Really quite spectacular outside. Cool, but bright. Lots of sun, lots of blue sky. Labour Day long weekend, so many people (and dogs) out enjoying the river valley. It was supposed to rain today, and it may still, but so far, it’s the nicest day of the ‘weekend.’

I should probably stop taking pictures of the North Saskatchewan River from the Cloverdale Bridge, but I just love the view. It really changes, depending on the weather and time of year. Now, we’re headed into the ‘aquamarine’ phase of the season, when the water is low and the river turns an unlikely shade of blue. The next best time of year (for the river) is in late Fall, when the pancake ice arrives. Who doesn’t like pancakes? Months away, I hope, but still something to look forward to…visually.

Ran up the stairs near Connor’s Hill. Good view of the river valley, which currently looks like an Impressionist painter has applied accents of yellow here and there, to draw the eye and compliment the dense swath of green. Just in the last week, the yellow has become more noticeable. Must be those few really chilly days we’ve had. Knocked the chlorophyll right out of the leaves. More to come, I presume.

1:30 PM/12C

Addendum to yesterday’s ‘A Bear in the River Valley‘: Stewart Steinhauer very kindly provided the following background for the sculptures in Rossdale. It seems he is as eloquent and charming a writer as he is a sculptor.

“The typical mother and child motif is actually a riff on my Cree ancestor’s notion of earth as mother; the little figure in her “lap” is a character from an Ojib-Cree ceremonial story, part human and part eagle, in transformation. The whole thing is metaphorical, like most “simple” Cree stories. A sustained reading will take you down the what the bleep rabbit hole, but that reading requires getting right into the ceremonial space.

Same with the bears. They are metaphorical references to an extended notion of relationship, inter-relationship, inter-species relationships, and the larger relationship with our lovely little blue planet hurtling through space. I think these ancient metaphors were meant, on one level, as a set of guide posts, or land scape markers, to help us fragile humans in our social wanderings. I’m putting the metaphors into a concrete form, in granite, and placing them on the lands that were once the free home of my ancestors, as a message to some far future generation which may have developed our human capacity for intelligence into an actual intelligent practice. Mother Earth is very beautiful, and we are so lucky to be here, now….we just don’t get it, yet….as a species.”

Really lovely. Thank you Mr Steinhauer, for your thoughtful words, and the beautiful granite creatures that inhabit the river valley. I feel very lucky indeed to be here, now, especially when I’m walking in the river valley, amongst the trees and bears.

1:56 PM/16C

A bear was spotted in the river valley near Fort Edmonton Park last week. From the media reports, the impression was that this person was perhaps, you know, seeing things…mistaking a tree stump, or maybe a fat labrador for a bear, until Alberta Fish and Wildlife found some bear scat, and the ‘sighting’ became real. When a bear shits in the woods in Edmonton, everyone pays attention.

Coincidentally, I hiked in that same area around the time of the bear sighting, and I too sampled the local Saskatoon berry harvest, but I did not see a bear. Not even a fat labrador.

However, I can personally vouch for bears in the river valley. I pass one almost every day. This bear is huge, beautiful, and made of stone. It sits outside the Rossdale Community League year round. The sculpture is by Stewart Steinhauer, a ‘self-taught sculptor/foolish person’. A few years ago, there was a kneeling black bear and a polar bear, and I  think it was called Mother Bear Prays For Earth, or something like that. Extremely moving, and a really unusual feature in any community, but the bear is not the only stone resident of the neighbourhood.

There is also a permanent sculpture a block up the street, next to half moon of benches. From a distance, it looks like a typical mother and child pose, but up close, it’s quitestrange, and rather sweet. It’s from Steinhauer’s mother earth series. I don’t know who is commissioning or purchasing these Steinhauer sculptures for Rossdale, but the residents are extremely lucky to have such a thoughtful benefactor. Aside from the annual June/July infestation of hideous green caterpillars, Rossdale is already a beautiful area of the river valley; these sculptures are literally gilding the lily. It seems ridiculously unfair, but at least I can visit them whenever I want, and to be honest, my neighbourhood is not without it’s own sculptural attractions, but nothing quite like these stone lovelies.

Other than a bear sighting, nothing out of the ordinary on my walk today, unless you count warmth and sunshine. Oh snap!

Also, some wind.

6:17 PM/22C

Walked after I got home, after an appointment, and after most of the trail commuters had left the ravine, and the dog walkers had entered. It was evening cool in the shade, but still warm in the sunlight. Pretty sure I saw a Kingfisher, but is that possible? Definite greyish blue colour with the white neck band and slightly stunted body. I’ll have to look it up.

So tired these days, but the walks help. Hoping for some aimless walks this long weekend. As the days shorten, so does my time in the river valley. At the end of October, it will be too dark to make my commute through the isolated paths in the woods. Werewolves and stuff. However, still have eight weeks in the weakening sun.

6:38 PM/19C

Felt a little lonely on the trails today without my dog. Um, I mean, my rent-a-dog, Maggie. Doggy-sitting ended as of yesterday. The only one that’s really happy about that is my cat.

Two seasons in one day. October in the morning (and for the last three days), and August in the afternoon. From 7C to 19C. In my capris and T-shirt, I was overdressed for the walk home. Shorts tomorrow. Maybe.

Pretty quiet in the river valley. Pretty quiet walk. And just pretty. Everywhere. And quiet.

Maggie?

6:15 PM/19C

Holy pee-mail. There must have been a whole lot of full-bladdered dogs in Whitemud Creek last night, because this morning, Maggie had to stop every few feet to read the latest news from dogville. However, it’s as much her walk as it is mine, so I’ll choose the route, but she is allowed, within reason, to choose the stops.

Another remarkably cool day. This time, no sun at all. Walked through the ravine for awhile, and then instead of taking the road most travelled, the one leading to the Ski Valley, we took the path headed to Westbrook. There’s a stretch of the trail where the birch and aspen take a sudden shift toward black spruce, or at least I think it’s spruce. The tree that dies from the bottom up, but still appears to be healthy at the top? There’s a lot of them in Edmonton at the moment, and in this small area of Whitemud, the majority of trees at eye-level appear dead, which makes the view grey and soft.

The trail is shored up by wooden barriers or old tree trunks, because the drop is significant. The less-travelled trail is well-worth the trip, and although it’s short, the only way out is through Westbrook. I prefer ravine routes if possible, but in this case, it was my only choice.

I’ve only walked along this trail a few times, and the Westbrook part got very confusing very quickly. Took a wrong turn, so I ended up going north, when I should have gone south. Of course, Maggie decided to take her third and last crap on the edge of a very nicely manicured lawn, and I quickly discovered that what the fine neighbourhood of Westbrook lacks in garbage bins, they more than make up for in fire hydrants. So, lost and tired, with my little bag of Maggie poo swinging in my hand, we walked around and around the maze of cul de sacs, stopping every ten feet to sniff the fire hydrants, until I finally found a school I recognized.

In the end, Maggie got another off leash run through the school yard, chasing the seagulls, and I found a garbage. Our walk today was about a half hour longer than I intended, but it’s a Sunday, so who cares, and the company was most excellent.

12:30 PM/7C