Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: spiral

Needed to have thoughts of a lovely warm ocean this afternoon, after a very COLD two-hour + walk in a local park this morning. Thought this image felt warm and sunny, though the shell was photographed in my kitchen, LOL. It's around -28C (-18F) today, without windchill added. Five brave little Black-capped Chickadees were all we saw. All the other birds either had more sense that we had, or else they were up at the garden feeders in the gardens that edge the park. Since people are no longer allowed to feed the birds in the park, they are now being "pulled" out of their natural environment and are still being fed by human beings.

This very small snail was on a huge leaf of a tropical plant in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, on October 14th. Thought it was kind of neat how the bokeh almost mimicked the pattern of the snail shell.

I always have a hard time when I try and photograph the tendrils of these plants, hanging in the Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo - they come out white and blown-out. This time, it worked better. Macro shot taken on September 26th.

I did darken this photo so that the web stood out more than in the original photo : ) Thanks so much, Aileen, for pointing out this beautiful spider's web yesterday, when we were botanizing the forest at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I was concentrating on the backlit web, so didn't think of walking around to the other side so that I could get a photo of the topside of the spider. Today, I HAVE to make myself get a few things done in the house, ready for when my 12 boxes of sentimental items that belonged to my brother and my parents (and me) arrive from England. They are supposed to be in Calgary by the end of August, so I've almost run out of time to do more clearing of my basement to make room, and I absolutely have to do some very, very, very long-overdue cleaning this week before I dare let anyone into my place, lol. Every time I am out botanizing some location in or around the city, I can't help but think how sad it is that so many women are at home, vacuuming and keeping their homes spotless. My theory on that is that life is so short and there is so much amazing beauty out there for us to enjoy, why stay home and miss it all? I know which I would rather do, any day - which is why I have no choice but to plug in my poor, extremely neglected vacuum cleaner this week before the moving/delivery people arrive, ha. I hate the thought of having to disturb all the little dust bunnies - you know me, I love little creatures, whether wild or domesticated. Under the bed seems to be a common location to find dust bunnies, but mine are so clever, they climb on everything and try to hide there, ha. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web

A closer view of the amazingly beautiful spider web that we saw when we were on a hike at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th.

Ha, I just had to photograph this Dandelion stem that had curled so beautifully into three coils. I would imagine that the flower head had been chewed off by some wild animal on Keith Logan's land, about 2 miles south of Water Valley. Can't say I've ever noticed this happen before. Photographed on June 17th. Have to go on a three-hour walk this morning and then have my volunteer shift this afternoon, so I'm posting really early today.

Many many years ago, I picked up this very small shell (can't remember if it was on a beach in Borneo, Qatar or Oman). I almost threw it back down on to the sand, as it looked rather like a broken piece of a shell, but instead kept it. Some time later, I happened to see a National Geographic Magazine page illustrating some of the rarest shells in the world. One of them looked just like this little one - somewhere around 1" in length, if I remember correctly. Too dead beat to go downstairs to check, after a full day of Christmas Bird Count in the Canmore area (near Banff, in the Rocky Mountains). It's recommended that a person does 10,000 steps a day - well, I've done 23,377 today, LOL, and it feels like it, too! I don't know if someone "out there" is able to confirm or correct this. Would be greatly appreciated : )

This was one of the first photos I took with my first digital camera. I bought the camera in December, during our long, cold winter, so was desperately looking for things around the house on which to try out my new "toy". I love anything that has a spiral shape to it.