this earth
Another one from a favourite place…
If you are curious about where this photograph was taken, see the comments in the previous post.
You are browsing the Blog for Rocks Archives - Page 6 of 7 - Marja-Leena Rathje.
by Marja-Leena by Marja-Leena still
I’m still feeling tired and under the weather.
It’s a glorious sunny day at last and the garden is beckoning.
I need to repot the tomato seedlings, still so pitifully small.
I must start hardening the geraniums and other plants for their move outdoors.
Lots to do, so I hope the sun gives me energy.
by Marja-Leena a photo
Still here, but too busy, then too tired to write…
but here’s a photo taken on a favourite island…
by Marja-Leena 
by Marja-Leena stones or bones?
Looking through some of my old photos, I was again struck by these interesting rocks on the Saanich peninsula on southern Vancouver Island, taken in the summer of 2005. They make me think of weathered old bones of some prehistoric creature.
by Marja-Leena stairway
On the trail in Writing-on-Stone Park.
Lovely and cool here at last, so I’m going through my summer list. Friends arriving tomorrow!
by Marja-Leena more rock
A picture speaks a thousand words.
Another photo of some of the thousands of rocks at Writing-on-Stone Park.
by Marja-Leena pensive
It’s been quiet for a few days here as I recover from having a lot of visitors in the midst of a heat wave. Though it’s a little cooler today, I’m still feeling tired and uninspired. Instead I’ve been doing some needed housekeeping on my computer, and then rewarded myself with another tour of our photos from the recent trip to Alberta. I’m thinking again about how I may use the Writing-on-Stone Park photos, like the one above, in my new work.
Suiting my pensive mood, I’ve also enjoyed a tour through Simon Marsden’s moody and darkly romantic photos (introduced by wood s lot). Naturally I like his Standing Stones the most. The arches and the ruins appeal as well for they have been elements in my past work.
Then a little bit of opera music lifted my spirits some more, though the video itself is too cheesy for my taste. I know and love Dvorak’s Song to the Moon, this time sung by Russian soprano Anna Netrebko. (Kiitos, thanks to tuumailu for the link!) Nothing like this kind of art to nurse a pensive mood and then inspire! Does it work that way for you too?
by Marja-Leena Alberta Trip Day 3
This was the big day, the main reason for this trip. We finally made it to Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park in southern Alberta, a major site of hoodoos, petroglyphs and pictographs.
Some readers may remember that I wrote about Writing-on-Stone Park and how we had planned to visit it a year ago, but unusual heavy rains and flooding had forced a postponement. New readers may want to read that post, as well as one I wrote about hoodoos.
With cameras, lots of water, lunch, snacks plus hats and sunscreen, we set off from our hotel in Lethbridge. Heading southeast towards Milk River, the drive was pleasant and took about an hour and a half. Coming in, we had a fantastic first impression of the huge site overlooking the river. We knew that the Archaeological Preserve with the majority of the petroglyphs is protected from vandals and access was limited to guided tours daily in the afternoon. We found the park manager who informed us that the tour guide was away for several days on her days off and no one else could do it! There is only one guide now, compared to the two who were there last year. Blame the cutbacks in government funding (this is in Alberta where the economy is booming because of oil!) The park website has not been updated in years, phone service is a taped message, and tours cannot be booked in advance. It seems almost like they do not want visitors there! What’s a traveller from far away to do? You can imagine my disappointment.
Anyway, we were told about the self-guided walking tour of the sandstone rocks and the locations of just a few petroglyphs on that route. After a quick lunch we set off, heeding warnings about staying on paths to avoid rattlesnakes – a first time for us! It was getting hot but we were quite mesmerized by the amazing rock formations, spending a lot of time taking photos. It really was an amazing, almost mystical experience, indeed a sacred place. And we did come to an area with about four discernible petroglyphs.
We ran out of time to go to the very end of the more than two hour walk, one way (without stopping to take photos I bet!) where we would have seen more. (Again, more information beforehand would have allowed us to plan better. We had to be back in Lethbridge to meet an old friend for dinner). Back near the parking lot we found some descriptive panels about the petroglyphs and the Blackfoot people who lived here and created them.
There were disappointments but nevertheless we loved the immense area of hoodoos here. We got about a hundred excellent digital photos (thanks to my husband) and some film ones that I took of close-up details and still haven’t developed because the roll hasn’t been fully exposed. I”m having a difficult time choosing photos to post here, that will look good in a small format! I’m really excited to have the rock photos to use in my continuing Silent Messenger series. But I hope to go back again to see the rock art and the rest of the park sometime!
Related links:
Writing on Stone Provincial Park brochure (pdf)
some nice photos of WOSPP
Alberta Trip Day 1, Day 2, Day 4 and Days 5 & 6
Addendum July 16 and July 31, 2006: See more of our photos here, here and here.