Year: 2015

Nov

2015

Ace Curries New line at Spruce Meadows in Calgary

If you are going to be at Spruce Meadows this weekend check out Ace Curries booth in the tent on the right when you go in the main entrance. Jas will be there(Spruce Meadows) this weekend with their curries. Vick will be at another venue(Telus Centre?) with his new line of spices. He had them at Spruce Meadows this weekend. Trust me, they are unbelievable. I wish Vick had a cooking show. I would watch it. He is a god with spices. (And a really nice guy!)

These are some of Vick and Jas’s new spices. They rock. I used the Egyptian and Jamaican with tonight’s dinner. So good. If you cannot make either of the shows then you need to order.

– Martin

Sep

2015

Intolerance

The toughest, most difficult thing really is to tolerate the intolerant. To resist the urge to throw all the bigots on a small island somewhere and let that island float away. I guess if I did that I would have to go with them.

Sep

2015

Still Some Fall Colour in Kananaskis Country

These are from last Wednesday. We drove up past Elbow Falls to Forget-me-not Pond. The park there. Go past the parking for the pond and park in the small just across from the bridge before the campgrounds. Just one or two of the pics are from the walk/hike. Generally pretty flat where we went. Walked out to the trail called, I think, Little Elbow. It said 38 KM round trip and was pretty boring; maybe OK if you are horseback. So, we saw this trail through the pines that looked like it headed back in the general direction of the river. It did, sort of. Some horses had used this trail as well. Came to a large clearing and managed to find the trail on the other side – still generally heading toward the river but kinda parallel, still away from where we wanted to be. After a while doing this we decided to cut through the woods as we could hear the river and didn’t think it would be that far. Took us a while but we kept following the sound. Once we hit the river we were quite relieved and headed back to the bridge.

Was a beautiful day and we quite enjoyed it other than there were NO other people about. I like to hike where there are at least a few people about as I assume(possibly incorrectly) that the bears will shy away from the noise.

Most of the pictures are from the road down from the pass to the Forget-Me-Not park.

One other thing of interest is that it was raining almost the whole drive from Calgary to the park. When we got there it cleared right up. And the clouds made for some great photos.

Here are some panoramic photos:

Sep

2015

Religious Tolerance and Religious Intolerance

This ‘rant’ could easily fall under the subject of manners.

I have, this summer, been exposed to a couple of interesting examples of religious intolerance or what we minimally could call ‘bad manners’.

The first was when a Sikh man came to my booth with his wife while I was working at the Calgary Stampede. He started to chat with me as his wife was finding out about our skin cream from one of the other sales people. Somehow the subject of religion came up and I mentioned mine He immediately made a comment ridiculing an aspect of my beliefs. I was taken aback and was a bit slow to respond. After this he started to pitch me on his religion – Sikhism. I was really sorry I did not call him out on this – he was actually a pretty nice young guy and I’m quite certain he would not have done this again if I had pointed out his hypocrisy.

The second incident occurred more recently with a devout Christian friend of mine. There was a Sikh man near us with a turban. My friend made some very denigrating remarks about this man and his beliefs. Thank god he was too far away to hear her. At least I hope he didn’t hear. My friend was quite vehement in her comments. Saying things like ‘those people should dress like us when they come to our country’ and ‘they make their women cover their faces’ and similar comments. (I will clarify the difference between Sikhism and Muslims and Hindus in a moment.)

First of all, I really don’t care how a person worships or what they believe as long as they don’t propagate fear and hate. From anything I have read, Christ, Siddhartha, Nanak and Muhammad all preached tolerance for others and the beliefs of others. This was a very big part of their teachings – all of them. It is only the subsequent teachings and interpretations that create hate and intolerance for the beliefs of others and their cultures.

It is always a very small part of any group that promotes hate and fear. The majority of people that I interact with in any group or culture or religion are good, decent people. It is all to many people that criticize another culture or religion without actually finding out about it first. I have been guilty of this in the past and generally feel like an idiot when I realize what I have done.

As to the comments by my Christian friend about the Sikh, let it be known that the Sikhs are not Muslim or Hindu. As one example, the Sikh religion allows for women to be equal to men in all aspects of life. And there is no caste system in the Sikh religion. There are many more differences and there is a link below if you would like to find out.

I have my own beliefs and religion. But I respect that another person can have those different than mine. But I do hope that even if you are a complete atheist(and that is OK if you are) that you will respect and allow me and others ours.

To find out a bit more about the Sikh religion check this out:
http://www.sikhs.org

Aug

2015

Hiking 101

A friend asked me to write this(sort of). We don’t hike as much as we would like and time would allow but we get out as often as we can. All of our hikes are ‘day’ hikes. Generally, a few hours. And most within a couple of hours or so from Calgary. It is nice being near some of the most spectacular hiking areas in the world. Hiking 101 basics will be the same for anywhere but there are certain points that will vary depending on where in the world you are, type of climate, terrain, etc.

Water. Always take some with you. Even if it is a short hike. I don’t drink much while I’m hiking, mostly before and after but hate not having it when thirsty. And if you are for some reason longer than you planned…
Bring your garbage back. This seems pretty obvious but there are some hikes/walks that get pretty bad. If you don’t want to carry a lot of stuff but need water, use a disposable plastic bottle and crunch it up and put in a pocket when you are done. We will, more often than not, bring bits of someone else’s garbage back. If you really want to see how bad it can get, hike Johnson Canyon near Banff.
Proper footwear. This is going to be personal. Some can get through a good hike with a good pair of rugged sandals. I like a sturdy pair of hiking boots. Sometimes I wear a good pair of sneakers as they can be cooler if it is hot. Extra pair of socks.
Clothing. I almost always bring an extra shirt, particularly when doing a long or strenuous hike – and this is not always easy to predict. My son Spencer and I hiked Ha Ling near Canmore a couple of years ago in the middle of July. I was pouring sweat when I reached the top(I’m not sure Spencer was even breathing hard) and even though is was quite hot at the start of the hike it was snowing and chilly at the top. If I had not had a dry shirt to change into, I would have gotten quite chilly. And that can sap your energy.
Clothing 2. Dress or bring clothes for the weather and potential weather. Here in the mountains, the weather can change dramatically in a very short period. I tend to dress in layers so when hot, I can remove a layer. And in this climate a light rain jacket is important to have.
Clothing 3. A hat. Bring or wear a hat.
Food. Bring some. Even if it is some energy bars. I hate them but bring something. Some hikes we will plan a small picnic at the top.
Do a bit of research on the area you are going to hike. When I hiked in Oregon and California there was poison oak. I react to it pretty badly but I like hiking so was able to find some poison oak honey when I lived in Oregon. As long as I taking this pretty regularly, I didn’t have a problem with it. In Alberta one needs to be aware that there are bears about. Carrying some bear spray is not such a bad idea.
Obey signs. I’ll let you use your judgement on this one but here is a story when I didn’t: I was hiking at Smith Rock park in eastern Oregon some years ago. The signs all over near the river and lower part said to stay on the trail. I was taking some pictures along the trail and when done thought rather than go around, I’d take the short cut across the grass and stuff. My second step I heard this rattle a few inches from my left foot – I moved like Ben Johnson off the starting block! I tend to obey certain signs more now.

I will add to this later but this is good for now. If you have something you deem important enough to put on here, please email me.

Here is a pic of me atop Smith Rock in Oregon:This was before ‘selfies’ – I had to get someone else to shoot this.