Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: ground cover

Will have to add descriptions, etc. later, as I have a dental appointment to get to. Later. Yesterday, 2 August 2019, was a day of a little bit of everything, which was fun. I only decided around noon to go for an afternoon drive west of the city. It was hot and there was a haze over the mountains. Both cameras took photos with rather blown out skies - because of the haze? My destination was Forgetmenot Pond, out past Bragg Creek. Forget-me-not is the name of a flower. This weekend is a long weekend for a Civic Holiday on Monday, so I thought there might be far fewer people yesterday, Thursday. A lot of people seemed to have the same idea as me! There was a good variety of wildflowers, some of which I will have to leave unidentified and post simply as "pretty pictures". So nice to find Prairie Gentians, which I haven't seen for a long time. A few others were Grass-of-Parnassus, Elephant's Head Lousewort, different Paintbrush, Alpine Bistort, and beautiful Yellow Mountain-avens. Love the small flowers of the latter and their beautifully twisted seedheads. The only birds I saw in the area were Barn Swallows who were nesting, and a calling Spotted Sandpiper, perched on a piece of driftwood the far side of the river. After walking around the lake, I started on my return drive. Before long, I decided to take a quick look in a forested area, to see if there were any mushrooms, but only found the ones seen in one of today's photos. While I was there, cows were the furthest thing from my mind. I guess they are let loose in that area of forest, so they do a good job of fertilizing everything. When I spotted the two mushrooms, I was excited and didn't realize that my left shoe ended up in something that felt very soft and a little slippery! Sigh! Maclean Pond was the only other place I stopped, just briefly, during my mountain drive, until I was closer to home. Thought I would drive along one of the roads that had given me a good variety of birds fairly recently. This time, absolutely nothing. I discovered that one road was blocked (maybe part of the major road construction going on for the Ring Road around the city?), Instead, I came back along a road I hadn't been along for quite a while - and what an amazing sight I saw. Way down the road, I could see some large brown animals on the road. My first thought was 'cows'. However, I pulled over and zoomed right in to check, discovering that they were Elk. Maybe two or three hundred of them - they just kept coming and when you thought they would be no more, another group appeared on the hillside. They were all constantly calling, which you can hear on the little bit of video I took. Will post another short, somewhat closer bit of video later. There were males, females and young ones. Fortunately, no other vehicles came along the road while I was there. An amazing thing to witness.

Will have to post and more or less run this morning. Last night, I set two alarm clocks (one set very loud), for 5:45 a.m., but I slept right through an hour of very loud music and then woke up nearly five hours later! As a result, I have missed a trip to a great place - one that I don't like going to on my own. Knowing that there will be other people there today, I think I will still go, but not very far into the forest on my own. Hopefully, the others will scare any Bears and Cougars out of the forest and not in my direction! To say that I could kick myself is to put it mildly, ha!

Macro shot taken on 1 July 2011, when I walked around and near Forgetmenot Pond, at the end of Elbow Falls Trail, Kananaskis. So pretty when seen up close. This is a native, woody shrub that forms a low-growing mat. Belongs to the Rose family, Rosaceae. www.flora.dempstercountry.org/0.Site.Folder/Species.Progr...

Not sure what is up with Flickr this morning. I couldn't use my usual uploader and clicking on something takes forever. Everything else on my computer seems to be working properly, but it is a reminder to myself that I HAVE to back up more of my photos and make some more free space on my hard drive. I'm down to 47 GB now, which is not a good thing : ) This is a macro shot of a very small flower, taken near Forgetmenot Pond, Elbow Falls Trail, Kananaskis, on July 1st. So pretty when seen up close. This is a native, woody shrub that forms a low-growing mat. Belongs to the Rose family, Rosaceae. www.flora.dempstercountry.org/0.Site.Folder/Species.Progr...

This native wildflower, Dwarf Dogwood/Bunchberry, makes such an attractive covering for the forest floor. Seen at the Mountainview Sports and Handicapped Centre north west of the city.