Tuesday 28 October 2008

Reflections

Reflections

We both worked Election Day here two weeks ago -- me as Central Poll Supervisor, Dennis as one of my Deputy Returning Officers -- and decided that with the proceeds of that very long (0615-2230) day, we would treat ourselves to a quiet weekend in Banff.

The weather was fine when we set out Saturday morning, turned nasty as we entered the mountains, and cleared up during the afternoon: the photo above, taken at Lake Minnewanka, was shot just before noon, when we had low clouds, flurries, strong winds, and occasional peeks of sun.

By the time we had driven the loop, stopping to take pictures and do a little wandering around, and checked into our hotel, the day had improved a great deal.

After the storm

A lovely dinner at Ticino with a bottle of our favourite Grey Monk Rotberger (the perfect complement to my chicken with chevre and Dennis's duck), and a stroll back to the hotel capped off a lovely day.

Sunday, we took the Bow River Parkway (below) to Lake Louise, then the TransCanada Highway back to Calgary.

Perspective

Nice. Peaceful.

The weekend was especially appreciated, as the rest of the week after the election, I worked in Artist Liaison for WordFest again this year, and had a great time. Not all of the writers came into the room on my shift (or were particularly chatty!), but I was pleased to be able to talk at some length with Coral Bracho, Brian Brennan, Cecil Castellucci, Sylvie Desrosiers, Leif Enger, Sheree Fitch, Ken Harvey, C.C. Humphreys, Ikwunga, Martine Latulippe, Randall Maggs, Miles Merrill, William Neil Scott, Paul Quarrington, and Nino Ricci,

And like last year, I ended up spending a great deal of time with one author in particular: this time, it was the wonderful children's author and illustrator Geoffroy de Pennart of Paris. As the only member of the Artist Liaison team who spoke French, I was detailed to accompany him out to Okotoks for a reading at the French immersion school. He was a perfect gentleman, terrific with the kids, and draws the most amazing creatures. I'm thrilled to have a copy of his Igor et les trois petits cochons on my bookshelf.

While recuperating from all this activity last week, I got more work done on My Past Life: check out my progress here. Now that the dowels are completely dry, I'll be attaching the elbows (one elbow at one end of each dowel) with epoxy: that way I can set up and take down the piece easily, but not have to worry about losing the elbows.

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