“Pic of the Week”, December 25, 2020: Some Scenes from Central Alberta

00 Rural Alberta

The terrain of Alberta is mostly that of the great Canadian prairies.  It’s where farms on gently rolling hills yield vast crops of canola, wheat and beef.  It’s where lots of oil is pumped from the ground — part of the rich dinosaur heritage of the region.
This past summer I spent several days driving around the central part of the province, between the major cities of Calgary and Edmonton, exploring small towns and destinations I’d not yet seen.  Here’s a sampler of what that’s like:
(Click on thumbnails to enlarge, right arrow to advance slideshow)

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“Pic of the Week”, January 3, 2020: The Bounty of Canada’s Great Plains

00 Prairie crops, Manitoba (16)

The great Canadian prairies (and their American counterparts) grow a lot of food.  More food than can be consumed in either country and which is then transported to destinations all around our hungry world.  The Canadian prairies extend from Alberta in the west, to Saskatchewan, to Manitoba in the east.

While driving across the prairies to visit my father in Winnipeg this past year, I made a point of randomly turning up a country road or two, driving a few miles to see what was there.  

One turn lead to field of corn.  Corn is not that common a crop on the prairies and this likely would end up as feed corn for livestock (less likely for consumption in nearby Winnipeg …

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.All Trips / Asia / Sri Lanka

Around Nuwara Eliya

02 Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya is unlike most of the destinations you’re likely to visit in Sri Lanka.  Situated in the Hill Country at an altitude of 1,868 m (6,128 ft) , the city is at the heart of Sri Lanka’s important tea growing industry.  It’s also the country’s most important center for vegetable growth.  In fact, the farm land on which vegetables are grown is more expensive than much of the land in nation’s capital of Colombo.  

Nuwara Eliya

Nuwara Eliya

The city was developed by the British during the period of Colonial occupation in the 19th century.  Besides its importance as a tea growing area to the British, the cool temperate climate appealed to them as it was similar to that back home.  Nuwara Eliya …

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“Pic of the Week”, September 1, 2017: Canola field, Saskatchewan

08 Canola Field, Saskatchewan (1)

I had a pleasant drive across the Canadian prairies this summer with my father.  While the landscape is flat and lacks relief, it was a great time to do the trip because the canola and flax were blooming, adding a lot of color to the landscape.  And the first cutting of hay was being bailed, putting a fresh pleasant scent in the wind.  

Canola has become a popular crop in Canada these past few decades and canola fields are everywhere.  The plants are about a meter high and produce beautiful small yellow flowers that ripen into bean-like pods.  Black seeds from the pods are harvested and crushed to create canola oil and meal.  Canola seeds contain about 45 percent oil …

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