Saturday, July 29.
Jul. 30th, 2023 02:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gottawonderToday I am grateful for:
Moderately warm weather, sunny. Very lovely day.
I made an effort to get up earlier than I usually do, so that my Sweetie and I could have more time to be in the city today.
First, I wanted to go to the bead/jewelry supply store that has a really good inventory, because they are going to shift to having jewelry making classes, and no longer want to carry inventory. They are clearing out ALL OF THEIR COOL BEADS!!!
It makes me sad, because I am not a big fan of just ordering things from the internet, which is more and more how the world is shifting. I don't like buying things sight unseen, and just hoping they are good quality. After all, shipping being what it is, who wants to pay to send something back? I think too many online retailers know that a lot of us won't waste the money to send something back.
I see a lot of items on Buy ad Sell that were things people ordered online, and you can tell they are just selling something that wasn't what they wanted because they don't want to pay shipping to return it.
Anyhow, I bought some beads, not a crazy amount, but some strands of some that I know I won't find anywhere else. Sigh.
Then we went to Fort Edmonton Park, and had a fantastic time. It is indeed a historical park with a steam train that goes around it (very cool), a "town" made up of buildings from different parts of Edmonton that were mostly moved there so they could all be in one place (original locations are part of the placards that explain their significance), and they are all set up so you can walk inside and they are all furnished and set up to represent their original use, like an optometrist's shop, a harness maker, a shoe maker, a carpenter, a Hudson's Bay fur buying post, a surveyor's cabin, a typical early home, and so on.
There were even tidy little vegetable gardens in the yards.
There were also some farm animals, including some horse drawn wagons that you could ride, and horses in a pasture beside an authentic old barn that they really were using for the animals. One gorgeous big draft horse came over and let me snuggle it's gigantic head for a while over the fence.
There was also a "carnival" area, that was a historical part of the area. The coolest part of it was the beautifully restored carousel, with gorgeous restored and newly made wooden horses. I've never ridden on one this nice, with the historical figures.
The people who sculpt the new figures (that are wooden, and based on traditional forms and styles) have a work shop right beside the carousel, and we spoke for a while with a wonderful woman who was likely in her 70's or maybe even early 80's who was very spry and chatty and bright-eyed, who is one of the carvers.
She showed us several works in progress, and we talked about the carving group, and so on.
It was fascinating, and I had NO IDEA that this group of artisans were there. They are likely the only such group in Alberta for sure, and there might only be one or two other such groups in all of Canada. The park does not do enough to advertise their existence.
After that, we went to eat at our special little vegan place that we love, only to discover that they are closing. They just weren't making any money, and the owners (two women, who are a couple with children, who also run a horse rescue) felt that maybe they would rather work to turn their property into a horse rescue/boarding facility, and be able to spend more time at home with their kids, and not have to drive into the city.
It was kind of sad, as this place really felt special to us. It was a cute, kitschy, unique place that felt like going to eat at your eccentric aunt's place. It was called "The Clever Rabbit", and had little rabbit kitsch all over. Ceramic rabbits, rabbit salt and pepper shakers, rabbits painted onto the vinyl chairs.
We've been eating there for maybe six or seven years, maybe even longer. We always chat with the owners, and it felt like "community" because even though we only ate there maybe six or seven times a year (we don't live in the city), they knew us and we felt like regulars.
I asked if I could take home two of the bunny figurines that had been there from the beginning, and she said yes. They were apparently giving pretty much all of the kitschy bunny decor away to the regulars.
We might go visit their horse rescue at some point.
We also went to our favorite book store, and I managed to pretty much pay for today's books with ones I traded in for credit.
We came home, let everyone out for a while, and walked around the horse pasture for an hour and pulled noxious weeds.
Then we watched "The Raven", a fictional speculation about the last days of Edgar Allen Poe. It was good.
So, today was VERY stimulating, and kind of bittersweet as TWO of my favorite destinations are soon to be no longer. It felt like very tangible markers of the passing of time.
Yet, the Fort Edmonton Park is new to us (my husband went once with his family as a child), and could be a new favorite summer time destination.
I learned that because we can do genetic testing on lice, we can see that the lice that live on people and their clothing have diverged from other lice over 40,000 (estimates of AT LEAST 40,000, to potentially 170,000) years ago. This is evidence that people have been wearing clothing for over forty thousand years, as these specific lice cannot live away from the clothing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_clothing_and_textiles
Moderately warm weather, sunny. Very lovely day.
I made an effort to get up earlier than I usually do, so that my Sweetie and I could have more time to be in the city today.
First, I wanted to go to the bead/jewelry supply store that has a really good inventory, because they are going to shift to having jewelry making classes, and no longer want to carry inventory. They are clearing out ALL OF THEIR COOL BEADS!!!
It makes me sad, because I am not a big fan of just ordering things from the internet, which is more and more how the world is shifting. I don't like buying things sight unseen, and just hoping they are good quality. After all, shipping being what it is, who wants to pay to send something back? I think too many online retailers know that a lot of us won't waste the money to send something back.
I see a lot of items on Buy ad Sell that were things people ordered online, and you can tell they are just selling something that wasn't what they wanted because they don't want to pay shipping to return it.
Anyhow, I bought some beads, not a crazy amount, but some strands of some that I know I won't find anywhere else. Sigh.
Then we went to Fort Edmonton Park, and had a fantastic time. It is indeed a historical park with a steam train that goes around it (very cool), a "town" made up of buildings from different parts of Edmonton that were mostly moved there so they could all be in one place (original locations are part of the placards that explain their significance), and they are all set up so you can walk inside and they are all furnished and set up to represent their original use, like an optometrist's shop, a harness maker, a shoe maker, a carpenter, a Hudson's Bay fur buying post, a surveyor's cabin, a typical early home, and so on.
There were even tidy little vegetable gardens in the yards.
There were also some farm animals, including some horse drawn wagons that you could ride, and horses in a pasture beside an authentic old barn that they really were using for the animals. One gorgeous big draft horse came over and let me snuggle it's gigantic head for a while over the fence.
There was also a "carnival" area, that was a historical part of the area. The coolest part of it was the beautifully restored carousel, with gorgeous restored and newly made wooden horses. I've never ridden on one this nice, with the historical figures.
The people who sculpt the new figures (that are wooden, and based on traditional forms and styles) have a work shop right beside the carousel, and we spoke for a while with a wonderful woman who was likely in her 70's or maybe even early 80's who was very spry and chatty and bright-eyed, who is one of the carvers.
She showed us several works in progress, and we talked about the carving group, and so on.
It was fascinating, and I had NO IDEA that this group of artisans were there. They are likely the only such group in Alberta for sure, and there might only be one or two other such groups in all of Canada. The park does not do enough to advertise their existence.
After that, we went to eat at our special little vegan place that we love, only to discover that they are closing. They just weren't making any money, and the owners (two women, who are a couple with children, who also run a horse rescue) felt that maybe they would rather work to turn their property into a horse rescue/boarding facility, and be able to spend more time at home with their kids, and not have to drive into the city.
It was kind of sad, as this place really felt special to us. It was a cute, kitschy, unique place that felt like going to eat at your eccentric aunt's place. It was called "The Clever Rabbit", and had little rabbit kitsch all over. Ceramic rabbits, rabbit salt and pepper shakers, rabbits painted onto the vinyl chairs.
We've been eating there for maybe six or seven years, maybe even longer. We always chat with the owners, and it felt like "community" because even though we only ate there maybe six or seven times a year (we don't live in the city), they knew us and we felt like regulars.
I asked if I could take home two of the bunny figurines that had been there from the beginning, and she said yes. They were apparently giving pretty much all of the kitschy bunny decor away to the regulars.
We might go visit their horse rescue at some point.
We also went to our favorite book store, and I managed to pretty much pay for today's books with ones I traded in for credit.
We came home, let everyone out for a while, and walked around the horse pasture for an hour and pulled noxious weeds.
Then we watched "The Raven", a fictional speculation about the last days of Edgar Allen Poe. It was good.
So, today was VERY stimulating, and kind of bittersweet as TWO of my favorite destinations are soon to be no longer. It felt like very tangible markers of the passing of time.
Yet, the Fort Edmonton Park is new to us (my husband went once with his family as a child), and could be a new favorite summer time destination.
I learned that because we can do genetic testing on lice, we can see that the lice that live on people and their clothing have diverged from other lice over 40,000 (estimates of AT LEAST 40,000, to potentially 170,000) years ago. This is evidence that people have been wearing clothing for over forty thousand years, as these specific lice cannot live away from the clothing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_clothing_and_textiles
