The changing colours in the fall are always a delight. It’s nature’s way of softening us up before winter comes. Autumn is so beautiful we hardly even care that the summer is gone. This week is just the beginning of the lovely yellow leaves in my neighbourhood, and today was sunny and bright, so it […]
Some of my neighbours have a flair for three-dimensional imagery and whimsy. Here are some of the garden ornaments that have caught my eye in the last few months.
A couple of weeks ago, when I was walking past the Northlands Urban Farm, I saw a woman leaving the farm with flowers peaking out from the top of her backpack. I asked her about the farm and if she had her own allotment; she explained that it was a shared community project. I wasn’t […]
It isn’t fall yet, but I can feel it coming. The sun is lower in the sky and I am seeing the first of the autumn leaves. Yesterday in Borden Park I was able to enjoy a lovely sunny morning walk among the trees. I also took a few photos of the flowers and one […]
Here are some of the things that made me wonder this week. I could try to come up with some reasonable explanations, but sometimes it’s more fun to think of unreasonable explanations.
Walking through the back alleys of Parkdale in Edmonton is a good way to see how the area has changed over the decades. One obvious change is that the small single-car garages are being taken down and replaced with much larger garages with room for two cars and sometimes recreational vehicles. Where the smaller garages […]
Alongside the North Saskatchewan River right now there are loads and loads of burdock plants. So many, in fact, that the parks people are busily cutting off their heads. They are not native to the area and have become invasive, so the workers are trying to stop them from going to seed and spreading any […]
Last week, a house in my neighbourhood exploded in the middle of the night. The blast blew out one wall and destroyed the interior staircase. Fortunately, everyone was able to leave the building with only minor injuries. When I walked past today, this is what it looked like. I checked with Google Maps Street View, […]
Dawson Park in Edmonton is a delightful park for walkers, joggers, cyclists, and dog owners, and it runs alongside the North Saskatchewan River. I had not been there before today because I don’t usually go to dog parks. This one, though, is well worth a visit. All the dogs I saw were well behaved and […]
Perhaps this is the door they use when they pour hot oil on hostile attackers. Or, maybe it is the escape route of last resort in the event of a home invasion. More likely, there was once a balcony that has since been removed. But, why did they leave the door and screen door in […]
When you watch Independence Day celebrations and hear the patriotic songs, it looks and sounds as though the people of the USA are all celebrating the same thing, doesn’t it? Today, I’m beginning to think that the perception is wrong both for the observer and the celebrant. Yes, Americans are independent of British rule, but […]
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, I was trying to identify a bird […]
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 local gardeners fight an ongoing battle with […]
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 looks as though they both used the […]
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 Yang Lanting. The grounds beside the Learning […]
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 pictures of raindrops. Here are some of […]
