Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: street

Tonight, I had hoped to finish off Day 8 of our two-week holiday in Pt Pelee (Ontario) and Tadoussac (Quebec). I might just add maybe another half dozen or so photos left, all taken in our friend's garden in Tadoussac, and then I will be ready to start on Day 9, 15 May 2018. I think we did a couple of local walks around Tadoussac on Day 9. This gorgeous old house is located at 194 Rue Principale, Portneuf-sur-Mer, Quebec. An unusual colour, and I love the weathering of the painted wood. The old wooden oar adds a pleasant touch, too. This was definitely worth pulling over for so that we could take a few photos.

These 10 photos were all taken during a morning birding walk in Tadoussac or in our friend's garden on 13 May 2018. I have now reached Day 7 of our two-week holiday in Ontario and Quebec, so I guess I am very roughly half way through. The next photos to sort through, edit and post will be photos taken on a whaling trip that we went on in the afternoon of this day. We did see Belugas and Minke Whales, but they were far, far away, so no decent shots. At the end of our 4-day stay at Point Pelee, we had to drive all the way back to Toronto, from where we flew to Quebec City airport. From there, we had a four-hour drive to Tadoussac on the coast of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is such a delightful, small place and in a beautiful setting. One of our friends, Anne B, and her husband have a summer cabin further along the cliff from the few stores and port. She had invited the four of us to go with her from Pelee to spend a week at her beautiful home. What an absolute treat this was! We were able to meet some of her relatives, too, who also have built cabins out there. We were looked after so well, and we were able to see and photograph all sorts of birds and other things. "Tadoussac is quite rightly listed as one of the 50 most beautiful bays in the world. Tadoussac is also the oldest village in Canada. In fact, the village celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2000. But above all, Tadoussac is an internationally-renowned whale-watching site." From the link below. www.authentikcanada.com/holidays/tourist-office-tadoussac en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tadoussac Several trips were made to see different places along the coast, including the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, where we were able to see endless thousands of Snow Geese, in flight and also up close. Breathtaking! We also had two boat trips from Tadoussac - one was a whaling trip in a Zodiac, where we saw very, very distant Beluga and Minke Whales. The Belugas looked almost like the white wave crests - but they were Belugas. The other boat trip was to the Brandy Pot Islands, inhabited by thousands of Razorbills and Common Murres, which were new birds for us, and Double-crested Cormorants that were nesting in tree tops. That long boat trip (in a tiny boat named Juno) started off in the rain and dark clouds and it was soooo cold! Thermal underwear, layers of fleece and toque and gloves were needed. This day was arranged through a contact of Anne's and it was so much enjoyed! Of course, we anchored a distance away from the island and sat there and ate our sandwiches and took endless photos - difficult when bobbing up and down on the rough water! It is forbidden to land on the island at nesting time. Anne B, I can't thank you enough for organizing this holiday for us all and for inviting us to spend a week at your cabin. You worked so hard and it was so much appreciated by each and every one of us. Thank you for doing all the many hours of driving, too! Janet and Anne, thank you so much for compiling the lists of birds seen each day at various locations, and posted to ebird. These entries will be a huge help while I try and sort out where we were and when, and what species we saw. Miss your cookies and muffins, Janet, that you kindly made for us in Tadoussac, to go along with the wonderful meals that Anne planned and made for us : ) Link to my album (358 images) about Point Pelee and area, Ontario: www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/albums/72157667191771677

I photographed this square mural in Blackie, Alberta, during a recent birding trip to the Frank Lake area, on 19 March 2016. Blackie is a hamlet approximately 70 km SE of Calgary. I looked on Google, but was unable to find any details about this cowboy mural. Just off the left edge of the photo stands the large, metal Cargill grain terminal. Not exactly the most beautiful of structures, but still rather impressive, and definitely not as photogenic as the three old, wooden elevators that apparently used to be along the railway line, just a very short distance away. In 2004, Blackie apparently had 3 elevators, an Ex-Agricore, Pioneer and Agricore United steel elevator. The large, green, wooden elevator was torn down in 2005 and replaced by this huge, modern grain loading terminal. The other wooden elevator, the Pioneer elevator, was torn down in December 2012. It was a fairly modern, seemingly well-kept elevator. Wish I had seen these, but I hadn't plucked up courage to drive SE of Calgary back then. "There were 1,651 elevators in Alberta in 1951, but by 1982 a total of 979 elevators remained. The 1990s spelled the death of the wooden “country” or “primary” elevator. At the end of the 1990s, as the full impact of both of the ending of the Crow Rate in 1995 and further impending rail abandonment was felt, the pace of demolition accelerated at an unprecedented rate. At the end of the 1996-1997 crop year, there were only 327 elevators left. Alberta’s largest cooperative grain companies, the Alberta Wheat Pool (which amalgamated with Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1998 as Agricore) and United Grain Growers, ultimately formed a new corporate entity known as Agricore United in 2001, issuing issued public shares. Demolition of country elevators has continued, and in 2005 there were only 156 wooden elevators of any kind still standing, only a handful of which are used by the grain trade. The Government of Alberta has recognised the significance of the traditional wood grain elevators, and has designated 12 as Provincial Historic Resources. They are located in the following communities: Andrew, Castor, Leduc, Meeting Creek, Paradise Valley, Radway, Rowley (3 elevators), Scandia and St. Albert (2 elevators)." www.grainelevatorsalberta.ca/articles/HRM-history.pdf www.bigdoer.com/2848/exploring-history/grain-elevators-an... I will add our leader's report of the day that he sent into eBird, adding that I did not see all of the sightings, as the birds were much too far away. As always, my camera lens was turned to various other things, too. Thanks so much, as always, Andrew, for a most enjoyable day! Thanks, too, Anne, for driving - I really appreciated the ride! "We had 16 participants when we left Calgary on a sunny but frosty morning. We arrived at the main gate around 10:00 am and set off, in a chilly -5 deg C to walk down to the outfall and then around to the blind. The recent cold nights had refrozen some of the lake, but it is still mostly open water. Most obvious were the thousands of Pintails and hundreds of swans (mostly Tundra today). We did see the overwintering (presumably) Song Sparrow near the outfall. About 60-80 California Gulls, no other gulls that we could identify. We left and went to High River for lunch, stopping by the Sutherland Shelterbelt to acknowledge the resident Great Horned Owl. After lunch we circled the lake on the usual roads and ended up at the Basin 2 West Bay. Several more swans and finally, the Eurasian Wigeon, spotted by Tony Timmons. By lunchtime the temperature had reached about 10 deg C and continued to rise reaching ~14 deg C and making a perfect Alberta Spring (almost) afternoon. Leaving Frank Lake we stopped in at Blackie to find mostly Starlings, and a few Eurasian Collared Doves. The list for Frank Lake and Blackie was: Checklists included in this summary: (1): Frank Lake--NW lookout/blind Date: Mar 19, 2016, 9:55 AM (2): Sutherland's Shelterbelt (private property) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 12:30 PM (3): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (Southeast Corner) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 2:15 PM (4): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (West Bay) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 3:05 PM (5): Blackie (hamlet) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 4:10 PM 650 Canada Goose -- (1),(3),(4) 4 Trumpeter Swan -- (1) 225 Tundra Swan -- (1),(4) 3 Gadwall -- (1) 2 Eurasian Wigeon -- (4) 60 American Wigeon -- (1),(4) 160 Mallard -- (1),(3),(4) 2 Northern Shoveler -- (4) 4550 Northern Pintail -- (1),(3),(4) 24 Canvasback -- (1),(4) 76 Redhead -- (1),(4) 5 Lesser Scaup -- (4) 150 Common Goldeneye -- (1),(4) 2 Gray Partridge -- (2) 1 Northern Harrier -- (4) 2 Bald Eagle -- (1),(3) 5 Killdeer -- (1),(2) 80 California Gull -- (1) 6 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (3),(5) 4 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (5) 2 Great Horned Owl -- (2) 1 Merlin -- (5) 5 Black-billed Magpie -- (1),(2) 1 Common Raven -- (3) 3 Horned Lark -- (1) 51 European Starling -- (2),(5) 2 American Tree Sparrow -- (1) 1 Song Sparrow -- (1) 8 House Finch -- (5) 20 House Sparrow -- (2),(5) From Blackie we stopped by Third Lake on the way back to Calgary. A huge number of birds there, somewhere between 4000 and 8000, generally somewhat distant. Mostly Pintails, but we also saw American Wigeon, Mallard, a few Canada Geese, and California Gulls. Clearly Pintails are on the move right now." Andrew Hart

The three photos that I've posted this morning were all taken yesterday, 13 August 2015, when I spent about three hours with friends at Heritage Park in Calgary. One of them is a volunteer at the Park and she had very kindly invited us to visit. The temperature got up to 33°C or 34°C yesterday!! We started our visit at 9:45 am, so it was still cooler than that, but as the heat increased in the afternoon, it became unbearable. Fortunately, I had a dentist appointment mid-afternoon, so I knew I would have maybe an hour and a half in air-conditioning before returning to my home that felt like an oven. Our forecast, so far, is giving much cooler temperatures for the coming week, thank goodness! Our walk at Heritage Park was a combination of looking at the various old buildings and also checking on plants. There is a small native plant garden within the Hudson Bay Fort and we talked to a volunteer there, who I think may have learned a few new things from talking with us : ) This photo shows part of the main street and a small group of school children dressed in appropriate clothing. The little girls looked so cute in their "Holly Hobby" (?) style bonnets. The street was remarkably quiet, but it was still quite early in the day. One of my favourite buildings in this row is the Bakery - love their gingerbread men! However, it was now a banned place for me, as I have to work on getting my blood sugar/hemoglobin lowered, especially the latter : ( In the distance, you can see the Masonic Lodge Hall (green building) then, coming closer, it's the Calgary Town Hall, then the Alberta Bakery, then the Barons Snooker Parlour, then the Strathmore and Bow Valley Standard, then Webster House, and finally Weedon School and Barn. youtu.be/SHX7SuN9l5I www.heritagepark.ca/ www.heritagepark.ca/plan-your-visit/interactive-park-map.... We had been told before our visit that the Prohibited Noxious weed, Spotted Knapweed, had been seen at the Park, and we did find it, growing along a gravel road that led down by the Glenmore Reservoir. This species is a prolific seed producer and is very difficult to control. Despite the heat, we had a very enjoyable visit. Heritage Park is a place I always intend to go to, but somehow I rarely make it. This was a treat, so thanks so much, Susan!

A scan from a print of an old colour slide that I took sometime in 1966/67, showing part of the Old Fort in Doha, Qatar (Middle East). Wish I had more (and better!) photos from our six months' stay in Doha, from the end of 1966 to the beginning of 1967. I don't have a lot of photos taken during that time, but thankfully have enough to bring back some memories. This city and the desert outside it, was where I learned to drive, in a little red Mini : ) I still have more photos taken in Doha that I need to post as soon as possible - time is running out for this project.

Another in a series of old photos taken in Doha, Qatar (Middle East) from 1966-1967. This is a scan of a print made from a colour slide that had been taken on 17 February 1967. Takes me a while to get rid of all the tiny white flecks that you tend to get when you look closely at a scan of an old print, lol - hard on the eyes, too, so I only edit one photo at a time, but it is worth the effort. I feel we were so lucky to live here for six months (and a few years later, 1972-1978, near Muscat, Oman, for six years) at a time when life was very simple and the true culture of the people was untouched. (Note - I don't know exactly where this old street was, so I have just located Doha in general on my map).

Just a rather amusing building adornment, seen in Kalispell, Montana, US, when I spent the night there with my friends on our way back to Calgary from Yellowstone National Park.

These are my maternal Grandparents, George Frederick Neal and Emma Neal (nee Billingsley). In a very quick search on Google just now, the address for the Hotel in the background is 29 & 31 Terminus Road, Eastbourne, Sussex, England. Need to look up more information on my Grandparents later - will be out all morning. George Frederick Neal: - Born on 14th November 1868 at Court 16, Weaman Street, Birmingham, England. - His parents were Edward and Elizabeth Neal. He was baptized at St. Mary, Whitnall (sp?) Street, on 13th December 1868. - He married Emma Billingsley on 27th December 1890 at St. James, Edmonton, Middlesex, England. - He died on 30 December 1945 at 2 South Road, Hailsham, East Sussex, England. - Emma Neal died on 27 February 1946 at 2 South Road, Hailsham, East Sussex, England. They had at least 8 children: 1. George Edward ("Ted"), born 24 November 1891 2. Rowland Arthur ("Arthur"), born 21 July 1898, died 1988 3. Gordon Ernest, born 17 October 1901, in Malaya. He married Jane Gregson in 1938. Died c.1974. Children are Valerie (who married Roderick Taylor) and Stephen (who married Elena) 4. Edna Dorothy ("Dolly"), born 27 March 1904, in Malaya (?) Died 1986 5. Leslie c.1906, in Malaya (?) 6. Beatrice Adelaide ("Billie"), born 14 August 1908, in Malaya (?). She married Frederick William Gregson (my Uncle Mick) in 1931. Died 1995. They had one child, Tony, who died from a hole-in-the-heart when maybe around 21 years of age 7. Clement Roger ("Dick"), born April-September 1913, in Malaya (?). He married Edith M. Wariner (or Warriner?) in 1936. 8. Vera Kathleen, MY MOTHER, born 8 May 1914 at 65, Thornbury Road, Handsworth, and was registered in June 1914. Baptized on 20 November 1915 at St. Mary, Kulala Lumpur, Malaya. She married Tom Carden Bassindale at St. John's Church, Polegate, England on 4 June 1938. Died December 1998 In the early 1920s, the family lived at 67, Bluff Road, Kuala Lumpur, Malaya. George Frederick Neal was Master at Arms, Federated Malay States Police Force. There is a fascinating connection with William Somerset Maugham's short story, "The Letter", which was also made into a movie, starring Bette Davis. My maternal Grandfather was the person who examined the gun that was used in the real life shooting. This shooting incident caused a sensation in Malaya. viweb.freehosting.net/proudlock.htm en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethel_Proudlock_case