Fort Whyte Alive

 

Dear fellow bloggers;

I’m sorry I haven’t been around to visit you on a very regular basis, lately. Things have been pretty busy around here and it’s been hard to keep up. I thought I would quickly share with you some of the things I have done over the past few weeks, besides making cards. Since I last gave an update, (see my post, Social Butterfly) I attended a ‘Bud Spud and Steak’ event to raise money for the families of four Calgary security guards who were killed in a robbery. It was a blast with great food, spent with good friends and several live bands, the members of which all donated their time to play at the event. Harlequin even flew in for it. They were great!

I have been back to the dentist to finally get my permanent crown. I’m still recovering as she did a real number on my gums and even after two weeks, there’s still some discomfort, so I may have to go back and get it checked out.  At least I don’t have to double up on the painkillers just to lessen the pain a bit, anymore.

The daughter of a friend of ours got married a week after the Bud, Spud & Steak. It was a small backyard ceremony with a reception in a local hall. The bride sings in her Dad’s band sometimes and her new husband had his own band so the two musical families did a ‘jam’ to play some of the bride’s favourite music. There was also a silent auction to help raise money for the young couple and we won a set of tools. Hubby is ecstatic! He says it’s way better than the coffee prize we won last month.  We ended up staying right up until the bitter end to help our friends clean up.

Last week, I took a friend out for lunch for her birthday. Another friend joined me on a different day for lunch so we could discuss her up-coming book and so I could teach her a little bit about the social media adventure that is blogging.  With any luck, she’ll be joining a lot of us on WordPress. Once that happens, I’ll introduce you! 🙂

Now for the finale: In my Social Butterfly post, I mentioned that I accompanied friends from my Tai Chi class to an event put on by the Independent Living Resource Centre that was held at a local wildlife preserve called Fort Whyte Alive. It was once property owned by a cement company near a wooded area and has now been reclaimed by the preserve. The sand pits dug by the cement company have become small lakes that host a large variety of waterfowl and has been stocked with fish. The preserve has several trails that wind through the park where you may encounter deer, wild geese, an assortment of waterfowl and a small bison herd. There is a sod house to explore and two tepees. There are a couple of picnic areas that can be reserved for parties, an interpretive centre which has a display of local animals and information on them and conservation. They also have a sailing program in which they teach physically and mentally challenged people how to sail.

Last Sunday, my family and I returned to Fort Whyte to meet some friends from town and also connect with a high school friend and her family, who now live in Ontario. Since I find Fort Whyte an interesting place and since I’ve been there twice this month, I thought I would compile movie clips that I took of it and share my movie with you. I used the Kodak Sport movie camera which I bought to give Hubby for Father’s Day last year. I ended up giving it to him a day early so we could document the birth of our grandson. Since it is no bigger than a cell phone, it fits easily into my purse, which it rarely leaves despite it technically being ‘Hubby’s camera’. The music I added to the clips is ‘Nature Walk’ by Dan Gibson from the album Caribbean Dreams. I hope this works!

Now, I’d better go off and make a few more cards! 🙂