Cool today, and mostly cloudy. It started out with little wind, but that has changed to gusts. Doreen and I biked over to the Cove for coffee, thinking that would be guaranteed to start the rain coming down, but so far, no luck. There is a big black cloud off to the east, though, so there's still hope. We had coffee with Lionel Pelletier; he had been in Kelvington and said it was raining hard there when he left.

Porcupines have really done a number on one of the Park's apple trees, down by the Service Center. They didn't bother with the lower part of the tree, I guess the bark there is too tough, but the branches they cleaned off right out to the tips! What I find hard to understand is how do they get out to the tip of the smallest branch without it breaking off? A porcupine is a fair-sized animal.

We stopped at C+V Greenhouses west of Chelan last week; Doreen got a few more plants to kill,  and I got a few photos. I was impressed with the different types of planters  they sell, some with folk-art painting on them. I was also impressed with their big orange, white, and black guard-cat!

What a difference a week makes! We drove to Calgary last Monday; there were no leaves out to speak of until we got past Humboldt; from there on there were more leaves, but people say it is still late. Calgary had a couple of rains mixed with wet snow so aren't too badly off for moisture; North of there, around Three Hills to Red Deer, they got the first rain but not the second. Farther east, on the Saskatchewan/Alberta border, they didn't get any. There were very few potholes with any water in them, even around Calgary.

Our daughter, Sandy, and her best friend and companion, Blaine Cisna, were married in Calgary, which is why we went there. It was a very small service, with their attendants, Cheryl and Pete Sheridan, and Doreen and I and Lucille. Afterwards, we went out for supper and were joined by our grand-niece, our niece (no relation) and a couple who were friends of Sandy and Blaine. Sandy had everything all planned out except for one little thing - instead of ten minutes from the hotel to the marriage commissioner's, it took forty minutes, because of rush hour! Nobody cared, though.

We spent the next two days and nights at Three Hills and Linden (which is where Blaine will be working) just loafing around and visiting. Since Sandy and Blaine will be living somewhere close, we thought we might as well get to know the area a bit.

On Friday, we started for home, with a stop (that turned out to be about three hours!) at a craft shop and tearoom west of Drumheller. It is called "That's Crafty!" and is run by a most delightful lady, June Evans. She is originally from Kenaston, and since I spent some time there (before she was born!) we managed to swap a few names.

Then we went to Empress, right on the border, where we found another tearoom and craft shop in an old bank building. The Ziemans were running it; Mr. Zieman, who is a goldsmith and makes much of the jewellery on display, is also a photographer, so we found lots to talk about.

From there, we went to the Municipal Airport, where we found Len Kornelson with a stable full of gyroplanes. I can remember reading about autogyros when I was a kid; they were a cross between an airplane and a helicopter. They had a rotor instead of a fixed wing, and a propeller for forward motion. Once the rotor is spinning, it gives the necessary lift to become airborne. It doesn't take off and land vertically, but it doesn't need much of a runway, and is capable of maneuvers that a fixed wing plane could only dream of. They were replaced by helicopters, and one didn't hear of them for years. A firm in Kindersley started making small ones a few years ago; I had read of them but had never seen one. It is a tiny thing; the cab is like a helicopter's bubble, and two adults fill it. Len took me up for a half hour ride, and it was quite an experience! Flying forward at top speed (about 75 mph) he could pull it up short, spin around and be going the opposite direction in seconds. He can cut the power, drop vertically to within feet of the ground, then line up and touch down gently or speed away. It's an expensive toy, though; by the time one buys one and takes the necessary training, he would have about $45,000 invested.