I’ve had a series of wonderful “nature moments” in the last week… I was awakened early Tuesday morning by a bugling bull elk outside my open window, expressing his rutting randiness with that eerie trumpeting sound. My goosebumps were not from the frosty mountain air…

Then I was watching a glacier (Cavell Glacier in Jasper National Park) on Tuesday when I happened to witness a massive chunk of ice calve off into the lake. Over the years, I have occasionally seen bits break off glaciers and make that impressive “gunshot” sound of ice cracking, but this was on a huge scale — really special. It’s hard to judge precisely from across the small lake, but I’d estimate it was a chunk maybe 50m wide and 15m high that broke off(!). After several internal groans and bangs, it dropped into the lake in “slow motion” with a giant splash that caused a minor tsunami…a wave that worked its way across the lake. By the time it reached our shore it was mostly a ripple, though, since the lake was almost frozen over and the wave lost a lot of its energy.

Last night, I flew from Edmonton to Montreal on the Air Canada red-eye flight. We left Edmonton at 1h15 and arrived in Montreal 4 hours later, just after sunrise, around 7h10. Somewhere in between (I suspect when we were over Saskatchewan) I suddenly jolted out of my semi-conscious reverie and looked out the window. I was greeted by two unlikely sights…first, a bright meteor shot vertically downwards just at the moment I looked out. Second, the view out my window was filled with green and very dynamic Northern Lights (aurora borealis) from horizon to horizon. What a treat! They continued for a long while, and so I didn’t sleep much after that, just kept staring out the window.

I tried to take a few pictures when they were at their most dramatic, to give you a vague idea what it was like… (note that the window was quite greasy in spite of my attempts to clean it, and also it’s hard to hold a camera steady for a second or two on a bumpy airplane!) Luckily aurorae are not “hard-edged” phenomena, so a little blur doesn’t hurt. Note that this is pretty far south for such an intense display — probably the plane was around 51 or 52 degrees North at the time.

When I got home, I checked SpaceWeather.com, and discovered the following:

High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras tonight. Earth is entering a high-speed solar wind stream, which could trigger a geomagnetic storm.

Indeed…

…I know people always complain about warnings and rules, the things that companies and governments put in place “for our own safety.” As if we were stupid. People sometimes ask: What are we, children? Once in awhile, though, you get a reminder of why they’re warning you (ignore the cynical side of me, that says they’re more worried about avoiding litigation than about keeping people safe for the “good feeling it gives them”).

For example, there’s that new-ish rule that you’re supposed to keep your seatbelt fastened at all times when seated, which admittedly is a bit odd…you don’t have to keep seated but you do have to keep your seatbelt on if you are! I believe this was put in place after a woman died (28 December, 1997) on a flight from Japan to the U.S. when a 747 hit bad turbulence and the woman slammed her head into the ceiling of the plane and was killed.

Maybe most people don’t know that story, so the rule seems to them like yet another bit of overcontrolling nonsense. However…a recent incident on Westjet, here in Canada reminded me of why this little precaution can be important. They try to give you warning, but they really can’t predict that kind of extreme turbulence. It’s no big deal, really — just slip the belt on (loosely) while you’re sitting down. Yes, if you happen to be on the way to the washroom, or just stretching your legs, when that killer bit of turbulence hits, you’re screwed anyhow…but these things are all about odds. It’s very unlikely to happen, but if there’s some simple thing you can do, why not protect yourself? Kind of like wearing a helmet while biking. Speaking of that: boy will I be the laughingstock of Barcelona when I go biking there with my helmet on… Nobody, but nobody there wears a helmet when biking (scootering, yes, though…it’s the law). On the other hand, I’ve had a bike fall where a helmet saved me, so I’m not about to let a bit of “shame” stop me from wearing it!

Am I? I am.
(At home.)
It’s sunny. And September. And nice.
Though different.
From Barcelona. Where it, too, was.
 (Sunny. September. Nice.)
And I’m writing.
 Very.
  Short.
   Sentences.
For. Some. Reason.
Who knows why?
Not I. And who cares?
Not 1. (That’s “one,” not “eye.”
 Nor “aye.”)
And that’s it.
…is it?
Aye! It is.

 - El Jardinero (hoy extra-Zurdo!), in Montreal