Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#485

Something like 15 years ago, someone gave me a single, tiny Purple Geranium plant. A big mistake, as this has spread over the years and now needs to be pulled. The small flowers are quite pretty, but the seedpods look such a mess. I know they should be dead-headed, but that would be too much bending, so it never gets done. Makes a welcome splash of colour, though.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, everyone! Have to admit that the only reason I drove as far as this location, on 26 March 2013, was that I was totally out of luck that day, as far as seeing any Great Gray Owls was concerned. Didn't want to go home with a completely empty memory card, lol! A sign at the church had the following words on it: "The historic church at the end of this pathway was constructed in 1875. At that time, native people were still hunting bison on the prairies. The young nation of Canada was only eight years old; the Canadian Pacific Railway still nine years in the future. And this church would become the heart of a thriving community, Morleyville, and for a time the largest settlement in what would be southern Alberta. The story of this church is really the story of Rev. George McDougall who moved to western Canada with his family in 1862 to minister to the fur traders and native people. In 1873, the McDougalls established the first mission in the region and built this church. In doing so, they wrote an important chapter of Alberta's settlement history". After George McDougall's tragic death in a snowstorm, his body was brought back to the church at Morleyville and laid to rest. www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=8788 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was another glorious day yesterday - sunny and warm - so I decided to do the drive NW of Calgary, hoping that I might just find a Great Gray Owl. I left home much later than I usually do, about 4:00 p.m. and I got home somewhere around 9:45 p.m, much later than I had planned. After driving something like 140 km, I had found nothing other than a Crow, and a Killdeer who put on the broken-wing act because I startled it when I came round a corner rather fast. Patience doesn't begin to describe what is needed when looking for owls, but eventually I gave up and knew I had to get out of there if I wanted to be more or less home before dark. I certainly didn't want to be caught on the backroads when darkness fell. Two minutes later, as I rounded a bend, this is what I saw down the road, but with its back to me, making it more difficult to notice. The feeling of giving up and then suddenly being "rewarded" is such a great feeling : ))) Total driving distance was 236 km, time out was 5 3/4 hours.

Echinacea - one of my favourite garden flowers! I guess I didn't notice the long legs in front of the bee when I was actually taking the photo.

These large yellow wildflowers always brighten up any natural area.

Looks like the winter bird photography season is just beginning - yeah! This little female White-breasted Nuthatch flew down into a tree near where I was standing and I managed to get a quick shot. It was joined by Chickadees (of course!) and a little Downy Woodpecker. I'm going to have to brush up on my bird photography skills after all the summer months - I can see why "they" say that bird photography is the most difficult!