(click to enlarge)


Taken near Midale, Sk on the evening of June 11.

Tribal nomads in Iran. (A photo collection.)

Just one of a series of photos by “Urban Refugee” (and occasional guest blogger) Sean McCormick. Enjoy!

Or maybe, safer to say pre-spring melt. We’re by no means out of the winter woods – there’s still April to contend with.
And, eh…. May.

It’s one of a series.
Enjoy!

To answer one of the most frequently asked questions about SDA…

… this is why I link to the volcano cam.

Animated. Very cool.

This is just too cool not to share.

Click here for the full sized shot – captured at Saskatoonscanner.com. There’s video, too,
(The kid’s paying for all this on a pizza delivery income. There’s a link for donations at the bottom of the page, if you’re so inclined.)

New home construction

LAV-III (corrected) in sand

Rolled G-Wagon

(click to view full size)

More photos in this directory.

“Tommy Douglas Weed at Dusk (For Kate)”
My favourite – caraganas. Well, I suppose it could have been worse.
Check out his portfolio here.

I take a shortcut down gravel roads when I drive to and from North Battleford. There is a tremendous amount of water laying in the fields and ditches this spring – I had to double back on one part of the trip as the highway was closed by flooding.
The colours on the prairie are fabulous at this time of the year – this evening I stopped to take a few photos. Enjoy!

(Right clicking on the smaller thumbnails should allow you to open them to full size.)
Colour Gravity *

A Michael Totten photo essay from “The Beginning of the Universe;

In Northern Iraq there is a place called Lalish where the Yezidis say the universe was born. I drove south from Dohok on snowy roads through an empty land, seemingly to the ends of the earth, and found it nestled among cold hills.
I went there because the President of Dohok University told me to go. �I am a Muslim,� he said. �But I love the Yezidis. Theirs is the original religion of the Kurds. Only through the Yezidis can I speak to God in my own language.�
Yezidis are ancient fire-worshippers. They heavily influenced Zoroastrianism, and in turn have been heavily influenced by Sufi Islam. The temple at Lalish is their �Mecca.� Hundreds of thousands of remaining Yezidis � those Kurds who refused to submit to Islam � make pilgrimages there at least once in their lifetimes from all over the Middle East and Europe.
[..]
�Can someone from another religion become a Yezidi?� I said.
�No,� Baba Sheik said. He shrugged his shoulders and cocked his head. �We are the original people,� he said and spread out his arms. �We can�t become a cocktail religion like Islam.� Everyone, including my Muslim driver and translator, thought that was hilarious.
They�re a bit like the Druze then, the fierce people who live in the mountains of Syria and Lebanon. You can�t convert and become a Druze either. Yezidis believe they will be reincarnated as Yezidis after they die, just as Druze believe they will be reincarnated as Druze.
Baba Sheikh apparently didn�t want me to think they were close-minded bigots. �We are a peaceful people,� he said. �We don�t interfere with others. We are the nation of generosity and kindness.�
He didn�t think that about everyone else in the region.
�72 times Muslims tried to conquer us,� he said. �Christians never once tried to conquer us. The Christians are wise, not like Muslims.�

It’s an interesting piece.

Shots taken today, from down the street.

Another spectacular image by “Urban Refugee” Sean McCormick.
Go buy some stuff, so he can afford to weatherseal those windows!

Frequent guest blogger Sean McCormick has a new calendar out in time for Christmas giving. Time to express our gratitude by visiting his store. (He has thumbnails of all 12 images up.)

Well, second favourite, but that’s not important now. Go buy one and help an Urban Refugee fix his plumbing today!

A photo I took a couple of weeks ago, that I thought I’d share.

(Click on the photo for the full sized version)

Stunning photographs were sent to me by a friend. I have no other details about place or date, but I’ve saved them to a directory. (originally they thought there were in Ontario, but commentors advise the photos have been attributed to various locales)

The rest are here

Today as we observe the 60 year anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima…


I share with you these photographs of London.

Sean, of PolSpy has taken up rural living and thinks it agrees with him. Judge for yourself.