Denniblog

I promised you a link to some proper photos a few entries back.

So here—with kind permission—are a few pictures, just in case you thought there was no wildlife in Banff! (all photos are by proberts84, as he likes to be known )

Note that these are not in the public domain.

A group of marmots set up home right in front of our hotel room windows. Although they looked close enough to touch, they were about the size of pinheads in my viewfinder, even with ‘maximum’ zoom (3x).

This is one of my favourites. To see why, look closely at the foreground. Click on the image for the large size.

Another golden-mantled ground squirrel at Sanson Peak. They never sit still for more than a second and it takes patience and skill to capture them like this. Go to proberts84 for more of the same!

Finally, deer were everywhere in the forests around Banff; usually directly by the roadside. And yet, I didn’t manage to get a single picture of one. proberts84 did, though!

These things are locally known as ‘elk’, which is rather confusing because ‘elk’ is the Scandinavian term for moose, and I was expecting them to be rather bigger! They are still an impressive sight once their antlers have grown (and during that time, you shouldn’t cross them, either!)

Another name for them is Wapiti deer. As such, they are also known in German (I knew I’d heard the term somewhere—it dates back all those years to my time as an assistant volunteer zookeeper.)

So, we’re back home (but we’re almost immediately off again, to drop by some mates in London. Normal service won’t resume until Monday).

I have some fond memories of this trip to Canada. After my previous visit to Montreal, which almost left me paralysed with ennui, I swore never to return—except of course for whale watching around Vancouver. Had I known that Vancouver is a short (well, 12hr) Greyhound ride down the road, I would have arranged for a longer stay!

But I digress.

Alberta stands in marked contrast to Quebec, or perhaps it’s just something to do with big cities. Despite the constant onslaught of tourists and visitors from Calgary, people in Banff are laid back and easy to talk to (as I’ve written in my first entry). It’s easy to have fun here. And of course, the scenery is stunning.

So, it is with some regret that I find myself back home, even though our week of uninterrupted sunshine was probably not typical for the area.

Only one entry remains:

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Yesterday was our last glorious, sunny day. It was just as well that a few of John’s colleagues decided to take the afternoon off; the conference was relentless, with overlapping sessions from morning to night, and the only exercise our boys got was the forty minute hike to-and-from the venue. While the route was pretty, it didn’t offer any of the glorious views from higher up.

A quick way to get a mountain fix around here is to take the Banff Gondola which runs up Sulphur Mountain, dating back to 1959.

I was dubious at first, but it was worth it. The omnipresent trees dropped away to reveal an unprecedented view over the mountains, all the way to Lake Minnewanka in the distance.

A kilometre-long boardwalk hugs the mountainside, leading up to a historic weather station on Sanson Peak.

As we slowly walked along, golden-mantled ground squirrels were chasing each other across patches of snow (I can’t take pictures of wildlife with my camera, unless it’s sitting still. If I get our resident master photographer’s Flickr link, I’ll post the link here. Those pictures will take your breath away!)

The shadows were lengthening as we finally descended, and on the next morning, it was as if it had all been a dream.

Yesterday’s forecast was ‘cloudy’.

Seeing what that means in Britain, I decided to stay in town and do the laundry. But when I drew back the curtains that morning, glaring sunshine hit me from an azure sky. I had to squint to make out the majestic mountain backdrop (a sight that hits me just as much now as it did on our first morning, when I wasn’t sure whether we were in a motorway Travel Inn or wherever—until I drew back those curtains).

There were a few downy clouds behind the snow-covered peaks, but no grey in sight. I assumed that the forecast meant that the weather would deteriorate later in the day, but not so: ‘cloudy’ here seems to mean that the sun can disappear behind a white fluffy cloud for up to five minutes at a time, necessitating you to wait for that panoramic photo shoot. The weather held.

So, the laundry safely over with, I decided to shelf my plan to work on the novel and instead go for a walk.

One thing to be said in favour of Banff: it’s at the bottom of a valley covered in wetlands which are full of interesting wildlife and—above all—flat. Another pleasant surprise are the local hot springs. Near the marshes, they bubble back to the surface, and the warm water is lined with emerald green throughout the winter and is home to exotic fishes and birds year-round.

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Tim Berners-Lee was today’s keynote speaker, talking about the future of the internet.

I wasn’t there—I was in the Greyhound on the way to Lake Louise (if web access at IW3C was any faster than that on a remote SE Asian island with only dial-up access, i could show you how very beautiful it is there). But we talked about the future of the internet yesterday night.

You see, I’m lobbying my husband on the Google privacy issue, which I ranted about on my LJ. While the people at IW3C engage in mutual back-slapping and hero-worship, talking about the history of the web which is all of about twenty years old, the dream is turning into a nightmare even as they speak.

I went to a talk and reception about the ‘history of the web’ yesterday, but I switched off as the speakers jabbered on and thought instead about birds.

On the way into the meeting (from a very panoramic smoking break), we spotted a bird hopping across the carpet. It had flown in through the partially opened double door. Fortunately, there were no other people around, this being a little-used side entrance.

However, as John approached it, the bird hopped into the adjoining hall, towards the crowded reception room. John entered through another door to round it up and I opened the entrance doors fully. Between us, we were able to shoo it outside, just as a Web Consortium committee member walked in.

“You two should be on the IW3C committee,” he said.

I was glowing with pride. Not many entirely non-nerdy Zoologists can boost both an Erdös number and an invitation to join the World Wide Web Consortium. But then John whispered in my ear.

“He’s only saying that because, if we can’t hurt a bird, we won’t hurt a committee member.

Just when I was wondering whether I get to do any more travelling before Worldcon (there is the small matter of having to finish the first draft of my novel by then…), John suggested that I’ll tag along to the 16th International WWW Conference on May 8-12 in Banff, Canada.

This will be the first time I’m attending a conference purely as a spouse, but what the heck, the internet has gone above my head from around the time cascading style sheets and XML came around. Instead of attending boring lectures, I’ll be off to the national park. Heck—the place has snow in May! I wonder if I still remember how to ski…