Hiking in the Rocky Mountains

Today was a gorgeous fall day and we headed out of Calgary, west to the Rocky Mountains.
First, across the Prairies... where harvesting is in full swing:

into the Foothills and then mountains...

Castle Mountain had the most glorious light on it!

close up of Castle...

through Banff, down the highway, through the village of Lake Louise and finally into the parking lot of Chateau Lake Louise. Here is a sign of the possible trails - we selected Lake Agnes Tea House.

here is the typical tourist shot everyone takes when they first come to the lake

and a map of where we are headed

on the trail heading up up up

along the way we passed Mirror Lake and the Big Beehive

keep climbing...

We hiked up 1300 feet to Lake Agnes, which is at an elevation of 7005 ft (2135 m). The clear shallow lake had lovely reflections and that trademark blue colour.

and the Tea House, where we stopped for a pot of Chai tea and some homemade soup...

Clark's Nutcracker, member of the crow family. This guy was hanging around the tea house looking for crumbs - they are quite cheeky with people.

looking across the valley to Lake Louise Ski Hill

while we are up here, let's hike around Lake Agnes!

lichen #1

lichen #2

this plant was busy hosting a variety of insects

looking back at the tea house

heading back down the mountain and what do we find... WHAT??? You can ride up?

on the hike down, the first view of Lake Louise and it's gorgeous indescribable colour

how iconic - the canoe and the flag, on Lake Louise

back to the bottom - oh my...

good bye Lake Louise!

What a glorious day! The weather was perfect with not a cloud in the sky...

On the way home my husband told me we climbed vertically the equivalent of a 100 story building, then climbed down - I said it was a good thing he didn't tell me that beforehand because I would never have agreed to go. But it was a wonderful day!

Banff Centre for the Arts residency

February has zipped by and now I am days away from heading to Banff for the entire month of March - just imagine - packing for a month! The clothes are nothing - it's the supplies! How to take enough of everything so that you don't run out of projects to work on?

Of the entire Articulation group, there will be eight of us heading to the mountains for a month long retreat with people coming and going over the 4 and 1/2 weeks. Good news is that we have got use of the visual art facilities for two of those weeks and can dye fabrics and thread, and then print, silk screen and stamp for another layer.

I will be attending for the entire 31 days and look forward to the mountain air and group bonding. I plan to dye silk banners + overdye cottons and wools + stamp motifs for WOMEN ROCK (Banff study) and URBAN TEXTURES (Winnipeg study). I am sure I won't run out of things to do!

Here is a photo from last year's residency at the same Leighton Artists' Colony, at the Banff Centre for the Arts, Banff, Canada. Exciting times ahead!

Winter Has Arrived - At Least For A Couple Of Days

Fall 2008 has been so lovely and gentle. Usually our best Indian Summer here in Southern Alberta sees the leaves being blown off the trees shortly after they change colours (like within hours!) and us living with brown branches for an extended period of time. This year the leaves took their own sweet time changing - this Mountain Ash tree, photographed in first week of October, has lovely shading on it with simultaneous green, orange, and yellow leaves - that combined with the abundance of red berries made for an artistic autumn!





And now look at what has happened!


Woke up this morning to our first snow of the season - that it has taken until the first week of November for this to happen is amazing, and I know there is plenty more coming in the following months. Although with the warming environment we do not usually get the massive amounts of snow until well after Christmas anymore. Looking forward to the new landscapes the coming seasonal changes make, but not the shovelling ahead!

And, as this post's title alludes, temperatures are forecasted to soar this coming week so the fallen moisture will soon disappear into our parched earth.

"Coming Up Next" exhibit in Edmonton

There is still time! The show in Edmonton at the Alberta Craft Council Discovery Gallery runs until July 12th. See 'link' to gallery on right hand side of this page for address and times.

This juried exhibition is organized by the Alberta Craft Council and features the work of emerging fine craft artists who are within the first five years of their career or in the final year of their formal education. Come and enjoy contemporary fine craft with fresh new designs in clay, glass, fibre, wood, metal and other craft media.

2008 Participants are: Colin Bacsik, Andrea Blais, Kalika Bowlby, Aura Carney, Diana Un-Jin Cho, Donna Clement, Jennifer Demke, Giulia Fatica, Maggie Finlayson, David Janzen, Kimberly Johansen, Jay Kimball, Gregory Lavoie, Deanna MacAulay, Candice Ring, Kai Georg Scholefield, Carmen Schroeder, Michael Simpson, Do-Hee Sung, Bevin Tetarenko, and Keith Walker.

My piece is the large (five feet by seven feet) piece of fibre art on the front wall. It is all done in small squares of browns and golds and as there is a window opposite it shines with an amazing lustre in the gallery.




A detail of the piece: