Today I Saw Yet Another Alberta
Golden Prairie – Southern Alberta during seeding season
On Sunday I drove from Welling (south of Lethbridge) Alberta to Calgary and I found myself in a particularly aware and contemplative state. Here are some of the thoughts that passed through my mind as I drove (yes I did stop periodically and make notes!).
Southern Alberta – Spring Planting Season
Alberta.
Land of blue skies and sudden storms,
majestic cloud formations and distant landscapes,
golden fields, rolling hills and towering mountains,
phenomenal fall sunsets and winter sunrises,
chipped windshields and sloppy winter roads.
Today I saw yet another Alberta.
Brown clouds hovering like ground fog, occasionally swirling skyward.
Prairie Dust Storm
Hot dry winds slurping as they pass over my skin.
Shrunken prairie sloughs yielding up acreage not cultivated for years.
Fields, golden with last year’s stubble, waiting for this year’s seed.
Fields, blackened by tillage, adjusting to the new crop rotation.
All awaiting rain.
Irrigation system wetting the airborne dust. Water evaporating before it hits the ground.
The wind blows.
The car tugs and pulls.
Windbreaks lean.
Starched flags and windsocks stretch flat, barely moving as the wind passes them by.
Windmills whirling.
Oil jacks pumping.
Machinery stoically plodding through the day, fulfilling an assigned task.
Tumbleweed flashing by.
Sand blowing. The brownout hides the next town from view.
Dust Storm as I Approached Claresholm, AB
Further north, the wind lessens.
Across the faded dust-covered landscape, I see the foothills and mountains, snowy caps quickly disappearing.
Green fields mingle with the gold.
Trees.
Out of the prairie and into the foothills.
The wind subsides to a pleasant breeze.
The road dips and dives and rolls over the low hills.
Blue skies.
Fleecy clouds.
Today I saw yet another Alberta.
Calgary Skies
Beautifully poetic, Diane
Best regards, Mike