on their website, but I believe it. I have been photographing the churches within a one-mile walking distance from my house and so far […]
