Well now, I ...

"Remember when ... we were planning our first trip west across Canada ..."

This would be about 1978 when my former husband and I packed up our old red Chevy truck with its "found" =FREE camper top, and headed out for adventures.

One of the essential items he wanted to pack was a stoneware vase, quite minimalist and natural in its style, not at all symmetrical.

It was a ritual to find a few wild flowers/weeds or decorative grasses at every site we set up camp. Those went into that vase and then we lit the coal oil lamp. Yes, a special wooden holder was built for that glass lamp and its delicate glass chimney which made the journey west, then back east, safely intact.

My love affair with B&W photography was ignited on that trip! The Alberta Badlands [in this photo] were incredible to see. The Hoo Doos and vastness of that other worldly landscape really attracted me.