My deepening love of nature...

I manage to accomplish a lot on my days off. I guess it comes from having so many things to do and so little time to do them in. This morning I slept in (whoops, sorry YMCA) and woke when I heard the telephone ring. A little later the doorbell rang and who walked in other than my cousin Joanne and her dad, my fantastic, wonderful Uncle Bob. They were here from Mayerthorpe County for a few doctor's appointments for Uncle Bob and between injections and bone scans they came for a cup of coffee and a cookie. That was the beginning of my day.
When Joanne and Bob left, Gramma and I got organized and headed out to Fort Edmonton Park to spend the afternoon. When we got there, however, there were 21 different school groups screaming and running around the park, and we were pretty turned off. So we walked down the path to the Jon Janzen Nature Reserve, where we wandered around for a few minutes before setting off down one of their fabulous hiking trails.
We did the short loop, thinking that once the school groups started heading out around 2 we'd go into the park and explore until it closed. The short loop was pretty great, and we had a great time exploring it.
This was one of the biggest birch trees I had ever seen.
Until we saw this one, which was thicker than Gramma!

This is the marker for 1905 street; for those of you who don't know how Fort Edmonton Park works, the basic idea is that the actual Fort structure is the real thing, relocated from its original resting place as the beginning of the city of Edmonton. Then there are 3 historical "streets": 1885 street, 1905 street and 1920 street, all constructed with real and simulated buildings from each of those time periods to illustrate what Edmonton was like in its pioneer stages.
This is the train you can take all the way around the park. We usually take it to the fort and then walk the rest of the streets back to the entrance in a big loop.
1905 street in all it's pre-war glory.
The horse stables on 1905 street. The park probably has more than 25 horses and a collection of cows, pigs, sheep, goats and fowl. The horses and ponies are used for rides, pulling wagons, and other such things. And they're cared for very well, which Gramma and I always appreciate.
The entrance to Fort Edmonton Park. The Fort is definitely in my top 5 places in Edmonton, right up there with Scona Market, West Edmonton Mall, Sproule Farm and the river valley. Gramma was saying to me this evening that other women may think she's crazy and ask her why we don't just go shopping together instead of hiking around in the heat and mosquitos, but she wouldn't have it any other way. I agree whole-heartedly.

On an unrelated note, La Senza is fine, but only just. I like Safeway, I like Penningtons, but I'll merely tolerate La Senza until it's time for me to quit. Just another name to add to my resume, I guess.

-Laur