Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Blanket Flower

These 10 photos are the remaining odds and ends from our day trip to Eagle Lake, on 13 July 2019. The photos posted this morning were taken while sitting on our friend's deck or walking around the edge of the campground. Thank you so much, Shirley, for inviting us all out to visit you a couple of days ago, while you were out again at your summer trailer at Eagle Lake for the weekend! Last year, on our visit, we saw fewer birds than in June 2017. This year, there seemed to be fewer birds than in August last year, but still plenty to keep us happy. With all the rain that we have been having the last few weeks, we were so lucky with the weather - it was perfect. It was such a pleasure to see some of "your" birds that you enjoy so much. We had an extra treat of seeing baby Northern Flickers in their cavity and watching a pair of House Sparrows busily feeding their babies right near the deck. Talk about cute! A few kinds of shorebirds were down along the edge of the lake, as usual, including an elegant Black-necked Stilt. I didn't notice any soapsud "icebergs" on the lake this year, but there were a few patches of soapsud foam at the water's edge. The small Hutterite food stand was in the trailer campground again this year. A delightfully friendly lady showed us what she was selling and some of us bought a jar of her strawberry/rhubarb jam. After chatting for quite a while, it was a huge surprise when she insisted on giving us one of her fruit pies to share back at the trailer - delicious, too, I should add. Great to see everyone who went, and we all enjoyed an array of salads and desserts, along with Shirley's Chili, that left me feeling full till the early evening. Many thanks, Anne B, for driving the four of us east across the prairies. Hugely appreciated, as always!

Yesterday afternoon, 4 July 2017, I got the chance to photograph a few of the plants growing in the amazing garden belonging to our main Naturalist and his wife. He said that he had documented 300 species growing in his garden last year, many of them wild species. This Gaillardia flower was just one of them. Gaillardia flowers vary a lot in colour - some are completely yellow, while others have a varying amount of orange on the petals. When I first arrived, my eyes were immediately drawn to the huge display of Showy Milkweed in the front garden - this plant species seems to multiply at quite a fast rate! This is the only place I have seen Showy Milkweed in the city, except for a plant or two growing wild down by the canal a few years ago. All they need now is for Monarch butterflies to fly a bit further north than they usually do and discover this little bit of butterfly heaven. In 2012, though, it was very unusual, as people were seeing a few of these amazing butterflies in Alberta, including in Calgary. I even got to see and photograph a few Monarch caterpillars in this garden in July 2012, for the very first and last time. Milkweed does not normally grow in Calgary, though we have seen a plant or two growing in the wild at one location in the city. "Monarchs only use milkweed for their eggs - no other plant will do. There is a good reason for this. Milkweed is poisonous and the caterpillars absorb the poison into their bodies, thus making them immune to predators." From edmontonnaturalizationgroup. The National Geographic has an amazing, fascinating video of the life story of these spectacular butterflies - couldn't find a link to it, unfortunately. edmontonnaturalizationgroup.org/blog/2012/08/13/wildflowe... ""Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner, as the pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains, as is typical for plant pollen. The flower petals are smooth and rigid, and the feet of visiting insects (predominantly large wasps, such as spider wasps, which visit the plants for nectar) slip into notches in the flowers, where the sticky bases of the pollinia attach to the feet, pulling the pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Bees, including honey bees only gather nectar from milkweed flowers, and are generally not effective pollinators despite the frequency of visitation. Species in the Asclepias genus grow their seeds in pods. These seed pods contain soft filaments known as either silk or floss. The filaments are attached to individual seeds. When the seed pod ripens, the seeds are blown by the wind, each carried by several filaments." From Wikipedia. Our leader also has a large vegetable garden. One thing that always fascinates me is the Egyptian Walking Onion. Each one seems to take on its own artistic shape and I love to photograph these - both fascinating and quite beautiful.

“Gaillardia /ɡeɪˈlɑrdiə/, the blanket flowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, native to North and South America. It was named after an M. Gaillard de Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name may refer to the resemblance of the inflorescence to the brightly patterned blankets made by Native Americans, or to the ability of wild taxa to blanket the ground with colonies. Many cultivars have been bred for ornamental use.” From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaillardia To have the chance to visit Waterton Lakes National Park the day before yesterday, on 24 June 2017, was such an absolute treat! This was an annual bus trip arranged by Nature Calgary, with the destination being different each year. To visit Waterton for just one day makes for a very long day - takes about 3 hours to drive each way, for a start. "Waterton Lakes National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is also an International Peace Park, and a Biosphere Reserve. No other park in the world has these three designations. Waterton Biosphere Reserve as it is officially called, was designated in 1979 under what is called the internationally recognized "Man and the Biosphere program" of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), that sure is a mouthful. Biosphere Reserves are designed to promote and demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature." www.wediscovercanadaandbeyond.ca/2010/11/red-rock-canyon-... We had two main stopping places in the park - the lookout at Maskinonge Lake and a longer stop at Cameron Lake. The views from both places are spectacular. Luckily, we had beautiful weather all day. Actually, we weren't too sure if the road going through the mountains to Cameron Lake was going to be open. It was due to reopen the day before out trip and, fortunately, the gate was open. Once at Cameron Lake, we found an empty picnic table right near the beach, and ate our picnic lunch. We were able to walk along the forest trail that followed the shoreline on the right edge of the lake. At a certain point, one has to turn around and go back along the same trail. Cameron Lake is one of my favourite places in the park, with a beautiful view of the lake and a pleasant, flat walk through the forest. There didn't seem to be a lot of forest wildflower species in bloom - maybe we were just a bit too early for them. However, the huge, creamy white flowers of Bear Grass growing along the edge of the road up to the lake had everyone in absolute awe. The road is only narrow and our bus was huge, so on the drive there, all we could do was gasp in amazement, with no chance for taking photos. We asked our excellent driver if there was any chance he would be willing and able to stop at one of the very small pull-offs at the edge of the road on the return drive - and he did! He was expecting maybe five or six people would get off, but I think almost everyone wanted to get a close look at these amazing plants. Even the driver himself got out to look and take photos. He had apparently never been to Waterton before and had never seen Bear Grass. We noticed tiny Crab Spiders on two of the flowers; one was lying in wait and the other had caught an insect. These spiders don't construct webs, but camouflage themselves by changing their colour to that of the flower they are hiding in, and then they wait. We also saw several stems of Striped Coralroot orchid in the ditch by some of the Bear Grass. After spending a couple of hours at Cameron Lake, the driver took us back into town, as some people had said they wanted to eat there before the long drive back to Calgary. Others, including myself, would have preferred to have spent the time somewhere else, seeing nature and taking photos. However, we were able to walk to the lake's edge, from where we were able to take a few scenic photos - something I had been hoping for. On our way back to the bus, some of us called in at a very popular ice cream shop - we all agreed it was the best, tastiest ice cream we had ever had! A huge, single scoop of wild cherry in a waffle cone - what more could one want? Penny, you did a great job of organizing this wonderful trip for us all! I know a lot of work goes into setting up an outing like this, and we all appreciate the time and effort you put into planning this. Such a perfect destination for this year's annual bus trip! Pam, thanks for your company on this long drive - helped make it far more enjoyable!

Just a splash of colour on this overcast, snowy day. The temperature is -10C (windchill -16C) this morning and very light snow is falling. This photo of a Blanket Flower was taken at the Calgary Zoo on 14 October 2014. Well past its prime, but still colourful.

Quite a few years ago, I took a photo of a much more closed, hairy bud and found it fascinating and beautiful. I looked through my plant books but just could not find any photo that looked like mine. It was several years later that I discovered that it was a Gaillardia bud. Love these flowers in all their stages. Taken on 20 June 2012, when I was on a walk on Nose Hill, in NW Calgary. "Gaillardia /ɡeɪˈlɑrdiə/, the blanket flowers, is a genus of flowering plants in the sunflower family, Asteraceae, native to North and South America. It was named after an M. Gaillard de Merentonneau or perhaps Charentonneau, an 18th-century French magistrate who was a patron of botany. The common name may refer to the resemblance of the inflorescence to the brightly patterned blankets made by Native Americans, or to the ability of wild taxa to blanket the ground with colonies. Many cultivars have been bred for ornamental use." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaillardia