Calgary city by-law officers have asked a 65-year old Calgary resident, Helen Amber, to remove all the wildflowers she has grown in her garden. The City official say that the wildflowers are a threats to local flora and should be removed to protect

The Alberta’s Weed Control Act mentions some plants (weeds) are prohibited to be planted in Alberta. Some flowers in Amber’s garden banned by the Weed Act are plants like Canada thistles, scentless chamomile, oxeye daisies and blue weeds.

Calary Sun says that Amber had received a 24-hour notice from the officials on Aug. 3 and she is protesting the decision of City officials.

It is true that thistles and other weeds are extremely difficult to control or kill – they spread faster than can be controlled. I think, Helen should should consider a green house to grow them, instead of fighting.

The Bean Stop in Eau Claire Market in Calgary has started serving Kopi Luwak – popularly known as ‘cat poop coffee’. The coffee is made from the beans that have passed through the digestive system of a small, tree-dweller, Asian palm civet, found in Thailand. The beans are retrieved from the waste of the animal to be made into coffee.

The ‘unusual, odd and unique’ product doesn’t come cheap. A single cup will sell for $25 and a 50 gram pack will be sold for $60. People have found the product appealing and have already pre-ordered 25 cups and 11 of the 50 gram tins in the Bean Stop.

If you think $25 is too much, you are wrong. An Australian coffee house has been selling the coffee for AUD50 since 2006. A London, UK, coffee shop is selling a variety named Caffe Raro for £50 since 2008. (Photo credits Wikipedia)

According to the data derived from 2008 personal income-tax returns, Statistics Canada has found that Calgary led other metropolitan areas in median-family income. Calgary was followed by Edmonton and Ottawa-Gatineau.

Calgary families earned $91,570 in 2008, well above the Canadian average of $68,860. Edmonton followed with family income of $88,190, and Ottawa-Gatineau was third with $87,160.

As the data was based on 2008,  when the people were yet to feel the effects of economic crisis. I suspect, the equation might have changed in the past couple of years.

I was surprised when we has snow storm at the end of April. Now, I don’t know what to feel at the end of May, when we are having another snow storm, again.

It is mid-spring and all the plans for the weekend were shattered by the snow storm. It was, May 28, the day of iPad release, but I didn’t feel like going to the Apple store to watch the line of buyers of the Apple’s magic creation.

I hope I won’t have to complain the weather again for a few months. 

Here are some photos of snow…

Yes, it is April 29, 2010, and we still have winter in Calgary with ‘Winter Storm Warning’ still in effect.

Wasn’t it supposed to be the warmest year for some time? When you go out, it seems, the reported ‘Wind Chill’ is a bit on the higher side.

Some photos of the spring buds follow:

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Winter storm at April end

We went to see Calgary Tower last weekend and I am posting some photos and videos of the tower. Thanks to the clouds, we were not lucky enough to see the mountain but the view of the city and the virtually ‘stepping out into’ space on glass floor at a height of 525 ft. was simply amazing. One of my friend took a video (posted below) of the view from the glass floor which is new addition (added in June 2005) to the old tower.

View from the glass floor on the tower (video posted below)

The tower officially opened on June 30th, 1968. The 191 m (627 ft)tower is considered one of the first Towers of its kind, offering the best view of the City of Calgary. At the time of construction, it was the tallest building in Canada, although it was surpassed that same year by the Toronto-Dominion Centre in Toronto, prior to opening. (Don’t want to copy everything, you can visit wikipedia article on the tower for more information).

During 1988 Winter Olympic, the torch lighted on top of the tower made it the World’s Largest Olympic Torch. This and other facts about the tower can be found in the Official Site of Calgary Tower.

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Calgary Tower: Photos and Video