About Canada

On Christmas Day it is a tradition for a lot of local families to ski Norquay for an hour or two. (In the UK we would go to the pub, but this is more wholesome).

If if you know Norquay you will know the North American. At the top is a tea house, which reopened just this year. Some people think its crazy to attempt the North American at all. In 1966 Rudi must have had more than a few loose screws to hike up above the tea house to do a jump from the top, captured on film by Bruno Engler.

Do you like it?. All I can say is wow!, and have a good (and safe) Christmas.

          

Two of the things that I really like about running the store are having having people go ‘wow how neat!’ and the other is making them smile.

People do often thank us for what we do both in store and online and we keep a testimonial page.

Sometimes they make me smile back, like the one yesterday from Lauralee of the USA (reproduced with her consent)

Dear Richard and All,

I am wearing my gold-gilt necklace and earrings (Jacques Bastien)which arrived about 10 minutes ago!

I love them- however it meant I had to take off my Aurora diamond Dreamcatcher necklace (also from you) to do it. Such a wonderful dilemma!

They are gorgeous and even prettier than the photo on the website- I’m so glad I couldn’t resist getting them.

Thanks for such beautiful products!

The flowers at that altitude are small and only bloom for a short period but yesterday the alpine meadows were in full bloom and the colour just went as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful, the best that I have seen it. (click on the photos to see them better)

That made me smile too!.

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So, I hate be the one to tell you but it’s only nine weeks to Christmas. We will start giving you some Christmas gift ideas, this is one of a series.

Gift Idea number 1

We will start with one for everyone. One item that continues to be popular with locals and occasional visitors to our store is the classic book of Bruno Engler’s black and white photography.

Click on the link to go to the product in store

Swiss born and raised to be an accomplished Mountain Guide Bruno emigrated to Canada in 1939 and settled in the Banff area where he could pursue his passions for the mountains and photography.

Bruno was a fun loving man with an unbridled passion for adventure who could always make those around him laugh and had the incredible talent to capture the perfect moment on film. He was something of a local legend with a bar and ski run named after him.

I put this idea first as it is a little on the heavy side and we are already near the cut off for getting things by sea to Europe (October 25th).

Have you started Christmas shopping yet, let us know if you have any great ideas for presents.

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So the roads to places like Takakkaw Falls, Yoho National Park close on the 12th October. Its officially coming to the end of the season and we have two weekends to revisit favourite places.

Takakkaw is one of the places I take visitors, its beautiful and easy for the not so fit. Here in the store at About Canada, Banff . I often show people the photos of the falls by Bruno Engler

The other image that I really like of the falls is the one from the series of street banners that Parks Canada commissioned local artist Max Elliott to create.

Winter comes next with a whole host of other things to do but there are so many great places that now become unavailable for the Winter. Which are your favourites and where was best this year?.

(I finally figured out how to enable comments!)

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At About Canada, Banff we have taken on the work of Carol Bortenlanger in the form of a “Western Legends Series” that she has created for us.

The Western Legends Series is a collection of limited edition prints of graphite drawings from Carol Bortenlanger. These depict three legends of the Alberta west.

Namely:

Chief Crowfoot, who was a chief of the Siksika First Nation in the late 1880′s. He was a fierce warrior but tried to obtain peace instead of warfare. When the North West Mounted Police came west to keep order he negotiated for peace with the other chiefs then signed Treaty 7 with Colonel Macleod in 1877.

Bruno Engler, who came to the Rockies from Switzerland in 1939 as a mountain guide and photographer and became a legend in his mountain career. He taught mountain warfare to the Canadian army, worked as a ski instructor, mountain guide, actor photographer and was one of the Canadian Rockies’ great story tellers and enduring characters.

Sam Livingstone, who was a very colourful pioneer in the 1880′s and has been called ‘Calgary’s first citizen’, as he was one of the first to build a house in the Calgary area. He is famous for his involvement in the Gold Rush, buffalo hunting, fur trading, bringing new ideas to farming and ranching and was the largest cattle dealer at the time.

Originally from Saskatchewan, Carol now resides in Calgary. She showcases our heritage through portraits of western and mountain legends, as well as rodeo themes, using primarily graphite and charcoal. Carol is a member of the Canadian Institute of Portrait Artists and has been asked to exhibit at the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Calgary Stampede Western Art Gallery / Art Auction.

Who would you add as a Western legend?

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