Unidentified flower, Seebe, Alberta - Echium vulgare

My camera doesn't always capture a colour correctly and, in this case, the rather pale blue should be more of a deep Prairie Gentian blue. This flower does remind me of some other flower, but I can't, for the life of me, think what. There were several of these bushy plants growing not far from the railway line, at Seebe, west of Calgary. Photographed yesterday, 17 October 2015, when I went on a birding outing with six friends, west of Calgary. I'm guessing, a garden escapee?

Thanks to Larri Cochran for the ID - Echium vulgare!

www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/kukkakasvit/vipers-bugloss

We travelled west of the city, the direction that I don't often get to see, mostly along Highway 1, turning off in a few places, including Seebe, to see what species we could find. Overall, it was a very quiet day as far as birding goes. Will add a list of species seen, when our leader, Andrew Hart, has posted the finished account.

At one particular pond (seen in another photo I posted today), we watched several distant Swans, which are always nice to see. They were just off to the left and right of my photo. This is part of the trumpeter swan’s migratory path.

While my friends were checking out the few other waterfowl, I just had to turn around and take a few photos of an old orange/red barn in the distance. I wasn't sure just where we were, but last night I went on Google Earth and eventually found the exact place. I also discovered that there is a whole lot more about this barn and the ranch it belongs to. For one thing, it also has a whole movie set in Western theme (i.e. old saloon, etc.), which has been used in a long list of movies.

I'm adding a link to a detailed account of the Ranch by The Western Producer, posted on 27 August 2012 by Barbara Duckworth. It provides a lot of interesting information. This Ranch family emphasizes watershed management on 18,000 acres of land.

www.producer.com/2012/08/ranch-uses-tranquil-setting-to-d...

www.clranches.com/

clwesterntown.com/