Fight Back Now! Protest - May 29, 2026

 Last Friday, May 29th, hundreds of people met at Calgary's City Hall, marched through downtown, and then congregated at Riley Park to protest all that is wrong with the Alberta UCP government. Apparently 20 other places in Alberta were doing the same thing on the same day. 

Organized by Gil McGowan, leader of the Labour Union, there were representatives from several organizations and unions.  Also there were Calgary Raging Grannies, a protest singer Blowing in the Wind, speakers representing Indigenous, Teachers, and Healthcare (PA equipment pedal powered). Then at 6:30 the largest Critical Mass movement I'd ever seen met in the Riley parking lot before cycling through downtown Calgary. After that point I tuckered out and walked home.

Here are some photos posted to my Fight Back Now! album on Flickr.

 

Ladybugs

 Another new theme started on Flickr this year is Nature: Ladybugs.  There seems to be way more ladybugs around than usual this Fall, so it's been super easy to find great photo opportunities.  

This is one I took in September, in the early morning with the sun creating bokeh bubbles in the background trees. Using Photoshop filters, I turned it into a painting.

Someplace to Sleep

 Downtown Calgary is not the same. Not the same as when I was a kid. Not the same since before COVID. Just not the same.

There are bodies on the streets. Mostly, hopefully, sleeping. Used to be I would investigate, maybe help. But there are just too many.

The Homeless have stopped looking for what would traditionally be called Home. Wherever they pitch their stuff is Home. Wherever they pitch their stuff is where they sleep. There is no place else they can afford to sleep. Shelters are considered unsafe or have too many rules or numerous other reasons known only to them. I don't know.

This year, I started a new on-going theme on Flickr, Someplace to Sleep, to show what people are going through, and to show what I see daily on my way to and from work downtown.

These are a few I've taken this year.

 

After the rain

 This Spring The Farmer's Almanac predicted that we would have a hot, dry summer. So far this July we have had way more rain than usual. Wicked, monsoon power, thunderous rain. 💚  I love shooting after and sometimes during a rain shower.  With rain come raindrops on flowers, amazing diffused light, and lots and lots of mushrooms and slugs that just suddenly appear! 

These photos were shot in my neighborhood one afternoon last week when the storms subsided to a light rain shower.

Trying to get back on track...

Derailed

To say that COVID derailed my photography would be an understatement. Looking through all the events I have taken photos of through the years (starting in 2009) and looking at what I've posted this year on Flickr... it is clear that I don't get out much anymore. Most of my photos are either going to or going home from work. And my cat. The thrill of taking event photos is marred by the uneasiness of being around crowds of people. Another backlash of COVID seclusion.

Although I may have slowed down dramatically, photography is still a needful thing. People still interest me, but so do so many other things. These are a few of my favorite photos that I've taken so far this year.

Summers of Smoke

 

"Summer" is now "forest fire season." The new norm. We must adapt. The article, Canada in 2060, in the September 2023 issue Macleans Magazine makes it seem so.

It's Autumn - and still COVID.

 It's October. And still, there is COVID. 

The Alberta Premier's announced over the summer that COVID was over and that it was going to be the best summer ever. Yeah, right. Masks came off. People gathered. There was even a Stampede. Mask-resistors were joined with Vax-resistors (people against getting vaccinated). 

While Kenney went on vacation for three weeks (or into hiding, it's not clear) COVID statistics rose. I won't go into the lurid details about how Kenney tried to lure people into getting vaccinated by offering a lottery (where you could win $1,000,000 or a lifetime hunting license. Serious.) There's enough in the news.

I was called back to work. Then we closed and offered curbside. And now we're open again.

My "During the Time of COVID" album on Flickr has almost 400 photos in it now. Since I don't go out except to go to work or get groceries, most of the photos are things I've seen on the way to and from work or in my yard. Or my cat. 

I bought a telephoto lens to take photos of birds, but the city is doing flood construction along the river and scared the birds away. While groups of people congregating on the chewed-up bike path scare me away.

Instead, I binge watch TV shows and movies on DVD. Occasionally, I see a photographic scene that makes me hit Pause so that I can appreciate it more. But mostly I fall asleep. 

Or I play game APPs on my tablet with the false hope that I'm keeping my brain active.  

Lately, I've started an online Gale course for webpage coding. Depending on where my brain is at, the classes are either exciting bits of magic or Greek confusion. (I don't know Greek.)

At work, people ask me when COVID will be over. Like I have the powers of an oracle.

I wish. 

It's Winter - There's COVID.

 It's winter. 

There's COVID. 

Going nowhere. Nowhere to go. 

Chillin' with my super warm chubby tabby. 

Looking out my window at the beautiful outside.

COVID Christmas

This year the COVID pandemic changed how people spent Christmas. Social distancing rules made the gatherings smaller and/or more creative. 

I tend to regard all gatherings with a bit of dread and a whole lot of anxiety and every year have to drag myself into the spirit of Christmas.  

Sure I like Christmas music (played in December), Christmas movies (yeah Grinch  & Scrooge!), food (mandarin oranges and dark home-made fruitcake), Christmas light displays, and snow. Snow! Love the snow! This year it came all at once, in one night, burying birdbaths and feeders. 

But there's also the anxiety of buying gifts, making small-talk at social gatherings, and generally being with people. Not any of my favourite things.

Personally, I thought this COVID Christmas was going to be a cake-walk.  Everyone had to stay home in their restricted bubbles. I could spend Christmas at home, alone. No stress! Well, until King Kenney made a decree at the last possible moment (that I chose to ignore) that single people could invite one person into their homes.

Then interesting things happened. 

There seemed to be way more Christmas displays set up in my neighbourhood, and a month sooner, too.  There was the giant inflatable Abominable Snowman from the movie Rudolph, a trio of friendly penguins waving at passerby's, and subtle little ornaments some easily missed but a delight to find. 

One Sunday morning near Centre Street Bridge, a family dressed in Santa suits greeted pedestrians and traffic with cheerful smiles and waves and wishes of Merry Christmas. 

On Christmas Eve afternoon my community association organized a Drive-By Santa, on a firetruck! Santa on a drive-by got me out of my safe little no-Christmas cave. Although, later I would wonder at the wisdom of someone my age chasing a firetruck through snowy streets during a mini Chinook. (Couldn't move much the next day or two. Still, worth it!)

Still, as always, my intentions to photograph one thing turns into me seeing much more. 

Like the lady who stood at her front door and honked a bike horn at Drive-By Santa.

Like the family that built a mountainous snow fort, big enough for a kid to snowboard down one side.

Like the small group that gathered in front of an elderly woman's front door to serenade her with Jingle Bells. 

On that epic snowy Monday evening, I spent a few hours on a Zoom Christmas party with some lovely grannies.  This Christmas I even baked fruitcake cookies and oatmeal bread and smoked ham. Some I shared without the usual tinge of insecurity.  

A most unusual Christmas, indeed. But, as usual, a Christmas that turned out pretty okay. Hope your's was pretty okay, too.