Monday 22 October 2007

Sept. 4th ... start of trip to Alberta & Saskatchewan

On our first day of the trip we drove the Hope-Princeton Hwy., through Osoyoos and on to Grand Forks. We stayed at a lovely B&B - Riverbend - on the Kettle River. With morning breakfast on the terrace, we watched a deer wade the river and a Mengesser take a bath.
We visited Emilie, a FAN friend and had a look at her wonderful quilts, including 'Poppies'. Among other awards, 'Poppies' was chosen as one of the best quilts of the Century.

Grand forks is a farm and ranchland area. There are many heritage buildings, for example the old court house.
Shortly after leaving Grand Forks, we were into mixed forest with lumber mills.
Lunch found us at Castlegar and a Dukabor restaurant with excellent food.Perched on the top of a hill is a Dukabor village with many of the original buildings. The Dukabors were a group from Russia who had decided they would have nothing more to do with war.
When the Zhar of Russia sent them guns, they burned them. Lenin and Tolstoy supported them and assisted in their move to Canada. They settled in Saskatchewan and some in British Columbia. The Dukabors lived in cooperative communities and were excellent farmers. There was a splinter group of extremists called the 'Sons of Freedom' who drew a lot of attention in the 60's & 70's when they set fire to the property of Dukabors who they saw as leaving the prime directives of the religion. For the most part, Dukabors are wonderful people who believe in peace and live a simple life.
From here we headed east to Cranbrook. We learned to check our maps - there were two branches in the road and we drove through some wonderful scenery, but were an hour late arriving at our destination.
We had a wonderful but short visit with friends from high school. This couple met in grade 10 and married after university. Linda introduced us to two wonderful quilters. Unfortunately, the only photos I took were of Linda's wonderful new kitchenOur next project is to re-do our 30+ year old kitchen!

2 comments:

Old Boar said...

Terrific photos taken on your trip. I enjoy travelling by road and am always refreshed afterwards. Seeing your photos is just as good as going for a drive!

margaret said...

Your trip through BC, and photos, remind me of one we did 6 years ago when visiting the family - to Calgary (to see my friend made 20 years ago when living there) and then back through the Kootenays. We stopped to see the Dukabor village and learn about their history - I remember the Sons of Freedom ruckus back in the 60s, which is probably all that most people know about the Dukabors, but that's certainly not the whole story. We also saw the town where the Japanese were interned - another interesting bit of history - this was shortly after we'd read Snow Falling on Cedars.