Slow down, summer, you move too fast – but it’s been mostly colourful and groovy, at least when it hasn’t been raining!
July has been a relatively wet one for Calgary, one of the five wettest since counting the previous four wettest or something. Definitely damp, I’ll say that.
The rain has been good for this garden
We have enjoyed a couple of mighty thunderstorms in between the drier days, that’s for sure. Scout doesn’t much like the thunder, tough as she looks. On calmer days she’s been catching up on old p-mail haunts and meeting old friends.
Cat and dog days – two old friends meeting up (photo: Mrs. PC)“Yeah I’m tough, a top dog! And, erm, you won’t mention the thunder thing, will you?” No, Scout, not one word… (photo: Mrs. PC)
I’ve been slowly (oh so slowly) tottering about our immediate neighbourhood, getting reacquainted with familiar streets and some new scenes. Life is good in Calgary, and often colourful, but I did not know about the beach!
Just beachy! Vibrant sunny yellow! With bonus childhood summer holiday weather!
Here’s some bubbly colour I’ll be enjoying this evening – a first new-to-me Calgary beer since returning home, the beer style a predictably unsurprising choice, and the can design recalling those lovely ski jackets from the late ‘80s. If summer is racing by, it can only mean winter is fast approaching! I don’t need a new ski jacket, but if I did, these colours would look great on me. And grate on everyone else nearby. Sold!
Just my style! Oh, have I been looking forward to this!
I’ll zoom off now, to get ready for a top down long weekend – we’ve never spent August in Calgary before, so we’re excited about what it might bring.
Will it be a top down weekend? Go on, risk it! (It wouldn’t be my first choice colour, but if I had to have a vibrant sunny yellow car…)
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Yup, we’ve relocated, and you’ll never guess where!
Oh, ok, you did guess!
The call of the mountains and wide open spaces was impossible to resist, so we didn’t. Calgary will be our home for the foreseeable future.
You can see our new home from here (it’s near that tree – no no, the other tree)
Irritatingly, I’ve been somewhat unwell the past couple of weeks, so haven’t had much chance to explore and reconnect with favourite people and places. The upsides are we’ve much to look forward to, the healthcare was excellent, the prognosis is all positive (once I get my strength back – I’m as weak as a kitten, or, or, an off colour early middle aged OldPlaidCamper) and I’ve had more time than I would have wanted to go through old photos and (re)use them here!
Can you hear the call?
We’ll be properly out and about again by September. Meanwhile, I’m adding 5 minutes more each day to my walking time (I won’t even say how low the current total is, other than it would be a very short and flat trail), trying to keep up with Mrs. PC and Scout, and lining up a few new AB beers for when the time is right!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
New place needs a little work…No, OPC, not yet! Such an impatient patient…
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago how much we enjoyed our stay in Irricana, AB, and that I’d include a bit more, so here it is. I’ll let the pictures do most of the heavy lifting, due to laziness or maybe being too relaxed to scribble very much.
I will say the Irricana campground is a great place to stop a few days. It has a rodeo arena (is that the right term? I’m no cowboy…) and there are a couple of baseball diamonds. Little league baseball on a Thursday night is a big draw locally, and there are often horse boxes turning up with young riders making turns in the arena. One quiet afternoon – no horses – I clambered up above the chutes and snapped a few photos. It’s the closest I’ll get to bronco riding…
Hold on to your hat!
Back to the campground. Clean and tidy, it’s run by Norm, former Stampeder and all round good guy. Zipping about on his ATV in sunglasses and Stetson, he couldn’t have been more friendly or attentive. I saw him help out so many campers, be it assisting with parking a large trailer, lending an axe for firewood, or rooting out a water hose if someone had forgotten it. What a guy!
“Hey, Adam, wanna beer?” “Maybe later, Norm – we just had breakfast!” OK, not strictly true, and I jest time wise (it was always after lunch), but an indication of Norm as a great host!
Eight seconds? How hard can it be?!Horse power
If you’re ever out that way and looking for a quiet (outside of Monster Truck weekend) place to stay, then Irricana might just be for you!
Monster, oops, I mean our modest truck, Irricana, AB
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
No trucks, no monsters, just larks and gophers – a lovely prairie trail to hike or bike Not just for cowboys – and how hard can it be?! Sadly for them, I can think of one or two who struggle with this…
It should be said it’s not all rainbows and unicorns on a road trip – except, sometimes, when it is!
The pot of gold at the end? Canada!There wasn’t any explanation, but who needs it? It’s a unicorn!
When it hasn’t been rainbows and unicorns, we’ve enjoyed an old favourite or two, in the form of cafes and parks.
Lina’s Italian Market, Centre St, Calgary – they stock culinary happiness in all shapes and sizes. Go in looking for one item, and leave with a grocery bag full of (all of a sudden) essentials – wonderful!
We had a picnic in Riley Park made up of some of those essential items!
Riley Park, and some cool shade
Rainbows and unicorns and coffee and flower beds and, and, and…
I think I’d best stop now, as it appears I’m a little over-caffeinated. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’re absolutely loving being out west, traveling under (mostly) big blue skies. We spent a week in Irricana, AB, a tiny town northeast of Calgary, and a sparkling prairie gem. I’ll write more about Irricana another time.
Detail from Irricana mural
Very spotty internet and an unwillingness to hammer my phone plan have combined to keep this very brief. So here are a few photographs that might give you a prairie high – and it’s legal and chemical-free (assuming ranchers and farmers are doing the right thing…)
Good morning to you!
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! And Happy July 4th to our southern neighbours!
Rockyview County?! (Not in this photo, but on a clear day, you can see the Rockies in the very far distance)“Can we go to the mountains, cool off?!” Soon, Scout, soon!This will get you to the mountains – eventually – no rush!
It’s Canada Day next week (Tuesday) and, as always (perhaps more so given the recent distressing nonsense from near and far) I’m so happy this is my home. It’s not perfect, but my sense is, as a nation, we are mostly trying to paddle in the right direction (it would need a large canoe, but all are welcome to climb in)…
A lake somewhere in Saskatchewan
So, if you’re Canadian and choose to celebrate, have visited Canada, maybe would like to visit one day, or simply like maple syrup and the big outdoors, Happy Canada Day!
It’s good to know there is a small town in northern Ontario called Moonbeam. You’ve probably heard of it – it’s known throughout the entire galaxy:
Yup
I’d read there was a UFO monument in Moonbeam (we were camping a few kilometres away) and didn’t tell Mrs PC about it, not wanting to spoil the surprise. I think it was probably more than she could ever dream of?
“Take me with you!”
After all that excitement, we had to stop for refreshments.
Stellar!
Oh yeah, and we’ve camped in some lovely spots – this might be my favourite, so far:
Somewhere near Val-d’Or, QC, Canada, the world, the solar system, the galaxy, the universe
It’s big out here! Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Huh?! Where could this one possibly be going? No idea! By the time this is posted, we’ll have set off for somewhere and already be happily lost for the third or fourth time (or more!) out on the backroads of NW Quebec and beyond. We’re taking our time on this trip, aiming to travel no more than six hours in any day, and often no more than four. A morning in the car is quite enough as temperatures warm up and we work up a thirst. Perhaps there’ll be a series of microbreweries we simply have to visit along the way, where we purchase something good to try later at a campground? Yeah, perhaps…
Might have tried one or two
Before we left, my brother paid us a quick visit, keen to extend his knowledge of local ciders, leaving no apple unfermented. Or something. We spent a couple of (happy) hours in PubLeProjet, a wonderful old bar on Rue St. Jean that caters particularly well to cider and beer drinkers, and featuring a wide range of Quebec products. You won’t leave thirsty, but you might be a bit wobbly… taxi!
Or three or six – between the three of us, not each!
Brother OPC had stopped at a favourite cidrerie on the way up, and when he went home he forgot to take a couple of four packs he’d left in the fridge. So I tried one. I tried, I really did, but, nope, not for me. Mrs. PC didn’t mind his forgetfulness though!
I’m assured it is very good, but it’s not for me. The label is a winner for sure!
When we were out and about, instead of cider, I went absolutely nowhere outside of my comfort zone, predictably choosing and enjoying a couple of IPAs that were really, really good. Not too heavy, one hazy, one clear, and one happy OldPlaidCamper.
Happy
It wasn’t all beer and cider. We spent a couple of fun hours at the Plains of Abraham museum, and the exhibits and stories were very engaging. I wish I had photos I could share of my brother trying to shrug his way out of a rather snug replica military redcoat (younger?) visitors are encouraged to try. Chaps were smaller back then… There were lots of replica artefacts to handle, and plenty of interactive exhibits – if you’re ever looking for a rainy afternoon activity on the Plains, I’d recommend the museum.
Guilty! Was this before I tried the cider? Yup…
Models of cannons, replica muskets and swords, and a dressing up box? Goodness, each of our inner twelve year olds left the museum very happy. Let’s leave it here, with tastebuds and knowledge buds somewhat quenched after a busy weekend.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
(Over the next few weeks I’m not too sure how regularly I’ll be posting – it’ll mostly be determined by the reliability of coffee shop wifi and whether or not I find myself back in the stocks again. They’ll never find me since even we don’t quite know where we’ll be, other than contentedly lost…)
…as anyone who has seen me change a tyre can testify. I can do it, and have had to, but I won’t be finding employment in a Formula One pit lane anytime soon.
Anyway, rather than tinker myself, I took the truck in for a service the other day. We haven’t put many miles on it in recent months due to being mostly city bound, but now we’re making plans for a lengthy trip. Turns out if you don’t drive your car out and about often enough, there are consequences:
Oops…
Oh, ok, not mine. To be fair, I wouldn’t mind a run out in the vehicle above, once a little work has been done. Just a few updates: engine, tyres, windows, all the running gear, the interior… Hmm. Maybe we’ll stick to the Tacoma for now!
No worries – tried, tested, and trusted!
Keeping it brief as we’ve a bit more to do before setting off. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
…and we wouldn’t mind if we were still down by the river, but we came home after the third day of rain, and five nights out overall. It wasn’t the rain, it was the cold – it barely hit 10C for the afternoon high. Ok if you’re hiking, less so for sitting around enjoying the fire in between rain showers…
“Mountain” sector tent site – light that fire!
One afternoon we decided to revisit the microbrewery just outside the nearby village of Frampton. It wasn’t too busy, most likely due to the unseasonably chilly temperatures, but we received the usual warm and friendly welcome from the brewer on for the afternoon. We tasted a light lager, pretending it was late May, not mid-March, and it was pretty good, one for properly warm days ahead. For those, we stocked up on the raspberry sour we’d enjoyed so much last summer. It’s not a style I usually like, but this one is really good.
Last summer – raspberry sour on the left – yum!
I couldn’t resist a new NEIPA and bought a couple to savour later – slightly too strong but very tasty if you like a big hoppy beer. The last one we tried was only currently available on tap, so we’ll hope to return and buy a bottle/can or two – a new nut brown that was, for me, a perfect autumnal sipper. Goodness, I only had one sip but it was absolutely spot on!
Absolutely a good spot to be in
We weren’t only tasting beers or sitting by the fire or snoozing or in between snoozes – we also wandered up and down a couple of nearby trails. The vibrant fresh greens and bright new spruce tips were very welcome sights.
Happy trail
The rain and mist cleared from time to time so we were able to see longish views across the valley. The trail winds past a second section of the campground, a few walk in tent sites in the “mountain” sector. These are lovely secluded spots if you’re happy to hike up a steepish short way with all your gear.
Across the valley
One afternoon, mind and body suitably rested from the hiking, the scenery and the all round pleasantness of the Etchemin valley, I fell asleep and had the strangest dream. There was beer, spruce tipped and resinous, growing on trees. Oh, if only…
Can(ned) dreams come true?
Time to wake up! Well, this has been less sunny but not miserable, like a rested OldPlaidCamper during the second and rainier half of a camping trip. Apologies for the ridiculously long post heading this week, no idea how that happened. Sleepy brain?
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
OldPlaidCamper 