When I was out for a walk yesterday, a passing police car stopped to watch what I was doing. I think I probably looked suspicious. Perhaps someone phoned in to say that there was a woman standing outside their house and taking photos of their tree. In fact, […]
Edmonton has an annual celebration of gardens in bloom, and some of my neighbours are good candidates for recognition. We have a very short season, so figuring out what will bloom within that time takes some research. Also, we are cursed with clay soil, so I know that […]
This is the look interior designers are going for when they create distressed painted furniture. These garage doors are distressed for good reasons; they are old and they haven’t been well maintained. I’d feel distressed too if that were me. These garages belong to back-alley neighbours and it […]
A recent walk took me to two parks on the south side of Edmonton, both of which include some surprisingly thoughtful details. Empire Park is at 107 Street and 47 Avenue, and it includes the building for the Sahaja Meditations Centre which has a delightful mural by Cen […]
The weather is bad, the news is worse, and I haven’t been out of my house for a few days. Honestly, I’ve been getting a bit depressed. So, today I decided that if the weather wasn’t going to improve, I would make the most of it and take […]
Flags interest me. They are symbols, they are decorative, and they can be celebratory. As I walk about I see national flags, sports team flags, pride flags, association flags, and commercial advertising flags. Sometimes, I notice flags that look a little sorry for themselves. They have been abandoned […]
Many of the murals in Legal depict people who lived heroic lives, and today I have chosen two people whose heroism has made them very significant in Canadian history. One heroic person depicted in the murals in Legal is Roméo Dallaire. He was the Force Commander for the […]
The mural I am showing you today sparked my curiosity. It makes reference to the famine that affected Ireland in the 1850s. I was taught that it was called the Irish Potato Famine because a fungal infestation decimated the potato crop for about seven or eight years. This […]
There are so many great murals in Legal that it is hard to pick out a few to show you. Today I have chosen the portraits of two more homesteading families. This first is of Joseph St Martin and Marthe Calage. Joseph was the stepson of Jean Calage […]
Following my first discovery of the town of Legal, Alberta, I decided to create a series of blog posts highlighting some of the many murals in the town and the history behind them. This is part two of that series. The mural that tells the story of George […]
When first approaching Legal, Alberta, visitors can stop at the Ensemble-Together Monument that was created by Ernest Chauvet, welded by Louis Forcade, and painted by John Ellenberger. It has a Canadian flag at the centre and the flags of Britain and Quebec on either side. The monument affirms […]
Until yesterday, I didn’t know I lived forty minutes away from the Mural Capital of Canada and the French Mural Capital of the World. And, it is wonderful! The town of Legal (pronounced lé-gal, not lee-guhl) is inhabited by 1345 people living in 448 private dwellings. It was […]
This is the door to a store that once sold ceramic tiles that were made by a local artisan. I regret that I cannot remember what the store was called. The building was empty for some time and half of the tile store is now occupied by Raw […]
Concordia University (formerly Concordia College) in Edmonton, Alberta, is in an enviable location overlooking the North Saskatchewan River valley. It is a private university with some funding from the Government of Alberta. Originally, it was affiliated with the Lutheran Church and was founded in 1921 to prepare young […]
For the last couple of days, Sandhill Cranes have been migrating north and flying over Edmonton. The flocks are so large there must be thousands in each of them. I don’t have the right equipment to get a photo because they fly so high up in the sky […]
The recent news that one of my favourite resting-and-reverie spots was to be cleared to make way for something big and modern, reminded me that I took a few photos when I was there in January. So, here for your viewing pleasure and perhaps for posterity are the […]
Yesterday I walked along a street in which the trees have been pruned to clear the way for the power lines. As time has gone by, the trees have grown bigger and the trees’ branches have spread further apart. It doesn’t take much of a stretch of the […]
Norwood Wesleyan Church in Edmonton is closed for the duration of the COVID-19 lockdown, but the members have chosen to send a message to the community in the meantime. In fact, they sent several messages and put them on the main doors. The first thing I noticed was […]
I am a snowbird who travels south for the winter. When I get there I have a bird of paradise plant on my patio.
