09-13 June -- Didsbury

June 13, 2025

09-13 June -- Didsbury

Friends

How does one describe a visit with friends with whom a relationship goes back to January 1990 where we met as families both anticipating terms of service with MCC in Nigeria? The relationships we made in Nigeria changed our lives. We were an MCC team of 5-6 couples who have consciously maintained our friendship over the years, usually gathering together every couple of years or when one of our children is married or as the spirit leads!

Somehow our friendship with Ken and Bev has resulted in visiting each other every year either in Alberta or Ontario. We share a common interest in entrepreneurship, theology, politics, photography, children and grandchildren. They are our elders by a few years and we respect that.

Our time together over these 4 days was more of a flow of conversation intermixed with shared experiences in their world of Alberta.

Birds

We visited a small body of swampy water surrounded by bullrushes and trees which apparently held a strong draw for birds of many sizes and colors.

The bird calls created an amazing soundtrack to the diving or swooping or sitting on the branches or on the water.

a female Red Winged Blackbird

As a photographer who has over the last couple of years taken a keen interest in photographing birds and birds in flight, this was heaven on earth.

Ken knew of this body or water surrounded by swamp and trees, and he knew there were birds there, but when he witnessed my excitement and started to see the birds through the eyes of a photographer, he decided to pull out his big lens and together with Bev (fortified by her iPhone 16) and Mary Lou, we returned during the golden hour.

a Yellow Headed Blackbird singing her heart out!

a Ruddy Duck

I saw a demonstration of motherliness among ducks which I hadn't seen before. A mother duck with just one duckling was diving, pulling up food and feeding her duckling. Beautiful!

an American Coot feeding her young one

Local craft

One day, Ken and Bev took us to visit Custom Woolen Mills, a facility near Carstairs which uses old machines and equipment to custom produce finished wool starting from the raw wool sheared from the sheep. The staff were enthusiastic and happy to answer any questions we had as they worked to keep the machines going and the wool produced. They even have an old machine that makes socks! We were surprised to learn that some of the staff had worked there for over three decades!

Sock making machine

Theatre

A gift Ken and Bev gave us was a visit to the Rosebud Theatre where we enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch and watched the 2-hour Canadian Musical entitled, "Dream." We laughed and cried with a full house and by the end we gave the performers a standing ovation. What a gift! The story was compelling, partly because the playwright drew from his own father's and mother's experience of neglect, rejection, redemption, and resilience.

We were also blessed to meet up with Michael and his daughter to catch up on photography and other life issues.

We parted on Friday knowing it wouldn't be that long before we were together to share our lives again.

Friend from Kajiji days (early 80's)

While in Didsbury, we drove up to Olds to meet up with Alma Funk for coffee. We worked with Alma in Kajiji from 1982-84. Alma worked as a nurse and I was tech support for the hospital where Alma worked.

This was another amazing experience to chat about things that happened in the past which we hadn't thought about for decades. Though we lived in the same place and engaged with the same people, we had such different experiences so it was fascinating to learn things from that long-ago past.

More birds

Early on the morning we met with Alma I dropped Mary Lou off at our meeting place and drove out to Olds College Botanical Gardens to see if I could find some birds....and I found a few!