McDougall Church on a sunny day

I CAN'T GET MY FLICKR ACCOUNT TO AUTOMATICALLY RENEW!!! I have the old Pro Account, which is supposed to automatically renew unless you let them know you don't want it to do that. When I checked my account, I noticed that since then (I paid for a 2-year extension), my credit card was updated, so I changed this new expiry date in my Account. Nothing is happening! I had an e-mail from Flickr stating: "we're we're having trouble authorizing payment to renew your subscription. To fix this problem, please update your payment information or use a different payment method in your Flickr Wallet." I have done that, but still no new extension of my account has happened. Can anyone HELP - please! Today, my old subscription ran out!! Have visions of my 10,000+ images vanishing at any moment! A bit later: I clicked on Reactivate and that looks promising. I've heard horror stories about some people losing their original Flickr account when somehow a new account was started for them. I never look forward to renewal time, as I've had problems several times, which is why I took out a 2-year renewal last time!!

I love this little country church, especially the long, photogenic fence line (not seen in this photo) leading up to the front from the parking lot. It was built in Carpenter's Gothic style of architecture. A sign had the following words on it:

"The historic church at the end of this pathway was constructed in 1875. At that time, native people were still hunting bison on the prairies. The young nation of Canada was only eight years old; the Canadian Pacific Railway still nine years in the future. And this church would become the heart of a thriving community, Morleyville, and for a time the largest settlement in what would be southern Alberta.

The story of this church is really the story of Rev. George McDougall who moved to western Canada with his family in 1862 to minister to the fur traders and native people. In 1873, the McDougalls established the first mission in the region and built this church. In doing so, they wrote an important chapter of Alberta's settlement history".

After George McDougall's tragic death in a snowstorm, his body was brought back to the church at Morleyville and laid to rest.

www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8788

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morley,_Alberta

On 20 July 2014, I plucked up courage to do a drive that I’d never done before. I had been that route before when I carpooled with others. A good part of the drive was in familiar territory, but I’d never driven the last part of the journey myself. I had met my daughter at 9:00 a.m. and we were both eager to see a display of birds of prey that had been brought up from the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre.

This year, there were fewer birds, but it was great to see any at all. This year, there was a Burrowing Owl, a Barn Owl, a Great Horned Owl, and a Golden Eagle. Another real treat that was an amusing one, was seeing a baby Barn Owl that was just 45 days old! This little ball of fluff was acting as a great ambassador, letting young kids get a close view and ask questions, and fall in love with it – and to hopefully, in the future, do everything they can as adults to protect our precious wildlife. The enjoyment of seeing these birds up close reminds one that the reason these birds are not free to live in the wild, is because of some kind of interaction with humans – such as permanent injuries from being hit by a vehicle, pesticide use, or even worse, being shot by a human! This is what happened to “Spirit”, the magnificent Golden Eagle, shot and blinded by someone.

This exhibit was our first destination in the park, though on the drive from Calgary, we had stopped at the small McDougall Church seen in today's photo After seeing and photographing the birds of prey, we then drove to Middle Lake that’s in a different part of the park. We walked the very short distance to the edge of the lake, but didn’t walk around it. From there, we drove to the Many Springs Trail and did a very slow walk around the lake, stopping to look at different flowers and photograph a few butterflies. Though slow, it was still further than I should have walked. Certain wildflowers were already finished, including various Orchid species, but there were still plenty of other species to see and enjoy. Even the weather cooperated, though the forecast had been for isolated showers. Not too hot, nice clouds in the sky and lovely to have my daughter’s company for the day.

Thanks so much to the people down at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre (near Lethbridge, down towards the Canada/US border) for bringing your gorgeous birds of prey for us to see! I have been south to the Centre three times I think, and always long to go back again, but it's not somewhere I can drive to, so this was a much-appreciated treat!