Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#31

Fireweed was nicely in bloom when I went with friends, Cathy and Terry, for a great day out in the mountains on 19 August 2014. Our trip was part way along Highway 40 and then along the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail. We passed maybe three or four large, dense patches of Fireweed that were absolutely beautiful. Wish I could say the same about the sky - as you can tell from my photo, it was far from blue. The weather forecast was not good for this day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while.

So many of the old wooden barns and homesteads that scatter the prairies are in such a bad state, unfortunately. This one was photographed SE of Calgary, on 14 April 2014, when I went driving the backroads for the day with my youngest daughter. Some of the roads were familiar to me, but others were new territory, which gave us a chance to discover some different abandoned barns. We knew where our destination was going to be, more or less, though it was disappointing that the heat distortion was just too great to get distant, zoomed photos. Unfortunately, it was quite a hazy day, which didn't help. Once we got really close, the problem thankfully went away. I liked the patterns of the fields in the distance and the various shades of brown. Who knows why old barns and homesteads are left to crumble? Farmers are very busy people and probably not too concerned about an old, rotting building on their land. Many are no doubt living on a tight budget, too. I'm just happy that I have an occasional chance to photograph a few of these wonderful old barns and homesteads - I can think of at least three that have disappeared since being photographed, which is always a sad feeling, I find.

Saw this beauty at the Calgary Zoo in the Conservatory. This photo was at #31 in Explore on 26th January 2007.