A Little Alberta Rosebud

It's been 11 days since I posted my last entry.  I didn't mean for so much time to pass, but I think I ran out to stuff to blog about.  Then I remembered that there's always something to say so here I am again.  I also have to spend lots of time catching up with all my bloggy friends before they forget I'm here.

We got back into Canada safely, though not together.  Lloyd had an 'incident' with his passport when he first got to Arizona and I wasn't there to take care of such things, but he's here now and I'll save that incident for a later post.

Right now I want to write about a tiny town in Alberta that we detoured to drive through on our way from Lethbridge to Edmonton yesterday.  It is such a cute, unique, old (by Canadian standards) little town that we had never heard of but which needs to be brought out of hiding.

The town is called Rosebud.  It sits in the middle of Wheatland county, surrounded by rolling wheat fields and some oil pumps.  There are not many people living there, in the winter anyway.  After we thought we had seen everything there was to see and were heading down just one more road, we saw a wonderfully Canadian winter scene...complete with people...

...an old fashioned skating pond with a family out skating, and one adult cross country skiing there on the left.  You can see the shovels they used to clear the ice sticking up out of the snow bank, and the boy with a hockey stick looking for a pick-up game.

Those were the only people we saw in the town, except for an older couple out for a walk on the lovely warmish winter day.

Rosebud is actually a Hamlet, not a town, 35 km from Drumheller, near the site of the largest dinosaur excavations in America.  Rosebud itself was built to service the railway when it was built back in the late 1800s.  Now there isn't a gas station or a convenience store to be found.

But it is rich in art and culture.  In fact, it's all about arts and culture.

This is the largest of the several inns and B&Bs in Rosebud.  There are no large
commercial hotels or motels here.

And this is the back view of the Inn that you see when approaching the town

This was the only store in town, now converted to public use.  Before  the play performances
the audience congregates here for a big buffet, complete with live music.

One of the several museums in town.  

And a guest house.

The old Hotel Rosebud.  Notice the bicycles standing there in the snow.  We saw
these all over town and noticed that there was a sign on one of them instead
of a license, saying 'public transport'.  I don't know for sure but it seemed that they
were placed around town for people to use as they wished.

This building, also a museum, is attached to the house on the right, which is on
the street around the corner from this one.  We'll have to go back in the summer
to check it out.

This is the hotel from a different angle.  Notice the lovely old golden retriever
basking in the winter sun.

This looks like it might have started life as a barn but is now a country bar and grill.

These are two gift shops attached to the famous Rosebud Theatre.

I checked on-line to see what Rosebud is all about, since there was no one in the town when we were there to tell us.  It has the Royal Sproule Art Gallery featuring works by local artists, the Akokiniskay Art Gallery, featuring works by Alberta artists, the Rosebud School of Performing Arts, the Rosebud Centennial Museum, the Rosebud Theatre with resident actors, student apprentices and visiting artists, and the Akokiniskway Golf Course.

We'll definitely go back there in the summer when things are in full swing, maybe take in a show and explore the museums and galleries.

Just in closing, here are a few views around town.

Farm equipment sitting in the shade

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Tractors in a side yard

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Grain handling terminals

Cattails along the river bank