at the golf course

 Today was a gorgeous September day.

Frost overnight and then clear, sunny and calm

all day.

Perfect weather.

I will post more of what we saw on our drive tonight

another day -

or days.

mike's general store

 Our internet has been down for several days

which has felt both inconvenient and

good!

 We took advantage of some

extra time 

and went into Winnipeg on the weekend

to do some shopping and 

looking around.

 This is one place we've been wanting to visit

for a long time.

This little store is FULL to the rafters

with great old stuff.

Maybe next time I'll be brave enough to snap some pics

inside.

a perfectly blustery day

Yesterday afternoon the wind shifted and it was obvious

that there was a change in the air.

This morning it was windy, cloudy and cool -

quite a change from the weather we've had

for weeks on end.

And it was the perfect kind of day to

bake

and clean.

Which is what I did - 

all day.

Now I am weary but happy.

The rain, which was in the forecast but did not arrive,

would have made it an even more perfect day -

if that was possible!

ballet in the park

 Several weeks ago we spent the evening at the 

Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg.

The Royal Winnipeg Ballet was presenting an evening of

"Ballet in the Park"

and it was FREE!

What a great date.

 Before the show

we wandered through the

Leo Mol sculpture garden.

It was lovely and serene.

 On to the main event!

It was a full house.

 The warm ups were interesting

and part of the program was actually a demonstration

of how a class is conducted.

It was extremely enlightening.

Then the "beautiful" dancers graced the stage.

It was a wonderful evening.

A touch of Europe in the park.

 

 A pose with Ellie. 

She was on our date with us!

summing up

Isn't she a sweetie?

She belongs to Byron and Kim who met at BFA a few years ago.
They now live near Calgary and do youth work in a church there.
It was great to see them again.

Rachel is another BFA friend.

We squeezed in a meal and a great visit with her

on our way to see...

...my dear university friend, Linda.

We've managed to keep in touch all these years.

It was so neat to see her again.

Our anniversary evening found us in Edmonton.

We enjoyed this view and many others as the restaurant

gently turned while we ate.

The bouquet of flowers were a special and beautiful touch.

 

 We had many great visits in Alberta
including in my home town of Peace River.

 The river valley was in fine form this summer
due to all the rain.
There's something about a river valley
that still runs deep within me.

 My mom had been out visiting my sister, Heather, in BC and
we were all very surprised to see her with my mom
when we went to pick her up at the airport!
No one was more surprised than my sister, Jean,  who walked right past Heather
when she went to say hello to my mom!
It made for some good laughs.

 This little sweetheart is our great-niece.
She really is!
She belongs to Howard's nephew and his wife.

 She flew with us
(and her mom and grandma and grandpa)
over the mountains
to the Okanagan...

 ...where we enjoyed the most relaxing weekend
we'd had in months.

 The temps, in the low 30s, were perfect.

Our brother-in-law's garden and orchard were stunning.

 As were the views.

 Our brother-in-law took us out on the lake for an afternoon cruise.

 

 His maneuvers to get me wet didn't really go
according to plan!

 Of course the lake was gorgeous.

 A bit of a reminder of Germany completed
an all-round perfect weekend.
Time to head for home.

catching up

 We're back home after a full but very good trip to Alberta.

 We saw many interesting things in our travels including these lovely little

yellow flowers

which lined the highways in Saskatchewan and Alberta

for what seemed like hundreds of miles.

 Our first stop in Alberta was for gas and we certainly didn't think

we would meet up with a biker from

Bern, Switzerland!

He said he had come to that particular town in Alberta
to help with the harvest for 10 consecutive years.

Pretty cool, we thought.
This year was just for biking, though.

 He had started his journey in Texas and was going up to

Whitehorse.

He wasn't sure yet if he would be taking his bike back to
Switzerland - or not.

It was obviously going to be a very tough decision.

We had a lovely chat and enjoyed his lilting

English as it sounded very much like Swiss German -

in English.

It made us smile.