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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
A house that had previously escaped my notice called to me today. I was actually looking for interesting doors to add to the Thursday Doors collection of Norm 2.0. When I saw this one, though, I wasn’t sure if it would be appropriate for that setting because it isn’t […]
McKay Avenue School in Edmonton was in use as a school until 1983 when it was turned into an archive and museum for the Edmonton Public School Board. It was built in 1905 and originally served to house the Alberta Legislature after Alberta first became a Canadian province. […]
In December 2019, my niece and I enjoyed a tour of adobe buildings in Monterey, California. The first building we saw was the Royal Presidio Chapel of San Carlos Cathedral. It was early evening and the light from inside the chapel was warm and welcoming. The exterior of […]
When not looking at my feet and trying to avoid ice today, I saw some sights that made me smile including some balloons, a snowman with an icicle crown, a garbage can eating a spider, and a very Canadian mitten. After being in quarantine for two weeks and […]
Humans have invented amazing things, but some inventions are so ubiquitous that we overlook them. Today I am focussing my attention on one invention that owes everything to the ingenuity and industry of ancient civilizations. I am thinking about bricks. Ordinary, everyday, bricks. They have been around since 7000 […]
Last year, when it rained steadily for a few days, I had lots of snails on, under, and around my patio wall, trying not to drown. This year, when it rained in January, there were no snails. I commented on it to my roommate and wondered aloud if […]
Lake Cunningham Park in San Jose is just a few blocks from my sister’s home and a beautiful place to go for walks. We are both trying to maintain a regular walking schedule and to keep our step counts over 4,000. Yesterday we did that by walking around […]
My previous post described the train I took with some family members in 2017 on the Bluebell Railway from East Grinstead to Sheffield Park in England. The reason we were taking that train was, in part, to enjoy the nostalgia of riding on a steam train. Our destination, […]
This morning was the perfect day to visit the archeological site at Tulum where there are the ruins of an ancient Mayan city. It was walled to the west and faced the Caribbean Sea to the east. The site was inhabited as early as 564 A.D. and remained […]
I am spending most of February with my Canadian family and flew today from San Jose California to Edmonton Alberta via Seattle. Here are some of the views I had from the planes I took.
Yesterday I was early for my appointment with my tax accountant so I decided to get in a few extra steps by walking a couple of blocks down the road. As I did so, it occurred to me that the sky looked a little like the transgender flag […]
Here are some new and some new-to-me murals seen this week on South 1st Street in San Jose. I always appreciate the colorful creativity of the artists’ work and am often surprised by the imagery. When I was here last winter the site at 791 South 1st Street […]
There is a song by Jerome Kern and B.G. DeSilva that admonishes us to always look for the silver lining. Quite by chance today, I found it. I also found Santa Claus on an apartment balcony. But nothing surprised me more than finding out that Captain America lives […]
Edmonton has had a lot of rain lately. Not nearly as much as the cities dealing with hurricanes and overflowing rivers, but a daily steady, demoralizing, type of rain for weeks. Actually, it hasn’t rained every day; according to CTV it has rained for 22 out of 37 […]
Here are some things I have seen in Alberta recently. Enjoy.
I am a snowbird who travels south for the winter. When I get there I have a bird of paradise plant on my patio.
