SUMMER SOLSTICE (A-Z CHALLENGE)

It's summertime, and the livin' should be easy.

I expect it will be in this part of the world.

All you have to do is think about "How green is our valley."

This is across the street, east of our apartment. You can see a number of condominia behind the trees, and far off in the distance, a 22 story senior's complex. Its about 20 stories higher than the surrounding homes. The home owners fought the development some 40 years ago, arguing that something 22 stories tall was totally out of character with the neighbourhood — which was true. City Council allowed the project to go ahead.

Also, on the right side, near the top you'll see the old Westminster United Church (Presbyterian before it was United). It was sold when the folks at Westminster amalgamated with Grace United (formerly Grace Methodist) — which was named after one of the early church leaders, Grace Fletcher. Westminster has been owned by several church groups; the current congregation is trying to sell the building. It's a big barn of a place, and I suspect it costs a lot of money to operate, particular to heat in the winter.

This is just a bit further up the river bank. The houses you can see in the midst of the urban forest are on Saskatchewan Crescent — a premier address in the early days of the city (and still trying to keep up). There are huge homes up there. HUGE!

The bridge in the foreground, the Broadway Bridge, is one of seven bridges in River City (eight, if you count the one currently under construction). It was built in the 1930s. It was a depression era bridge, built as a "relief" project — you had to be a married man to work on it (i.e., someone with family responsibilities).

The north end of downtown is on the left or west side of the river (and out of the picture). The University Bridge is there, north of the Broadway. University Bridge was designed by an early class of engineers at the University of Saskatchewan, which takes up the east side of the river bank, and runs further east for miles. The one building you can see clearly, in the upper right, is the Arts Tower. It has numerous classrooms and offices used by those in the College of Arts. Less clearly visible is part of Royal University Hospital — long-time teaching hospital, which provided (and still provides) the best care in the Province.

So, that's our view of the valley on Summer Solstice Day, 2011. Solstice, btw, arrived at 1:16 p.m.. I would have taken the pictures then, but there was a mammoth rain shower in progress. Something like a giant fire hose that was spraying water all over the city, trying to extinguish a great mass of tree and grass fire. (Trees and grass, yes; on fire, no.)

Right across the river, to the north, . . . but that's tommorow's story.

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Also brought to you by the letter S:
• surreptitious
• sizzling
• supple
• strange (like the Bear)
• sartiorial

And from the New Phonetic Alphabet, S for Williams.