There is little in this world that breathes joy and peace into my lungs like a day in the mountains. The blue sky, the clean air and the remarkable geography are hard to beat! Yesterday we were in Calgary – lovely Calgary – still a place that holds many wonderful memories for us.

Today was the Canadian Rockies Quilt Show, not as big as many we have been to but some really terrific artistry. Wendy loved it, had a wonderful time at Sugar Pine Company – the local quilt store. Me? I walked some of the downtown and made a visit to Beamers – Amanda’s coffee shop!

Driving home we had a great chat about the two days, the people we met, the meals we ate and the simple joy of being “away” for a bit.

Then we decided to stop for supper at Jerusalem Shawarma, and had the most interesting experience there. The place was full, there was no place to sit, and then a young couple invited us to sit with them. Tonya and Alex were our companions for dinner – just in Edmonton for a month, they had moved here after seven years in Vancouver where they had concluded they would never be able to buy a house. They are homeowners here now. But beyond that they are from Ukraine and had moved to Canada before the war. Tonya, an accountant, Alex installs kitchens. They were delightful and talked much of their time here, their family still suffering in the war. They also talked about some of their friends who left Ukraine because of the war and had moved to Israel and now find themselves in trouble there. The world is a hard place.

And what a contrast to the day we had in the mountains.