Community

Seven billion tonnes! Seven billion metric tons of carbon could be removed from the atmosphere by one simple natural mechanism. Unfortunately the loss of this natural, carbon removal system has been ongoing for decades. It was deemed necessary for providing land for crops, animals, and building materials.

Central Alberta has been enjoying an unseasonal warm fall. The initial snow covered most of the herbaceous plants insulating them for the winter but warm temperatures has melted snow in sunny areas. Hardy plants will survive but the tender ones might not unless they receive more insulation. If in doubt, cover the plants with an insulating layer such as: snow from other areas, compost, straw or leaves.

The 2017 edition of the Red Deer Festival of Trees – our 24th annual – has come and gone. The Festival takes an enormous amount of volunteer time to organize, and without our volunteers this event simply could not happen on the scale that it does.

For 11 months of the year my Christmas decorations live in a humble abode of cardboard boxes shoved haphazardly under the stairs.

“He who establishes his argument by noise and command shows that his reason is weak. ”

Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra by Anne Rice &Christopher Rice

If you listen very closely, you can hear it. It’s the unmistakable din of kids in schools bouncing off the walls. Of retail clerks collapsing, the faint rattle of mall workers opening bottles of Tylenol. The microscopic hum of thousands of mildly radioactive LED lights hanging on houses and draped on trees. It’s finally December, and you know what that means.

Most often when I write about the street, the article is almost like a downer. Partly it has to do with wanting to understand the reasoning that lands folks there, and in so doing, I uncover a lot of grief and misery which in itself can read like a put down on our society.

The 2019 Canada Winter Games Gear is available for the 2017 holiday season at Bower Place in Red Deer.

How do you connect? Is connection not what we are all looking for? We can find it through what we wear, what we eat, how we spend our time, through our businesses, with our community and ultimately with whom we believe we are.