These lilies sit in a small maintained garden located just north of the Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton. The garden is set in a nondescript park across the river from downtown, and you are as likely to find the homeless sleeping nearby as you are to stumble upon these beauties. This is the essence of this city that sits on the Alberta prairie, residing somewhere on the spectrum between big city and small town.

One can cross the North Saskatchewan river from this point to Louise McKinney Park, a place at once urban and untended. On a beautiful Sunday morning I encountered only a handful of people. There is poetry on light poles. There is a Chinese garden. There is a stone wall covered in vines. It is one of the few places in the valley where one can get very close to the river. You can lean over the promenade and see the fish slithering by.