8. departure

Up early again as my plane was scheduled to take off at 12:30 PM. After my last morning with Denise and Catharine, Natali arrived and we all loaded up in her car to take me to the airport but first we had one stop to make. Anna who owns Passion For Glass Gallery and Art Studio wanted to meet us before we left. Well, she wanted to meet Catharine who she idolizes and she was just beside herself that Catharine was there in her studio!

Catharine was, Anna said, the reason she opened her studio. She had attended a talk Catharine gave and was inspired to take the chance. I understand her adoration of Catharine. I was drawn to her myself the first time I met her at the Bullseye Resource Center for an opening of one of the small shows in which we had a piece. I managed to command about 5 minutes of her attention before she was called away by the crowd that was attending. Our paths crossed several more times, always at large glass art related functions and 5 minutes was ever all the time I managed to have with her until winter of 2013 when she was in Houston teaching a workshop. I barged in and hung out and chatted with her in between her attention to her students.

Catharine is an amazing artist and I've written about her work here. She also knows just about every glass artist in the world as she travels all over to teach when she is not working in her studio. In my post I described her as serene and I think that still fits. She is so calm and loving, gently pointing out the obvious to me about certain things, and so encouraging. It still amazes me that she is as interested in my friendship as I am in hers since I'm like her total opposite.

So you might remember that I bought a white lacy blouse last spring that is so opposite what I normally wear and I'm still getting comfortable in it. Well, Catharine encouraged me to wear it on the plane home instead of the t-shirt I had planned on wearing and so I did. I was in the last boarding group, as usual, and when I finally stepped into the plane and started down the aisle, a woman in the first row of first class spoke to me as I passed about how much she liked my blouse.

Anyway, off to the airport and and saying our goodbyes and til next times and through customs (I gave Natali the bottle of mead I had bought) and security and standing in line at a food vendor and the two men in front of me at the Jimmy John's also getting something to eat who were obviously airline crew turned out to be the crew on my flight. I struck up a small conversation with them when we were in line because they ordered the chicken salad on croissant. I figured maybe they knew something so I asked them if it was good. They didn't know, had never had it before as it turned out. They were from out of Denver and their schedule varied. I ordered something different and it was OK as airport food goes. When I boarded the plane I asked them how was the chicken salad. He had only sampled it but it was good he said so there you go if you find yourself in the Calgary airport and want something to eat.

My plane got in about 6 PM and I was home. We didn't make any firm decisions about next year but a couple of ideas were floated...Australia if Leigh wants to host us or perhaps a week on a Mexican beach or my place in Texas but I told them we would have to do it as soon in June as Natali could get free or else they would melt in the heat and humidity. So we shall see what comes up for next year.

6. road trip...ellen wakes up grumpy, Chinook Honey, and Skara Brae Ranch

Yes, I woke up grumpy. I won't go into the reasons. Suffice to say I was being childish.

So.

Up early and ready to go by 9 AM when Natali was due to arrive for our next road trip and overnighter. Denise's neighbors, Wendy and John, have a 160 acre ranch in SW Alberta and we were invited to visit and stay over in the bunkhouse. So we loaded up and headed south.

Our first stop was Chinook Honey Company where I took zero pictures. Well, one picture. They have hives and a store with all kinds of honey products and gifts. They had a bee hive in the store between two pieces of glass where you could see them in action. And they make mead. We did a tasting of the 7 or 8 different kinds of mead they make and I bought a small bottle only to realize later when I was packing to come home that I wouldn't be able to bring it back with me since I wasn't planning to check any baggage.

Standing outside in the parking lot we could see the Rocky Mountains in the distance. The Rockies in Canada are newer than the Rockies in Colorado and are much sharper and jagged.

On the road...

getting closer – zoomed in and shot through the window

We met Wendy at the little restaurant in the tiny town near the ranch for an amazing lunch from a nouveau menu, something that was the last thing I expected there and then it was off to Skara Brae

where we were greeted by deer, horses, and eagles.

My first time to see a real live eagle.

Wendy and John have 5 horses plus one other they are boarding for their daughter's friend. Wendy generously was willing to let us have a short ride but she wanted us to get to know the horses first so she brought them all in the corral where we could get used to them and them to us.

Actually I think it was just a trick to get us to do the grooming for her. That's the tack room/store room/bunkhouse behind Natali who is combing the horse's mane.

After the horses were groomed, Wendy put a bareback saddle on Joe the Clydesdale and we all got turns around the yard.

Except Denise. By the time it was her turn, Joe had had enough so since Denice has had more experience riding horses, Wendy saddled up one of the others.

After the horses were turned out to pasture, we retired to the deck of the ranch house for cocktails and the sunset.

Back at the bunkhouse, still full from our tremendous lunch, we snacked and got ready for bed

because the next day we had another journey ahead of us.

5. second lay-over day...hanging out

Tuesday was our second lay-over day and we just hung out at Denise's house enjoying her garden and patio, and picking the nanking cherries from the heavily laden branches to make syrup.

anybody know what this is?

Long about lunchtime we went down to the city center so Natali could pick up her renewed passport since she is leaving the end of the month to take a group of students to Caithness, Scotland for a session at the North Lands Creative Glass Center there. I mentioned that Natali is a tenured instructor at the Alberta College of Art and Design there in Calgary which in itself impresses me but she is also on the board of the Glass Art Society. She is well traveled and knows just about everybody in the art glass field in Canada, the US, and Australia, maybe even the UK, at least it seems so to me and if she doesn't know the answer to whatever question has just slid off your lips, she'll have it for you in a flash. And she is so full of laughter and so easy to be with. 

And then dosas for lunch at an Indian restaurant. If you don't know Indian food or dosas, they are giant thin pancakes with a potato base filling and an array of condiments. And by giant, I mean it was at least 12” in diameter.

image source

Later Natali, Catharine, and I took another walk around the neighborhood looking at all the houses and their yards. Denise's neighborhood is undergoing upscale gentrification so there is a mix of older homes, modest newer homes, and then the big McMansions. A lot of houses have really nice gardens out front.

Then it was time for martinis and guacamole.

A watched pot never boils and an unwatched pot boils over.

Dinner was homemade personal pizzas (and Denise made the pizza dough).

Did you know it doesn't get dark in Calgary til after 10 PM? And dawn comes about 4:30 AM?

4. road trip continued...gopher hole museum, badlands, and dinosaurs

After leaving the Custom Woolen Mills we headed for Torrington to see the Gopher Hole Museum which was high on Natali's list of things to show us. This is a small building full of dioramas of taxidermied ground squirrels dressed up in costume to represent the industry and activity in the Torrington area and gets 10,000 visitors a year. This is a must see my friends. Well worth the $2 price of admission.

outside the Gopher Hole Museum, Catharine, Denise, Natali, actual real people, not stuffed

From there we headed out to find the road to the Dry Island Buffalo Jump where the First Nations would run the buffalo over a cliff, one of several in Alberta, but we couldn't find it so we pulled into Torlen Campground for a picnic lunch. While Natali and Denise set out the fare, Catharine and I moseyed along the bank of the Red Deer River looking at rocks.

wheat, flax, and canola

After lunch we headed into the Bad Lands, a transition so abrupt that we turned a corner and went from green fields to raw rock and hoodoos.

hoo-doos

This area is famous for it's dinosaur fossils and so we headed to Drumheller, home of the Royal Tyrell Museum (which we didn't actually go in) where we walked around on one of the interpretive trails

a living ground squirrel

and then to see the biggest dinosaur in the world.

On our way back to Calgary we made one last stop at Horse Shoe Canyon.

Back at home base, we settled in with martinis, dinner, and a Skype call with Leigh, our one from Australia.