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| Art Work at Whispering Grasses: "Crenellated Habitat" by Tony Bloom |
We walked for a ½ hour and at that point, when both of us were tired, and not having come to the bridge, we said, “Ten minutes more. Just ten minutes more and then we will turn back if we haven’t got to the junction of Brisbois and John Laurie.
The bridge was just around the next corner
We had time to cross over the Whispering Grasses Pathway and set foot on Nose Hill. The entrance to the bridge is beautiful -- art work called Crenellated Habitat which “consists of two curved panels placed at each end of the pedestrian bridge which create a curved funnel on the concrete approach. Images that relate to the natural environment of the site were applied into the curved surfaces using sandblasting, grinders, inscribers, scalars, plasma cuts and layering”. Charise laughed when she spotted the images of a bison on one panel and then a bird on another when we stopped to observe their shimmering silver beauty. We hung out on the bridge to watch the hawks perched on top of the light standards, and we watched the ravens chase each other through the sky.
On the way home we took shortcuts through alleys and down ivy covered lanes that separate the houses in Charleswood. “This feels like Belgium,” said Charise, and I had to agree that there was an old-world charm just at the end of her own alley.
Charise and I chatted on about her ongoing desire to have an Alberta Wild Rose Bush growing in her yard. Last year she collected rose hips and planted them in the front flower bed at Chisholm. No luck with germination. Today we gathered up Zoe and headed out to Golden Acres, where they had sold out their rose called “Nearly Wild”. Charise settled for another small bush.
Luckily we had followed the golden rule of gardening: prepare the spot before you buy the plant. So on returning home we could congratulate ourselves with a morning well spent: an invigorating walk and a rose bush planted by the front porch.
I love the walk you just took. As often as possible when I lives at Chisholm, I would motor along on two legs over the pathway that follows Jean Laurie Blvd. When I had more time I would cross this bridge and walk the hills of Nosehill park. For me it is a place of contemplation, healing and thought. Love this park. So unique. Charise do you remember the park course we took together and the day we saw two owls on Nosehill park? That was a great course. Keep you walking both of you!
ReplyDeleteP.S. Amazing depth perspective in that photo. Is it an Arta or Charise original?
ReplyDeleteWhoops. Re the photo -- Charise and I went out without our cameras so I took a google search when I got home. What I like about the picture is that it was taken when the bridge was just constructed -- thus the gravel that leads to the bridge. Now it is paved and there is grass all around it. I was so busy giving credit to the artist who did the four civic-art plates that I didn't mention that I took the photo from the website of the school where this project was initiated.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Charise said she had been to the Nose Hill Valley of the Owls when she and I were walking along. That is a trip I have yet to make.
I am working hard on the word "crenellated". What I can gather from dictionaries and google images is that crenellated means something notched, like a castle wall, with spots to hide and cut away notches to shoot things from.
ReplyDeleteAre the images, like the bison on the prairie, like notches along a castle wall? Are the bridges the crenellation?
Please share.
Wondering minds must know.
Hi Charise,
ReplyDeleteIs your memory of belgium streets from when you re-visited your old home years later or from the mid-80s when you lived there?
David and I have a game we play when we leave the house. We imagine we are characters from Star Wars and we often travel on a Landspeeder or in a Clone Speeder. We leave our vehicles outside our destination and drop our roles. It's our thing. It's just for us (and for blog readers).
ReplyDeleteI have begun to slip in some weeding. As we race past the barrel garden or the rasberry bush I spot "an emeny bomb" and I go to "disarm" it by pulling it (the weed) from the earth. Sometimes we even toss it still armed at the enemy so their evil plans backfire on them.
We don't play much Star Wars other than that at our home. With summer reading club commencing, we are trying to add breadth rather than depth to our reading list. We have branched out to Super Heros such as Green Lantern, Spiderman, Superman, Captain Canuck, and Captain America. As a mom, I struggle with seeing the images of the women in the comics -- did you know the Fantastic Four used to be men but now they include two women? One makes the superhero outfits for everyone. The other has the Superpower of helping the Super-male-heros work out their differences when friends begin to fight amongst themselves.
I am saving my commentary to myself for the most part. Someday David and I may analyse the images, how the "real men" have taken steroids and the "real women" have had breast augmentation surgery. For now we are focussing on good versus evil -- choosing to typically act out the good characters. I can remember Rebecca preferring to sing Satan's part in "My turn on Earth" rather than Jesus's part. I liked and still like that about her, that human rights advocate who recognizes that musically Satan was given a more complex, interesting part in at least that musical.
I was thinking about the word crenellated as well, for I noticed that it has a specific meaning when it is applied to architecture.
ReplyDeleteThe four panels in question seemed to be bursts and swirls of wind out of which emerged at the bottom of the plaque, some animal (the buffalo or a bird).
Yes, I did run my hand over the artwork, trying to figure out the tools that the artist used, which is probably what sent me to the website to read more.
Charise and I will have to walk back and take a better look, given she spends time exploring her own artistic talent.
On the other hand, I was up at Nose Hill a couple of days ago with my _Nose Hill: A Popular Guide_ in hand, because I had been reading the chapter "Plants that Flower in the Summertime". I am not usually in Calgary at this point in time, so I was refreshing myself on the look of the gaillardia, the buckbrush, the vetches, the dogbane, the shrubby cinquefoil, for those are the same plants that I might see as I walk the land in Annis Bay as well.
As well, on my walk this morning I discovered that the peregrins have hatched over in Craigie Hall and soon the sky will be filled with the three of them learning how to hunting ... but first taking their first flights.
Vetches is such a great word.
ReplyDeleteThis morning I laid in bed, enjoying the view of the Lake and a Bald Eagle soaring above it.
Thank you.