Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: cracked

Has anyone else noticed an enormous drop in Stats Views in the past 10 days? I know a few people have commented on this in the Help Forum. After 22 September 2019, mine have dropped down to very roughly one quarter to a third the number. I know Stats are not usually really accurate, but a sudden drop that continues always makes me wonder if there is a Flickr glitch somewhere. I know a lot of people have been saying that their Contacts' new images are not showing up on the Contact page. On 5 September 2019, friend Pam and I had a great day out in Kananaskis. It had been just over two months since I drove myself out there, but Pam had been only two days before. There were a few different places that she wanted to stop, and she was hoping to see a bear - preferably a Grizzly, but we were out of luck for that. However, we were lucky enough to see two Black Bears, which was such a treat. Our day started off really well, leaving the city at 7:00 am. Driving along a backroad SW of the city, a small, rather cute, old barn was our first find. It was set back from the road a little and easily missed, so I'm glad I spotted it. Further on, we came across a White-tailed Deer feeding in a field, and it looked so beautiful in the early morning sun. Normally, I don't get out this early and I know I miss that special light. Going to have to finish description, etc. later .... I've been saying that ever since, too. Just not getting enough time at the moment .... sigh.

I have so many copies of photos that I have posted on Flickr (as well as the obvious originals) that need to be deleted. Each time I saw this fungus photo, I was sure I must have uploaded it ages ago. However, when I checked, I discovered that in fact I hadn't posted it. It's an old shot from my archives, taken on 3 September 2010, when a few of us did a botany trip at West Bragg Creek Natural Area. I love coming across a fungus that has split and looks rather like a small flower.

Yesterday, 13 August 2014, I had a volunteer shift and afterwards, as I sometimes do, drove to the Reader Rock Garden. Thought I'd better see what flowers were in bloom, as summer is slipping away so fast and I haven't taken all that many colourful images of flowers, garden or wild. They come in so handy during the seven long months of winter that are not all that far away now, breaking the monotony of "white" photos. Some of the flowers were well past their prime, but still make an interesting shot. I was happy to find several of these mushrooms, especially as I, and others, have had practically no luck in seeing any fungi (yet). Some years are good fungi years and others are not. With a late spring and late summer, maybe it's still too early, though August is apparently the peak of the mushroom season here.

This is another landscape photo from Red Rock Coulee, in SE Alberta, taken on 23 September 2013. Two friends and I left Calgary on Monday morning, 20 September 2013, and had to reach Elkwater in the Cypress Hills (not that far from the Saskatchewan border), several hours' drive away, where we were going to stay in a little rustic cabin for three nights. On the way there, we stopped at Red Rock Coulee, which is just 56 kms (35 mi) southwest of Medicine Hat. Actually, this particular photo was taken on Monday, 23 September 2013, when we called in again, this time walking down the hillside and into one of the coulees. While my friends searched for Lichens, I wandered around, taking photos of the scenery and anything else I came across, including the dry, cracked ground. We didn't know what the plant in this photo was. Most of the flowers on this plant were dead, but there were still just a few that were bright yellow. The extremely high winds were not pleasant at all, to say the least! In fact, strong winds were everywhere in many parts of SE Alberta. I was expecting a lot of my photos to be blurry, as I could barely keep my balance or hold my camera. This is Rattlesnake territory, too, but fortunately we didn't come across any, thank goodness! At least, not here, but one was seen (not by me!) at the Pinhorn Grazing Lease, when we were monitoring the Yucca plants. "The main feature of this natural landscape is the huge red boulders; some measuring 2.5 m across. They are scattered over a relatively small distance. Bedrock is close to the surface in this area, covered by only a thin layer of soil. Water erosion has carved the landscape over time and a badlands topography has formed in places. The bands of colour visible in the exposed bedrock are made of dark gray shales, greenish and gray sandstones, bentonitic clays and thin bands of ironstone. The most striking features of this landscape are the round reddish boulders. These are sandstone concretions and at up to 2.5 m in diameter, they are among the largest in the world. The boulders were formed in prehistoric seas as layers of sand, calcite and iron oxide collected around a nucleus formed by shells, leaves or bones. The concretions grew larger as the circulating waters deposited more layers. The reddish colour comes from iron oxide." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rock_Coulee

A friend told me about a display of fungi near Fish Creek Park last year, so of course I had to go and check it out : ) Taken on 29 June 2012, near the edge of the eastern end of the park. Wish I knew what kind of mushrooms these are - I love the patterns that form on the top surface of the caps. The look so much like some of the Easter Hot Cross Buns that I buy. Any chance that these could be Cracked-Cap Mushroom / Agrocybe dura? Apparently, they are very common in wood mulch, which fits with my photo.

Occasionally, I come across a mushroom whose cap seems to shred and crack, as in the posted image. I don't know if it is a particular species that always does this, or whether various species can do this under certain conditions. Photographed (macro) these two at Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail, Kananaskis, on August 29th.

Spotted this very small spider (sorry, fotographix.ca, you commented before I typed my description!) on the cracked, parched floor of Horseshoe Canyon three days ago. This Canyon is part of the spectacular Badlands of Alberta - land of the Dinosaurs! - and is found just before you reach Drumheller, coming from Calgary. Haven't identified this little guy, but he looks different from spiders that I've seen before. (By the way, I added the black frame because the photo just looked so washed out on a white page background. I do this with some of my photos, but just for myself at home. I find that photos without frames make more attractive (to my mind) mosaics, which is why I don't normally post the framed versions here on Flickr.) Thanks so much to The Kav (Pat Kavanagh) and Lynette S. for the ID of Wolf Spider (probably Pardosa sp.). Much appreciated.

I love the pattern created as this mushroom cap ages. Shows that beauty in old age can be even greater than when young and fresh : ) Seen on the Fullerton Loop hike, Kananaskis, on 29th August.

Any mushrooms we've seen in the last little while have been old and withered. A few species crack into quite attractive patterns, such as this one. This was a fair sized fungus, too, growing in Bragg Creek Natural Area on 12th September. It looked so pretty against the green moss of the forest floor.

The ground was covered with similar mushrooms, in every direction, and though every single one was old and withered, I thought they had a strange kind of beauty. What a sight it must have been when they were all fresh! Seen in a small area of mixed trees in Jim Coutts' homestead garden, south of the city, near Nanton, on 5th September.