Calgary

The day one stops making memories is, I suppose, the day one stops wanting to live, so it's very good to return from a three-week holiday with bundles of new and very happy memories. We've been to Canada to visit our son, daughter-in-law, grand-daughter and a truly magnificent country and people.

We started in Calgary, a city which is typical of the brash province of Alberta. The Canadians are great engineers, great exponents of the arts of concrete, steel, glass and wood, allowing nothing to get in their way, so their cities explode upwards while pouring outwards across any countryside that gets in the way.

The province is the centre of Canada's oil and gas industry but it does seem that, at last, they're beginning to realise that this bonanza may be running out of.... steam, so they're beginning to fight back - see the website on the poster here.

Calgary was originally named Fort Brisebois but was renamed Fort Calgary after a settlement on the west coast of Mull in 1876 by Colonel James Macleod. One assumes that Col Macleod came from Mull. There could hardly be a more stark contrast than that between the Canadian city and this tiny Scottish village.

Picture of Calgary Bay courtesy filibrilu on Flickr - details here.