Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Jim Coutts' homestead

We saw this little beetle yesterday, south of Calgary, near Nanton, southern Alberta. It looked just like a Ladybug, but a bit larger and fatter, and no spots on the red. I looked at hundreds of Ladybug photos on Google last night, but couldn't find anything like this one. Maybe it's not a Ladybug after all?! Later: many thanks to Doug for the ID, Large Orange Ladybug (Anatis lecontei).

I just couldn't get to sleep last night and ended up getting up around 4:00 a.m. and turning on my computer. I was feeling very worried about my brother in Birmingham, England, as no one had received a Christmas card from him or an e-mail for about a month. My oldest daughter hadn't been able to contact him by phone over Christmas, either. So, I decided to e-mail two wonderful, long-time girlfiends who live in Birmingham, to see if they had heard from John, which they hadn't. I went back to bed, sure I wouldn't fall asleep, which I didn't. About 7:30 a.m., I had a dreaded phone call, from a very kind Policewoman in Birmingham, letting me know that my brother (aged 61) had died, at home. He lived alone. She had not been given any details yet, so I have to wait to hear more. I don't know who called the Police, but I am thankful that they did. The Policewoman didn't know when John had died (from Angina, I suspect), but I think it may have been just after his last e-mail to me, on November 26th. John led such a healthy life-style, eating very healthily and enjoying his walks, but genes sometimes just win! I have no idea how I will deal with all this - that is one problem when family members live across the world from each other. I haven't flown anywhere since 1978 and haven't been anywhere in all that time, so, at the moment, this feels like one unbearable nightmare to me. John was my only sibling and neither of my parents is alive. Also, my own health is at its lowest in many years, so the awful possibility of having to travel fills me with dread. As with everything, though, one seems to eventually get through these very tough times. I will probably keep posting on Flickr, as this always feels a comforting place to be, and it will perhaps take my mind off everything else for a little bit at a time. Please bear with me if I don't do as much commenting as I would like.

Each year, we are lucky enough to have a trip down south of the city to just north east of Nanton, to visit Jim Coutts and his wonderful homestead and gardens. My favourite thing to see there is his incredible Poppy garden. This is yet another photo I took while soaking up all the beauty. Later: this morning, the sun was shining and sky was blue and the forecast was for sun, so I decided to drive out westwards to Kananaskis, along Highway 22X. Hadn't gone all that far when a Cold Front moved in and the sky turned grey and it rained and didn't stop until after I got back home about three hours later! A total waste of an afternoon, except that I did get to see some beautiful fall colours, though they just don't look the same in pouring rain and low light : ) A lot of leaves are already coming off the trees, so I really hope the colours will last for at least a little while longer.

For some weird reason, I labelled this "Yellow Lettuce" when I sent it around via e-mail. I remember seeing these very small, yellow flowers growing at Jim Coutts' amazing homestead, just north east of Nanton (south of Calgary) and immediately thought they were Yellow Lettuce. However, the flowers are not like this - this looks more like an Annual Sowthistle flower to me, even though it was very small. Anyone happen to know? Here comes the sun, FINALLY, after an overcast, cold, wet "summer - yay!!!!!! Enjoy it, everyone. I have a volunteer shift to go to, so will be indoors : (

This is such an amazing place to be, especially at this time of year, when the Poppy garden is still in bloom! This is just one very tiny corner of Jim Coutts' beautiful homestead garden, south of Calgary, near Nanton. A few of us visited for part of yesterday - must admit that I made a bee-line straight for the Poppies! When we made the annual trip last year, it was in September, and the Poppies were finished, to my great disappointment. It felt so good to look up and see BLUE sky after the "summer" we've had : ) Thanks so much to Jim for letting us descend once again upon his property! We enjoy and appreciate it so much. After lunch, we headed off to botanize a hilltop of prairie grassland belonging to Rob Blades - thanks, Howard, for leading us there and also letting us botanize the little bit of your land that we had time to enjoy.

Not sure if this is Common Flax or Wild Blue Flax. I thought it was the first, but now I'm not sure. Anyway, it's Flax : ) It did seem to be a darker shade of blue. Delicate flowers that are so blue and beautiful. This one was growing at Jim Coutts' homestead, near Nanton, south of Calgary, where we spent part of the day on Friday.

I love poppies at all stages and so this was where I headed off to straight away on Friday, when several of us went south of the city to Jim Coutts' homestead, just north east of Nanton. I was thrilled to bits when I noticed the distant sea of red and knew that Jim's wonderful Poppy garden was still in bloom. Our annual trip to see his gardens and homestead was in September last year - and there wasn't a single petal left on any Poppy, which was so disappointing. Interesting to note that Jim used to be the former principal secretary of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. After visitng Jim and being shown around his incredibly beautiful homestead, we drove west through William's Coulee to botanize a hilltop of virgin prairie grassland belonging to Rob Blades (about 5 acres; 1 mi W of Meridian Rd, on Connemara Rd) and then to botanize some prairie grassland belonging to Howard Hornecker. Thanks, Jim, Rob and Howard for giving us these wonderful opportunities! And thanks so much, Laura, for driving!

Shrubby Cinquefoil is a very common plant here. I always think it has quite a pretty flower centre. Actual flower is much smaller than seen here, of course : ) Seen at Jim Coutts' homestead, just north east of Nanton, south of Calgary. talkaboutwildlife.ca/profile/?s=1152

Normally, Prairie Coneflower has plain, bright yellow petals, but we saw these different ones in the beautiful homestead garden belonging to Jim Coutts', just north east of Nanton, Alberta.

I thought this was a Shield Bug (on Yarrow plant), but then came across a different name of something similar on Google. Thought I wrote it somewhere, but I can't remember where : ) Or maybe it's an immature one of a Shield Bug species? Quite a fancy pattern for such a tiny bug. Found and shared by Doug (dougwaylett) in Jim Coutts' homestead garden, just north east of Nanton, Alberta. Thanks, Doug!

This looks a little strange to me - maybe I should have cropped a bit off the bottom? This was taken from inside one of the wonderful little buildings on Jim Coutts' incredible homestead, south of Calgary and west of Nanton. Each year now, he invites us down there for a few hours and I enjoy every moment I'm there. His gardens are amazing, including a carefully laid out Natural Grasses section - a few feet square for each of many different grass species. His flower gardens leave me breathless : ) Jim is very interested in returning his homestead land back to native grassland. He is very knowledgeable about nature and certainly does his "homework". After visiting his homestead, he took us for a long hike on someone's private property to botanize the area - wonderful rolling hills in the Porcupine Hills area, of which I posted a photo two days ago.

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.

This was one of the gorgeous Hollyhock flowers growing in the amazing homestead gardens belonging to Jim Coutts. Jim lives in southern Alberta, near Nanton. A few of us were lucky enough to go and be shown around his gardens yesterday morning, including a display area of native grassses. After lunch, we all went for a hike in the rolling hills west of Nanton, to botanize the area. I'm trying to give my very painful arms and shoulders a bit of a break, being careful not to spend too much time on the computer. Thanks for your patience and understanding : )

But not MY garden path, LOL! This is just one tiny area of Jim Coutts' amazing homestead garden, near Nanton, southern Alberta, visited last August. Jim is trying to convert this land back to natural prairie and he grows small plugs of many plants and grasses to use for this enormous task. My favourite part of his gardens is the Poppy area - I'm in seventh heaven when I am there : )