A gravelly voiced street person and cocaine addict, Tom Jackson would have seemed like an unlikely candidate for being any kind of treasure from 15 to 22.
An actor, singer, concert promoter, and philanthropist who has raised $200 million for food banks and disaster relief, Tom Jackson is an obvious choice as a national treasure, even without taking into consideration the circumstances he has risen above. Continue reading
I like the juxtaposition of new blooms and weathered tree trunks on this palo verde and crabapple tree, respectively.
Art is all about spontaneity, right?
It’s mid-February and I’m resting on a bench helpfully placed about 3/4 of the way through one of my regular walks in Gilbert, AZ. (Helpfully, if puzzlingly. I mean, how did they know? )
Looking up, I see striking bare branches against a background of last year’s harvest of leaves, now yellow and brown.
I play with depth of field a little bit in the field, as it were. At my winter rental home, I play with cropping and filters a little bit, and ta da! A masterpiece is born. Or at least a photograph. Continue reading
Since 1970, the airline operating successfully out of Calgary, Alberta.
Since 1985, the airline with operations in Antarctica as well as the Canadian Arctic.
In 2001, the airline responsible for the first successful medevac rescue from the South Pole during the polar winter.
In 2016, the airline responsible for a second such rescue, this time for two sick workers. The crew was honoured for heroism by Aviation Week.
The airline with 7 accidents and incidents in 47 years of operation in inherently dangerous environments.
See extended video of the captain of the 2016 rescue.
See an article on recognition by the Smithsonian for the same feat.
From c0ncrete soaring through the air to this delicate fern (a fiddlehead?) uncoiling beside the path, this week. This fern was one of many like it at the George C. Reifel Migrating Bird Sanctuary. There is more to be seen while birding than just birds.
The railway was originally built between Eastern Canada and British Columbia between 1881 and 1885 (connecting with Ottawa Valley and Georgian Bay area lines built earlier), fulfilling a promise extended to British Columbia when it entered Confederation in 1871. It was Canada’s first transcontinental railway, but no longer reaches the Atlantic coast. Primarily a freight railway, the CPR was for decades the only practical means of long-distance passenger transport in most regions of Canada, and was instrumental in the settlement and development of Western Canada. – Wikipedia
Canadian Pacific Railway was founded in 1881 to link Canada’s populated centres with the vast potential of its relatively unpopulated West. This incredible engineering feat was completed on Nov.7, 1885 – six years ahead of schedule – when the last spike was driven at Craigellachie, B.C. – CPR site
At this remove in history, it all sounds so tidy. And after all, how hard could it be? Build a national railway to link Eastern manufacturers with Western markets and raw materials, and (not incidentally) meet a promise made to get BC to join Confederation: the provision of a land transport link to the Eastern provinces within 10 years.
It was, of course, anything but tidy: politicians lost power, senior construction managers lost their jobs, and William Cornelius Van Horne, an American railway official, had to be brought in at great expense to save the day. And the project. Continue reading
The freeways in metro Phoenix are a wonder of layered swooping ramps, offering many striking views to a car passenger. But getting a striking photo of them is trickier than I once thought:
So this is the first of what will likely be many attempts over the next few years to capture these amazing structures.
Desert:
- arid land with usually sparse vegetation
- an area of water apparently devoid of life
- a desolate or forbidding area: lost in a desert of doubt
- any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil
- any place lacking in something: The town was a cultural desert.
Synonyms: wasteland, barren wilderness.
– Sources: Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com
As I click through this past winter’s ton o’ photos of the Sonoran Desert, I realize how much my experience of the desert surpasses what I might have expected based on these definitions.
Certainly I have shots that evoke a sere, unforgiving environment.
But I have other shots that invite a different understanding.
Desert: an area of lush prickliness
Desert: an area of soft prickliness
Desert: an area of unexpected colour
Desert: an area of fuzziness, nay, even fluffiness
Desert: a land of welcome shade
Desert: a land of life-giving water
If a barren wilderness can so surpass its definition, surprising and delighting me, surely anything and everything can.
Here come da Judge. – Laugh-In recurring schtick
Before being appointed to the BC Supreme Court in 1971, Thomas Berger was a lawyer and a politician:
Posted: 2025 Aug 20
