Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: window frame

"July 20, 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of the first humans landing on the Moon on July 20, 1969 as part of NASA's Apollo 11 lunar mission." People are remembering this exciting, successful event this week. I was trying to remember where I was when this all took place, so I checked. In the week before, we flew from Seria, Brunei, Borneo, back to England for a short while. On the journey from Borneo, we spent 6th - 13th July in Hong Kong, then in Rome, Italy, from 14th - 18th July, arriving in Birmingham, England, at my parents' house on 18th July. We ended up in Holland in October 1969 and returned to Borneo about a week before Christmas 1969. So, I am guessing that we were with my parents when the Moon Landing took place. My parents never had a TV, and I can't remember watching it at any friend's house. So much packing, travelling and chaos : ) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, 20 July 2019 - our temperature is 13C (windchill 11C) around noon. Risk of a thunderstorm this afternoon. This is summer?? A couple of days ago, after seven or so long, brutal months of winter (coldest on record?) and now endless weeks of rain and cloud, I finally decided, enough is enough. I have become a fair-weather photographer, and we don't get that much fair weather, especially this year. So, on 18 July 2019, despite the weather forecast for a thunderstorm, I decided to drive SE of the city mid-afternoon. A few more days, and I will be spending the day with my daughter, though I'm not sure yet where she will choose to go. She (me, too) loves the Saskatoon Farm, but also wants to get out to a few golden Canola fields. Thought I would scout around beforehand. My plan had been to go to the Farm first and have a meal, and then continue on to Frank Lake. Seeing the beautiful storm clouds on my drive south, I was torn as to whether to go to Frank Lake first and catch a few photos. Then it occurred to me that I could also get a few sky shots once I had turned off the main highway and on to the country road leading to the Farm. The Farm was pretty busy. So much wonderful colour everywhere that I almost forgot about the weather. That is, until I was eating outside under the open shelter. It was so cold, I had goosebumps, and the wind increased, sending a huge picnic table umbrella flying fast through the air. Just a short bit of rain and all returned to normal. As usual, I wandered around the grounds, shooting flowers, rabbits, landscape, clouds, and old tractors. One barn stood out to me and had me puzzled. I have visited the farm many times before, but I don't remember seeing this particular barn before. It looked so pretty, with its colourful flower border. Eventually, I continued my drive to Frank Lake. The storm clouds stayed with me. One side road has a small wetland on either side of the road and I pulled over to check what birds might be there. I was about to turn off my car when a loud buzzer sounded and a tornado alert was announced - to take shelter and if there was no shelter nearby, to get into a ditch or ravine. Then I heard that the area covered was further SE - in fact, where I had been a week earlier. "Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) confirmed a weak EF0 tornado touched down two kilometres northeast of Crossfield at around 2:15 p.m. Sunday, 14 July 2019, marking the 12th confirmed twister of the season." (This was roughly 50 km north of Calgary.) According to the weather agency, Alberta typically sees an average of 15 tornadoes per year with the peak season starting mid-to-late June and ending early-to-mid August. So far in 2019, there have been 12 confirmed tornadoes in Alberta and three probable ones. There have also been many reports of funnel clouds." From Global News. While i was standing by this wetland a White-faced Ibis flew in. I believe this was the first one I had really seen and photographed this year. Further on, when I was at the blind, there were so many Ruddy Ducks. The Barn Swallow pair flew back and forth to their nest that is just out of sight. I had checked to see if I could spot the Red Knot (bird), but without binoculars, it was pretty much impossible to check the very distant water birds. A very enjoyable afternoon/evening. Mid-evening, the main highway wasn't very busy, and the rain only started when I arrived home and had to get out of the car.

Interesting ... I never used to click on the word Flickr (right before the words You, Explore and Create. For maybe a week, I have been clicking on it and this evening I left a thank you comment under today's main image and noticed that this main photo is nowhere to be seen on the Flickr page - vanished. My second and third photos are there and all three of yesterday's images and all sorts of old photos from deeper in my photostream. I wonder if this has been happening on other days. If so, then this would be something that affects views and comments on a particular photo. I never leave comments on other people's photos by scrolling down the Flickr page - I always go to My Contacts page and usually open their photostream and have a browse while I'm there. Hmm .... interesting. HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL, everyone! This morning, the sky is somewhat overcast , and the temperature is 6°C (43°F), supposed to rise to 10°C (50°F) this afternoon. Rain is in the forecast. I love this idea for an outside wall, seen at the Saskatoon Farm yesterday, 21 September 2016. This interesting place is maybe a 20-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside green houses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They also have a restaurant that offers great food - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

Wow, had problems uploading my photos to Flickr this evening! I took this photo just over two years ago, in the Butterfly House in the old Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. I don't usually see this species, so wanted to post it for my Zoo Set. Isn't it a gorgeous shade of blue? I am completely (and I mean completely, lol) exhausted after a botanizing trip from 7:00 a.m. this morning till getting home about 6:15 p.m. just a short while ago. This was a repeat trip of a hike we did a year ao, right on the edge of the eastern Rocky Mountains, right where Kananaskis begins on Highway 40. Climbing up hills and down, up and down. My toes are now the most painful part of my body, from hiking downhill so much. The main purpose of the trip was to see Balsamroot plants high on a hillside. This is the most northerly reported location for this species. And we saw a Morel mushroom, which made my day - possibly a False Morel? Weather was beautiful - rain in the forecast for the next few days. Thanks, David, for another great outing to this area - and thanks so much for the ride there and back! Job very well done!! I have to add that I'm sure I any calories I lost on the hike were surely put back on when I had a delicious Chocolate Malt when we stopped in Longview on the way home. Thanks (?), Sandy, for telling me how good they are and leading me into temptation, ha!

This looks a little strange to me - maybe I should have cropped a bit off the bottom? This was taken from inside one of the wonderful little buildings on Jim Coutts' incredible homestead, south of Calgary and west of Nanton. Each year now, he invites us down there for a few hours and I enjoy every moment I'm there. His gardens are amazing, including a carefully laid out Natural Grasses section - a few feet square for each of many different grass species. His flower gardens leave me breathless : ) Jim is very interested in returning his homestead land back to native grassland. He is very knowledgeable about nature and certainly does his "homework". After visiting his homestead, he took us for a long hike on someone's private property to botanize the area - wonderful rolling hills in the Porcupine Hills area, of which I posted a photo two days ago.