And the skies cleared! Though there were a few rain showers here and there, the afternoons where t-shirt and thongs (flip-flops for those non-Australian readers) weather and by evening the heart and soul was content and happy..

Our second day there I met one of my bigger inspirations in the art world.. What a great day! I was able to browse his work, rifle through draws of his sketches, chat about his processes.. so special!

I was very nervous to meet him, but what a lovely soul! He made us feel very welcome into his creative space and didn’t mind my giddy questions. He didn’t make me feel like the crazed fan I was probably coming across as!

This island we have discovered thanks to Nick’s work is just beautiful.. we have had  such a wonderful time! We went on many lovely hikes (the lungs and I are friends these days) and new animals to add to the list! We watched a mother Killer Whale and her calf and saw a Sea Otter ducking and diving from the little point near our camp. And so many beautiful Black-tailed Deer, casually meandering past us while eating our breakfast or on our walks.

It’s a place that was hard to leave!

Well, I’ve been a little  absent from blog land lately due to a few reasons..  I know, I know, no one likes excuses…

But.. I just finished up my second wonderful winter here in Revelstoke which ran into The Boy’s folks arriving from Australia the following day. We have been giving them a little whirlwind tour of our current homeland.. from Vancouver Island to Banff to Calgary and off to Seattle next.. I’m currently enjoying a little rest day while they enjoy a little family day. Which gives me a chance to introduce you to…

Toby. Our beautiful Chevy Astro. He has been helping us show The Boy’s parents around and will be our new home for the Spring and Summer! So many adventures are just around the corner.. When he gets the proper re-vamp, I’ll give you a tour

I am settling in Ottawa, the nations capital for a little while. I have a job in an art supplies store to keep my creative self awake and on my last day of unemployment, Eben, Craig and I spent a few hours getting lost in the woodlands and wetlands of Stony Swamp. A real swamp!

As we walked past the reeds, I asked the boys if they could hear it too? They stopped to listen then turned to me with looks of confusion. The soft strumming of a small banjo, I said and started to sing along. “Why are there so many songs about rainbows and what’s on the other side?” The scene was perfect.

Not long after that, Craig had a Snow White moment when he held out his finger and a small, tubby little bird perched on it before flitting back to his friends in the trees. Eben and I were stunned. I wonder if that little bird’s friends dared him to do that!

Boardwalks meandered through the real swampy part, and allowed us to stop and watch the geese and ducks swim lazily through the water. Then we saw him, swimming quite a bit faster and mostly submerged. A new animal to tick off the list made his way toward us. We thought at first we had finally found what we had headed into this swamp to see. Our first Beaver sighting! All the tell tale signs were there. Gnawed away felled trees and bigs dams in the water. But it wasn’t until I consulted a book on Wildlife in Ontario, that I discovered we had actually seen a muskrat! Oh well, still a new critter.

A trip back to Stoney Swamp is already on the cards, to spend more time on the waters edge, watching and waiting for the biggest rodent in North America. I might even try my hand at a watercolour painting.

It was so amazing to not only imagine dinosaurs walking, but cowboys riding through these parts as well. A river of ice created these coulees and although the name Badlands refers to the inability to grow crops, it was also a superstitious and evil place for the Blackfoot Indians who inhabited this area. The only time they would come into the valleys was to hunt in times of dire need.

Back in the day, Drumheller was a rough coal mining town, a real “Wild West Town”. Around the year of 1911, a lady’s clothing store opened, the signal that the town was now safe for women to live in. Before then, no women came as it was too dangerous and “wild”. Funnily enough, the building that housed the women’s clothing store is now a men’s clothing store!

While in Drumheller we couldn’t resist going on a “Wild West Tour” with a tour guide named Pat Badland! He was like an older Jack Black with his mannerisms, jokes and fun way of storytelling. Kristy, myself and two couples from Edmonton piled into his station wagon on a Saturday morning for a 3 hour tour. “Hang onto your cowboy hats!” Pat yelled as we pulled out of the Travel Lodge parking lot, past a dinosaur painted as a rock star with AB/CA written on his jacket in the style of AC/DC!

The first stop was the site of the annual Passion of the Christ Play. In the middle of summer, actors and singers come from around the world to participate. It’s a great little natural amphitheatre that is set up all year round. Crosses ready for this years crucifixion were standing on the hill in place. What I loved the most was that the theatre was adjacent to Drumheller’s ski field. The quad chair that would have taken about 20 seconds to ride up looked awfully pathetic in comparison to where Kristy and I had just come from! You were right Matt, I think I have been spoilt for any other snowboarding experiences!

From here we headed out of town past a spot where Bryan Adams filmed a video clip and where Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman fought bad guys in the sage brush in The Unforgiven. At one point a group of six Mule deer ran in front of the car and gracefully jumped a fence next to us. Pat even detoured “for the Aussies in the back of the car” to a Buffalo farm so we could see the Bison up close – such weird looking animals!

Our next stop was the Hoodoos. The name “Hoodoo” comes from the word “voodoo” and was given to these strange and eerie geological formations by the Europeans. In the Blackfoot and Cree traditions, however, the Hoodoos are believed to be petrified giants who come alive at night to hurl rocks at intruders. They took millions of years to form and stand 5 to 7 metres tall. We took some time here to walk all around them.

Moving along in the car, Pat played Calgary country music star, Paul Grant’s “I’m Alberta Bound” on the cd player and we made our way to Rosedale and the Star Mine Suspension Bridge. The original swing bridge that was here carried miners precariously over Red Deer River until the mine closed in 1937. We crossed the 117 metre long bridge to climb the hill, which now covered the old mine site on the other side. Again we lingered at this point and really soaked up the Wild West atmosphere.

Pat passed around a jar filled with Canadian bills from the 1930s that a friend had found on his property not far from where we were and he began the first of a series of pop quizzes! “How come whoever buried this money did not trust the bank with it?” he posed to the group. I was surprised that I was the first one with the answer. Illegally making alcohol. I was awarded with a little pin from the Drumheller and District Chamber of Commerce that has a little Hoodoo and Dinosaur on it. Perfect sized souvenir for a traveller!

On our way to the Ghost town of Wayne we passed what Pat informed us where houses with “Boomtown” architecture. When these little railway towns were created, the facades on the houses and shops where twice the size of the building so that they would appear bigger than they actually were. They were lovely little buildings that had not been altered, just restored.
Listening to Ian Tyson, and strangely being transported back to the Blue Mountains in Australia through the magic of music, we passed the Atlas mine, a beautiful looking structure that allows tours in the underground mines. unfortunately though, it was closed to the public for another month or so.

Just before arriving at The Last Chance Saloon in Wayne (population 27) we went over 11 single laned bridges within a 6 km area. This spot is in the Guiness Book of World Records as the shortest distance with the most bridges, and you don’t have to keep count either, they are all numbered! The Last Chance Saloon was a wonderful experience. Scenes from Shanghai Noon were filmed just outside and Jackie Chan’s photo is displayed proudly on the wall, though you have to really hunt for it, the walls are crammed with all sorts of curious things! The hotel was directly opposite the Rosedeer Coal Mine and in it’s heyday the Saloon would feed 250 men a day. It was one of the roughest places in the area around 1913. It was nicknamed the “Bucket Of Blood Saloon” due to its violent past. Workers who would seek out unions, would be found under trains just outside the doors of the Saloon. And in the 1920s the Ku Klux Klan burned crosses in the surrounding hills.

The 3rd floor of the hotel has been boarded off since 1939 due to extreme paranormal activity, the owner will not allow any member of the public up there. I asked Pat for more stories but he looked a bit sheepish and said “ask the barmaid, if you want to know”. So I did. The week before a bottle of whisky came flying of the shelf from behind the bar and headed straight for her, but stopped short and gently floated to the ground at her feet. Stuff like that happens all the time, she said, that was just the most recent one. Very cool! Would have loved to have stayed their longer but we only had time for a beer, a quick chat and a good look at all the interesting things that covered the walls!

If anyone ever heads out Drumheller way, let me point you in the direction of Pat. I recommend you take his tour to really feel the wild west come alive. He gave me a free ticket to give to you. And as it says on the back, “This ticket ain’t worth nothin’ Pardner, it’s just free.”

I stayed at the loveliest Bed and Breakfast when I rolled into town and over the breakfast table, after a wonderful night, I met Digby.

Digby has the sweetest soul, a laugh like a five year old schoolgirl and the ability to read people’s auras. He lives not far from Disneyworld in Orlando, Florida and was in Calgary for the weekend to partake in the 10th Annual Mind Body Soul Expo. And he needed a helper. Who could pass on such an experience?

I met him at 10 am the following day, he was dressed in rainbow colours matching his booth that housed a wonderful array of pendulums, chakra pendants, healing stones and prayer flags. We were opposite a tarot reader and next to an Inuit (First Nations Canadian) healer. The place buzzed.

Digby took my photograph and read the colours of my aura (all yellows, oranges and reds). I think a lot and have an analytical personality, an artistic temperament and sensual personality. I have a love for life, am creative and sexual. Apparently. He also used a pendulum to discover which chakras I needed to ‘open’. My third eye (brow) was a little fuzzy, so I don’t trust my intuition. True. And my  throat chakra was blocked. I’m holding back on saying some things. Also true. Intriguing to say the least.

He paid to have our booth blessed by the First Nations healer and asked her to bless me also as i was his “angel” (the pet name he used for me). Using a feather, she swirled burning sage smoke around my body. All my hairs stood on end and the most amazing feeling washed over me, hard to describe but like a million worries had been removed. I’m a little bashful to say I nearly cried.

I’ve always been fascinated by these types of things but i guess there has always been a bit of a skeptic in me. I do love the romanticism behind it all, though. After spending a day with people who have made their belief and abilities a way of life, the skeptic in me is shutting up!

At the end of a fascinating day, Digby paid me quite generously and also gifted to me a pair of earrings made of Moss Agate (to aid in my self esteem and balance my emotions) and the most beautiful ring made of Moldavite. Moldavite is known as the “Emerald that fell from the sky” It was created 14 million years ago when a meteor impacted with enough velocity that it vapourised itself and surrounding material. These vapours were ejected back into the upper atmosphere where they solidified and rained back down on the earth as solids. This Gemstone is only found in the Moldau River in the Czech Republic. It has the most powerful ability to open all chakras and is the stone of transformation and positive life changes. Perfect as I set out on my journey of self discovery!

After the fair, Digby took me to dinner where we really got to know each other over butter chicken, tears and laughter.

But the night didn’t finish there, We headed off to the home of two reiki massage therapists we had met at the fair. Digby had a 2 hour massage from James while Rita and I became instant friends and chatted in a haze of incense, sipping herbal tea and munching on popcorn.

I don’t think this is the last I see of Rita, and a trip to Disneyworld is right around the corner!