My Future Husband

If anyone knows this man, please

let me eknow ASAP hehe ;-)

It seems somone either

a) Does not approve of my taste in men

b) Does not like the fact that I am gay.

as my entry has been given a one star rating.

Jasper Ave Rejuvination

Text taken from a City of Edmonton report.

The purpose of this project is to develop a vision to re-establish Jasper Avenue as the main street of Edmonton, making it a place all Edmontonians can be proud of as well as a symbol of the vitality of the downtown and Edmonton as a whole.Jasper Avenue is Edmonton’s main street. However over the decades, Jasper Avenue lost much of its vibrancy and role as Edmonton’s premiere shopping street. Developments in the 70s, 80s, and 90s replaced much of the pre-war, historic fabric responsible for the distinctive character and sense of place of the street. The charm of Jasper Avenue as a premiere shopping street also diminished through the development of new shopping complexes within and outside of downtown.

Banff Township

Banff Upper Hot Springs

FROM WIKI-Upper Hot Springs are commercially-developed hot springs located in Banff National Park in Canada, near the Banff townsite. The hot pool is outdoors and while in the pool, visitors can look across the valley to Mount Rundle.
The Upper Hot Springs are one of nine different naturally occurring hot springs in the Banff area. The hot spring water flows naturally through the Sulphur Mountain Thrust Fault, with the source area located at higher elevations on either Sulphur Mountain or Mount Rundle. The flow rates fluctuate seasonally with snow melt, with highest flows in the spring and lowest during winter. Since the early 2000s, flow to the Upper Hot Springs has stopped for several months of the winter. During these times, municipal water is substituted for the recreational pools.[1] Water temperature is kept at approximately 38°C (100°F).

Banff Springs Hotel

The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is a former railway hotel constructed in Scottish Baronial style, located in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. The hotel, designed by architect Bruce Price,[1] was built between spring of 1887 and 1888 by the Canadian Pacific Railway, at the instigation of its President, William Cornelius Van Horne. The hotel was publicly opened on June 1, 1888[2] and rebuilt in the 1920s after a fire.
Under the stewardship of its current owner, Fairmont Hotels and Resorts, the hotel has recently had an extensive renovation which, however, has not changed its original grandeur. A significant feature of the change has been the addition of a world class spa. An original construction flaw, the siting of the entrance and lobby on the river side, has also been corrected in this renovation. (The architect is said to have declared "you built my hotel backwards!")
The hotel is within a spectacular setting in the Rocky Mountains, just above the Bow Falls, close to thermal springs. It is within walking distance of the resort community of Banff. The main view from the hotel is across the valley and towards Mount Rundle, frequently cited in geology books for its exposed and tilted ancient seabeds.
The original wooden hotel burnt down in 1926, and was rebuilt larger and in its current form in 1928. In 1968, the hotel was winterized and has been open year-round since.[3] Some have compared its past operating schedule to the fictional Overlook Hotel from Stephen King's book The Shining in that, like the Overlook Hotel, it was quite large and grand, located in a remote wilderness area prone to impressive snowfall every winter, and only open in spring through autumn months.
The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is one of the premier resort hotels of the world. The golf course in the river valley is also noted worldwide.
Halfway up the internal staircase closest to the Bow Falls may be found a noted painting of William Davidson felling trees on the Miramichi River in colonial times. Davidson was the first European settler in that area, and grew up in Moray, close to Banff, Scotland

Chateau Lake Louise

From Wiki (including last picture)- The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise is a Fairmont Hotel on the eastern shore of Lake Louise, near Banff, Alberta. The original Chateau was gradually built up at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century by the Canadian Pacific Railway and was thus "kin" to its predecessors, the Banff Springs Hotel, and the Château Frontenac. The hotel's wooden Rattenbury Wing burned down on July 3, 1924, and was replaced by the current Barrot Wing one year later. The Painter Wing, built in 1913, is the oldest portion of the hotel still standing. The Mount Temple Wing, opened in 2004, is the newest wing of the hotel and features modern meeting facilities, including the Mount Temple Ballroom.
The hotel was first conceived by the railway at the end of the 19th century, as a vacation destination to lure moneyed travellers into taking trains and heading West. By the time airplanes and automobiles had displaced the trains, it had gained sufficient renown to have a life of its own. The Canadian Pacific Railway long ago sold it to other interests.
From the start, the goal was to exploit the stunning natural beauty of the emerald-green lake and of Victoria glacier which rose above it. There were many hiking and canoeing itineraries for nature lovers. Eventually, all the natural areas around the hotel were incorporated into the Banff National Park. This park has been declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Originally built to function only in summer, the hotel was winterized in 1982 and now offers all of the regular ski resort fare during the winter months. In addition to the usual skiing, ice skating and snowboarding, there are sleigh rides, ice sculpture contests and snowshoe excursions.

Sleigh Ride

A real Cowboy.. maybe!

Okay, so its actually a horse drawn snow plow.. but who's counting?

mountain filler shot

These banff shots were my first attempts at shooting black and white.

Lake Louise

Please forgive me.. as I am building up a library or current work I am going to back and post some "I always wanted to post, but never did shots" These were taken in February (of last year).

Lake Louise, or Lac Louise as it really is a french name, is picturesque to say the least. The lake is glacier fed and lies at the feet of two mountains. This particular day was very over cast and the clouds were low, but for a brief moment the clouds parted, sun shown in and I got this one shot of the lake.

Link

Link is the other addition to my life.

I love the light that comes in from my round south facing window. In a perfect world my umbrella and sandals woulds not be in the shot, but i find they add something.

Link is grey and white. The pictures looked HORRID in colour, but they look fantastic in black and white.

Spring Cleanup

Meet Angus. after the divorce i decided to rent out me spare bedroom. I also became a defacto dog owner.

Cute little bugger isn't he!

104 Street

104 St is located in the heart of the warehouse district. In the late 90's it was 4 blocks of vacant buildings except for a gay night club at one end and the Cecil hotel at the other. The Cecil was later shut down to health code reasons so that tells you what kind of place it was.
Today the street is full of funky shops and is home to the DT farmers market in the warmer months. Condos have sprung up in the form of lofts and high rises.
This shot looks North up the street along side the Revlon building.

Paul Kane Park - The Story

The story of the park's namesake - Paul Kane was born Sept 3, 1810, in County Cork Ireland and came to Canada with his family when they settled in the village of York. He attended the York District Grammar School and later was apprenticed to a furniture maker. As a young man he became interested in painting and in 1830, enrolled as a mature student in Upper Canada College, where he studied under the drawing master T. Drury. I in time he became a professional portrait painter. From 1836 to 1845 he roamed USA and Europe, earning enough to live on by painting portraits.
After this he returned to Canada to accomplish his dream of “devoting whatever talents an proficiency I possess to the painting of a series of pictures illustrative of the North America Indians and scenery.” The resulting paintings of Canada’s original inhabitants, over 400 of which are in The Royal Ontario Museum, have made him justly famous.


-Although Paul Kane lived in Toronto he spent a large amount of time out West and his name is attached to public spaces across Canada . My favorite just might be Paul Kane Skateboard Park in Sherwood Park ;-) -

Have a great Tuesday.

Little Frozen Apples

The news has reported multiple Coyote sightings. They often live in the river valley system and come up into the neighboring communities to scour for food.

Little did I know, but they will eat the over ripe fruit as it falls from the trees in fall/winter.

All I have in my neighborhood are rabits! I'm fine with that.

PAZ

Don't ask me what PAZ stands for or the symbol.

I have no idea

Look at me being all Ansel Adams.

Paul Kane Park

I very much enjoy how the crisp blue caused by the overcast conditions contrasts with that of the very warm but harsh lighting that is given off by a standard outside the picture boarders.

This picture looked very good in black and white, but the contrast was lost and so I have elected to leave it in colour.

Enjoy.

First Snow Fall

Ok.. I woke up and a wet sticky snow had fallen.

The Blog has not been a top concern over the last 2 months as I am currently ending the relationship I have been in for the last 7 years.

It's amazing the energy it takes.

ANYWAYS.. I am back and once again committed.

Please enjoy ;-)

Vi's for Pies

Vies is a great little cafe that has many things other than pies to offer. Because it's located in between the ritzy neighborhoods of Old Glenora and Glenora, you can grab a gourmet coffee and go for a walk and look at all the beautiful houses. Vi's is an Edmonton institution.

Earls

I am starting to shoot some of my favorite haunts.

Earls is only a few blocks from my house so it's a quick and easy place to get a meal. I have been going to earls since I was a teenager. The chain has gone from great food at very affordable prices to good food at slightly above average prices.

The restaurants are all being redone in that ultra modern fashion that is so vogue today, and the parrot that you see was at one time a major symbol of the earls chain.

Fall in Parkland

OK 70 bucks for a charger ACK!

O well....

The sad thing is I missed all the fall colours, except for this one shot which I took just before my camera died.

ACK!

I Have lost the charger to my Camera... As son as I can take more pictures I will ;-)

The End of Jasper

I am lucky to have such an amazing place so close to me.

Sadley enough I don't make the most of it.

That will have to change.

This 5 km hike took us up the mountain onto sulpher ridge.

Log Jam

Another fun texture shot

A Quiet Moment

No explanation needed.

Punchbowl Falls

On the road leading up to the hot springs you pass by these falls. The path to view the falls does extend much beyond the bridge that you see. So In order to get the shots you see I had to go mountain climbing AND LET ME TELL YOU! Balancing not dropping your camera, scaling a hillside and trying not to get your new Diesel jeans dirty is hard for a city slicker.

The 15 year old boy inside me is also fully aware that these falls also resemble the female sex organs. Which does absolutely nothing for me personally, but there is still a certain giggle factor.

The New Site

I took these photos a little late in the day as you can see the sun had already set in the valley. It made for two very contrasting levels.

The new site has 4 pools, 2 unheated fresh water pools and the other two are hot spring feed.

There is a poolside cafe and the same family has help run this site for 3 generations now.

The water comes out of the mountain at 54 degrees Celsius and is cooled to 40 C or 104 F.

Old Hot Springs

The fist pool was constructed in the late 1930's. It is situated on the side of a valley along side a small river. The site is truly amazing.

The Bathhouse had a spa and massage services. It's second story viewing area had would have had an amazing view.

The pool was not large enough to meet demand so It was filled in and the bathhouse was razed. The foundation of the structure remains as it houses a large part of the hot spring collection network that feeds the new site today.

I'm Back and With a Picture of Me to Boot

I have had a very interesting vacation. Sorry I did not keep up with my photos, but I just needed to get away.

On one of my last days I rented a car and headed off to the mountains for a dip in the hot springs and to gain some clarity.

I hope you enjoy the photos.

Sorry Guys,

I have been tied up at work. I am also going on a much needed vacation.

Posts will continue Sept 15

Ptincess Theatre

Taken from the Princess Theatre website:

The historic Princess Theatre was built in 1915. The original auditorium, with a balcony, is still much the same as it was originally built. An intimate 90 seat screening room has been added to the basement. The main auditorium is partially wheelchair accessible (rest rooms are upstairs) but the downstairs theatre is not wheelchair accessible. It is the only theatre in Edmonton to have a Cry Room. It is a sound-proof viewing room equipped with volume control and a change table; ideal for families. Matinees are held every Saturday and Sunday afternoon. Monday is discount night, with all seats at $6.