Love those hills

I knew I should not have stayed up till around 3;30 am this morning, deleting 600+ emails - but it needed to be done, and I was on a roll. Still a few thousand more to go through. I need to do a similar thing - again - with my photos, or else I will get another message telling me I need to get another hard drive because I am out of room on my computer. Summer just isn't a good time to do things like this.

Anyway, today, 7 August 2017, is the last day of a 3-day weekend. Heritage Day is celebrated in Alberta on the first Monday of August each year. Although it is not a statutory holiday, many Canadians in Alberta use this day as an optional holiday for celebrating the province’s heritage. I would imagine the roads and parks will be absolutely packed with people, the thought of which is more than enough to keep me home today. Apparently, Waterton Lakes National Park had to close its gates yesterday for the first time EVER, there were so many people.

Yesterday, I was out much of the day and so I feel like staying home anyway. A few of us were invited to return to one of our absolute favourite places - Rod Handfield's acreage, SW of the city. This is always such a treat, and Rod and his wife are always so welcoming. They have an amazing forest that is usually full of so many fungi species in August. However, we knew that this was not going to be the case yesterday, as everywhere is bone dry. While in the forest, our leader said that normally, we would have seen 75+ species of fungus by then. Instead, we saw maybe three very small mushrooms that I didn't even bother to photograph, plus the little cluster of Oyster mushrooms that I posted this morning. I don't know if the situation is likely to change, even if we got a lot of rain in the next little while (none in the next week's forecast). Can someone do a rain dance for us ... please?

Our morning hike was still very enjoyable, of course, and in pleasant weather and with good friends. There was a bit of smoke haze, as can be seen in this zoomed-in photo, taken from a hillside on the Handfield's property. I love the shape of the distant foothills. Also love to see a field dotted with hay bales.

After the hike, seven of us went for lunch in the tiny strip mall in the hamlet of Priddis, on the way home. Friends had said how good the food is at Jane's Cafe, and we agreed. Made a lovely end to our botany morning.