Great idea for sustainability.

Love this -  saving a town with this great idea for sustainability.

Here is a sustainability idea that is also saving a small Saskatchewan town from disappearing.
View article here

Last year while working @SAIT Polytechnic I became interested in water capture technology and sustainability after arranging speakers to come in and present to my students.  Since then I have had a penchant for all things related to the subject, including Tiny houses, living off the grid and the growing trend that is happening within some new communities looking for ways to make a difference. 

Also close to my heart are some other things related to above.

SAIT Projects

Innovations

This company works with water capture and irrigation and developed Artesia, a green neighbourhood in Calgary they also developed a large outlet mall to use water capture
Cross Iron Mills

View their website here

Memories of Spain

While each mistake I make, makes me stronger
And everyone of those tears I cried washes away the sorrow
Their tracks show on my soul, engraved there by the pain
And burned into my memory,

Let me forget, let me move on, let me be brave
That old cliché, forgive and escape from the hurt
Took forever to understand, I do it now, so wisdom prevails?
Or am I just hoping and praying and waiting for change?

How can I forgive that which sneaks into my mind
with the slightest picture it encroaches and overwhelms
taking its place as if it belonged, in my thoughts
From the past, song, and perfume
Triggers a memory, a simple colour combined with a smell,
transporting me there, to where I truly can escape.

A smile remembering the first scents of Spain
acrid black tobacco, strong coffee and humidity
surrounding me like a blanket, lingering wafts of my favourite
Dama de Noche, the night flower in my mothers San Antonio garden;
In the streets Patchuli and leather bracelets; love beads and Hierbas Ibicencas;
I am back, in the 70's, Mallorca and Ibiza, Tenerife and Barcelona
What longings I feel, deep in my soul, memories of music and friends,
dancing till dawn, loving the fashions and trends
Oh islands of Spain, I will never forget you, part of my soul
Sewn like threads blowing in that beachy wind
Lost as I am today, this moment, I can escape to you
I can revisit you, I can be there again, o favourite places of my mind

Tho I can travel today, they have gone forever, as they were
So simple, uncomplicated, almost a blur
But they are as clear as now when I hear a song, or smell a perfume
I can be happy this moment, burdens away, peace today
Forgiveness and prayer, my true salvations, love and mindfulness
I can have it all, how brilliant that joy, and light is everywhere
I am free, I can dance again in the moonlight

Alberta Beauty and Diversity

Though I am from Vancouver, Beautiful British Columbia, and enjoy visiting my family there often; Alberta has been my home for the past 22 years. Over the last year I was fortunate to land a temporary contract position where I took visiting student groups to some of the highlight attractions around Calgary. Though we went to many amazing places,  just a few are depicted here.

Banff Springs Hotel

View from lookout Banff Valley

Lookout Summit Banff, Levis Vargas From Venezuela

Carburn Park

There is a lovely Bench here to sit and read and look out over the pond at Carburn Park

Took this shot again at Carburn Fall 2014, love walking here alone or with a friend

View of Downtown Calgary from Lynnview Ridge close to my House

This shot also of the river at Lynnview Ridge near my house, love our neighbourhood!

The Hoodoos, near Drumheller,  Alberta

Some of the students climbed to the top of the rocky ridge, what a thrill shouting to us below 

Some rented canoes on Lake Louise

Beautiful colours of this fantastic Lake Louise, Alberta

Johnson Canyon, Alberta

Lake Minnewanka, Alberta

My son and I love the drive from Calgary to Banff or all the way to BC on Highway 1, the scenery never fails to leave you amazed, brilliant in any season; my son even painted a picture of it.

Back of Banff Springs Hotel

This is a picture of my son in Springbank

Till next time hope you come back soon!

All of my photos are copywrited and require my permission to reuse, thank you!

Inspiring Stories

People Who Followed Their Dreams despite barriers 

Young Woman's Success despite Anxiety Disorder

Americas Got Talent Winner

Paul Potts - Britains Got Talent winner

Paul Potts Movie One Chance 

I often look for inspirational stories to keep myself in a good place, and these well documented stories are good to watch again and again to remind us that no matter how many clouds are on your horizon, the sun does break through if you keep trying.

Yesterdays walk along the ridge by the river

 There were actually people fishing in the river

 It was a balmy 8C so perfect for a winter walk

Compare these to last month before the first snow came

 Love the autumn colours

This time we enjoyed a long and warm autumn, only one early snow fall in September unfortunately broke many trees and power lines here in Calgary.  See the Chinook Arch in the clouds.

Sunset on the ridge so pretty!

Rant and Rave 

Phone Rage

I decided I needed a space to get out my frustrations, just for me, to be able to move on after getting it out.  If it helps someone else in the process, funtastic.   Doesn't it seem as though some days, negative situations just seem to go on and on, one mishap after another in a chain of frustrating happenings? This is why I need a Rant and Rave section, today is the first entry.

Maybe it's just me but I find more and more often I get frustrated with today's phone centre software.  You know the drill, you call a utility company, a bank, or any place really, and you never get what you need even though you research and look for the right number or department before you dial.

Next are the endless recordings and prompts to select 1 for blah blah blah, 2 for blah blah.... and so on and so on. Sometimes after going through them all, there is still no option to speak to a live body, so you select the 0 hoping to get a live person and either get put into the que with the "we're experiencing a high level of calls and appreciate your patience, etc.....recording" or you get the unnerving click and recording "your call cannot be completed as dialled" and cut off.

NO! Now you have to call back and go through it all again.  Endless circles of prompts and nobody there.  Sometimes if you're lucky, you get through to a live person only to be transferred again to a voice mail or the wrong person who asks you for all your information again that you just gave to the first person.

Or, what about the times they get your info wrong, and despite correcting them every time you call, they still have it wrong and insist they will have it corrected this time, but never do.

Or, my favourite, the voice recognition software.  You speak into the phone and they ask you "Is this what you said? If so press 1?"  THESE DRIVE ME NUTS!  It rarely asks what you are calling about, so it gets you nowhere or they keep reminding you to visit their website, well duh, the reason I am calling is because of a problem on their website or because you can't find it there. Sigh.

Teams of people spend endless time wanting to get the best customer service and yet if they would just get rid of the damn software in the first place and go back to good old people talking to you on the first ring, and who aren't reading from a scripted answer like a robot;  customers wouldn't be angry and frustrated when they finally get through to someone and rage at them causing high turnover in employees leaving for stress or because they can't deal with angry people on the phone all day who have to stay on hold for ever after battling with the endless prompts and recorded unsolicited advertising.  Then you go to the place in person and see that they have multiple people working at the reception desk talking to each other, but the software answering the phones.

I avoid calling cell phone companies, utility and insurance companies etc, probably costing me more money in the end;  just to avoid the stress of going through this! 

Gathering the Harvest for this Moment Gillian R Whipp - I wrote this after a workshop I recently did

As I gather the buds of WISDOM and they turn to seeds
I plant them in my garden of SUCCESS replacing the doubtful weeds
I sharpen my rusty TOOLS of KNOWLEDGE with shiny new ones
UNDERSTANDING that the seeds are sprouting 
Making ROOTS in the garden of my soul
I water them with FAITH, CONFIDENCE, and GRATEFULNESS 
Shine some light with HOPE, CHARITY and LOVE
Till the roots attach themselves firmly in my being
Harvesting the rewards by APPLYING them to this moment right NOW

Halloween fun, Falling Leaves and my latest Good Read.......

Here in Calgary we have enjoyed an amazingly mild Fall so far.  With the exception of a freak 3 day snow event in September that left our city's trees  broken and a mess of power lines down, up until Halloween, we even had 18C, the trick or treaters, normally put their costumes on top of coats, toques etc; this year a light jack was enough.

I enjoyed many walks with my friend including the above at Carburn Park in Calgary, one of my favourite spots.  The leaves around the small lake are particularly pretty.

One of my daughters costumes

Some spidey decor action and the treat bowl ready for the trick or treaters

Carved pumpkins with my daughter

Such fun decorating the front of the house and putting out orange lamps and lanterns

Need to work on the carving skills!

Another costume Minnie Mouse is in the House

Son and friends did a theme take on the Kokanee beer commercials with the Sasquatch and Kokanee girls, what a riot, they got third prize at Ranchmans!

Sample Beer Commercial 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3Oac1y__jY

So what am I reading at the moment? Several books it turns out, but a biography that I am enjoying is Losing it by Valerie Bertinelli.

I particularly like the genre that relates to Rock Wives/stories. Like the book by Pattie Boyd Wonderful Tonight, there are many parallels like the wife not getting what she needs, drugs and booze, or some other addiction overtaking the rocker, and a thread similar to both stories of sadness despite the fame and fortune.

In Valerie Bertinellis case, a problem with self image and not feeling good enough, obsessing about weight (despite being very low weight) because in Hollywood, the expectation and yardstick for what is considered normal or low weight, is quite different to the norm for the rest of us.  By always being on camera, or criticised by the press or trash rags, theirs is a different hell or stressful situation, though still there are similarities that we can all relate to.

I can't imagine the pain from infidelity, mostly with the rocker in the circumstances of being on the road, women throwing themselves at them, the drugs, the booze, the stress of relationships and egos between band members, managers and contracts being unfair to the very hard working rockers, it seems they do pay a very high price for their fame in more ways than one. For the rest of us at least, suffering these things at least is private instead of being in the spotlight on top of the pain.

Happiness is short lived, and relationships, like in the real world are challenging. For the most part the same issues as with relationships in the non famous persons world are the same. Not paying enough attention to the partner/spouse, lack of intimacy, allowing the addictions to booze, drugs, their work or other things, or types of infidelity, plague the marriage. In Valerie's case, there is a happy ending in that they have a son who is now part of the band, what a gift for Eddie VH, and a great joy for Valerie, and she finds joy with her second husband, something you don't often see in famous people's stories, as does Eddie.  Also she realizes her battle with self image and weight has a lot to do with her needs not being met in her relationships, a lesson that many people need to learn, instead of blaming ourselves when things go array, we need to savour each moment, find the good in the lesson, see it for what it really is and try to honor each other, and try to find what is really going on.

Here are some great interviews and insights into Van Halen talking about their early years, as well as a neat recording of an "unplugged" type session with Wolfie VH, Valerie and Ed's son, together with Alex VH and David Lee Roth. L:ooking forward to Valeries other book, Finding It.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoXYiG0t_H0&index=4&list=RDEXeYL0zVDzs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfW4O0IKM_U