Marmite rules

Brits reading my blog will identify well with "Marmite" - and know that is either one of those foodstuffs that you love or hate.  I love it.  On toast.  Australians will know a similar product called Vegemite.  I can only describe it a sticky brown, extremely salty yeast by-product, which in fact, does make it sound absolutely disgusting.

Jabblog's blog had me laughing out loud this week with a spoof "animal welfare" style video about neglected jars of Marmite across the UK. 

Me?  I take my Marmite everywhere - even on vacation with me.

Beautiful mountain views and beautiful Marmite.  Ahhhhh.

More "proper" holiday photos to follow soon.... 

Lovely mail

Look what finally arrived in the post this week...

I was so very excited to receive it.

And I'll be even more excited to use it at the border crossing next week when we head down to Coeur D'Alene in Idaho. Woo hoo to this new Canadian citizen with her flashy new document and photo ID.

It's such a shame that, rather like my driving licence, I look like I've just been released after serving ten years!

Yellows and blues

 The Alberta farmland is looking stunning right now.

The yellows of the rapeseed/canola is in full glow.

And as the little puffs of clouds pass by, they create shadows galore over the fields.

Happy SkyWatch Friday.

Canmore - before the flood

A week before that awful deluge of rain in Canmore, Alberta, my family were up driving around some of the back roads in the area.

 Again and again I will say - what a damn 

pretty part of the world.

Beautiful hues and reflections.

Big skies.

Big landscape.

Big mountains,

and big smiles!

We will be keen to visit again later in the summer, and hopefully the devastation to the town, homes and roads can be repaired soon.

Happy SkyWatching 

and I hope you find those Big Skies in your part of the world.

Happy garden!

I moved to this home (and to Canada) six years ago.  After the first year of looking at a square of boring grass, 

I have spent many pleasurable, achy and expensive hours coaxing, poking and persuading the wee patch behind my house to play ball, and have pleaded with it to grow some nice "stuff" for me.

Finally, this year, the flowery borders have a bit of height, a decent splash of colour, and the lawn looks kinda OK.  

Free plants are the best kind!  I was given a few of those at the end of the 2011 season.  Everything came back up again last summer, but didn't really flower much or do itself justice - it was still getting used to it's new home,

but woohoo, this year - bang!  

Colour.  

Yay!

Flooding in Southern Alberta

Admittedly, I do bang on about the weather a lot on this blog. Alberta is so interesting you see - some of the most variable weather there is.

Today I have a legitimate reason to waffle on.  You may have seen some news footage about flooding in southern Alberta. Well yes, it has been a bit damp.

I live in a small town about 25km northwest of Calgary - and the Bow River runs through my town of Cochrane.  There are a lot of rivers criss-crossing this area, many fed at this time of year by the snow-melt off the Rockies.  Now let's add several day's worth of torrential rain.  It ain't pretty.

A month ago, my view over the river looked like this.

Yesterday it looked like this.

And this afternoon, it looks like this.

 There's a island under that lot somewhere.

The rail line needs a tidy up, from mudslides.

And the drains under the rail line are barely keeping up with flow coming off the hills around the town.

Poor old Canmore (about 45 minutes west of us) got hit hard. Raging waters and mudslides.  The TransCanada Highway has been shut since yesterday morning, effectively cutting off Canmore and Banff.

Photo courtesy of CBC website and John Gibson/Getty images.

There has been some startling footage showing the immense pressure and volume of the coursing waters.  What was once a creek became a gushing torrent of filthy muddy water, tearing through gardens, decks and houses in its powerful rage through the town.

Photo courtesy of Justin Kripps @ twitter

Downtown Calgary is another muddy mess.  Evacuations of some 75,000+ people began yesterday.  The Stampede grounds (which are due to host the Calgary Stampede in two weeks) have been flooded.  

Photo courtesy of Jeff McIntosh/Canadia Press

Even the Saddledome, home to the Calgary Flames hockey is apparently flooded inside, up to at least row 10 in the seating!

Colleagues from work have suffered terrible damage - one poor girl almost hysterical this morning as her whole home was filled with water, and others evacuated from downtown apartment blocks as main thoroughfares were under several feet of water.

And as I type, it is still pouring with rain - the roads are gushing mini rivers too - which all flows downhill back to the raging Bow River below.

It's gonna be messy for a while.

What a difference a month makes

On the 17th April 2013, we had a nice dump of snow.  

Again.  

April was long and cold, and it seemed that winter was simply going to refuse to give way.

But by the end of April, the temperatures finally rose quickly and the icy lakes melted and single blades of green grass proudly emerged from the dull landscape.  

And one month later, wow, what a transformation.

Foliage is alive.  The landscape has awoken.  

Calgarians have come out of hibernation.

And I have managed to spend a few hours weeding some flower beds and gathering some instant colour from hanging baskets and pots.

Colour, at last.  Yay.