At rest under the old tree

Yesterday was a day of reasonably nice weather and I spent the whole day with a group of friends, driving the backroads east of the city. We did have one period when, within just a very short time, we had sunshine, cloud, freezing rain and snow, lol. There was quite an ominous build-up of dark cloud. As so often is the case these days, there were very few birds to be found - mainly Magpies, ha. This made the one Great Horned Owl and the one Snowy Owl extra special! The leading car had three superb birders in it and I found it rather amusing that they didn't notice the Snowy Owl sitting on a close fence post until they had reached it and it flew. I think by then, everyone's eyes had been trained to search the distant fields, rather than look close.

By the end of the day, most people had left to return to Calgary. The driver of the one remaining car, in which I was riding, was given directions to get back home, as none of us know the area east of Calgary very well. It seemed clear, but when we got to the road that was supposed to take us on to a major highway, we discovered that it, instead, went into a residential area. We were lost, hopelessly lost, and it took us a long time to eventually find ourselves somewhere familiar. Val, you did an amazing job of driving three of us for the whole day and then having to try and get us all back to the city in one piece! Thanks so much! I'm just SO thankful that it wasn't me who was driving.