Winter sunrise.jpg

Happy SPRING, everyone! Rather like a joke, I awoke this morning to a world of white - and a cold wind! It's only -2C (windchill -10C) but it looks so unpleasant out there. Hard to imagine anything further from a beautiful, sunny, first day of spring day, with flowers blooming and birds singing. Here in Calgary, though, we know that March is still winter, and is often the snowiest month, according to statistics.

I finally have my new COMPUTER up and running (kind of) after four weeks of total computer stress, complicated by the computer store mess-up, and surgery. Now I am discovering "the good, the bad and the ugly" of Windows 7! Definitely, the"ugly" would apply to the inability to manually rearrange photos in the order you want / need them!!! I am totally amazed and horrified that you can't do this. I searched the Internet and found forums full of endless complaints about this ridiculous issue, many going back to 2010. So, they still haven't changed it, after all this time. I would have thought it would be such a simple thing for Microsoft to change. Every time I want to find a photo, I have to look through many dozens, or more likely many hundreds, of tiny photo icons, trying to find the one photo I need. I would say that being able to arrange photos in the order I (and most photographers, no doubt!) need is one of the most important, necessary functions, so this is not good. If anyone has discovered a way to get round this or has any ideas to make it easier, I would LOVE to hear from you! THANKS! Later today: I've just phoned to switch from Lite Speed to High Speed 25. Holy smokes, what a difference (that I can see so far).

This is another winter scene taken on 5 January 2014. These are winter backroads that I never, ever drive on, lol! In fact, I think I have only driven outside the city once this whole winter. As you can imagine, it's so difficult or impossible to know just where the road ends and the ditch begins along some of the roads. However, Tony, driving just a small car, did brilliantly, when three of us spent a whole day driving in such conditions and worse, searching for birds to add to our list for the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count. We covered one quadrant of the large circle around the town of Nanton. As you can see, the weather was bright and sunny for us that day. What you can't see was that it was brutally cold that day! On the hour-long drive south of Calgary, we hit -34C (-29.2F)!!!!! It did eventually warm up a few degrees and thankfully, there was no or very little wind, which makes all the difference. The only walking we had to do was when we called in at various farms and homesteads. One backroad in particular had too much snow on it, so we had to leave that one out. Also, there was just too much snow in many of the farmyards, so we weren't able to check out all the trees and bushes as thoroughly as we would like to have done. I absolutely love the scenery on this Count. Not sure where all the Hawks and Owls were hiding that day, but we did see 2 Golden Eagles and 2 Bald Eagles, plus various smaller species.

After driving (being driven, for me, which was pure luxury) the backroads from about 8:00 a.m. till around 4:00 p.m., we returned to the wonderful home of the Truch family. Not only do Bill and Leah Truch and their son, Mike, always welcome everyone with open arms, they also provide a much-appreciated breakfast snack for us and then, at the end of the day, a delicious supper. Have to say that I love travelling these scenic backroads, but I also really enjoy getting together with everyone afterwards to thoroughly enjoy a delicious supper. This is one of my favourite Bird Counts and perhaps the most favourite. Thanks so much for doing all the driving, Tony, and thanks, Leah, Bill and Mike for all the effort and time you put into your warm welcome! Can't wait for next Christmas!

www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/13289196035