Dodging Raindrops

Here's one to be filed under 'Things That Don't Happen When You Live in The Maritimes'...

I decided to take my camera and go for a drive.
(not so unusual)
and ended up in:
(wait for it!)

...Lashburn, Saskatchewan.

But let me start at the beginning.

Edmonton weather's been all kinds of crazy this summer. It seems every day starts with beautiful blue skies and by noon we're experiencing downpours of what can only be described as torrential rain, sometimes hail. By mid-afternoon, it often gets sunny again, but only long enough for you to think that maybe, just maybe you might pull off a barbeque without getting flooded out. Alas, that dream is most often not meant to be and before long your flip-flops are tracking water in from the backyard as you tote your flame-broiled cow to the dining room table to eat.

On Sunday, July 17th, I thought I'd get ahead of the game. I took my camera bright and early, and headed out into the morning sunshine on foot. Though our city boasts a population of 800,000+, our neighbourhood is new and it's not far to walk before you're enjoying dirt roads and red barns and this...

I'm told it's canola, and it's EVERYWHERE out here, from BC to Saskatchewan and right across the prairies. It's sooooooo beautiful.

 

Everywhere you look, there's yellow!

And then, as per usual, the clouds started coming in...

 

...and getting dark.

I barely made it home before the drops started hitting the pavement. Mother Nature was mocking me, but I'd had enough. I packed up my camera, a sweater, sunglasses, a coffee, and a few bottles of water and got in the car. Where was I going? Somewhere it was not raining.

And boy, did I find it.

STOP THE CAR! moment somewhere near Vermillion, Alberta.

 

 And just beyond that? Exactly that thing that I hadn't even known I was looking for...

Oh.

My. 

God.

oh my God.

oh my God. 

 

OH MY GOD.

This little barn made my day. The red, the yellows, the greens, the blue sky, those white puffy clouds! I sat there, dumbfounded by the idea that this was even right in front of me in real life. Then, of course, I facebooked it.... because my entire world needed to know about the existence of this little piece of perfection somewhere in eastern Alberta.

And then I got in the car and kept driving. 

Lloydminister, hmm? 

Border town, huh? 

Saskatchewan, eh? 

And I made it as far as Lashburn (population 967, no joke) before I remembered that I still had to drive back home at some point in the day. So with one more pitstop to invest in a Saskatchewan shotglass (thus completing my collection from each Canadian province) and one more on the side of the highway...

 

...I commenced the drive back to the big city.

Where, upon my arrival, indeed, it was raining.

Again.