December 9, 2013 by dianacranstoun

London in Calgary, Alberta – Challenge 3

Lesson learned. Today I was going to upload some photos of The Geffreye Museum I’d taken a few years ago. I’d stored them ‘safely’ onto an external hard-drive on my return from London in 2011, but when I went to retrieve them this afternoon for this blog posting…? Wouldn’t load. Looks like the cable’s wrecked. Moral of the story – store digital photos on both CDs AND external drive!

So you’ll just have to trust me that The Geffreye Museum is a fascinating and beautiful place to visit if London. A former almshouse built in 1714, it is dedicated to the history of the home, specifically the living rooms of the English middle class, over a four hundred year period. One room follows on from the other, each depicting a different era, and the same is true of the gardens.

The reason I’d wanted to revisit it this trip back to London is because in December the rooms are decorated for Christmas. So could I find a comparison in Calgary?

Heritage Park, which celebrates prairie history from the 1860s to 1913, comes very close.

I visit the park every summer, but come Christmastime, like The Geffreye Museum, many of the homes are decorated in a time appropriate fashion.

The first house we visited belonged to Peter Prince, a wealthy lumber merchant from Calgary’s late 19th Century. It’s a beautiful, well appointed home, and its formal decor reflects his affluence.

Then there’s the Thorpe House. Home to a family of Norwegian immigrants, it is warm, welcoming and cosy. Apparently it’s traditional for Norwegians to drape their tree garlands from top to bottom rather than side to side as we do in North America.

The Ranch House is my favourite home in the whole park. I worked there many years ago, baking cookies for visitors to enjoy as they toured the house, and trust me, when it’s +30C outside and you have an old wood oven going, it’s hot work. Today, stepping into the warmth and smelling the freshly baked gingerbread was sheer heaven. And although the tree was rather spindly and all its decorations home made, I thought it was the most beautiful of all the trees we saw.

As well as being able to view the decorated homes, there are shops enticing you with holiday goodies, a bakery selling delicious breads and gingerbread men, and carollers singing in the church. There’s even a special shop just for kids (adults forbidden) where they can buy that special something for their parents.

Heritage Park is open on weekends for the Christmas season until December 22nd.

December 4, 2013 by dianacranstoun

London in Calgary, Alberta – Challenge 1

This time last year my husband and I were in Berlin visiting the Christmas markets. As I sit here writing this on a bitterly cold Calgary afternoon, we were supposed to be on holiday in London with a side trip to Belgium thrown in.

A few weeks ago, we had to cancel our trip, so my challenge is to replicate 10 days of activities we’d planned in London/Belgium in Alberta. Can it be done?

Challenge #1 – CHRISTMAS MARKET. There’s something very special about European Christmas markets. For me, it’s do with the fact that most of them are held outdoors, the glittering twinkle lights, warm gluhwein, hot roast chestnuts, Christmas music playing, fire pits to warm yourself up, and, of course, all the goodies for sale. Could I find all that in Calgary?

Over three weekends, Spruce Meadows hosts an International Christmas Market. We visited on Friday afternoon and it provided everything – and more – that you’ll find in a European market. Outdoor (and indoor) vendors? Check. Gluhwein? Check. Hot roast chestnuts? Check. Fire pits to sit by and savour the warmth and scent of burning logs while sipping on a hot chocolate? Check. Christmas music? Check. Plenty of goodies for sale? Check.

REINDEER

In addition, there were 12 of Santa’s reindeer in attendance, as well as a petting zoo for the children. Did you know a reindeer’s nose warms the cold outdoor air before it gets to its lungs, and that both male and female reindeer have antlers?

So did Calgary meet the Day 1 Europe/Alberta challenge? Absolutely!

(Many thanks to Laura MacU2 for taking pictures when my battery died!)

May 24, 2013 by dianacranstoun

There’s a feeling… Part Two

It’s absolutely bucketing with rain here in Calgary today, but when the weather is dry, one of my favourite places to visit – and a ‘must’ if you’re visiting the city in summer – is Heritage Park. When we moved to Calgary I worked as a docent in the Park telling schoolchildren tales of the pioneer days. It was a wonderful way to learn and experience the history of this land. I even had the good fortune to meet the daughter of an early pioneer. She was in her 80s at the time, and she and her family had moved to Alberta in the early part of the century from Chicago. Her father had gone on ahead to build a house for the family who followed on several weeks later. When they arrived, she recalled her mother just sat in the wagon for hours and sobbed. They’d left a house with beautiful furniture and stained glass windows to live in a ‘soddie’, similar to the one in the photo below. Those early pioneers certainly had grit.

There is so much to do and see here that you really need to spend the whole day in the park. And there is something for everyone; original houses filled with history and stories, train and steam boats rides, an old fashioned fairground and lots of shops selling everything from little nick-nacks to gingerbread men and old fashioned candies.

Another absolute city gem – which most Calgarians aren’t even aware of – is the Cantos Music Foundation. Situated in a red brick downtown office building, it holds a treasure house of keyboard instruments, some dating back almost 400 years.

The picture above is only part of an old 1920s cinema organ. In the early days of silent films, the organist wasn’t just responsible for providing the musical accompaniment, but also for creating the necessary sound effects, and that’s what you can see lining the wall behind the organ. Absolutely fascinating.

The museum offers everything from harpsichords to the latest electronic keyboards. Sitting amongst all these beauties is the simple white upright piano on which Elton John wrote ‘Your Song’. On his last tour through Calgary he made a special visit to the museum to play on it once more.

As I said, an absolute treasure house for anyone interested in music.

May 22, 2013 by dianacranstoun

There’s a feeling in the air…

The tradition within the North West Mounted Police on their March West across Canada in 1874 was that the Inspector establishing a fort was given the honour of naming it after himself. Therefore, when Inspector Brisbois arrived at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow rivers, he did just that. Unfortunately for him, Colonel James Macleod (his superior officer) suggested the name be changed to Calgary, after Calgary Bay, a place he’d visited on the Isle of Mull in Scotland. But maybe it was just as well. The Brisbois Stampede doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as the Calgary Stampede, does it? When we first moved to Calgary, the skyline was sparse with the tallest building being the Calgary Tower. Now the tower is dwarfed by a forest of skyscrapers, and one of my favourite things to do is go to the bluff in Crescent Heights and watch the sun set on the city. The combination of city lights, setting sun and image of the mountains in the distance is magical. Back in the day, one of the local TV channels ran a great advertising spot which – to me – reflected the energy of this young city. It looks a bit dated and hokey now, but the video still makes me smile. Oh… and just recently, Calgary was voted the cleanest city in the world! Not bad for a city only 138 years old.

May 21, 2013 by dianacranstoun

From the sublime…

There’s nothing like going from eating Wartime Rations to a slap up afternoon tea at the Banff Springs Hotel.

Growing up in Scotland, our family frequently took summer holidays in Banff in the north east of the country, so it sort of fits that I now find myself living with another Banff in my backyard.

Any visit to Southern Alberta isn’t complete without a trip to this mountain town. One and a half hour’s drive from Calgary – if you stick to the speed limit – it’s the perfect place to visit no matter what the season.

The image of the Banff Springs Hotel (and yes, there is also one in Scotland, but not nearly so impressive) is world famous. If your budget doesn’t stretch to staying here for a night or two, try and take in the afternoon tea. ($41 per person) enjoyed in the Rundle Lounge where the view stretches down a river valley surrounded on all sides by mountains.

Owned by the CPR, the original hotel was built in 1888 with the replacement (current) structure commencing in 1911. When its president Cornelius Van Horne came out to check on its construction, he discovered that the builders were building it back to front with the kitchens overlooking the million dollar view. Well, he soon sorted that out. In commemoration he painted a picture which currently hangs in the Spanish Gallery. If you look closely in the bottom left hand side you’ll notice he signed it… back to front.

So much for my plans to return to blogging about writing. Well, I did say I’d be writing about travel in this blog too, so maybe I’ll just stick to my neighbourhood for the rest of the week and tell you about some of my favourite places in and around my current home city of Calgary.

April 28, 2013 by dianacranstoun

Bothered and Bewildered

You know that horrible feeling when you sleep through your alarm and spend the next few hours trying to play catch up? Welcome to my day.

Here’s the thing… I’ve been planning on starting a blog for a while. I’m going to be publishing a series of books this autumn, and with that comes the requirement for a website. A friend recommended it might be better to get the whole website/blog thing figured out beforehand so I can then concentrate on my writing.

Flash forward to today. The perfect time, I decide, to start pulling my website together. I’ll put in a few photos, a little bit of text, and then over the next week I can pull together a couple of blog topics before I push the ‘live’ button.

How was I supposed to know it went live as soon as you sign up? They only had three TV channels when I was growing up!

So here I am, scrambling to introduce myself and this blog. What’s it going to be about? Three of my passions; the craft of writing, travelling and the history of the Second World War. If you enjoy these topics, I hope you will join in the conversation.

Thanks for stopping by.

(Hmmm. Maybe I’d better double check my alarm clock tonight.)

Diana Cranstoun

Strong Women. Strong Stories.

Alberta