"Da Coulees”

 I just had to title this blog “Da Coulees” because of a poem a visiting student from Quebec wrote and recited to us. All I can remember about that poem really is that he kept saying “Da Coulees, Da Coulees” over and over and since then it’s been a running joke in our family!

I love the Coulees. Before I moved to Lethbridge I looked forward to visiting my grandparents who lived on the edge of the coulees; we would explore in them for hours.

Every year the Helen Schuler Nature Centre organizes a coulee clean-up that anyone can participate in.

We love participating in this event with our staff at earthlings.  Judging by the the nature of our work, it's obvious that we enjoy leaving a space looking better than when we arrive. So a coulee-clean up is really just another way we get to do this. Plus, it was so refreshing to walk out into the coulees with out yellow bags in hand to clean- up things.

I think everyone was enjoying it as much as I was! I could tell by the smiles on their faces :)

It was the first sunny day after it had rained so everything seemed so fresh and vibrant, and I couldn’t help but get excited as I saw the many spring flowers coming alive on the walk.
The first plant I saw in bloom was a Prairie Smoke –‘Geum triflorum’













Then I saw some Moss Phlox – ‘Phlox hoodii’ showing off its new spring blossoms.  Moss Phlox is pretty short and grows in small clusters so if your not paying attention you might miss it.








And the delight of the day I saw  some Prairie Crocus –‘Pulsatilla patens ssp.multifida’ blooming along the North facing side of the coulee.

 I think it's pretty obvious that I became a little too caught up in all the plants. It came to a point where people started to tease me, saying that I needed to pull my weight …HaHa.

But then I noticed how beautiful the rose hips from last year were still hanging on the branches and they looked so red and colorful!  I just had to take a picture of this too……

Along our walk (oops… did I say that? I meant, during the 'clean-up'.) I spotted some sort of wood that looked like an animals face. As I walked closer it really was some sort of animal but it blended so well into the surroundings. 

Then It moved! It stood and stared at me waiting to see what I was going to do. That was about as close as I needed to come to that Coyote!










We collected a lot of junk from our clean-up. There were mostly bottles, milk jugs, and the sort collected, which I think is pretty sad, considering the availability of recycling we have around here. Brittany and Carol got the prize for the biggest find (Which they drug up from the bottom of the coulee I might add!)




Here we are with all of our loot. And here is Nathan who we couldn’t find (and almost forgot!) because he was so determined to “get that last little piece of garbage”.

We ended off our cleaning spree with a quick tidy down our road that usually is adorned with random plastic bags and other sorts of stuff.

Today reminded me that it doesn’t take much to care the beautiful place we live. I also want to take a little time out to explore our unique coulees more often.


Happy Gardening!