Fall Colours in the Cypress Hills: Saskatchewan-Alberta Border

Fall on the Prairies is a golden time when leaves glow yellow and grasses fade to tan. But at the edge of the Cypress Hills recently, I saw additional fall colours: orange, green, and the soft pinks and purples of dry branches in this hillside pasture. (I love the Prairie landscape at this time of year...)

Prairie fall colours in a hillside pasture. Cypress Hills.   © SB

What is this? A pasture glowing with autumn colours, at the edge of the hills.  Scenery shot.

Location: Very near - or perhaps inside - the Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park, on the Alberta side, within a mile of Saskatchewan.  
Photo date: October 10, 2013.

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Home on the Range on the Alberta/Saskatchewan Border

Today, driving through and beyond Cypress Hill Inter-Provincial Park (we were on the Alberta side, but the park is in Saskatchewan, too), we came across this classic Home on the Range scene:

Horses. White. Brown. Black. White and black. By a watering hole in dry grasses, among gently rolling hills... No, merely gently rolling rises of land.

Home on the Range... Horses on the Canadian Prairies © SB

What is this? A scene with horses grazing on a ranch by a lake in Southern Alberta, under heavy skies... along the Saskatchewan border. 
Location: Near the edge of the West Block, Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park (Alberta and Saskatchewan) .
Photo date: October 10, 2013.

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Mount Carmel, Saskatchewan: High land, with a wide, wide view

Our Lady of Mount Carmel: Mary at the shrine 
near Humboldt, Saskatchewan © SB

I was recently in the Humboldt, Saskatchewan, area and visited Mount Carmel, the site of a Roman Catholic shrine to Mary, Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

Even living on the Prairies, I think of the land as flat. But much of it is mildly — or even at time, wildly — rolling.

And the closer you drive to this hill, the higher it looms... and the further you climb, the more you see...

From its heights, wide vistas open.

This lovely place was originally called spathanaw watchi, or "hill of the far view" in Cree.

And patches of native plants remain on the hill, with Dotted Blazingstar, Fleabane, Purple Prairie Clover, Ascending Milk Vetch, Wild Flax, and Silverleaf Psoralea.

In 1921, the land was donated for a shrine and annual pilgrimages up the slopes of Mount Carmel began in 1923.

The statue of Mary, made of white Italian marble, is framed by lightening rods to draw the sky fire of our prairie summers away from her and her baby.

She stands calmly, holding up the child and looking down at the field-stone chapel.

I stand quietly, looking up at her, and then down across fields of yellow-blooming canola and the faraway lakes strung along the horizon.

Looking west down the hill from the statue towards the chapel, and off into the distance beyond. © SB

The view looking east, down from Mount Carmel across fields and lakes. © SB

What is this? The shrine, statue and surrounding views of our Lady of Mount Carmel. 

Location: North of the settlement of Mount Carmel, near Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo date: July 24, 2013. 

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Hoar Frosted Branches, Sunny Winter Day

This morning, frosty cold weather (-20C), with fog dissipating into sunny skies.

Fog + cold = hoar frost, one of the loveliest parts of winter, when trees coated with ice crystals glitter in sunshine. Here is a sample, from a recent frosty day.

Each branch and twig iced with hoar frost.   © SB

What is this? Another winter scene with hoar-frost coated trees.

Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan. 

Photo dates:  February 27, 2013

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Winter Trees: Beauty of Snow and Ice

Late March, and it's still winter on the Prairies. Earlier this evening, I looked out to see huge fluffy snowflakes falling. But there is a beauty to this cold and ice that my warmth-seeking self at times forgets.

Here, a reminder of a day not so long ago when the world glowed — all black and white, in colour.

Down the lane, under ice-tipped trees, winter sparkles.   © SB

What is this? Winter scene, with an arch of hoar-frost coated trees.

Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan. 

Photo dates:  February 22, 2013

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Moonset at Sunrise: A Glow of Gold, Blue, Pink

Moonset, at sunrise.

From my window looking west, the sky glows pink as the rolling earth slides up and away from February's shimmering Full Snow Moon. Across the hall, hoar-frosted trees and snow in the east burn under a dawn fireball.

A golden sunrise. A  glittering pink moon.

Just before 8 a.m. facing west, the setting moon is bright pink coin in the sky. © SB

Across the hall, the sun blazes trees, ice, snow. © SB

What are these? Images of the moon setting in the glow of sunrise, and the glow of sunrise itself less than 10 minutes later on an icy winter morning. 

Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada. 

Photo date: February 27, 2013. 

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Winter Prairie Sunset: glowing red skies on retreat

Today, the wind dropped and the temperature rose to close to zero. And at sunset, a celebration of pinks and golds in the sky.

Light vanishes quickly from the sky here on the Prairies — at least, in winter darkness falls fast... (Summer? Another story.)

These pictures were taken from my room at St. Peter's Abbey, where I am on a writing retreat.

Sunset. 6:48 p.m.  © SB

Sunset. 6:57 p.m.   © SB

What is this? Sunset 

Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo dates:  February 22, 2013

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Prairie Windbreak in Snow-Drifted Winter Field

The weather was changing, a cold front rushing in, temperatures dropping by 20 degrees and wind howling in over the fields. It seemed like a good idea to go for a walk... Why not? Fresh air is always good, with or without frostbitten cheeks, frozen sinuses and fingertips that can no longer feel.

A Prairie windbreak, across the blue-shadowed snow of an open field   © SB

What is this? A windbreak, rows of coniferous and deciduous trees, planted to break the wind, keep the soil, and reduce drifts. (And in certain light, snow is blue, not white, and shadows, deep violet or periwinkle.)

Location: Near Muenster, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo dates:  February 18, 2013

Sunset in Blowing Snow: Saskatchewan

Winter. Winds howl, close to blizzard, though no fresh snow. Ground shifts, swirls in patterns, writhing snakes. Roads disappear in white scales, slither into fields. Over buried stubble, the sun sets. And the world burns, violet and orange.

Winter Sunset.  © Shelley Banks

What is this? Sunset over drifting snow
Location: Near Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada

Photo date: January 6, 2013  

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Sweet Yellow Clover at the edge of the Dirt Hills

Summer south of Avonlea, Saskatchewan © SB 

When I pulled off the road and rolled down the window to take this picture, my van filled with the sweet honeyed scent of yellow clover. I sat for a while, slowly relaxing, inhaling. Summer. 

What is this?  Rural landscape. (Foreground: sweet yellow clover, with a band of Canola behind at the foot of the gentle slope of the hill.)

Location: At the edge of the Dirt Hills, somewhere south of Avonlea, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Photo date: June 30, 2012.  

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