Back on March 6th Hailey and I headed out for day trip, to the south east of the city. On this cool, breezy day we started off on Highway 14. It was a great Dad and Daughter day and mostly we just argued about the music we were listening to on radio. Hailey was convinced that all the new pop music was the best and I was trying to educate her as to the value of the classics... from Led Zeppelin, to the Eagles to the Rolling Stones. She would not acknowledge me and insisted that Justin Beiber and artists of that ilk would someday be measured up along side my favorites. We eventually agreed to disagree....
Our first stop was at the small town of Bruce. This is the location of the Bruce Stampede, a rodeo that dates back over 100 years. We had a great time at the rodeo back in 2014, but weren't able to make it out in 2015. Both Hailey and I agreed that we have to return in late July to check it out again this year. The town itself is like so many other small towns... slowly declining... I took this shot of the old grocery store, both as a snapshot with my digital camera, and a little more seriously with my view camera on 4" x 5" film.
We continued on down the highway towards Viking, and made the short side trip up to the Ribstones historic site. These glacial boulders were carved by early aboriginal peoples in a pattern that resembles the ribs of bison. This site remains sacred to modern first nations people and there are regularly offerings of coins, tobacco and prayer flags left here. These are the only such ribstones in the province that remain on their original site. Over 20 years ago when I first visited this site it was less developed, and there was no fence around the stones. At that time there were still offerings but the prayer flags were tied in the adjacent trees. Now, with the presence of the fence, the prayer flags almost overwhelm the place.
It was so cold and windy up on the hill by the ribstones that we didn't attempt any serious photography. We drove around for quite some time and eventually stumbled upon a really cool old house. It was out in a field and in the summer, with the trees leafed out, and the fields planted with crops, it would be difficult to access. On this day it was a short but cold walk across the field to the old house. Someone had pressed a horseshoe into the concrete of the front step and inscribed the date of 1937, presumably when the place was built. We spent and hour or so photographing here, mostly inside, where we were out of that incessant north west wind. I worked with my view camera and Hailey reacquainted herself with my Hasselblad, which she has not photographed with since last year.
After finishing up here we walked back out to the truck and started it to warm up. Soon we were on our way again, listening to and arguing about the quality of our generations music and refusing to agree on each others taste, or lack thereof. We saw a snowy owl up on a utility pole, one of the few I have seen this winter. With the mild conditions we have enjoyed, these guys just didn't migrate down onto the prairies from the arctic this year. Later we came upon an abandoned old school house. Curious that some one had ripped out the cast iron toilet and left it out on the front step. The floor of the school was also missing, leaving the basement as the only access to the place. After checking out this place we hit the road for home, putting an eventual end to our exploration and our musical debate.
No comments:
Post a Comment