Photo Finish Friday: Elk

And there were two more in the bush.

Have a good weekend all!

PFF is the creation of my cousin Leah over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Jasper's New Totem Pole - Part II

I managed to choose a good bench to park myself on, I was able to see most of what was going on and hear the speeches that were made after the raising. The sound system was not very good and there was no way I was able to hear the speeches that were made before the raising. I did mange to see all sorts of of lovely costumes, so here are some crowd photos from Saturday.

 

And from the speeches after:

The totem on Sunday when the biggest crowds and the ropes were gone.

Have a good day all!

Jasper gets a new Totem Pole

My friends & I went to Jasper this past weekend to watch the new totem pole being raised and we had a wonderful time. Up until 2009, there had been a totem pole by the railways in Jasper  (94 years actually). It was however about 140 years old, it had sat elsewhere for the first portion of its life and then been purchased by Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and placed in Jasper. The Jasper Raven Totem Pole was repatriated back to the Haida Gwaii in 2010.


Totem poles are not something the First Nations Tribes in this area create and there was a huge uproar over putting another totem pole in Jasper. Some links; here, here and here. It seems to have been settled out a bit at least as there were no demonstrations and lots of participation by the tribes of the area and the Gwaii.  Here is the story of the new totem and the brothers that designed and carved it.

And it wouldn't be a post by me if there weren't some photos ;)

They were still carving and painting on Friday when we arrived.  We spent so much time Friday night walking around the town and looking at the totem and the new site that I was pretty much useless on Sat & Sun for walking. We figured out from my friends pedometer that we walked about 6-7 miles (well, meandered) over the course of the afternoon/evening. I used my friends as walkers the next two days, or sat on a bench under a tree. (Very frustrating!)

I managed to hobble over and get these shots of the pole going up:

I heard that the people pulling on the ropes all got to keep a section of rope for a souvenir. It was hauled up by manpower, the crane was there only as an emergency stop should it fall.....it weighs 9600 lbs. There were only a couple of times that it seemed it was going go awry.

Sadly as I was stuck on a bench I didn't get shots of the procession of chiefs and other dignitary's. However I will post more tomorrow (or the next day) this is long enough for now.

Have a great day all. 

Photo Finish Friday: Fledgling

One of last weeks babies decided to try his(her?) wings. I'm not sure how long he was on my patio, but I had been hearing a one note peep going on all afternoon and it was driving me nuts!

I took a few shots then went outside to see if I could do anything, he scooted under my planter which gave me an opportunity for a better photo. I put a thin stick up at an angle to the bottom of the trellis, but he didn't figure that out. It probably wasn't high enough anyway. Mom and dad came by a couple of times to try to get him going, but, I didn't see them succeed before it got dark. Doesn't mean he spent the night under the planter though, but at least he would be safe from predators there. Here I was thinking of replacing that planter, I had better not ;)


Have a good weekend all.....I won't be around to reply as I will be in Jasper! Yes, I am going to the mountains ;) I'll catch up on Monday.


PFF is the invention of my cousin Leah over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday: Hungry?

 As close as I dared to get with my Sony.

Then I got out the Olympus to use the high powered zoom and managed to get two babies ;)

Have a good weekend all.

Pff is the creation of my cousin Leah over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday: Canada Day

Happy Canada Day one and all!