Along highway #3 (when you drive towards Crowsnest Pass, just before you hit the Burmis Tree) lie the remains of The Leitch Collieries Ltd. Coal mining. It once was the region's largest, most sophisticated early coal mining and coking operations. The mine opened in 1907 and was the only Canadian-owned mine in the Pass. Chaotic coal prices forced it to close in 1915. The stone remains of the original buildings display early coal mining methods and interpretive displays are on trails.

Remains of The Leitch Collieries Ltd.

Beams, sky and mountains

Beams and shadows

It came to be @ 09:33 AM MT

4 Comments

I like the framing of this photo. The shapes and the colors,the shadows as well. Nice shot!

eden | 03.20.05 - 7:29 pm |

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oh wow... these are brilliant - brilliant blue sky, brilliant composition and brilliant architecture :)

daisies | 03.21.05 - 2:22 pm |

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Eden, nice to see you here... and thanks for your comment :-)).

daisies, you're very kind. Thanks :-)).

Lorien | 03.21.05 - 7:00 pm |

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~tons of great light, color and detail in all three~

btezra | 03.22.05 - 8:15 am |

We already showed you photos of the well known and most photogenic Burmis Tree of Southern Alberta before... but that's a new one from our recent day trip to the Crowsnest pass. We read somewhere that it was 300 years old Limber Pine. Now we read elsewhere that it is 735 years old, lost its needles in 1978, Chinook winds toppled it in 1998 and it was vandalized in 2004 (we remember this from the news reports last year).

The Burmis tree is the only point of interest left of the once prosperous coal mining and lumber town of Burmis. It sits at the entrance of the Crowsnest Pass from the east, on the north side of Highway 3. Some of his branches are connected with metal... his roots too... and it still stands. And now, those who care for it put an artificial baby pine around its metal support post... to hide it, maybe? It's so out of place there, though...

As someone says in the link above: "It suffers by living, by acts of love, and by acts of violence. It symbolizes all variations of struggle: right and wrong, life and death, love and hate, safety and danger, peace and violence. At one angle it is lovely, at another grotesque; it has moments of vulnerability and moments of strength; it has stages of dying and stages of immortality".

So true...

Continuous presence

It came to be @ 05:20 PM MT

6 Comments

Great shot of this tree. There are so many ways to capture this tree, and so many ways to create mood. I agree that the small tree does look out of place. But will it survive on this wind blasted rocky landscape?

Jeff | 03.19.05 - 9:02 am |

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Wow! Why would some one want to vandalize something like this. People are strange! We have an ancient oak tree on the cost that is huge it died and some nut tried to cut it down. Now they have a fence around it. To keep everyone out. Wonderful photo Lorien

Joe | 03.19.05 - 10:15 am |

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Thanks, guys :-)).

Jeff, I think it's artificial, though I didn't come close enough to check.

Joe, I can't understand it either. Some people have evil in them, I guess. They can't express themselves by doing good, so they choose distraction. We only can feel sorry for them, though it is annoying!

Lorien | 03.19.05 - 10:22 am |

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Lorien,

Beautiful photography... I pray that the tree will be saved... Continue being instrumental!

Michele MA' KO` | 03.19.05 - 1:09 pm |

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you have done a lovely job on the Burmis tree ... really beautiful tribute ...

daisies | 03.21.05 - 2:23 pm |

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Michele, daisies, thanks for your comments :-)).

Lorien | 03.21.05 - 7:01 pm |

Happy Greenish day to whomever celebrates today. This green photo is dedicated to our blogging friend Boydcreek Joe, who loves this sport to pieces, and plays it himself. Joe... we love you!!! *s*.

And btw... do you see the ball???

You suppose to aim for the green

It came to be @ 04:40 PM MT

4 Comments

LOL!!!! You two are fantastic!!!! What a wonderful pic. Lorien, you and Joe are two special people in my life. I look forward to viewing your photos so much. Sometimes I close my eyes and pretend I am riding around with you, looking for that least expected shoot. Shalom, my friend!

Joe | 03.17.05 - 7:42 pm |

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Wow! Hole in one? :-)).

Alan | 03.17.05 - 11:09 pm |

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check out all that great green :-)) nice shot! ;-)) though I can't for the life of me see the ball!

daisies | 03.18.05 - 1:12 pm |

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Joe, it's our pleasure :-)).

Alan, mmm... don't know... don't understand much in Golf :-)).

daisies, Thanks. Hint... look mostly at the upper part of the photo ;-)).

Lorien | Homepage | 03.18.05 - 2:06 pm |

Last night (rather 1:00 AM early morning) we had these cravings for one of Boston Pizza's yummy cakes... Yea, you now think BAD US!!! ;-). So we surrendered to our cravings and went into the sports bar part of Boston Pizza, and shared this one-of-a-kind Rolo ice cream cake they serve there... and a coffee & hot chocolate.

Holy Molly... it was something else! There were few other crazy nighters there, mostly young people. The music was on, and they had lots of TV screens around, showing all kinds of sports. And of course, we took few photos... all in B & W mode this time. We were experimenting.

The first two photos are merely a crop of the third one (All three will open in the same page).

Empty glass - High left crop

Empty glass - Low right crop

Empty glass - original

It came to be @ 05:00 PM MT

6 Comments

Hey girl, they are all great! However I even dream in color!

Joe | 03.17.05 - 10:08 am |

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I'm glad that's not an empty BEER glass :-)).

Joe [Scotland] | 03.17.05 - 11:56 am |

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nice contrast here! I enjoy looking at the bottom part =)

ren | 03.17.05 - 4:48 pm |

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Thanks for looking and commenting, guys :-)).

No beer for me, Scotland Joe :-)). My Joe has it from time to time, but we're not bar people. We go there for the food ;-)).

Lorien | 03.17.05 - 4:57 pm |

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wow ... it all sounds very decadent These are fantastic captures though, looks like I'll be spending a fair part of the weekend in pubs and the like, ah sweet inspiration : )

daisies | 03.18.05 - 1:11 pm |

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:-)) :-)) :-))

Lorien | 03.18.05 - 3:02 pm |

You know how it is when you sometimes watch people or situations out there, and your imagination builds a whole story around them?

So we were sitting by the airport the other day, watching the planes coming in and going out. It was a tremendously windy afternoon, and the van was shaking with every wind gust. We wanted to see how well the pilots stabilized the planes, and well... what can we say... they were doing quite a good job *s*.

This guy parked his van to our right, and we saw what we was doing every time we looked to the right (south - the direction from where the planes were coming down for landing). I noticed he was using his binoculars, looking to the south as well, checking the planes that came in.

Where are they?

And then, this huge Air Canada plane came down, and the guy entered his van and drove away.

Finally arrived

"I guess he was waiting for this particular flight", said Joe. "He's probably on his way to pick up someone at the terminal".

"It might be a wife that he's picking up", I thought... "Or maybe his kid who comes home for spring back from a university down east... who knows".

When I looked at these photos back home on the screen, a whole script of a totally different scenario came to mind. The skies looked so dramatic, and I could see (in my mind's eyes) a huge mother ship coming out of the clouds, which had a gold brownish color to them. You know, that's because the atmosphere of earth is changed... mmmm... ;-)...

Ok, so I played with the photos. The end *s*.

It came to be @ 03:30 PM MT

5 Comments

Those clouds ... amazing ...

The stories behind those faces ... you'll never know ... I like to think he was waiting for the love of his life :-)).

O and Lorien you wanted a translation with the photo? I'm so not good at that but I'll try ... the photo is a huge box that was delivered last Monday, I wanted to open it but saw I wasn't allowed to .. a dear friend who send the package had written down in big letters on the box "not permitted to open until it's your birthday" which is 15 days from now ;-)).
She's also wrote "good luck with counting down" :D

Gadisa | 03.16.05 - 8:31 am |

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There is a slightly ominous feel to these with the saturated tone of the clouds, a feeling of impending doom. He was there watching and waiting, plotting his next move... a crescendo of suspense movie crashes and thunder rolls off the hills... and then... ;-))

Love these, conjure up all kinds of stories indeed : ) nicely done!

daisies | 03.16.05 - 10:38 am |

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Yes, yes, YES!!! daisies, that's exactly the mood I was looking for! Dooms day. I'm so glad it came through :-)).

And Gadisa... this is way too funny!!! :-)).

Lorien | 03.16.05 - 10:51 am |

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wow it's a dramatic shoot ... those clouds are incredibles. Cheers

mauro ujetto | 03.16.05 - 3:29 pm |

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cool captures! the clouds are just stunning!

potty | 03.19.05 - 8:57 am |

Green Energy is the future of the world, people... and here in Southern Alberta we have the natural resources (lots of wind) and the money to develop it. Chinook winds run down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains and turn the rotors of the giant wind turbines. From there, wind energy enters Albertas electrical grid, which powers homes and businesses throughout Alberta. Even more so, Calgary's public transit system purchases this green energy for the C-Trains that speed transit riders across the city.

Question is: Does this sight of these giant modern windmills annoy people? Yes, there are those who think it ruins the landscape. But at least one sure thing is that it doesn't hurt nature. For a change, humans work with nature to supply their needs in a way which will preserve nature for future generations.

On our way back from Crowsnest Pass we took a right turn to a service road from highway #3, and came as close as we could to the windmills row. It was fantastic to see them so close (they are huge), and they were working!

On a clear day, the wind blows forever

It came to be @ 01:12 PM MT

6 Comments

Great pic. Joe. We have some of those out west but I don't remember where. Have a good week you two!

Joe | 03.14.05 - 6:19 pm |

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Great picture. I've seen the windmills a few times while driving around Alberta and was always fascinated by how enormous they are up close.

Jeff | 03.15.05 - 9:00 am |

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Wow, you know, I've never been able to see one of those up close before... Nice shot!

valerie | 03.15.05 - 9:17 am |

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This is really beautiful!! great capture ...

Gadisa | 03.16.05 - 8:33 am |

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Nice! I love these ... really have to take a trip through Southern Alberta this spring : ) All my shots of these utterly failed last summer....

daisies | 03.16.05 - 10:36 am |

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Thanks, everyone.

daisies, you should. There's so much to see, and in summer everything is so green and blue... takes your breath away :-)).

Lorien | 03.16.05 - 10:59 am |