Pinkish

When I got up about an hour ago, the sky was blue and the sun was brightly shining. It seems to have clouded over now, but hopefully the smoky air that we've had the last few days has disappeared. If so, that means that the forecast rain for the northwest United States actually happened, which should help all those brave firefighters in their battle against the widespread flames.

August is the prime season for mushrooms here, but it has been such a hot, dry summer that it has not been a good year for them. Also, I have only been to a few places where they might be growing, so I have photographed any fungus that I've come across. For the most part, they have not been very photogenic.

Four days ago, on 25 August, 10 of us arrived at a friend's house, ready to go north of Calgary to near Sundre, for a few hours of botanizing, This was the second visit to Judy Osborne's for a few of us, me included. The previous trip was on 30 June 2015. By now, of course, a lot of the wildflowers are finished, but I found enough other things to photograph, including a distant, beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, a Wood Frog, a Yellowjacket (wasp), and a mushroom or two, plus a few of the plants in our friends' garden at the beginning and end of the day. Their garden is one beautiful sea of yellow at the moment. No scenery shots during the day, as the visibility was so bad due to the smoke coming from serious, widespread forest fires in the northwest United States.

Thanks so much, Judy, for having us out on your beautiful property again. It was a most enjoyable day, despite the dreadful, smoke-filled air. We look forward to being out there again next year! Many thanks, too, to Barry, who drove a few of us out there and back to Calgary. A long, long drive and it was much appreciated!