Heather's Garden

An early and most welcome colourful spot in Heather's Garden this spring.  As any gardener will know...plant fall bulbs for spring blooms.

The perennials are slowly coming to life.  

As well as the crocuses shown above, I planted about a dozen saffron crocuses which I didn't get so see blooming because a deer ate all of the flowers before I got there.  That's a pretty exotic taste treat for a deer.  Hope he or she enjoyed them.  Maybe next year.

Some hyacinths popping up.  They should be blooming in about ten days.

A lamium groundcover plant was thriving as soon as the snow melted.  

The pasque flowers should bloom the same time as the hyacinths.

Photographed at Saint Margaret's Church and Cemetery near Eagle Butte, Alberta on April 26 and 27, 2025.

Technology Invades the Landscape

The old Congregational Church near Gros Ventre-Tothill has some new neighbours...and not the kind of neighbours anyone wants.

My usual jaunts southward on either Eagle Butte Road or Buffalo Trail used to have the most beautiful views.  Clear sailing southward with unobstructed views at they wound their way up higher and higher into the Cypress Hills.  

But now, these massive turbines have invaded the landscape as far as the eye can see.  They're just everywhere now.  

Progress? Looks like landscape pollution to me.   

Photographed near Gros Ventre-Tothill, Alberta on April 27, 2025.

A Beautiful Place Out in the Country

More to see here: Буковина

Saint Michael's Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Cemetery was photographed near Lepine, Saskatchewan on August 4, 2020.

Earth Day

A couple of landscape photos to celebrate Earth Day.  Our planet has so many beautiful landscapes.  

The ones shown here is where I feel both at home and on vacation all at the same time...in a word, comfortable.   

Photographed near New Kiew, Alberta on September 21, 2021.

Easter Monday

Hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend.

Malin Cemetery was photographed near Saddle Creek, Alberta on November 9, 2024.

Easter

Greetings from Hope Lutheran Church in Kayville, Saskatchewan.

Enjoy your Easter weekend.

Photographed on January 26, 2022.

Jerald

So young.

Photographed at Holy Trinity Romanian Orthodox Cemetery near Pierceland, Saskatchewan on July 17, 2023.

The Old Shishkovchi Church

When settlers from western Ukraine arrived in 1903 they soon formed the parish community of Shishkovchi, Alberta.  Later that same year they secured forty acres of land from the government for the construction of a temple and establishing a cemetery, and over the next three years they worked hard to build their place of worship.  In 1906 the temple was complete.  Even though no official plans for the church building were ever drawn up they created a truly "Byzantine" temple in their new home in central Alberta.  

Of interest, the shingles for the roof were paid for with eggs. 

Years later...

When the new Shishkovchi church was completed in 1963 the old church building was donated to the Shandro Historical Museum, where it still stands.  Above is the plaque identifying the handsome old building at the museum.

A look inside the old church.  Still beautiful.

The new church...

Construction on the new Shishkovchi Church commenced in 1953 and was completed in 1963.  A brief history and some photos on the new church can be seen here: Shishkovtzy 

Shiskovchi has many different spellings including Shishkovtsi, Shishkovtzi, Shishkovtzy and most likely a few others.

Information courtesy of the Canadian Orthodox History Project.

Photographed near Shandro, Alberta on November 9, 2024.

Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church

Holy Family is a country church and cemetery just seventeen miles north of the Canada/U.S.A. border.  I believe it is the southernmost Ukrainian church in all of Saskatchewan.

Settlers arrived to the area in 1905 and lived in dug outs and hillside shelters in those early days.  Frequent prairie fires added even more hardship to their meagre existence, and, the original chapel built around 1919 was completely destroyed in a storm only a few years later.  They truly had a hard life.  

But perseverance prevailed...

Over two decades later the congregation was finally able to build a new church in 1944 after one of the founding parishioners died and left a quarter section of land to the church.  The profits from this generous donation enabled the congregation to erect the new church, and only four years later, completely renovate and enlarge it.  Now that's a success story if I ever heard one.  

The wooden mission cross that stands midway between the church and cemetery commemorates the Holy Missions of 1956 and 1964.

The church was seventy-nine years old at the time of my visit.  My thanks to all those at Holy Family who still love and care for this little church out in the country.

Information courtesy of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Saskatoon.

Photographed near Maxim, Saskatchewan on September 13, 2023.