When it gets thick enough, ice fog can eliminate any evidence of a horizon as it did on this day. I drove quite extensively around Red Deer County in the fog, which I find very enjoyable! Everything becomes very isolated and a feeling of loneliness pervades. Sounds become muted and whenever I stopped to have a look around or take a picture, I am sure to turn of the vehicle to enjoy the silence. Usually I’ll here a magpie, raven or maybe a distant farm dog barking. One day while out I heard a rather loud gunshot! I couldn’t see who was responsible and I’m certain whomever it was couldn’t see me, so I hightailed it out of there pretty quick!
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This past Monday morning I dropped Laura off at her office downtown and headed into Red Deer County through a thick ice fog that had enveloped Red Deer and the surrounding area. I didn’t get far before I started to see the potential for some pictures. I slowed down along one of the range roads heading south as the fog was very thick, but when I get on backroads it’s what I tend to do anyway. As soon as I saw these trees I slammed on the brakes. They reminded me of Ray McSavaney’s pictures of the “Walking Tree” that he made in Yosemite National Park in the 80’s. I set up and waited until the fog drifted off a bit so I could see the front trees a bit better. It took a few minutes but I did’t mind. There was almost no wind and the fog was absorbing most of the sounds from around me. The quietness was very enjoyable!
Ray McSavaney is one of my favourite photographers and his book “Explorations” should not be missed and better yet, be in your library! I believe it was Ray McSavaney that first found the tree he photographed in Yosemite, but John Sexton photographed the “Fallen Branch” beautifully as well. Speaking of books, you should likely round up copies of John Sexton’s “Listen to the Trees” and “Recollections”!
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“If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.”
– Henry David Thoreau
This lone tree was possibly being protected by the farmer due to it’s beautiful shape or perhaps this used to be the site of an old homestead and he wanted to preserve something of the heritage of his farm. Of course there were other trees around, but in Kneehill County there are not near as many as in the parkland biome of Alberta. Mostly the tree are planted as windbreaks around farmyards, but every now and again you’ll find nice pockets of protected trees especially in the northern parts of the county. The further south you travel, the more sparse the trees become. I quite liked how the cloud patterns resemble the snow patterns on the stubble field and the vehicle tracks on the right are mirrored in the clouds as well.
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Leaning to the east, this small granary in Kneehill County near Trochu, has been buffeted by strong chinook winds from the west for many years and on this day it was about to get hit again. All the dark brooding clouds were just behind the leading edge of this new chinook which warmed the air to a balmy 17ºC. The warm wind made fairly quick work of the last remaining snow and all the small creeks were running strong with meltwater for the next few days as the water, following the law of gravity, rushed on the quickest route downhill towards the Red Deer River.
“Snow Eater” the Blackfoot call you.
Born of the sea,
Flowing inland
To warm the land,
Climb a mountain
And bestow
A benediction of rain
On the forest below.
Chill and dry
At the top.
Nearly touching the sky.
Warmed by the speed
Of your descent,
You blow through
The Clouds,
Carving an arch
High in the sky.
Your signature.
Then march
Across the foothills
Raising the temperature,
Melting ice and snow
As you go.
It feels like springtime in Alberta and the sloughs are filling up with meltwater again, even though it technically is still winter for a couple more weeks. The only sound here was that of water running in the ditch and the wind blowing through the fence wires and the grass. I was travelling with my friend Michael Chesworth on our way towards Drumheller when we came across this beautiful scene in Kneehill County. We travel with no agenda and no major goals in mind, simply enjoying our time together and the scenery along as many gravel backroads as we can find. Of course gravel roads allow us to travel slowly if we want to, and we do, and stop often without the worry of traffic, so it generally takes us a long time to get anywhere! But that is exactly how I like it!
there’s something rather strange and still
about a warm winter afternoon
when the sun has dipped until
there is only a subtle peach haze on the
clouds
and a silver sparkle on the trees
the snow is soft
with endless rills and rolls
and tracks
birds hush
for a change, and listen
animals smile with their gentle eyes
and people
people
look and look
and take off their mitts
and adjust their hats
and breathe deeply
trying to grasp it
I wonder if warm winter afternoons
mean this much everywhere
or just here
Marilyn Cay – “Strange and Still”
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“Visual pollution is an aesthetic issue and refers to the impacts of pollution that impair one’s ability to enjoy a vista or view.” Wikipedia
During my lunch breaks at work, I like to go for a walk around downtown Red Deer to get some fresh air and feel the sun and wind on my face. It refreshes me, but not comparing even remotely to the kind of refreshment I get when I first breath in clean, fresh, cool mountain air when I travel into the Rocky Mountains, but it is certainly refreshing compared to the air in my office! The visual stimuli leave a lot to be desired in the downtown core. Visual pollution runs rampant and can almost be called embarrassing to think that after a hundred plus years of being incorporated as a town and city, that this is all the City of Red Deer could accomplish! It is, however, an interesting challenge to myself to find “beauty” amongst it all, a composition that exhibits balance and harmony or a complete lack of it. Maybe it’s the lighting and atmospheric conditions that help the situation. Whatever it is, I like to try and find it.
These two photographs were taken only a day or two apart from each other from virtually the same spot just down the back alley from work. You can see the same post on the left of the first photo and again on the far right of the second photo.
Little Mere Lake is along the northern border of the Chickakoo Lake Recreation Area north of Stony Plain, Alberta. My in-laws live fairly close to the area and so I try and travel along the roads and trails whenever we are visiting. I have been doing this now for more than 25 years and it still remains one of my favourite areas to be, although Parkland County has allowed a great many acreages to be built immediately bordering the small park with a lot of wells being dug, and I think that may be partly causing a drastic drop in the lake levels. The trails are fantastic and well maintained either for hiking, biking, or horseback riding in the three seasons without snow and in winter cross country ski trails are put down. As some of the lakes are now stocked with fish as well, the park has become quite busy and it would be a rare day now to have a trail to oneself, unlike in the past. I suppose I miss the days of the area being very quiet and unpopulated, but it is great to see so many who are out to enjoy the outdoors. I just hope it is managed in a way that prevents the destruction of the park.
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…silence in the forest, quick kinds of life
and slow redwood
dreaming kinds…
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Lawrence Collins, Only a Little Planet
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Rare Phenomenon at Shuswap Falls
A rare phenomenon exists at Shuswap Falls so mysterious that geologists remain puzzled to this day. Pot-holes are rather rare geographical features found in hard-rock riverbeds.
Known to geologists as a Giant’s Kettle, Giant’s Cauldron or Pothole these cavities or holes appear to have been drilled in the surrounding rocks by eddying currents of water bearing stones, gravel and other detrital matter. Potholes vary in size and they most commonly occur in shields like the Canadian Shield, where there are ancient rocks (granite, gneiss) with different resistances to erosion. Small pebbles from these ancient rocks can be very hard and can fall into small cavities in stream bottoms and swirl, making the cavities wider and deeper. The hardness of the pebbles must be the same or higher than the rock at the bottom of stream where the kettle or pothole is forming. Where diamonds and quartz pebbles occur in the geology these hard substances can be found trapped at the bottom of potholes that they have carved. That is why these potholes are a good place to find diamonds (the hardest natural mineral on Earth).
The pot-holes at Shuswap Falls are situated in the bottom of the gorge, just below the new bridge, and are visible at low water, however they are being covered by layers of sand and silt carried by the river and deposited in the reservoir backed up by the hydro dam.
Early accounts describe four large potholes, four to six feet in diameter whose depths were difficult to determine since these early observations noted that they were almost entirely filled with sand. One had a communication cut through to the river, as its water was constantly moving. There was a log floating in it that was four feet long. Beside these there are twelve more holes of smaller diameter.
In the spillway channel a few potholes can be seen during low water flows and are present on the side of the canyon. These holes having been cut at a time when the river occupied a higher channel, before the gorge was cut. These sections are about 20 feet deep.
The illustrations of pot-holes in geological text books are usually about two feet in diameter, so the ones found at Shuswap Falls are considered singularly large. Besides it is also unusual for so many to be in one place. Thus at Shuswap Falls these pot-holes are phenomena worth more than a passing notice, however they continue to disappear from the landscape under layers of sand.
Taken from The Monashee Almanac
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Collin J Örthner - Photographer 
