Lindy loves her daddy, and tummy-rubs

It was a lovely day...blue skies and puffy clouds, so Lindy agreed to go for a walk with my husband. After they had crossed our street, she decided a tummy-rub was in order, so she lay down and rolled over onto her back. A pretty energetic move for such an old dog.

Tummy-rubbing over, she contemplated crossing the road again to come home.

But wait...no need to rush home...we'll just sit here on the neighbours' lawn for a rest.

Linking to Our World Tuesday

Another prickly post from the prairie

My husband went out cactus-hunting again, this time with a "real" camera instead of the camera in his cellular phone. Are the photos any better? I don't really know...perhaps. I am doing some solo travel this year, meeting up with Himself for the last half of the trip, and I'm not taking any camera except the one in my cellular phone. Of course, I won't be able to use it as a phone unless I can get a good deal on a plan of some sort. Think, think, think.
In the meantime, cactus buds below and, below those, an absolutely beautiful blossom. I don't know whether to think "irridescent" or "luminous" but I'm leading toward "luminous." All that beauty in the desert part of the prairie.

Richard Schear photos

Linking this post to Our World Tuesday

The wild and woolly...and prickly west

Yes, 'way out west here, in southern Alberta and a few particularly hot, dry parts of British Columbia, live some small wild cacti, which can surprise unwary hikers with their sharp spines. These photos were taken yesterday by my husband, Richard Schear, in the coulee not far from our house.
The cacti with the yellow flowers are Prickly Pear Cactus, he says, while ones the with pink flowers he described as Escobaria Vivipara.

In the first photo we see a prickly pear with a fully open blossom, and with one unopened brown bud below it. See the brown buds again in the photo below.

Below are some Escobaria in bloom, but I rather like this photo of unblooming cacti, despite the fact that they are the most likely to surprise an unwary walker in the coulee. They have sharp spines and will attach themselves to a hiker's clothing.

Fiery sunset reflected on street

Looking northwest toward our neighbors' yard, we could see how the sunset had lit up the sky, and was reflected in our road, which was wet from a recent rain. The sunset even lit up the taillight of my car.

That's our snowberry bush in the left foreground of the first and third shots. It's actually on town property but I claim it as if it were ours.

Shoot and cut and run...

Many photos taken through car windows are doomed to be discarded. It's the nature of a drive-by shot but today, as I was attempting to be ruthless with my drive-by Rocky Mountains photos, I found myself strangely sad.
It was an adventure, not new to me but new to the me who finally owns a cell-phone camera.
Scenery, not selfies, is what I'm after, and I'm sure I could have done better. Maybe next time...there are places here in southern Alberta that I haven't explored yet. Have you ever been to Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump? Neither have I, but soon...
Meanwhile, a few more photos my cell-phone took as we travelled through the Rockies. But first, I rather like this one taken as we drove through the dry interior of British Columbia on our way to Kamloops, BC. The mountaintops look so sharp, they could cut open the sky.

Kay Davies photos, 2016

I'm almost as old as Whistler's mother, so...

...my husband took all the Whistler photos during a brief walk-around.

Whistler, British Columbia was the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. There are so many sights to see there that a drive-by visit is not enough at all.
Here are a few photos of the town, near the information centre where Lindy and I waited comfortably in the car. (More about that car coming soon.)

Clouds hung low over the mountain peaks, but it was a nice day down below, as you can see with this young lady walking her Bernese Mountain Dogs.
"Mountain Dogs" and ski hills? A coincidence? I can't help but wonder if they're rescue dogs.

Photos by Richard Schear, 2016

Connecting with Our World Tuesday. A tiny bit late.

I don't always do this, but...

I think this is wonderful news, and what better way to disseminate it than on my very-little-read-any-more Unfittie's Blog?
Okay, yes, much better ways do exist, but here you are...feel free to share.

Hi, Here's some great news to brighten your weekend. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has sold off its entire $187m investment in BP. There's no word from them on why, but it certainly looks like the foundation is quietly getting out of fossil fuel companies. Since 2014, it has dropped 85% of such investments it had held. Bill Gates says he's not keen on the divestment argument but we know that the pressure you've put on the foundation through Keep it in the Ground - as well as the folks at Gates Divest in Seattle and the wider divestment movement - has been having an impact behind the scenes. You can read our story on it here . There was also good news from around Europe this week. Portugal ran for four days straight on renewable energy alone  and last Sunday, Germany powered almost all its electricity needs from clean sources. There was so much renewable energy on the grid that at several times in the day, power prices turned negative - effectively paying consumers to use it. Change is happening. Yours Sincerely James Randerson - assistant national news editor

More mountains...I love mountains

These are the Blue Canadian Rockies of old-song fame, featuring less-than-perfect photos taken in drive-by shootings through windows and windshield, with my husband driving at highway speeds. (Clickable song title.)

Photos by Kay Davies

Beautiful British Columbia

Just a few photos from our visit to British Columbia, my home province. Canada has some lovely places, and I love ocean, mountains, and forests best of all.

Here, Lindy takes Dick for a walk while she looks for just the right piece of grass, because manicured greens are hard to find in the mountains. The green of the lake in the first photo is caused by glacier-melt.

Lying down on the job

Lindy went for a walk up the lane with her daddy today. She got all the way to the lane (a distance the length of our back yard and a bit) and up the lane for a distance the width of our yard plus the neighbour's gate. Then she needed to rest. We love Lindy.

Photo by Richard Schear

On the news, we have...new news

Our local TV station here in Medicine Hat/Redcliff interviewed my husband by phone while he was in an evacuation camp in northern Alberta. Then someone from the station phoned and asked for a photo of Dick to go with their interview. I, of course, sent them four, and they chose this one, my favourite. I taped the news broadcast for him, so he can see and hear how wonderful he is. (Smiley face.)

The old boy looked pretty good

on the evening news, I thought.

The fire in Fort McMurray, Alberta, displaced 80,000+ people, but so far I haven't heard of any loss of life. Firefighters from across Canada, have done a stellar job, but a great many homes have been lost, and there is no sign of Fort McMurray residents being allowed to go home to assess the damage.
The question of my husband's car, which he had to abandon at the MacDonald Island Centre recreation complex, pales in comparison to the devastation of those who were forced to abandon their cars, and their homes.
I understand the SPCA did what it could to save pets who were left behind. This subject is very painful for me to think about, of course, and I have no details. The Canadian Red Cross has its hands full with donations of clothing and food for fire refugees, and Syrian immigrants in Alberta, themselves recent refugees, have declared their support for the people of Fort McMurray.
There is a province-wide sense of community which, if it lasts, will unite the people as never before. I think of the Calgary flood of 2013, and the goodwill it fostered between Albertans. The present disaster can, I hope, do the same.

These before and after photos of Fort Mac were posted by www.theweathernetwork.com

weathernetworkphotos

Sharing with Lady Fi and the gang at Our World Tuesday.

Some things never change

Lindy 2010.

Eating while lying on the floor is always best, whether there's food in the dish or not.

Lindy 2016.

The very fires of hell

The city of Fort McMurray, in the northern Alberta oil patch, was caught in the path of a raging forest fire this week. Everyone in the city has been evacuated. Among the evacuees is my husband, Richard Schear, now staying with some hundred others in a workers' camp farther south. His car is still outside the trade show facility where he'd been in "Fort Mac" on a business trip, and we don't know if it has burned or not.
I am very grateful that he escaped safely, and proud that he volunteered to help register names of people displaced by the spreading fire. Then he and others were put on a city bus and sent south toward safety. While on the bus, he spent his time amusing babies, toddlers, and young children.
Yes, I'm proud of him, but I'm still miffed. I'm no longer angry, but miffed is a good word for how I felt when he refused to take my advice and leave a day earlier. Places to go, people to see, you know, can't stop because of a fire...but I was born, raised, and spent my entire working life in British Columbia, so I knew enough about forest fires to be afraid...to be very afraid.
In the Macleans news photo below (used here without permission), smoke and flames can be seen coming over the hill, heading toward the lightpoles of town. The people on these streets must have been very, very afraid.

Don't like the weather? Wait five minutes.

A week ago, I posted a photo of snow on my ornamental crabapple tree. Now we are headed for a heat wave.
I'm going to have to remember to do some watering, too, because rainfall levels in Alberta are well below the norm.
But first, I'll have to fill Lindy's pool, so she'll have a place to cool off if I'm not home to let her into the house.
I don't have any "today" photos of Lindy, and you'll never guess why. There's an old expression about people being so ugly they'd break the camera if they were being photographed.
Well, I got my hair done and decided to take a "selfie" of myself with my new cell phone, which is also my only operable camera.
So I got the selfie, but my phone/camera died, immediately thereafter.
True fact.
Posting for Our World Tuesday, to show Lindy's world, and mine.

When Lindy was younger, she'd jump into her pool, leash and all. But last year, old and blind and less inclined to play, she didn't look quite as happy.

The ongoing saga, shown sagging here

Kay Davies photo, April 25, 2016

Yep, snow it is. On my crabapple blossoms. You know what they say about Alberta weather? Nothing good.
Posting here for Our World Tuesday, which will be tomorrow, but you can tell I'm having one of those days!

Mixed-up spring time in Alberta

Our ancient ornamental crabapple tree, which the deer love so much in winter because it provides them with food, is outdoing itself this year.
The leaves are still trying to form, but that hasn't stopped the buds from budding and the blooms from blooming.

Kay Davies photos. April, 2012.

And all the while being watched, guardedly, by our neighbours' young golden spaniel, who isn't sure if she wants to make friends with me or not. We know she sees Lindy when she's outside, but Lindy can't see her, and can seldom be bothered returning her greeting (warning?) bark for bark, although we occasionally hear one deep woof from our side of the fence, and quiet descends upon the other side.
All is well.
We haven't been getting much rain, however, so today I watered the Ornamental Crabapple, and a few other trees. The forecast says we might have rain next week.