CaptainOrange

Wendy had a conference in Calgary in early March and, as is my wont, I tagged along for a mini vacation. I took the opportunity to catch up with Dave ahead of Quest New Year.  He toured me around some of his favourite trees. Dave loves trees, so that doesn't narrow it down much, but in this case it meant Douglas Fir. They were majestic in a very classical sense. Broad, straight, and tall. Calgary has number of them along the banks of the winding Bow River. We talked about trees a lot during the visit, and at one point he told me of a tree that he had seen, where the North Saskatchewan River exits the Rock Mountains, known as  The Whirlpool Point Pine. This tree is thought to be one of the oldest trees in Canada. The actual age is not known with precision (the reasons are various and I'll avoid trying to sound like an authority), but 2000 years is a modest estimate. Dave dropped a pin on my map and told me, if I had a chance, to go walk around. He let me know that the locaiton ...

Wendy and I have been increasing our camping/canoeing frequency since our children have graduated high school. The one aspect that we have not done for a VERY long time is winter camping. It was the first way we ever camped together when we started obsessively spending time together, but it is a lot of work and our children never enjoyed camping enough that we ever felt inclined to try and do it with them as tiny dependants. Our 25-year-old 'Eureka' tent from Lee and Sandi Also, while the COVID-19 pandemic is terrible for trying to do normal things (like travel to places other people want to go), it is less terrible for going to places few people want to go. Hey, Saskatchewan, how are you doing? So, we invited David (at the cost of $5.01/night)--yes, we made him pay his own way--to meet with us at Birch Bay to share some social distanced solitude. I’m not sure exactly where Wendy, Teela, Jessie, Ali, and I were, but it was definitely on Waskesiu, so it was like a bit of a ho...

Sad news first My mother died suddenly of a stroke on August 11th of this year while battling Cancer. I just thought you should know. There is a whole story hanging in that sentence, but it's not yet ready to tell. Some Joy In the meantime, grieving is an ongoing process and so, too, is my summer. As autumn quickly approaches, we are readying the yard and garden for winter. We have had a bumper crop of tomatoes, basil, carrots, and other wonders of sustenance.  One crop that has been in short supply is Serenity. It is yield that helps prepare me for the winter. COVID-19 has changed many things. For me, summer is a time to recharge myself and, through the experience of joy, recharge the people I love. I can be hard to live with in February and I count on a carefree summer to remind me--and those who live with me--just why they would bother ;) Needless to say, that has been challenging. But, Wendy and I have made some great headway on our desire to spend more time in nature (generall...

Okay, so you know about my New Zealand trip and my ongoing coffee obsession, but now that I am off G+ and Facebook, has my daily life stopped? Nope. Work The most straight forward part of my life is work. At least I feel that it has the fewest subheadings ;) I continue to work part-time at the library . Mostly, I am based out of the JS Wood Branch, but I find myself doing story times or special projects all around Saskatoon’s nine public branches. Much of my time is spent doing preparation and training for some of our newer programming staff and the rest is working with the public as a facilitator for paint nights, story times, robotics interactions, etc... I am currently working on a couple of special shows. One for the Remai Modern. I am doing a puppet show for them in September and the following week I am doing a workshop on shadow puppetry for teens. Another is for the Festival of Trees . The library will provide feature storytelling and puppetry at the end of the ...

These direction might be a little bit rough. You could probably get away with these type of vague instructions on the prairie without becoming seriously lost. Although death from boredom is a distinct possibility for some. At any rate, the title of this post gives you a pretty good idea how to begin my latest mountain expedition. As always, I was guided into the wilds by fellow Quester, Dave Aschim. We are starting to have a bit of a mountain legacy: 2009 ,  2010 , 2011 , 2014 , and now 2015 A map with a rough route drawn on it can be found here . One more note. I took a series of "geo panoramas" or " photospheres " as Google calls them. If you follow one of the links to Google Maps (I tried to imbed on the site, but failed), it isn't just a static image. On a laptop or desktop PC, you should be able to click the compass or click and drag the image to see an entire 360 degree view. The resolution isn't as good as my DSLR camera, but for now, it is stil...