Check around the visible coal seams in Drumheller, Starland County, anywhere in Alberta really, and you'll probably find some Alberta Amber. Generally small pieces, the size of a pea or smaller, it's brittle and readily crumbles (so you have to be careful), but it does show some beautiful colors...
It could be heated, pressed, sealed in resin to make some interesting jewelry and rings (they do this to the lower grade Baltic amber), but Alberta classes it as a fossil and so collecting is forbidden. Shame. If it were coal, or oil and gas, or simply in coal, you could collect all you wanted and burn it, no problem, but the collecting of it to appreciate is prohibited by law.
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And, newly arrived from China a digital USB microscope, so I can share with you the infinitude of minute maybe-probably-not-diamonds...
On the right side, clear with some points with bits of river-washed quartz. For reference, the grid is 5 mm square, the stone would measure approximately 1mm X 1mm. Truly an engagement-class stone...
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Sunday Off and I've promised to take A***** to Drumheller, in lieu of the usual night out at .... etc. A better bet I thought.
And the weather, Calgary, +10, thinking that I might get a shovel or two in the river and perhaps do a bit of prospecting...
No. Just past Beiseker the landscape turns to snow, Calgary isn't Alberta, after all. I'm still surprised. Like with how the rest of the world's economy is surviving...
Nonetheless, a few pictures from our trip. Photos, I could have spent a month, year taking, these are off the cuff, Samsung phone pics.
Phone Box, Dorothy. Fisher Price...
Grain Elevator near Dorothy
...moonrise between cell-towers...
Abandoned railway bridge near East Coulee. Bridge fenced off, hazardous, many broken ties, note the state of the walkway...
Enhanced Panorama over the Suspension Bridge at Rosedale...
Horseshoe Canyon. A***** is the red ghoul, the stitching software didn't like him so much...
A fine sunset approaching Beiseker. The best time of the day to be on the prairies (or in the badlands). Except for morning, when the rivers are thawed and there's the prospect of ...
He visited the museum (Royal Tyrell), I read a book. And we ate lunch at a generic pub (the "Last Chance Saloon & Hotel" in Wayne was closed, I checked their hours, not the days, my bad, shame, it's without a doubt - for ambiance alone, the best bar for 100 miles), so we found the pub, he took the waitresses recommendation and had the steak, I had a burger...the burger was delicious, topped with jalapenos and crispy with black pepper, poutine smothered in gravy on the side, can't go wrong with a burger in a small town, his steak, well, a boot on a plate with a side of frozen superstore veggies...he survives it. I give him a bite of my burger to give him the taste and remembrance of his pretension...
Still, not a bad trip, not a good one, when the snow/ice is gone we'll try again for the Wayne Hotel, the other sights he's seen, and maybe a few hours sinking the shovel into a few of the nearby rivers...
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A few images from the past few weeks...
(taken by me and the daughter upon leaving the Forest Lawn Women In Need)
(Lake Louise, note the selfies...)
(The trading post...)
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