Coming in to land

Posted mainly for a splash of bright colour, which I'm needing at the moment : ) Our weather has calmed down after our two days of severe snowstorm a few days ago. Yesterday, 13 September 2014, I finally got out for a drive. I hadn't been out of the house for a few days and was beginning to get cabin fever. Driving down my street, I finally got a look at just how much tree damage the late summer snowstorm (actually two storms, on 9 and 10 September) had caused. My street is lined with huge piles of cut-down branches, waiting for the city's machines to come and remove them.

My drive took me as far as Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of the city, as I wanted to see how much snow was on the ground in the forest. From the muddy parking lot, I could see that the ground between the trees was covered with a lot of snow, hiding everything that might have been there, including wildflowers and mushrooms. It will take some time for all this sheltered snow cover to melt. I saw practically nothing during my drive, other than a Magpie, the Red-tailed Hawk that I'm posting today, horses and cows. Looks like we may have to wait till spring arrives next year before getting the chance to photograph much, if anything, other than snow photos. Many parks and natural areas are now closed because of the damage caused by the snowstorms. It's feeling rather like the situation last summer, when everywhere was closed for months because of the damage caused by the Alberta Flood of the Century.

This Poppy photo was taken way back on 27 August 2010, during a visit to the wonderful homestead and gardens belonging to the late Jim Coutts, near Nanton, Alberta. I used to look forward so much to our occasional visit, especially seeing Jim's beautiful Poppy gardens. Interesting to note that Jim used to be the former principal secretary of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.