Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness

The third rather uninspiring photo of the day, lol! Some days, I just have no enthusiasm for posting the photos I've grabbed! Needed this one for my Set about the Leighton Art Centre, showing some of the flora and fauna that three of us found and listed when we botanized the hillside belonging to the Centre, on 6 July 2013. I love seeing Gaillardia flowers that are just beginning to open, surrounded by all those fine hairs. Happened to notice this tiny Crab Spider on this one. UPDATE (9 July 2013) on the Calgary Zoo: "The Calgary Zoo announced today that it will begin to move animals to other institutions on a permanent basis beginning as early as next week. Recent flooding caused extensive damage across the zoo's 32-acre island. The South America building is one of the oldest facilities at the zoo and was one of the hardest hit in the flood. Dr. Clément Lanthier, zoo president and CEO, said the damage to the building and its systems is so extensive that it has been determined that it makes no sense to invest very limited resources in its repair. "Sadly this means we have to quickly find new homes for the 34 individual animals representing 11 species that were housed in this building," said Dr. Lanthier. Prior to the flood, the zoo was looking for new homes for one white stork, one Parma wallaby, two black swans and seven Rock hyraxes--that search is ongoing and these animals will also be transferred to other facilities as soon as possible. This brings the total of animals to be moved to 45 individuals representing 15 species." From Calgary Zoo e-mail.

This photo had been hanging around in my archives since 11 August 2010. Happened to come across it recently and decided to post it. Not getting too much time to sort through recently taken images at the moment. Taken at the Reader Rock Garden. I wonder how much damage this beautiful garden suffered this past week. It's built on a hillside across from the Stampede Grounds, where the flood water came up to the 8th row of seats in the Saddledome. Always amazing how Mother Nature bounces back after a disaster, so I'm sure that eventually, flowers will be standing tall and proud again.

I wasn't expecting to find a strange jump in the number of my photos that are actually IN Explore this morning. The most I have ever had in Explore at any given time was 45 (a few days ago) - usually, almost every single photo I post, that does happen to get into Explore, falls out immediately, LOL. I can see two new ones that would bring it up to 47, but the other five are older Explore photos that have reappeared. I posted this for my own records - I have always had a fascination for keeping records of things, in general, so this is just for my own interest and curiosity : ). No need AT ALL to comment - though I would be interested to know if anyone else has had a similar thing happen to them this morning, LOL. And, of course, if you should happen to read this, please know that I REALLY appreciate every single one of you who has taken the time to stop and look at my photos!!! Thank you! 1. Watching the watcher , 2. At ease - for a second , 3. Between friends , 4. Red-breasted Nuthatch , 5. Barred Owl , 6. A pink surprise , 7. The eye , 8. A new angle on passion , 9. Lilies in the sunlight , 10. Ouch - these darned Mosquitoes! , 11. Mushroom of the day , 12. Alpine paradise , 13. Pricklypear in bloom , 14. Freeze - I think she's seen me , 15. Smooth Blue Beardtongue , 16. Magenta , 17. One of the last huddles , 18. Pure , 19. Golden Tulip , 20. Snowy Mama , 21. Colour on a snowy day , 22. Bohemian Waxwing with berry , 23. House Sparrow , 24. Trumpeter Swan , 25. Let me out , 26. Consolation prize , 27. Wind chill -23C , 28. Look deep into my eyes , 29. Bald Eagle , 30. Hollyhock , 31. Happy 4th July! , 32. Manysprings , 33. Simplicity , 34. My little buddy , 35. Alone , 36. Snowy Owl , 37. Bow Valley Provincial Park , 38. Magnificence , 39. One , 40. Flicker Beauty , 41. Down by the river , 42. There's no time like snow time , 43. If I just sit and wait... , 44. Now I can see better , 45. Like my colour? , 46. Are you really my mother? , 47. Hello little Nuthatch , 48. Curves , 49. A winter scene , 50. Out with Mom , 51. Female beauty , 52. That tasted so good , 53. First sign of spring , 54. Proud Mama , 55. Long-eared Owl 3 , 56. This time, a wild Chickadee , 57. Male Snowy Owl , 58. Gaillardia Fanfare , 59. American White Pelicans Created with fd's Flickr Toys . (Note to self on 20 December 2008: I replaced the original poster with a new one from 20 December, as a few more images have been added, making it 58. The remaining 312 of my Explore photos vanished into thin air, as Explore images tend to do, LOL, LOL!)

I've had such a problem trying to adjust the colour of this image - and now I give up. Looking up into an overcast sky just never seems to work for me and my camera. I just can't do justice to this magnificent Snowy Owl female (or juvenile?) that we saw yesterday afternoon, east of the city. In the morning, a few of us had got together with owl bander, Richard Chamberland, who had come down to Calgary. He very generously invited a few of us to go looking for a certain Northern Hawk Owl, which we didn't manage to find. From there, we drove south and then east of the city, hoping to be able to find and band a Snowy Owl. One was seen, far in the distance, on the ground. It flew to a couple of very high poles, but stayed there. After Richard had had to leave to do other things, three friends and I continued to travel the backroads, coming across this beautiful female in a place where they had seen her before. She posed for us on an aerial of some sort as well as a couple of very tall poles. This particular one was wooden, which made a welcome change. From my photo, you would think that she was around eye-level and close, but no such luck, ha. The best view for marvelling at this owl's wonderfully dark feather pattern was when we saw her from the side - will post those photos over the next little while. Thanks so much, Richard, for giving up your morning for us - it was good to see you again - and thanks, Phil and Rob, for the ride around the Prairies and for showing Bonnie and me this beautiful bird. Much appreciated! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Owl

This teeny flower is so small that I can never see, with the naked eye, whether an indiividual flower still has its petals. It's hard enough to find one of these tiny, thread-like plants as it is. This one did, but I'm sure I could have found a more photogenic one. However, I was kneeling in an undulating area of such deep, soft moss which made getting down and especially getting up again really difficult, so I couldn't face trying again. I guess you'd call this a supermacro, ha. If you only knew how many times I have tried to get even a half-decent photo of one of these flowers and almost always failed! Photographed at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on July 8th. This native plant belongs to the Saxifrage family, Saxifragaceae. It is also called Bare-stemmed Mitrewort, Bishop's Cap, Common Mitrewort, Miterwort, and Northern Bishop's Cap. There are 5-8 tiny flowers on the upper half of the slender, flowering stems, 7-20cm high. Each exquisite flower has 5 greenish-yellow or white, snow-flake design petals, with ten stamens, 6mm (just under quarter of an inch) across.