Beautiful and, oh, so cute

My daughter and I both agree that the Saskatoon Farm has the cutest cats and dogs, who wander all over the Farm, indoors and out. They are one of my favourite things to photograph when I am there. This grey cat is such a beauty.

With a lot of snow forecast for 8 of the following 10 days, I feel very lucky that my daughter and I had such a beautiful day on 17 December 2017, for our Christmas get-together. Since then, we have had so much snow and, at the moment, temperatures have plunged. For tomorrow, Christmas morning, the temperature is forecast to be -24C (windchill -30C). For two upcoming, out-of-city Christmas Bird Counts, the temperature is supposed to be -18C (windchill -25C) and -21C (windchill -28C)!

It was such weird weather on the day my daughter and I went off for the day, as the colour of the sunrise sky lasted all day, till we left just before sunset. A gorgeous Chinook Arch crossed the sky, staying the whole day. Some of the fields were bare, and others had a light dusting of snow on them.

The day started with breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm - always enjoyable. They do close from the end of the day on 23 December and open again in the morning of 17 January. A well-earned break for everyone who works there. As always, we walked around the grounds to look for things to photograph and, as usual, we were in luck - dead Sunflowers, cats, dogs, and the many little House Sparrows that were inside one of the greenhouses.

From there, we continued south to the area east of High River and drove some of the usual back roads; ones that I had driven just four days earlier. Of course, we were hoping that we might find a Snowy Owl, though I knew not to get our hopes up. Before too long, my daughter spotted our first Snowy Owl of the season - the tiniest speck of white that I could barely see with the naked eye, but it was a Snowy and that was all that mattered. Later in the day, she somehow spotted a second one; again, the tiniest speck perched on a very distant fence post.

A few minutes before this second sighting, my daughter spotted two handsome Mule Deer bucks - looked like father and son - lying down next to a metal grain silo, near the edge of the road. They stayed there for a while, which was surprising, as males tend to be far more skittish. Eventually, they stood up and walked off into the field.

Of course, we couldn't resist taking shots of any old barns, sheds and houses that we came across. Altogether, a great day that was much enjoyed. Thank you so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me, and doing something that we both love! These are my absolute favourite days in the year.