For Chiara

For CHIARA, an amazing 6-year-old young lady that I was lucky enough to spend time with on Sunday. She loves owls, so yesterday, I went down to Fish Creek Park to see if I could find an owl, big or small, to photograph for her. Saw this beautiful Great Horned Owl. You can see that one eye is just open a tiny bit, to keep an eye on us.

Overslept by an hour and a half, so gotta post and run and see if there is any way to find the group of people I'm supposed to meet up with this morning!

Later: I had been invited to visit friends on Sunday, east of the city. Spent a few most enjoyable hours, catching up on the last few years. One very cute little three-year old girl was very shy, as she hadn't met me before : ) Hopefully, next time, I will get the chance to get to know her much better. Chiara, three years older, is a grown-up, very smart little girl (just like her Mom!), with an interest in photography. Her camera, much better than mine (lol), is very heavy compared to mine, yet she carries it around with no complaints. She showed me some of her photos, including ones taken when she did a photography course this summer - wow!!! Had to smile when she showed her mother that she had found the Flickr app on her iPad mini and asked if she could download it, as it was free! How different kids are today, but even so, I was taken aback at how grown-up this child is! She likes owls and was wearing a beautiful owl T-shirt. Even the placemats on the kitchen table were covered in owls. I can only imagine the photography skills Chiara will have if she continues to have an interest in taking photos. Such a joy to talk to.

Thanks so much, Jenn, for encouraging me to drive out to see you all. That was so kind of you and so very much appreciated! Kevin, it was so good to see you after all this time - we had so much to catch up on. Thank you both for lunch, too - including the banana bread you made specially, Jenn. Thank you both for being so very welcoming! Definitely a day to remember.