Bench of the Week (4)

These benches are in Vilna, Alberta with a built-in view. Click to enlarge.





Photo Credit: Fracture CC=nc-sa-flickr.

Hiking Trails - Three Sisters

The Three Sisters Trail is located near Fernie, British Columbia.


[1- Three Sisters from Fernie - click to enlarge]


8 hours, difficult, elevation gain 770m (2,525 feet)



[2- Elk River near the Three Sister - click to enlarge]

The trailhead is accessed by starting at the bridge over the Elk River, on the north end of Fernie, travel east on highway 3 for 5.2km to Dicken Road. Turn left onto Dicken Road and travel for 600m. Turn right onto Hartley Lake Road. Set odometer at “0”. Follow rough, two wheel drive gravel road for 9km, passing Hartley Lake. At odometer 9, turn left onto a rough, 4-wheel drive track. Follow this track for 3 km.




[3-click to enlarge]


It is 6.4 km to the first saddle. The first half of this trail is through an old growth forest and is easy to follow. As the trail leaves the forest, the views open up as it enters a meadow and heads west. At the edge of the meadow, near Olivia Creek, there is a primitive campsite. Red triangles on the far side of the meadow mark where the well-defined trail resumes. The rest of the trail is very exposed. Hikers should be prepared for sudden weather changes, as shelter is limited. From the meadow, the trail begins to climb steeply.

Take care, as this steep section is slippery when wet. Until the Sulphur Creek basin is reached, the trail continues to be challenging and care must be taken, as falling rock, steep cliffs below the trail and a rocky face must be crossed.

After this rugged section, the trail enters the meadow at the top of Sulphur Creek, where another primitive campsite can be found. In this area, the trail passes near an area of Karst topography with sink-holes, caves and huge limestone boulders that tumbled off the shoulder of the Three Sisters. From Sulphur Creek, it is an easy hike up a good trail to the ridge.


[4 - Hikers on scree slopes of the Three Sisters - click to enlarge]




[5-Mt. Bisaro from Three Sisters Trail - click to enlarge]


Once on the ridge, there are fine views down into Fairy Creek, Fernie, and the surrounding mountains.


[6 - Backside of The Steeples from the Three Sisters looking toward Cranbrook - click to enlarge]


Lucky hikers may get to see mountain goats.


[7- Mountain goat - click to enlarge]


Less lucky ones may encounter a grizzly or black bear.


[8- Grizzly bear]




[9- Hiking out from the Three Sisters]


The Three Sisters are part of the Washburn Range in the Rocky Mountains, adjacent to the Elk River Valley. There is a legend about the Three Sisters: an Indian Chief was enamoured by three maidens and could not decide which one he would choose as a bride. When the elder chiefs asked the gods for their help in making this decision, the gods punished their indecisiveness by turning the young chief into a mountain (Mount Proctor). Upon hearing about this, the grief of the maidens was so great that they asked the gods to turn them into a mountain also – and so became the Three Sisters in Fernie.


Source: BC Forestry

Photo Credits: [1][3][4][5][6][9]-Dru! CC=nc-nd-flickr, [2]-Calypso Orchid CC=nc-nd-flickr, [7]-steeljam CC=nc-nd-flickr, [8]-atonal CC=nc-sa-flickr.

Index of Book Reviews

Alphabetically:

Armstrong, Kelley - Haunted [2010 - trade paperback](Fantasy Suspense)

Beagle, Peter S. - Sleight of Hand - (2011 - Trade Paperback) (Fantasy)
Urban Fantasy Anthology, The - Edited by Peter S. Beagle and Joe R. Lansdale (2011 - Trade Paperback) (Fantasy)
Boyne, John - Mutiny on the Bounty (2010 - paperback)

Browne, Sylvia - Temples on the Other Side (Spirituality) (2008)

Chima, Cinda Williams - The Warrior Heir (YA) (2006)
Chima, Cinda Williams - The Wizard Heir (YA) (2007)

Clarke, Cassandra Rose - The Mad Scientist's Daughter - (Science Fiction) (2013)

Cook, Eileen - What Would Emma Do? (YA) (2009)

Cori, Patricia - The Starseed Dialogues (2009)

Cox, Michael - The Meaning of Night: A Confession (Paperback, 2009)
Cox, Michael - The Glass of Time (Paperback, June 2009)

Davidson, Andrew - The Gargoyle (2009)

De Lint, Charles - Promises to Keep (Paperback, 2011) (YA Urban Fantasy)

Gabaldon, Diana - An Echo In The Bone (2009)
Gabaldon, Diana - The Exile (Graphic Novel)(Fantasy, Historical) (2010)

Ganeri, Anita and West, David - An Illustrated Guide to Mythical Creatures (Hardcover, September 2009)- Children (9-13)

Goldstein, Lisa - The Uncertain Places (Paperback, June 2011) (Fantasy)

Goldstone, Lawrence - The Anatomy of Deception (2009, Historical Crime)

Gutteridge, Don - Solemn Vows (2011 Trade Paperback) (Historical Mystery, Romance)
Gutteridge, Don - Vital Secrets - (2011 Trade Paperback) (Historical Mystery)

Hall, Tarquin - The Case of the Missing Servant (2010, Paperback, Crime Mystery)

Hall, Tarquin - The Case of the Man Who Died Laughing (2010, Hardcover, Crime, Mystery, Dectective)

Harris, C.J. - When Gods Die (Historical Mystery)

Hartwell, David G. and Weisman, Jacob - The Sword & Sorcery Anthology - [2012, Trade Paperback (Fantasy)]

Heighton, Steven - Every Lost Country (2010, Hardcover) (Literary Adventure)

Jeter, K. W. - Infernal Devices and Morlock Night (2011)(Fantasy/Steampunk)

Johnson, Jane - The Tenth Gift (2009)

Kessel, John and Kelly, James Patrick - Kafkaesque: Stories inspired by Franz Kafka - (2011) (Fantasy)

King, J. Robert - Angel of Death (2009/2010)(Urban Fantasy)

Koontz, Dean - The Darkest Evening of the Year (2009)
Koontz, Dean - Frankenstein: Lost Souls - (2010, Hardcover) Horror, Suspense
Koontz, Dean - What The Night Knows - (2010, Hardcover) Horror, Suspense

Laszlo, Ervin - Quantum Shift in the Global Brain (2008)
Laszlo, Ervin - The Akashic Experience: Science and the Cosmic Memory Field (2009)

Lawrence, D.H. - Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928, 1960)

Levis, Caron - Ida, Always (Hardcover)(February 2016)(Children Picture Book)

Mabry, MD, Richard L. - Code Blue (Paperback, April 2010)(Medical Suspense)

Mankell, Henning - The Man From Beijing (2010 - Canada) (Crime Thriller)

McCullough, Joseph A. - Dragonslayers (2013) Myths and Legends

McGowan, D.M. - Partners (2008)(Western)
McGowan, D.M. - Homesteader: Finding Sharon (2009) (Western)

Mitchell, Alanna - Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis (2009)

O'Brien, Patrick - The Life Story of a Panda Leopard (YA) (1930)

Parrish, Stephen - The Tavernier Stones (2010 - paperback) (Historical thriller)

Potter, Christopher - You Are Here: A Portable History of the Universe (2009)

Roberson, Chris - Book of Secrets (2009) (Fantasy/Thriller)

Roberts, Shauna - Like Mayflies in a Stream (2009) (Historical fiction)

Romijn, Andre - Vive Madame la Dauphine (2008)

Rose, M.J. - The Reincarnationist (2007)
Rose, M.J. - The Memorist (2008)

Russell, Leigh - Cut Short (2009) (Crime/Thriller)
Russell, Leigh - Road Closed (2010) (Crime/Thriller)

Sanderson, Brandon - The Emperor's Soul - (2012 Paperback)  (Fantasy)

Sansom, C. J. - Dissolution (2003) (Historical Crime)
Sansom, C.J. - Dark Fire (2004) (Paperback-2007)
Sansom, C.J. - Heartstone (2010-Hardcover) (Historical Crime)

Shevdon, Mike - Sixty-One Nails (Paperback 2009/2010) (SF/F, Urban Fantasy)
Shevdon, Mike - The Road to Bedlam, Vol.II of The Courts of Fayre (Paperback 2010) (SF/F, Urban Fantasy)
Shevdon, Mike - Strangeness and Charm (Paperback 2012) (SF/F, Urban Fantasy)

Smith, Rick / Lourie, Bruce / Dopp, Sarah - Slow Death by Rubber Duck (Paperback - 2010 - Environmental Concern, Non-Fiction)

Taher, Bahaa - Sunset Oasis (2009 - Translated to English) (Historical)

Totton, Sarah - Animythical Tales (Paperback - 2010 - Fantasy)

Trussoni, Danielle - Angelology (2010)(Historical Fiction)

Twelve Hawks, John - The Golden City (Fantasy/Thriller-2009)

VanderMeer, Ann & Jeff - Fast Ships, Black Sails (Oct 2008)(SF/F Anthology)
VanderMeer, Jeff - Finch (Nov 2009) (SF/F, Crime, Mystery, Thriller)
VanderMeer, Jeff - The Third Bear (Aug 2010) (F, Horror, Anthology)

Van Gelder, Gordon, editor - The Very Best Fantasy & Science Fiction: 60th Anniversary (Sept 2009) (SF/F Anthology)

Viswanathan, Padma - The Toss of a Lemon (Paperback 2009)

Waggoner, Tim - Nekropolis (2009) (SF/F)

Warren, Kaaron - Walking The Tree (2010-Paperback) (SF/F)

Whyte, Jack - Standard of Honor (Aug 2007 Paperback) {Historical, Adventure)

Winterson, Jeanette - The Stone Gods (2009)(SF)

Fishing Tuesday - Cowan Lake

[1-Cowan Lake in the morning - click to enlarge]

Cowan Lake is north-west of Prince Albert in Saskatchewan.





[2-Cowan Lake - click to enlarge]





[3-Cowan Lake - click to enlarge]





[4-Northern Pike caught in Cowan Lake - click to enlarge]




[5-Sunset at Cowan Lake - click to enlarge]



Photo Credits: [1][2][5]-nicodeemus CC=nc-nd-flickr, [3]-dbuc CC=nc-nd-flickr, [4]-tkw954 CC=nc-nd-flickr.

My Town Monday - Toronto General Hospital

[1- Toronto General Hospital in 1868 at Gerrard and Sumach Streets]

The York General Hospital was opened in 1829 to treat civilians, located at Simcoe and King Streets. Toronto’s first hospital had been a shed used during the War of 1812. When York became Toronto, the hospital became the Toronto General Hospital.

A Hospital Trust was started in 1847 to manage the hospital as over the years the hospital had been moved to different locations and into larger quarters.

In 1856 the Toronto General Hospital moved to a four acre site on Gerrard Street East between Sackville and Sumach Streets and north to Spruce Street. There were eighteen wards, with 400 beds, an operating theatre, an eye and ear infirmary and space for maternity cases. It was used for teaching medical students from three universities. Its school of Nursing was opened in 1861, the second such school in Canada. While this location served Toronto for nearly 60 years, there is little to see of it nowadays except for a Toronto Historical Board plaque on Spruce Street at Gifford Street, and some stones in neighbouring gardens.


[2-Toronto General Hospital 1891 Announcement Card - click to enlarge]

In 1913, the Toronto General Hospital moved to more spacious quarters on College Street, east of University Avenue. Over the years it has expanded south of this structure in other buildings along University Avenue to eventually fill the block bounded by College St., Gerrard St., University Avenue and Elizabeth Street.

The historic plaque on College Street reads: "This institution, the first general infirmary in Upper Canada, began operation in 1829. It was periodically hampered by administrative and financial difficulties but through the initiative of the influential businessman, Sir Joseph Flavelle, Chairman of its Board of Trustees (1904-21), services were reorganized and steps taken for the construction here of a new hospital. Designed by the firm of Darling & Pearson, it was begun in 1911 and officially opened two years later."


[3-Toronto General Hospital College Wing 1913 from behind showing the medical and surgical wings to the left and right, respectively - click to enlarge]






[4-Toronto General Hospital College Wing which is now the MARS Heritage Centre - click to enlarge]




[5-Toronto General Hospital at Main Entrance 1913 - click to enlarge]




[6-Toronto General Hospital - First Ambulance donated by Sir John Eaton in 1912 - click to enlarge]




[7-Toronto General Hospital at Gerrard Street - click to enlarge]





[8-Toronto General Hospital - interior public ward - click to enlarge]




[9-Toronto General Hospital - Interior Public Ward - click to enlarge]



[10-Toronto General Hospital opening ceremonies in 1913 - click to enlarge]





[11-Toronto General Hospital operating room in 1913 - click to enlarge]



[12-Toronto General Hospital Postcard in 1913 - click to enlarge]





[13-Toronto General Hospital grounds in 1920 - click to enlarge]



From 1913 to 2000, the MaRS Heritage Building was the 'College Wing' of the Toronto General Hospital. Both a world-class research institution and an architectural masterpiece in its time, it is a historically significant place for MaRS to inhabit.



[14-Toronto General Hospital College Wing in renovation in 2003 - click to enlarge]




Source:
http://www.lostrivers.ca/points/torontogeneralhospital.htm

Photo Credits: [1]-wikimedia, [2]-Vernon Dutton CC=nc-sa-flickr, [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]-MaRs Discovery Distrct CC=nc-sa-flickr.




Travis Erwin from Amarillo, Texas is the founder of My Town Monday. For other locations to visit please go to Travis' site here.

The Stone Gods - Jeanette Winterson (Book Review)

The Stone Gods is a science fiction fantasy with a particular type of prose that draws the reader in. The three stories within echo that of Robinson Crusoe: an isolated individual in a hostile world.

Billie Crusoe is a free spirit in the world of Orbus where free spirits are routinely eliminated. She lives on a farm when farms no longer exist. She reads books, has a knowledge of history where there are few books available and history is being erased by technology. Billie guides the reader through a world of materialistic greed, environmental concerns have gone by the wayside with all the resources used up resulting in the planet at the edge of self-destruction. Billie is banished to space, accused of being an activist, to be part of a mission to explore a new planet, known as Planet Blue, capable of supporting human life.

In March 1774, abandoned on Easter Island by Captain Cook ‘Billy Crusoe’ is left to face an island in decline: all the trees have been cut down to build the Stone Gods resulting in no place for the birds to roost and no wood to make boats from. The islanders are starving and will die just like the population on Orbus/Earth, each destroyed by worshipping false gods.

And the third story of a near future London after World War III where the citizens are trying to rebuild their world are in reality controlled by a corporate entity MORE. MORE has many branches and soon the citizens will be answering to a specially designed Robot sapiens with built-in consciousness to rule the world. Technology has advanced to where human reproduction has been taken over.

These complex tales about the future are far worse than we would ever imagine. There is a connection between the three stories within the book, characters with similar names occupying different spacetimes. But to reveal that connection would spoil the read for others.

Ms Winterson provides relevant concepts of today in “The Stone Gods” such as war, artificial intelligence, global warming, cosmetic enhancement, everything humans turn toward when they turn away from themselves.

An excerpt from the book:

“Manfred looked down at my notebook. He frowned his older-man-thinker-type-sexy frown. 'Billie, if you weren't so eccentric, you'd fit in better here. Why are you writing in a notebook? Nobody reads and writes any more – there's no need. Why can't you use a SpeechPad like everybody else?'

'Notebook. Pencil. They have an old-fashioned charm that I like.'

'And I like the present just as it is. You still living in that bio-bubble thing?'

'You mean the farm? Of course I am. If I'd been able to make it pay I wouldn't be working for you. But a world that clones its meat in the lab and engineers its crops underground thinks natural food is dirty and diseased.'

'It is.'

'Yeah. And pigs are planes. So the farm is leased to Living Museum and I am enslaved to you.'”

“The Stone Gods” is a witty and scary look at ourselves from another angle as it parallels our world in flux. The book carries a warning that if humans on earth do not start taking immediate care of our planet then we are all doomed. There may be no ‘new planet’ out there for us to resettle upon, thus eradicating our species.

I recommend this book for its wonderful insight into human behaviour and history repeating itself not only in Earth’s universe but those connecting to it.


Format: paperback, 224 pages.
Publisher: Vintage Canada
Published: May 5, 2009.

The Frank Slide

Frank is a coal mining town in the Crowsnest Pass in southwestern Alberta. From 1901 to 1903 a coal mine had been sunk deep into Turtle Mountain. The local Indians avoided the area as their legends spoke of Turtle Mountain as “the mountain that walked”. Soon the legend would become real.



[1-click to enlarge]





On April 29, 1903, at 4:10 a.m., 74 million tonnes of limestone crashed from the summit of Turtle Mountain and covered approximately three square kilometres of the valley floor. The slab of rock that broke free was approximately 650 m high, 900 m wide and 150 m thick (87,750,000 cu. m.) (2,100 feet by 3,000 feet by 500 feet).




[2-Old Man River at Frank Slide - click to enlarge]


The slide dammed the Old Man River and formed a small lake, covered 2km of the Canadian Pacific Railway, destroyed most of the coal mine's surface infrastructure, and buried seven houses on the outskirts of the sleeping town of Frank, as well as several rural buildings. Frank was home to approximately 600 people in 1903; of the roughly 100 individuals who lived in the path of the slide, more than 70 were killed.



[3-Front of Turtle Mountain - click to enlarge]







[4- Old mine workings beside Highway #3 near the Frank Slide - click to enlarge]



















[5 - As time passes the wildflowers return. At the Frank Slide Information Centre - click to enlarge]









This post was due to a request by Tony from Laughing Wolf for a hundred year remembrance of this historical event.

Source: http://www.frankslide.com
http://www3.sympatico.ca/goweezer/canada/frank.htm (for more information and an indepth story)

Photo Credits: [1][4][4]-Calypso Orchid CC=nc-nd-flickr, [2]-tipkodi CC=nc-flickr,
[3]-Paul Jerry CC=flickr.