We just had what I think was our third hail storm in just a few weeks. It was LOUD.
hail all over my yard
averaged-sized piece of hail in my hand (a nearly perfect sphere)
average-sized piece of hail on a loonie
Don’t let the ice in my yard fool you: it’s about 100 billion degrees here again today.
It is so hot here today!!! A man from India even said to me, “It don’t get this hot in my country!” WHEW!
I’m going to have another insanely busy week and am desperately backed up on laundry, so I braved the torrid humidity and schlepped over to the house to put on load, came back home, went back out to switch it to the dryer, came back home, and headed out a final time to collect the clothes. When I came up the stairs with my basket, I noticed a bag of green stuff lying on my sandals:
Jody and I ate these sweet little goodies all the way home yesterday.
Aren’t they pretty?
This is my favourite laundromat on the continent! 😀
Four years ago, while recovering from major surgery and mourning the still fresh loss of my father, I felt an urge to expand my family.
I was nervous. I had tried to bring a second cat into mine and Tabitha’s lives before and it had backfired. I wound up with a sweet boy who just wasn’t right for us. When he died suddenly, I’m ashamed to say I was relieved.
So it was with trepidation that I visited the Ottawa Humane Society on a hot Tuesday afternoon. I clutched a list of requirements that the new cat would have to have for me to bring it home. There were dozens of kitties in cages and I spent time with each one. Some shied away, some were very demanding. I don’t know how long I was there but it was at least an hour. And then I saw him, a brown tabby peering out at me from a bottom cage. He was curious, but not needy. I looked at his information sheet and compared it to my list. A perfect match. I put my hand up to him and he came to sniff it. My heart went boom and all my doubts went away. The next day, I brought home my handsome boy, Neelix:
first picture I took of Neelix
It takes a while for me to bond to an animal, but like with Tabitha, I felt an instant tug towards Neelix and I knew he was going to fit into our family just fine.
It wasn’t until several years later that I realised that my list was missing a crucial requirement: a sweet disposition. Thankfully Neelix has one. I have never met a gentler cat in my life.
Happy adoption day my beloved boy.
Yesterday (Saturday) evening Jody, Gary, and I drove out to the Crowsnest Pass to witness the annual fireworks show known as Thunder in the Valley. What makes the show so special is that the noise from the fireworks echoes in the mountains.
The fireworks are launched from the town of Blairmore, Alberta. There is always a large delay to get back to Lethbridge because of the number of cars so Jody thought it would be best for us to camp in the area. The nearest campground that would allow a single night stay was Mountain Shadows in Sparwood, BC. So we drove there (2.5 hours from Lethbridge) first so I could set up a tent (they sleep in their van) and also meet up with some of Gary’s family (the wonderful one whom we visited in Humboldt) who had gone on ahead.
Tent set up and dinner eaten, we headed back to Blairmore (45 minutes east of Sparwood) and found a spot up a dead end road. We set up chairs and within minutes I felt big, cold drops of rain hit me. Before long, the drops turned to a downpour and we ran back to the truck! The rain came down for a bit then stopped, giving us hope that the show would go on, but then it started up again. What a downpour!!! It was so violent and hail came down in loud plunks. Many people thought the show would not go on, so they left. We stuck it out and at about 11:30 the first fireworks went off.
The echoing effect was spellbounding! It was definitely worth going even if it was cold and wet!
We headed back to Sparwood after the show and I was glad to discover my tent and its contents were still dry. I did a quick toilette, crawled into my PJs, and went to bed.
The ground was hard and the noise from the highway was deafening, but I was warm and snug, so I was quite satisfied that I fell asleep immediately at 1AM and awoke at quarter to six. That’s actually a pretty decent camping night for me. We weren’t meeting up with Gary’s family for brunch until about 11AM, so I knew I had plenty of time to kill. I laid in bed and listened to an audio book for about an hour and then crawled out of my tent to use the most luxurious outhouse in the world: it has a flush toilet! There was no point crawling back into the tent so I literally wandered around the campground for three hours listening to my audio book.
This was such a pleasant morning. It was a trifle damp, but not cool, and the air felt so fresh. I took pictures of flowers and wandered up and down trails for a bit. At about 9, I headed back to our site to start dismantling my tent and packing up my gear, then sat on a dry corner of the picnic table to continue listening to my book. I decided to give Gary and Jody till 10:15, but they got up shortly before that.
We made quick work of packing, then drove out to meet up with Gary’s family. We had a nice ‘brunch’ (from the lunch menu) at the excellent restaurant attached to the hotel in Sparwood, then we headed home.
Like the first time Jody and I were in Sparwood, we stopped at Lundbreck Falls and we made a few other stops. So it was past five when we pulled in to home. My cats were happy to see me but we didn’t hang out for long since I got invited over for another Gary dinner. Yum-yum.
There’s nothing like a sleepless night away from home to recharge my batteries! 🙂
canola (rapeseed) fields
this cloud formation looks like an angry gorilla stomping around!
I love the big open skies of southern Alberta
beautiful valley (between Lethbridge and Fort McLeod)
into the Crowsnest Pass
Blairmore
Blairmore
my ‘one night only’ tent
I saw almost a half-dozen Royal Classics in the last day! This is a 1980s model.
to find our site I had to turn right at the outhouse with the flush toilet 🙂
path leading up behind our site
the strange tree/snare setup in the middle of our site
the strange tree/snare setup in the middle of our site
the strange tree/snare setup in the middle of our site
the strange tree/snare setup in the middle of our site
the strange tree/snare setup in the middle of our site
I bet that’s their bathroom window 🙂
petrified tree
two roads diverged in a yellow wood…
mushroom
antique truck and trailer combo
re-entering Alberta
Lundbreck Falls
bathers at Lundbreck Falls
Lundbreck Falls
Lundbreck Falls
wind mill at Lundbreck Falls
Lundbreck Falls
I liked the combination of the class A coming down the highway with the bus conversion in the foreground
crazy guy jumping into Lundbreck Falls!!!
striking image of canola fields!
near Cottonwood campground
near Cottonwood campground
near Cottonwood campground
Like my new floors, new desk and filing cabinet, my new end tables fit right into the decor:
I’m glad that I have been patient in adding the new furnishings to the rig. The end result might not look much like an RV anymore, but neither does it look like a crazy quilt of bargains!
The vacuum JUST barely fits into this one!