PrairieBeauty
Friends -
Having spent the month of August working along the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, about 80 miles north of the Montana line, one can see the late summer prairie in its solitude and vast splendor. Here are some photos to contemplate:
1. A prairie evening, north of Walsh, Alberta. The low evening sun gives a richness to the scene. These landforms, remnants of glacial deposits, remain to show us that the climate has changed much in the past 10,000 years.
2. A large thunderstorm moving past at sunset, with its top shaded in pastel colors – part of a group of several moving across Alberta during the afternoon, and crossing into Saskatchewan to continue shedding energy after dark. An alkali lake, nearly dried up after a warm summer, provides contrast in the foreground. When the photo was taken, the storm cell was 60 miles distant, and disrupting harvest operations over a wide area.
3. Sagebrush is fairly common in the low lying areas on these grasslands. While not the dominant flora on the northern prairie, unlike the great sagebrush seas of the American West, its aromatic fragrance is evocative of an earlier, less complex time.
4. In rural western Saskatchewan, where the two main rivers are the North and South Saskatchewan, few bridges span the banks. Ferries are still a common means of crossing these larger rivers, and the ferry at Estuary – a forgotten, abandoned hamlet which gave the district its name – is a good example.
5. Natural gas is one of the bounties of this area of the plains. Shallow, low-output wells require intensive drilling to economically produce this resource. Here a small rig works toward dawn, as its profile breaks the brightening horizon. This photo was taken from one of the drilling locations I was working on. Within hours, the rig had moved onto another location, and by the next day, so had we.
Enjoy,
Jim Szpajcher
