Photo Finish Friday: Art Gallery of Alberta

 

Please click to enlarge

This is the Art Gallery of Alberta, taken back in August. The first time I have been near the gallery when there hasn't been a festival or something blocking the view of it. So many people hated the design when it was proposed and the price tag that went along with it. I think they did a fabulous job and it was money well spent.

Have a good weekend all.

PFF is the brain child of my cousin Leah, at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday: What was old is new again

 

This is the Alberta Hotel, newly reconstructed in downtown Edmonton. It stood on this spot from 1903 - 1984, when it was taken down, piece by piece to be later rebuilt. The pink building that you can see behind it in the second photo is the reason for all that work. That is Canada Place and they needed the room in order to build it. Canada Place opened in 1988 and 23 years later, they have finally gotten around to rebuilding the Alberta Hotel.

This is a local photographers Flicker account of the reconstruction, take a minute to have a look (his shots are much better than mine). The only article I can find on it is here.

Have a good weekend all.

PFF is the creation of Leah over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday (already?!)

Ya gotta love Alberta!

Click to enlarge please.

 

 

You can pay to stay within spitting distance of a well head ;)

Esso, straight from the well head! (and don't forget the beer)

Have a good weekend all!

Alberta's Legislature

I took so many wonderful photos last week when I was looking for material for the WWC, that I thought I should do a post on Alberta's Legislature building and grounds.I am going to just touch the surface here and provide links for anyone who might be interested. I may also have to break this into a couple of posts there is so much ground to cover after all ;) Sorry!

Alberta became a Province on September 1st, 1905, when we split from the Northwest Territories and became the 8th Province in Canada. Our motto is Fortis et Liber (Strong & Free), our Flower is the Wild Rose, our Tree is the Lodgepole Pine, our Bird is the Great Horned Owl and our Stone is Petrified Wood. There are other emblems that represent the province, but I can't recall them right now.

Construction began on our Legislature building in 1907 and by November 30th of 1911 was complete enough to have the first assembly held there. The official opening didn't take place until September 3rd of 1912.

For those interested, this link has all sorts of info and on the left of the page a link to a virtual tour of the Legislature. I started it, but, I have an old machine and not enough virtual memory. What I saw though was very interesting, on the drop down menu in the centre of the page there is "Quick Access" find Citizens Guide and it brings up a PDF document that along with telling you how the gov't works has details (starts about page 78) about the construction, architect and where the stone and marble came from.

This is the Grand Entrance, on the North side with a fabulous park in front of it. The park, fountains and other grounds were started in the 1970's and completed in 1983. Locals refer to it as "Peter's Pissing Pool" after the Premier that had the work done. Some thought he was pissing away money on it, but it is well used by the public. Click to enlarge.


This art work is one of many that adorn the grounds around the bldg.


The central fountain and pool.


Looking North to downtown, to where the first photo was shot from.


A closer shot of the Grand Entrance, I appear to have cut off part of the dome - oops!


I have so many more photos, but I think this post is long enough already. I will continue this soon.



Have a Good day all.

A little bit of history

You may remember that on Tuesday, I indicated with this photo in the WWC, that I would give a history lesson later in the week. It will just be some interesting details and some links for those interested in finding out more.

This photo is of the educational display set up at the rest/tourist info stop at the South entrance to Edmonton. When we were there, it was still tucked away in the back.



Originally they had a large sign right on the rig itself that said Leduc No 1 and that was what I had been hoping to photograph. When you saw that sign after a long days driving, you knew you were getting close to home. Of course now, it tells you nothing, you have to be looking for it and it is within the city limits already.

This plaque tells a bit of the history behind the rig. (sorry about the pigeon marks)


This rig has been here at the entrance to the city for as long as I can remember, but I honestly think this is the first time I have been this close to it. There is now a park and the info stop set up around it.


They still have the machinery you would see on a rig set up.


And underneath, they have the drill heads.



I took this just because I could.


Way back in November of 1946, no one thought that there was oil under Alberta's wheat fields. By February 13th of 1947, they found out differently when the Leduc # 1 blew in and changed the course of our Province. It was not the first well in Alberta, there had been a field South of Calgary, but it was being depleted rapidly.

" Leduc No. 1 stopped producing in 1974 after the production of some 317,000 barrels of oil and 9 million cubic metres of natural gas."

This link has an old photo and sound track of the well blowing in, if you click on the second clip, it shows the well blowing in. This link gives some facts and this link is a teaching site with all the info you could want. This is a short article about the well coming in.

Since the Leduc # 1 well came in Alberta has gone from being one of the poorest provinces to one of the richest in Canada. We also manage to keep our province rat free - yes, the four legged kind (last paragraph under Fauna).


Have a good day all.