Ruby St. Amand
Northern News Services
Thursday, August 30, 2007

Dear Readers, welcome back to another week of Bouquets and Chocolates.

I know the columns have been few and far between but I will try for one per month.

Sweden

I couldn't believe when my best friend Agnes Jones, who lives in Alberta, went over to visit her first cousin on her dad's side in August and she sent a beautiful postcard from her dad's place of birth: Sweden.

She had a wonderful time travelling and sightseeing in many beautiful places with her cousin. Well this is what I felt a warm glow about ... her cousin Liesbet read Bouquets and Chocolates through the Internet. Yikes! She mentioned to Agnes that she enjoyed reading the article. Thank you, Liesbet, I wish you more happy reading of Inuvik Drum's Bouquets and Chocolates.

After a long 20 hours-plus travelling, Agnes is back home safe and sound.

Arts festival

I went to check out the Great Northern Arts Festival and to my surprise there were not as many artists there as the previous years. All lovely workmanship of art, though, and with great hand skills and creative images, it's hard to pick out your favorite.

I would give all the artists a favorite choice award. Good job and hope to see your work in and around the North.

Holidays

Whew! We made it. We drove down to Edmonton and took our time going down. This was the first time in a long, long time that we saw as many wild animals as you could possibly see. Buffalo, grizzlies, mountain sheep (it is awesome how those sheep can climb the steep mountainside and still keep going, even lying on the side of the cliff - I was like, "get off there, you might fall over, jeepers sake" - they're amazing), elk, black bears (mom and cubs) ... the list goes on.

What a huge country we live in, with so much space and freedom. I hope it will stay like that for another thousand years ... vast, quiet and no changes (except a paved road would be great).

Edmonton

Shucks, I couldn't stand Edmonton's noise level, the traffic, the signs, the crowded spaces, the heat, however there is one thing I could stand and that was the prices. Oh my gosh, you could buy five of whatever for the price of one up here. The choices, unlimited. I can see why so many of us would prefer to shop for clothes and household items in the south. You can pay the shipping and still save.

Fresh produce, bread, meats ... especially the prices ... then we come home and I have to bite my tongue when I hand over my debit card to pay for groceries. It's like I don't want to hand it over.

Ah, driving up the Dempster ... potholes and washboard along with the rain, it's like travelling on a thick layer of grease, it's slippery and dangerous. Drive with caution, please. It is absolutely horrible. (Sorry tourists, but I give you a thumbs up for taking such a risk driving up the Dempster, especially when you're not aware of flying rocks hitting the windshield.)

Prayer does work and miracles do happen. I read somewhere that this person said to the good guy upstairs, "show me and I'll believe it." The man upstairs said to him, "believe it and I'll show you"

This is what happened. We bought a 2007 truck and every morning before we left my husband asked me if I had said a prayer. As usual I told him I already did.

"Please Lord, don't let any rocks hit our windshield. I don't want any cracked windshields. Put a hedge of protection around us and let our protecting angels catch those flying rocks."

I'm sure many of us have said that prayer before. Well, on this side of Eagle Plains there was construction going on, trucks travelling back and forth, and my husband sees this gravel truck coming down the road. Once it got close enough, he said "oh noooo," then he ducked, as he saw this huge rock coming directly towards us but more towards me. As for me, I saw this black thing hurling towards the windshield.

When he ducked, I said "What?"

Well we passed this truck and sweat was almost pouring off his face. He said "I saw this rock coming right towards you, right towards the middle of the window, then in mid-air before it touched the truck, it somehow flew right over the windshield." Thank heavens, we were protected from a cracked windshield.

To be continued...