#Canada150 #yyc

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#Canada150, Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Canada Day, Canadian, Diana Schwenk, Diana's Enormous Book of Quotes, Tourist in my own city

I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.

― John G. Diefenbaker

Yesterday, I rode my bike downtown to check out the Canada Day celebrations.

I took some pictures to share with you. Also, I would like to wish all my fellow Canadians a very Happy Canada Day. We live in a beautiful country and I feel so blessed to be Canadian.

The old picket fence and beautiful wild rose bush outside my front door

I had to get off my bike on Stephen Avenue due to high pedestrian traffic.

An Aboriginal man sketches the couple seated in the chairs.

They graciously let me take their picture.

I asked Jake if I could take his pic and he said sure!

Jake, originally from BC, is “breaking in on the busking scene,” he told me.

St. Patrick Island is my favourite cycling destination this summer.

Island Inlet

Nope. Not a statue.

~ DIANA’S ENORMOUS BOOK OF QUOTES ~

May The Road Rise Up To Meet You #yyc

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#yyc, 17th Ave SW, Alberta, Calgary, community, Diana Schwenk, St. Patrick's Day, Tourist in my own city

This hard-working Leprechaun and lovely gentleman and lady graciously allowed me to snap their picture on 17th Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields
and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.

(traditional Gaelic blessing)

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone! ❤

Diana xo

Meeting Half Way

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Alberta, Calgary, Canada, children, Diana Schwenk, Edmonton, family, happy, humour, Hump Day Chronicles, kids, laughter, life, living in the moment, love, memories, Red Deer, Relationships, Tourist in my own city

On Saturday morning I got up at the crack of when-I-was-good-and-ready. I made myself some coffee and managed to get out the door and into my car by 9:30AM to go to downtown Red Deer, Alberta where I would meet up with Michaela and Werner.

Upon arriving in Red Deer, I quickly found a parking lot on 48th Street and it was free to boot, thank-you-very-much and walked the four blocks to Hudson’s Pub where we had agreed to meet. We enjoyed a nice lunch and then headed out the door to walk the streets of downtown.

But first we picked up Werner’s truck and drove it to the lot I was parked in. Werner had recently gifted Michaela with a guitar and she’d brought it so I could see it. It’s been a long time since I have played; and I never really learned to play well, but I had to try it out. Then Michaela played two songs for us. I’d forgotten what a beautiful singing voice she has.

Seriously Michaela, you need to get out there and start busking for twonies while you’re waiting to hear back from all those places you’ve applied to!

For the umpteenth time – I AM NOT A HIPPY!

I made Michaela and Werner pose for this picture. People like that kind of thing, right?

We were actually surprised (sorry Red Deer) at how cool and quaint and well laid out downtown is. There are statues throughout the downtown area that they call ghosts. They tell the story of Red Deer. One of them has good ole Reverend Gaetz, founder of Red Deer sitting on a bench. Another is a wagon hitched to spooked horses. Another is a child feeding scraps to a dog.

Michaela got all google-eyed at the Reverend

Whoa there Nelly!

They have parking meters… and dance!

Thanks for holding my foot Rev

Peek-a-boo

Werner is…I don’t know what he’s doing here.

And just as the video I featured on last week’s post boasts there are many shops, benches and trees! We passed an ice-cream store vowing to come back after our tour of downtown to have one. Sadly when we went back they were closed, so we opted for iced coffee on a sidewalk café patio.

Our coffee time quickly became an adventure when the gorgeous sky suddenly turned dark and a gale force wind pushed through town. We helped the Café owner close the sun umbrellas that threatened to blow right out of their stands before rushing to the truck to figure out our next move.

Michaela pulled out her trusty iPhone while remarking, sarcastically I might add, what a fine example of modern technology my BlackBerry Q10 is, to google ‘what to do in downtown Red Deer.’ I could mention that her so-called superior iPhone is the one that took all the itty bitty, low resolution photos above, but that kind of tit-for-tat discourse would be childish and is below me.

Anyway, we settled on visiting the local art museum. Werner drove us there, past the 10,000 Villages store, past the bus depot, past the Spray Park that we’d visited earlier on foot, to the museum.

What a cool museum! It tells the stories of the early settlers in very creative ways and has interactive activities for kids, or adults if you happen to be us.

A game we played while learning Red Deer’s history. Werner lost badly. Sorry Werner…

Red Deer is almost exactly half way between Calgary and Edmonton

By the time we got out of the museum it was sunny again. We hugged out our goodbyes and headed back to our respective homes.

Hey Michaela, that was a lot of fun. We should meet up in downtown Red Deer more often so I don’t have to miss you so much. What do you say kiddo?

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

What’s your favourite not-too-far place to catch up with family friends?

 

Making a Big Deal Out of Nothing

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Alberta, attitude, Calgary, children, Diana Schwenk, Disneyland, Edmonton, family, friends, Gratitude, growing up, happy, humour, joy, kids, laughter, living in the moment, Red Deer, Relationships, Tourist in my own city

Michaela and me the last time she visited Calgary

I’m not being a Negative Nancy here. It’s not about turning a minor incident into a major catastrophe.

I’m talking about making a big deal out of nothing in a positive way; taking a mediocre event and turning into a really good time.

So I guess I’m being more of an Optimistic Olga or a Gratitude Gertrude.

Like when my daughter Michaela was little and I built up a trip to Shopper’s Drugmart to the equivalent of going to Disneyland.

One’s attitude can go a long way in determining how you experience things.

You choose:

Do you roll your eyes and just endure it? Or do you have the time of your life?

My daughter lives a 3 1/2 hour drive north of Calgary where I live, in a small town called Camrose, 45 minutes east of Edmonton. When I visit her or she visits me, which isn’t very often, it includes at least one sleepover, we DO have lots of fun. But it usually works out to only spending 5 or 6 hours together in a two-day period.

So we came up with a plan, one that took way too long for us to figure out, I might add.

This Saturday, we’re going to meet up in Red Deer to spend the day together and then both of us will drive back to our individual homes. You see, Red Deer is half way between Calgary and Edmonton, Alberta’s two major cities. Red Deer is small compared to these two metropolitans, in fact Red Deer only has a little over 10% of either city’s population.

But just like the long ago Shopper’s Drugmart adventures, we aim to spend a fun-filled time in Red Deer.

In preparation for this adventure, I needed to find out if Red Deer even has a downtown area and by golly they do, as seen in the promo video I found on YouTube below.

Trust me, you want to watch this video!

We plan to visit all the featured places in the above video and maybe even find some other hidden Red Deer gems!

I will share our adventure with you next week right here on TALKTODIANA

Stay tuned you don’t want to miss it!  😉

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

When’s the last time you made a big deal out of nothing?

 

Are You ‘The Talker’ or ‘The Observer’?

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Alberta, Bold, Calgary, Canada, community, Diana Schwenk, Fear, growing up, Hump Day Chronicles, living in the moment, memories, Observer, shy, Talker, Tourist in my own city

When you put yourself out there, you never know who you might meet

It’s hard for even me to grasp that I used to shy away from people and was so afraid of doing something – anything – wrong. Those of you who know me personally are probably laughing out loud at this point, but it’s true!

In grade 1 I was so afraid I would lose my house key that I was forever losing my house key.

In grade 3 when Mrs. Carpentier asked me to knock on another classroom’s door and ask the teacher for a pen, I cried.

In grade 4, when our bus broke down coming back from a field trip, Mr. Whittal had to sit with, and comfort me because I was afraid of getting home late.

My daughter Michaela has never seen that side of me. By the time she was born, I was all about trying things and not being embarrassed when they did not quite work out. And I was always talking with strangers; either I’d approach them, or they’d approach me. The then teenaged Michaela would say, “Stop flirting with people Mom!”

“I’m not flirting, I’m just being nice,” I’d respond.

People seem to ‘get my number’ right away too. Not long after I started working at Oxford House, my co-worker Tracey suggested that I go ask someone something we both wanted to know because, “I’m the Observer and you’re the Talker, Diana.”

This past Saturday on the way to my regularly scheduled kaffeklatsch with my BFF, I came upon the people in the above photo. Well as you know by now – I just had to talk with them and get their photo.  Turns out they were promoting some kind of week-long cartoon festival. So that I could be in the photo, a random stranger offered to take the picture.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

How about you? Are you a Talker or Observer?

Technology: Does It Connect or Disconnect Us?

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cell phone, communication, community, connecting, family, First World Problems, friends, social, social media, stories, technology, Tourist in my own city

A recurring conversation I find myself a part of, is whether technology has marked the end of connecting with people or opened up a way to connect that would not have been possible in days gone by.

Louise wrote on Monday in her post 52 Acts of Grace l week 2 about how difficult it is to share even a smile with people on the sidewalk or C-train, because most folks seem to be staring at the tiny screen on their cell phone.

I’m sure we can all share tales of being at meetings or out with friends only to be interrupted or completely ignored because someone is texting or Facebooking or Tweeting or taking selfies or…

I’ve been guilty of it myself.

I have a friend who admonishes me every time I take a picture, convinced that I’m missing the real-life-sized experience when I’m looking at it through the screen of my Blackberry Q10.

And I admit that any picture I’ve ever taken pales in comparison to the beautiful beach, mountain range or sunset I view in person with my own eyes.

Maybe while trying to capture the moment, I lose it all together.

And then there’s safety!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been walking down the street and I have to stop dead in my tracks, because the person approaching me is staring at that screen, completely unaware of what’s going on around them.  I cannot guess if they will go left or right and so I stop. When they finally sense my presence it shocks them – some have even given me dirty looks!

More frightening are the times I cross the street and someone making a right-hand turn while using their device narrowly avoids hitting me with their car. I’ve learned to make eye contact before stepping into the cross walk.

So when I read Louise’s post on Monday, I mentioned I was texting on Easter Sunday. I couldn’t be with my family. My brother and his family and my mom were having lunch at the Willows Inn in Hudson, Quebec and the next best thing to being there was texting each other Easter wishes and real-time photos.

So you see sometimes technology does connect us. Only problem is, I was walking while texting and almost tripped on a crack in the sidewalk!

Below, the pictures we took and shared in real-time

Mom and Mike at Willows Inn

Me on the corner of 14th Str and 13 Ave SW

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

So what do you think? Does technology connect or disconnect us?

Family Day Monday Panorama Style

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Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Diana Schwenk, Hump Day Chronicles, living in the moment, panorama, photos, Tourist in my own city

Elbow Park

On Monday of the Family Day long weekend, I took the opportunity to play with the panorama feature on my Blackberry.

I know that many of you in eastern Canada and parts of the US have been in somewhat of a deep freeze, so I thought I would share the pictures I took here in Calgary, Alberta this past Monday to warm you up a bit.

I needed to pick up some groceries so I walked the long way, via Elbow Park, to the Safeway grocery store so I could snap some panoramic photos. The photo above was taken at 30th Ave and Elbow Drive SW. There’s quite a bit of ice there so I took tentative steps after shooting that picture down the bank to the path along the Elbow River.

Elbow Park

In the summer I come to the above spot often. It’s my thinking spot. I like to sit on the bench, not quite visible in the center of this photo and listen to the river while I ponder life and whatever is going on at the time. Just out of sight to the left is a small playground with swings, slide and sandbox type toys.

Elbow Drive

Here, I’ve exited the park onto Elbow drive and am heading east to Safeway.

Disappearing cop car

There’s Safeway, but my favourite part of this picture is the disappearing cop car! Who hasn’t wished for that to happen at some point in their life? When I posted this on my Facebook page, people said things like: great cloaking technology or called it a ghost car.

I have to say I really love the panoramic feature on my phone and I cannot wait to try it out it again the next time I head to the mountains. Below is a picture of my favourite residential building in Calgary – The Anderson Apartments located just down the street from where I live.

Anderson Towers

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

How’s the weather treating you where you’re at? Do you have a panoramic feature on your phone?

Fall in Calgary #NotTooShabby4October

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Alberta, Calgary, Canada, changing seasons, community, compassion, courage, Diana Schwenk, fall, Homelessness, Hump Day Chronicles, life, living in the moment, love, summer, Tourist in my own city, winter

Warm as summer on my skin but fall on the ground on 4th Street SW, Calgary AB Oct 10, 2015

Were it not for the leaves changing colour and the trees dropping their leaves, I’d have thought it was summer in Calgary on Saturday.

These are the fall days I hope for. These are the moments that make me forget we’ve already had snow.

These are the type of memories that carry me through the long and cold Canadian winter.

I hadn’t been out for a good walk in quite some time. As luck would have it, I had some errands to run and the weather was glorious.

I started out with a light jacket that almost immediately found itself tied around my waist.

A man passing in the other direction said to his companion, “Whoa, it feels good to be in the shade,” when he found temporary relief from the sun in the shadows of the tall buildings on 17th Avenue.

17th Avenue closed at 8th Street for the Thanksgiving weekend. The work needs to be done, but local businesses can’t be too happy about it.

After picking up most-delicious-looking pastries at Sourdough bakery and stashing them in my fridge so I could bring them with me the next day for Thanksgiving dinner, I headed downtown to run some more errands.

Volunteer, Heather agreed to pose for this picture – Thank you Heather!

Something was going on at the Lougheed House.

I went to investigate.

A temporary Firefighters museum was set up in honour of Fire Safety week.

Among other things, I learned that if a building is grounded, a lightning rod can be more dangerous, than helpful.

A photo of a photo of a firefighter…

A gas mask from the good ole days…

Old tools that kinda remind me of old dentistry tools I’ve seen…

At Central Memorial Park checking out the free book they gave me at the Firefighter’s museum. And YES, I’m wearing flip-flops!

After I’d completed my errands downtown I headed back home. It was so wonderful to feel the sun on my face and arms. I stopped often to shoot more pictures.

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The changing seasons remind me of the changes and transitions that happen in life.

Some are good, we welcome them and if we have any sense at all we enjoy them while they last.

Others test us, chill us to our very souls, make us wonder if we’ll be strong enough to get through them. But even these pass and leave us amazed at how strong we can be.  And if we have any sense at all, we learn from them and bring forth new growth.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

If you live in Calgary, did you get a chance to hang out outside this past weekend? What was the weather like in your city? What’s your favourite season?

Meet me on 17th And Other Places

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Alberta, Beakerhead, Calgary, Canada, community, Diana Schwenk, Hump Day Chronicles, life, living in the moment, Tourist in my own city

AS OF 2:22AM LOCAL TIME, it is now fall. And the weatherman promises a summer-like day in the 20s Celsius, or for my neighbours to the south, the low 70s Fahrenheit.

I’ve squeezed out every last drop of summer in the last couple of weeks.

Every weekend, every evening that was warm and sunny, I was out there wearing that summer dress, wearing those shorts and tees, wearing those flip-flops as if it were the last time I would be able to do so.

There were some chilly days too. Days where I grudgingly pulled a pair of socks out of the drawer and paired them with closed-toe shoes. Like on September 13 when me and my colleagues represented Oxford House at Recovery Day.

Photo courtesy of Susan Brandt

The group lets go of hands after the Serenity Prayer

Earl, Tracey, Vince and me

It’s hard to believe that it was a hot 27c/81f the day before the event. It was so chilly that Sunday, but the warmth and welcoming attitude of the good folks who attended the Recovery Day event made up for the chilled-to-the-bone rain.

The following weekend, Calgary hosted Beakerhead – a unique event that is a crossroads of art, science and engineering. The weekend’s weather was sunny and warm and worthy of Diana’s Stamp of Approval!

What’s that going on over there near the library in Central Memorial Park?

Oh there’s bunnies!!

And over on 17th Avenue…

You’ve heard of the Cloud but have you heard these sound clouds?

When walking through those clouds, one’s movements elicits musical sounds.

See that homeless man on the left with his arms reaching up? His movements created a StarTrek like futuristic musical concert.

When I walked through, it sounded like the worst Blackberry alarm-waking sound ever! But I deserved it, I did sort of just haphazardly march through the clouds.

Another favourite park of mine is located beside the Dr. Carl Safran building on 13th Avenue.

I missed the opportunity to get a few shots of two people who were doing handstands and cartwheels – they were amazingly athletic!

But I did capture the following shots:

Two people enjoying their lunch in the park

Local neighbours hosting games, drum circles and other events so that they can meet their neighbours

A group of twenty-somethings who live near the park brought drums and games and muffins and coffee so that they could meet their neighbours and create a sense of community.

How cool is that??

They will be back next Sunday and the Sunday after that for more opportunities to connect with locals.

Yes. Today is the first day of fall. But the weatherman promises temperatures in the 20s. And I will continue to grab every opportunity to wear sundresses, shorts and tees and flip-flops until such time when pulling out socks from the drawer and wearing closed-toe shoes becomes a full-time requirement.

Until then, a few more pictures from my neighbourhood.

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~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

How are you spending your last days of summer-like weather?

St. Patrick’s Island #yyc

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Alberta, Bow River, Calgary, Canada, life, living in the moment, nature, St. Patrick's Island, summer, Sundays, The Weir, Tourist in my own city, walk

View from the Bow Pathway in Inglewood

My friend Helga and I set out on foot to check out the new and improved St. Patrick’s Island on Sunday afternoon.

We left her Inglewood home shortly after 1PM and headed to the Bow Pathway by the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary.

We followed the pathway along the Bow River toward the Weir.

The Weir had been reconstructed to create a whitewater adventure for Kayakers, but unfortunately the 2013 flood undid all the hard work that was done for this project.

Just below the Weir, if you squint you can see seagulls perched on the rocks.

I was pleasantly surprised and impressed with the new outlook that was built at the Weir though, and we climbed the stairs to admire the view.

We climbed the stairs to the lookout

It was a perfect day for a walk.

The lookout, mostly constructed with stone, includes comfortable benches and little nooks and crannies that I have no doubt delight and capture the imagination of children who visit.

The fast flowing river below and gentle cool breeze blowing through my hair on this 25c/77f day filled me with such a sense of contentment.

View from the top of the stairs

From the Weir we continued down the pathway until we reached 12th Street to cross the bridge to the zoo.

From there we continued east through the back parking lot to the entrance of St. Patrick’s Island.

To be honest, I wasn’t getting my hopes up. I was skeptical about the rebuild of St. Patrick’s Island. I was nervous that it might be turned into a concrete park.

But they did a good job!

From the tables at the entrance laid out with  board games inviting people to sit and play, to the natural pathway along the river, to picnic tables, and playgrounds, hills to roll down, Zen-like resting spots, and a beautiful wading area where we stopped to cool our feet in the water; the City of Calgary did good!

We decided to cross the bridge into the East Village to grab a coffee at Sebastian’s in the Old Simmons building, but the line-up was insane.

So we settled for a glass of cold water and sat down by the river listening to the music coming from the Opera House rehearsal.

View of the light art star (my name for it) from the bridge heading back to the island. I will have to go back to check it out at night with lights on!

Then we headed back over the bridge to retrace our steps back to Inglewood. I estimate that our Sunday walk was an 8 km round trip; and it was totally worth it!

If you live in Calgary, I encourage you to go check it out!

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

What’s your favourite local spot to visit?