One of my favourite barns

On 21 January 2015, just 18 days after my oldest daughter died, my youngest daughter and I spent the day together, out in nature. I knew I needed to get out myself and the fact that my daughter asked if we could do that, told me that she, too, desperately needed to get a break from all the sadness and reminders of her big sister for a few hours. Friends had been telling me how important it was to be outdoors with my camera, especially at a time like this, and I knew they were right.

Much as it would have been great to have gone looking for Snowy Owls, I just didn't feel up to that long of a drive. Instead, I drove to a much more familiar, closer area, SE of the city. The day was a mix of sun and cloudiness, and though the sun was in the wrong position for some of our shots, we did OK.

As for birds, we saw a couple of Great Horned Owls, a very distant Snowy Owl, a raptor of some kind (either a Prairie Falcon or a Gyrfalcon), several Gray Partridge and what I think must have been Horned Larks.

The rest of the day, my daughter and I drove mostly roads that we had driven before, except for one short stretch where we found two old, red barns. This day was as much a barn day as a bird day. The large barn in this photo is one that I had been looking forward to finding and seeing for the first time. I would love to have been able to get photos from both sides of it, but it was in a farmer's field that was, of course, private property. There is an old, round, wooden grain bin and a smaller barn just to the right of this photo. A second old barn that I have already posted photos of, was on someone else's property, just up the road and round the corner from this larger barn.

I think being out with our cameras, driving the backroads, was therapeutic - certainly for me, as I could enjoy my daughter's company, and hopefully for her, too.