My photos - my favourites

Here, it's the kind of day when a bright splash of colour feels good . Yesterday afternoon, I finally washed all the dust, dried slush and build-up of dried mud off my car - driving the gravel backroads transforms ones vehicle in the blink of an eye, whether mud or clouds of dust. As always when I do this, the weather has changed from beautful sunshine yesterday to overcast dreariness today. There is also snow in the forecast for some of the upcoming days. This is another photo from my archives - this time, this beautiful Easter Cactus flower has no waterdrops on its long, narrow petals. Taken at home on 3 May 2010. "The Easter Cactus is Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri. In some respects it is superficially similar to Schlumbergera (Christmas Cactus). However, it blooms only once each year, in April (about Easter) and its flower is very different. It is not nearly as popular as the Schlumbergeras because it is rather more difficult to grow well, and it has the disconcerting habit of shedding its phylloclades (stem segments) at the slightest draught, or whenever over- or under-watered. It may refuse to bloom for no apparent reason. Enthusiasts tend to lose patience with this one, which is a pity, because it is quite magnificent in spite of all that." cactus.biology.dal.ca/paulS/christmas/christmas.html en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatiora_gaertneri

I saw this beautiful view yesterday when I was driving a few of the tiny side roads off Highway 22X west. I believe this was along 85th St. SW. I liked the white of the nearest snowy hills and the row of bare-branched trees in the foreground. Rocky Mountains seen in the distance. It almost didn't seem "real" : )

There is no denying that the American Robin is one beautiful bird, especially when you take a closer look. A group of friends and I stood and admired this handsome male yesterday, 18 March 2013, on a walk from Stanley Park to Erlton St. and back. I would imagine that this might have been one of the handful that overwintered in Calgary? I almost gave up on going yesterday, as all my car doors froze shut overnight. Took 30-40 minutes for the bottle of squirty lock de-icer to finally work, so I was very late getting to the park and finding my friends. Two male and one female Wood Ducks were a treat to see, too. We also saw two wild European Rabbits in someone's backyard. I think that is the second place I've seen them in the city, the other area being near St. Mary's Cemetery. "The American Robin or North American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. According to some sources, the American Robin ranks behind only the Red-winged Blackbird (and just ahead of the introduced European Starling) as the most abundant, extant land bird in North America." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Robin Only 13 photos from my Flickr Contacts have appeared on my Home Page since late last night. Hoping that it's just a case of everyone being busy and not the Flickr issue that was supposedly "fixed" recently.

Another photo of the straw-chewing, country-loving Great Gray Owl, taken on 28 March 2013, NW of Calgary. This was the second of the four Great Grays I saw that day, the first two quite close, the last two being more distant, but still close enough for photos. In some places, the Great Gray is known as the Phantom of the North. This rather soft image, in snowy surroundings, made me think of that name.

Another image from my archives, found tucked away in an old "To maybe post on Flickr" folder. I find that I have now reached a point where I can't always remember which photos I have posted or not posted, after uploading 8,736 photos to my photostream, lol!! Thank heavens for Flickr's Archives feature, which I have just started to use! This beautiful Dahlia was in a small bunch of flowers that I had bought from Safeway.

When you look up this plant's range in North America, you see a map showing that Thesium arvense (common name is Thesium) is found only in Montana and North Dakota. Somehow, the seeds of this tiny plant found their way (maybe in someone's pocket??) all the way to Fish Creek Park in Calgary : ) This seems to be the only record of this plant in Canada, which is pretty interesting. This tiny member of the Sandalwood family is a native of Eurasia. It had been a mystery plant to one of the main naturalists here, but, with a lot of research, I managed to track down the plant's ID. It is the tiniest plant, that you would never normally notice in amongst the grasses and other plants. I can barely see the individual flowers with my naked eye, but what tiny beauties they are when seen though a hand lens or macro lens. Both photos were taken at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park, on July 4th. plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=THAR10 To help take my mind off all the other urgent things that are going on at the moment, my youngest daughter has just headed across the US to Savannah, Georgia, for a six-day break before starting a new job back here. The up-to-date weather forecast for Savannah: "Hurricane Irene may affect the area Friday night"! Sigh ....! I'm trying to forget that a huge interest she has had for most of her life is Disaster Planning, lol!!!

This beautiful Great Gray Owl was busy hunting, but every once in a while would give a quick glance in my direction. Seen NW of Calgary, on 28 March 2013. (No cropping, but 48x zoom.)

Yesterday late afternoon, I decided I would walk into Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park. When I eventually arrived, the heavens opened and I was soaked to the skin in just a few minutes. More rain today - to be expected, as this is our rainy season, but it's getting very monotonous and frustrating : ) Anyway, I was thirilled to come across at least part of the Great Horned Owl family there - Dad was sitting about head level and one of the two young ones was down on the bank of a flooded, steep ditch. I might post one shot of the fledgling, for my own record, but the quality is awful thanks to the torrential rain and very low light. Walking out of the park and back to my car, I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed several Morel mushrooms at the edge of the very muddy area where huge trucks have been back and forth, working on the ponds. I suspect that the huge tires may have driven over some of these mushrooms, as several were broken off at the base of the stalk. I rescued this one and borrowed it till I go back to the area : ) Normally, this is something I would never do, but my camera had already got wetter than it should have been! Lol, I'm beginning to feel as though I'm the only person who has never eaten Morel mushrooms! I have several photo projects (requests) that I have just started working on - always very time-consuming, as many of you will know. One involves "Save the Weaselhead", a group that is trying to prevent an enormous multi-lane road/bridge from being constructed right through the Weaselhead wildlife park. The city wants to build a western Ring Road and they think Weaselhead would be the way to go. This would be so devastating to both wildlife, flora and fauna, as well as to people. I've just started getting together photos of rare or uncommon/at risk species to be sent to Save the Weaselhead. I'm sure these photos won't mean anything to the City, but they might help encourage residents to fight even more to save this precious area that is enjoyed by so many people all year round. Unfortunately, I have three very long-day trips Friday (tomorrow), Saturday and Sunday, so won't be any good for anything for the next few days. Sounds like all three days will be raining : ( www.saveglenmorepark.com/index.php/situation

Photographed (macro) this beautiful, small Fleabane on Plateau Mountain on July 17th. Maybe around an inch across at this stage, if I remember correctly. Such a gorgeous colour and it was so beautiful in the sunlight.