Bethany Lutheran Church and Cemetery

A country church of Danish design in the Tilley, Alberta area.  The congregation was formed in 1930 and the church still sees regular use.  Sunday service is at 11:00 a.m.

The crow-stepped (like a staircase) gables are attractive and quite unusual for this part of Alberta.

The church sign on the south side of the building.

The inside of the church is immaculately clean and welcoming.  Notice the "modern" kneeling altar.

The stained glass crosses on the front doors.

On the north side of the church is the entrance to the cemetery.

The cemetery and church grounds are well maintained.  The majority of the headstones bear Danish names like Christensen, Hendricksen, Skanderup and Hjorth.

The gables and red roof of the church as seen from the cemetery.

A small Showy Mountain Ash tree full of fruit.  Lots of birds will take advantage of all those berries in the fall and winter...and in spring you'll see intoxicated robins dive-bombing each other for another taste of that sweet elixir.

Photographed on August 21, 2018.

Old Hillside Cemetery

I've taken photos of Old Hillside Cemetery on numerous occasions but these are still my favourites.

A foggy day is rare in these parts so it's a real treat to see everything dissolve into the mist...it somehow "sets the scene" for viewing an historical cemetery as well.

Old Hillside Cemetery was established on six acres of land along Seven Persons Creek in 1884 by Saint Barnabas Anglican Church.

Five years later a section of this parcel of land became the Roman Catholic Cemetery.  Burials here continued until 1919 (Catholic) and 1923 (Anglican) and was officially closed in 1934 at which time The City of Medicine Hat took charge of the cemetery.

This is a good spot for geese to nest as the creek is at the bottom of the hill.  In spring it's a common sight to see the parents leading their little ones down the hill for their first swim.  This goose was looking for "just the right spot."

Thanks to the Saint Barnabas Anglican Church Archives.

Photographed on April 22, 2017.

The Garden Next Door

On the same day I photographed "Spring Garden" (posted about a week ago) I also photographed the garden next door where I also take care of a few things.  The entire area is wedge shaped and only about twenty-five feet long by ten feet at the wide end.  This small and intimate space hosts a variety of dwarf  and miniature shrubs and a variety of perennials.  I suppose one could see it as a westernized Zen Garden.

Above:  Miniature lilacs...only about two feet high but they have the same heart-shaped leaves and enchanting fragrance as the old common lilacs that everyone has enjoyed.

Day lilies, a Nanking Cherry, ferns and a huge hosta unfurling in the foreground.

A close-up of an early-flowering clematis vine.  Every spring I think this plant is dead but it has proved me wrong for several years in a row now.  Even when the flowers are spent the leaves are lush until a hard frost in the fall.

Two small cast-concrete mushrooms with a branch of pink-flowered bleeding heart in the upper right with a surround of hosta, fern and ladies mantle. The narrow walkway covered in grey crushed-stone is only about fifteen inches in width.

A patch of periwinkle with some spearmint.

More hosta, ladies mantle, ferns and day lilies with a bronze-leaved rodgersia.

One more shot of a miniature lilac.

A close-up of a flowering Dwarf Korean Lilac near the front door.  These bloom just after the common lilacs and the intoxicating fragrance emanates at least a few hundred feet from the plant.  Definitely a spring favourite...can't have too many lilacs. 

 

Photographed on May 31, 2019.

Land Titles Building

The elegant Land Titles building in Arcola, Saskatchewan.

It's a beauty!

Photographed on December 17, 2018.

North Landing S.D. No. 3198

A well preserved one room school house I came across quite by accident on a road trip last fall.

I've never seen an enamelled school sign like this one before.

It sits on the open prairie near Kyle, Saskatchewan.

The blackboard has been signed by visitors from as far away as Saint Stephan, New Brunswick and Vancouver, British Columbia...and many others in between.

Jet!  I love catching vapour trails in my photos.

Photographed on October 23, 2018.

Spring Garden

A short tour through one of the many gardens where I "lend a hand."  A beautiful garden always makes my day.

Above: creeping thyme blooming profusely.

The resident bunny.  Almost everyone here has a resident bunny or two, sometimes a raccoon, a family of deer and one place even has a female moose that visits from time to time.

A fernleaf peony (and close-up of the delicate five-petal flowers).

Hostas and coleas.

I think these are calendulas.

A section of the back yard.

Brightly coloured euphorbia polychroma (also known as cushion spurge).

A close-up of the creeping thyme flowers.

A section of the front yard.

The grass is always shorter in front of a hungry bunny.

Photographed on May 31, 2019.