The Last of Us?

Alberta, Canada, has become a popular place for filming. You might recognize some of the following movie titles—Unforgiven, The Revenant, Brokeback Mountain, and Legends of the Fall—a handful that have been shot here.

This image was not a film set from the post-apocalyptic HBO series The Last of Us, recently filmed in parts of Alberta. This fire began in the early morning hours when the temperature outside was about -16 degrees F and it’s currently under investigation. As fire crews battled the blaze, the water began freezing and for perspective, one gallon of frozen water weighs just over eight pounds.

Built in the early nineteen hundreds, this historic hotel did not survive the lethal combination of fire and the crushing weight of the ice.

I remember this hotel from when I was in my twenties. The bar was a little on the rough side but stuff like that doesn’t matter as much when you’re young and invincible.

It was impossible to get close, so I shot these using my telephoto lens. While doing so I discovered that if positioned myself just right, I could capture a rainbow. Which I did right before my bare fingers turned numb from the cold.

What I love about my life is the passion my husband and I share for nature, and we make sure to take time to appreciate whatever that brings. Sometimes it’s beautiful but other times it’s incredibly destructive.

This fire did not take any lives, but a piece of history has been lost. The building was demolished a couple of hours after these photos were taken.

Take time to appreciate the places and people that surround you—you never know when they’ll be gone forever.

Child, hmmmph…

If I close my eyes I can still hear her voice. Sometimes the conversations would begin with a hmmmph, followed by a statement that left no room for interpretation—for she was never anything but crystal clear and to the point. Other times, the hmmmph was preceeded by Child, then an equally observant comment.

We had next to nothing in common other than a shared love for a woman we both worked for, in different capacities, yet, somehow we became friends. I can’t think of her without feeling a twinge of guilt for the privileges that the color of my skin gave me over her, and our conversations were quite possibly the first real ones I’d ever had about race.

Her passing closed a chapter—a period of time in my life that forever changed me. And though she’s gone, she will live forever in my heart.

Birds flying high…

you know how I feel

soaring white pelicans black and white

Birds are a miracle because they prove to us there is a finer, simpler state of being which we may strive to attain.

Douglas Coupland

What a beautiful sight to see. These giant birds soaring high up in the thermals.

Photographs so often trigger memories and I was reminded of a summer day in Miami training with my Search and Rescue team. I was “dogless” as I was still waiting for my bloodhound to be shipped down from Washington state so my assignment was to join a member of the ultralight team that we had partnered with to fly in an ultralight.

We had staged a missing person scenario and I would be spotting from the air and reporting back to our dog teams.

It turned out to be an amazing experience and as I watched the pelicans high above me I had just the slightest sense of their freedom.

This weekend is a special one and I’ll take this as a sign!