Wonders of the forest

At one of our quick stops the other day, I happened to notice this particularly beautiful tree a short distance away, covered in bright yellowy/green Lichen. Couldn't resist taking a shot or two, needless to say. I don't know if it's Wolf Lichen, which is the only Lichen, in my extremely limited knowledge, that is this colour.

My friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, had left Calgary early morning on Wednesday (14 May 2014) and I think it was around 12:15 a.m. midnight (Thursday, 15 May 2014), that they dropped me off at home after two long, wonderful days in the Rocky Mountains, west of the city. Wednesday night was spent in a spotless motel, in a place that had so many Mountain Sheep roaming the streets, lol! Though we were hoping to see at least one Bear, I was happy as can be to see absolutely anything beautiful : )

Over the two days, we had 7 bear sightings, with three definitely different Black Bears (no Grizzlies), and possibly four. The rest of the sightings were of Bears we had already seen. My friends are good at telling individual bears, often by a certain scar and, of course, the actual location. Many of the bears we see, they have seen before. Basically, it's all about timing, as with any wildlife. A few minutes earlier or later and we would have missed seeing something special. We just happened to be lucky. All wildlife/nature photographers know it's all about timing : )

I was so tired after the trip, that I had no choice but to fall into bed at 7:00 p.m. yesterday evening, thinking that a short nap might be a good idea. I slept for something like 13 hours with a couple of hours awake in the middle. I think the excruciating pain in both arms and shoulders was a factor in my utter tiredness, too.