Old, wooden shed

I'VE BEEN SCAMMED!!! My son informed me that the whole computer VIRUS thing that I mentioned the other day was a SCAM! My Bank said the first step is to phone the company and cancel the 5-year Protection I paid for and to ask for a refund, which I have just done. Doubt that will happen. Also have to now take my computer in to be cleaned of all the malware, etc. they have installed on my hard drive. What a PAIN! I'm always very careful of scams, but I sure fell for this one.

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Our weather forecast for this morning gives a temperature of -2C (windchill -4C). We are under a Freezing Drizzle Advisory, too. Whatever happened to sunshine and warmth? Recently, we have been having rainy, dreary (and the day before yesterday, very foggy!) weather. A decision needed to be made - to go or not go on a birding day trip east of the city. Usually, people don't have to register for most outings, but the trip on 20 September 2018 was different, thanks to a change in how outings will be run in the future. I had registered, which helped push me out of the door on a day with a forecast for rain all day. So glad I did go, though, as once the dense fog eventually pretty much lifted half way through the day, the sun came out and it was beautiful.

Our route took us to places such as (very foggy) Weed Lake and, much further east, Marsland Basin. I love our trips in this direction from the city, even more so because I very rarely do the drive myself.

As for birds, 56 species were spotted, most at extremely far distances. As usually happens, I only saw some of them, but was happy with the ones I did see. Not much chance to take photos of birds, but as usual, my camera lens turned to everything else around me - scenery, wildflowers, insects, old barns and sheds, and a few beautifully delicate spider webs covered in dew, rain or fog drops. I loved finding these! I wish I knew what kind of spiders create the much more random webs - different from the full-circle ones I normally come across. I can only imagine what these webs might have looked like in sunshine, instead of heavy fog. Still, I'm happy that a few photos are fit to post, to remind me of nature's beauty this day.

After our first stop, we decided to have an early coffee break, in hopes that the fog would improve. Eventually, it did, slightly. Fog is definitely not what one wants on a birding trip! I think we had seven stops in total, including one at Marsland Basin, our most distant destination. Such a great place to visit and enjoy. While everyone else was peering through their binoculars at the distant wetland, I was wandering through the trees and grounds surrounding Lynn and Sue's home, catching a Sunflower shot here and a donkey shot there, and so on. One of my favourite places. Sorry we missed you, Lynn!

Many thanks as always, Andrew, for yet another very enjoyable trip. Thanks, too, for everyone combining to create the list of total species. So many great pairs of eyes. It felt so good to be away from my computer for hours, too, especially after getting a Virus the previous day and coming very close to losing everything on my computer!