Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Daisy family

Just adding one photo this morning, after posting 13 extra photos last night! I wasn't going to post any, but after looking at the endless, colourless "winter" images I've been uploading, colour was something that was definitely needed. Yesterday and overnight, we had more snow and this morning we have freezing fog. Our temperature is -3C (windchill -9C). The norm for now is a balmy PLUS 14C. Wednesday 17 October is forecast to reach PLUS 15C! Yay! My thoughts are with the millions of people living down in the SE of the US, about to face the extremely dangerous Category 4 hurricane, Michael. Things like snow and cold are absolutely nothing compared to what so many people have to deal with! My rough plans for 29 September 2018 changed when I saw the weather forecast. I ended up visiting the Reader Rock Garden instead of driving to a different garden. As usual when I go there, it was a bit windy, which always makes photographing flowers, especially ones on long stems, more difficult. It was also overcast and I was hoping that it wouldn't rain. Instead, I found myself standing at the highest point of the garden, with very light snow falling for just a few minutes. There were still quite a few flowers in bloom, though many were already past their prime. I was glad to find this Echinacea flower stilll looking reasonably good. A touch of filter was added in post-processing to add a bit of sharpness.

After posting quite a few cold, wintry images recently, I thought I'd post a photo of a different colour and subject this morning, 27 January 2016. I can't believe that February is almost here! This morning, the temperature is a balmy 6C (yes, that's +6C, with a windchill of +3C). It is supposed to climb to +8C this afternoon. What crazy temperatures for us here, near the end of January! The forecast is for colder temperatures in a few days' time, along with more snow. I took this photo of a Cornflower at the Reader Rock Garden, on 24 June 2015, when I called in after a volunteer shift. Not sure if this is Centaurea dealbata (Persian Cornflower)?

Note: this photo is my "main" (i.e. very last to be uploaded) photo out of the three I've posted this morning. I uploaded the other two first and then uploaded this main image separately, to see if that makes any difference. I did try doing it a couple of times this way weeks ago and seem to remember that there was something I didn't like with the result, but can't for the life of me remember what it was, ha. Hopefully, Flickr (or something else) won't change the order of the way you see my photos displayed! Happy 1st August, everyone! Here in Canada, it is a long weekend, as Monday is Heritage Day in Alberta, an occasion to celebrate the heritage of the peoples of the province. The origins of the holiday on the first Monday in August each year seem to go back to a “day of recreation” first organized by Toronto City Council in 1869. This photo was taken last Wednesday, 29 July 2015, when I called in at the Reader Rock Garden after a volunteer shift. Summer is flying by and I wanted to take a whole batch of bright, colourful flower photos ready to post during the seven or eight cold "winter" months. It was so disappointing to find very little still in bloom! Many plants had already finished and had been cut down and a lot of the flowers that were left were past their prime. However, I did still manage to get some photos, including of this opening Echinacea bud - love these flowers. It had rained during the afternoon and some of the pathways were quite slippery. Also, the powerful sprinklers were turned on when I was still there and I was rather wet by the time I reached the exit! The things we photographers go through to get some of our photos, lol! The forecast for this afternoon is 28C, a very slight improvement over yesterday, when it reached 31C. I was out all day yesterday, having a great day with friend, Darlene, going west of the city. We first called in at someone's private property to see if there was any sign of the Red-bellied Woodpecker that had been reported. No luck, but we did see many beautiful Evening Grosbeaks and even more Pine Siskins, plus a Hairy Woodpecker and several other birds. Also, we saw a different Grosbeak, either a female or a juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeak or Black-headed Grosbeak. Didn't get a chance to look at my photos and crop to get a better look last night. Hopefully, someone will have been able to get the bird identified. After this visit, we drove to an area where I had been told that a Great Gray can be seen sometimes (no luck), and then along Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66) as far as Maclean Pond, just in time to see an Osprey with a large fish in its talons. So few birds to be seen or heard - maybe it was just too hot for them, and by then it was the afternoon, which tends not to be the best time to see birds. We got separated for quite a long time, through miscommunication, probably because when I yelled through the forest "Are you still coming?", it had sounded to Darlene like "I'm coming"! So, she waited for me to reach her and I had assumed that she was following behind me, some distance back. Apparently, both of us called a number of times after that, but we were out of hearing distance. Not a good feeling, each of us concerned about the well-being of the other and each wondering if we were going to have to call in a search party. At 31C, it was feeling mighty hot the whole time, too! When we finally found each other, we knew what we needed after our "ordeal" - an ice-cream, back in Bragg Creek, lol! A great day, Darlene - thanks so much for driving and for all the fun : )

"Pink and Cream clusters of flowers sit atop a slender stalk and remind one of the pads of a cats paw, hence its name. It makes a great ground cover with a mat forming habit and silvery green wooly foliage that retains its color and form year round." From wildaboutwildflowers.ca www.wildaboutflowers.ca/plant_detail.php?Rosy-Pussytoes-12 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennaria_rosea I was so lucky to be invited to join friends Sandy and Heide on a three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park, from 19-21 (inclusive) June 2015. We met up with other members of the Alberta Native Plant Council for their annual Botany Alberta weekend. Most people who attended stayed at the Crooked Creek Campground, a 5.6 km drive east of the Waterton Park Gate on Highway 5, but my friends and I stayed at the Crandell Mountain Lodge on the edge of Waterton town. The ANPC people had a list of species that they hoped to find, and they were very successful. Our stay down south overlapped the annual Waterton Wildflower Festival, but we came across very few people on our various drives and hikes. Needless to say, I was extremely fortunate to spend three days with people who are very knowledgeable about plants and many other things. This meant that I got to see many wildflower species, including several that were new to me, such as the gorgeous Mariposa Lily. It was one of the flowers that was on my mental Wish List - and there were hundreds of them to be seen! I had also never seen the spectacular Bear Grass and I was so thrilled that there were still several plants in bloom. Absolutely made my day! Our two main hikes of the weekend were the Bertha Lake Trail as far as the Bertha Falls (on 20 June), and the Crandell Lake Trail (on 21 June). The photo above was taken on our hike to and at Crandell Lake. Makes me smile when a described "short, easy hike" in a book or on the Internet turns into a full day of exploration along the trail, taking hours to reach the destination, though returning to the cars in a much shorter time. Our walks/hikes are very slow-paced with endless stops to look at/for plants and to take photos. This makes it possible for me to go along. The wind made photographing plants a real challenge, including the beautiful Mariposa Lilies in the meadow along the Hay Barn road. Though I took plenty of photos, I wasn't sure that I would end up with any that were sharp enough. Trying to catch a quick shot when a flower is blowing in and out of the viewfinder is not easy! Unfortunately, I'm no longer able to get down and take macro shots (my lens needs to be about 4" away from the subject), so my photos have to be telemacro. I've just been trying to find a list of plant species in Waterton Park, but have so far been out of luck. I do have the book, "Wildflowers of Waterton Park" by Jacinthe Lavoie and Ian Wilson, which has an Index of Plant names, but I was hoping to find a list that I could print out. It's going to take me ages to type descriptions for the various photos I'll slowly be posting, and I will no doubt keep adding new bits and pieces over time. There is just so much information I want to add, but my descriptions are already way too long. Also, my photos of quite a few of the plants will be posted for the use of ANPC members and are, unfortunately, really poor images. Need them added to my Waterton Lakes album, so please bear with me : ) Luckily, you don't even need to look at them.

I checked the Friends of Reader Rock Garden website and I think I have the correct ID for this Cornflower that I photographed on 24 July 2013. They only have two species of this plant and it isn't the other one, but it is certainly a Centaurea species. I love the overlapping, fringed, spiny bracts of these flowers - my favourite part of the flower, I think.

Taken at Carburn Park on 24 September 2012, at the end of a three-hour walk looking for birds (and anything else!). Usually, I find Globe Thistles after all their petals have died and fallen off, so it was a welcome change to see the blueness/purple of this one. I don't know what species of Globe Thistle this is. "Echinops ( /ˈɛkɨnɒps/) is a genus of about 120 species of thistles in the daisy family Asteraceae, commonly known as globe thistles. They are native to Europe east to central Asia and south to the mountains of tropical Africa." From Wikipedia. Yikes - SNOW is in our forecast for 3rd October - NEXT WEEK! I am so not ready for this!

Managed to "blow out" the white in this photo : ) I so rarely see the pink Pussytoes - usually I see one of the species of white Pussytoes. The Pink is so pretty, though. Seen off Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66) in the area of the Ing's Mine parking lot. Taken using Raynox 250 macro lens, only partly zoomed in. These are tiny flowers in reality! That's the "problem" with macros and supermacros - they are so misleading - but I love them! Holy smokes - fell asleep for two hours in front of the TV this evening - just woken up to find that it was 10:00 p.m. Thank goodness I didn't sleep right through an hour of blaring, alarm clock music this morning, which is what I did yesterday morning (plus another hour and a half) and consequently missed a day trip with a few friends to Bow Valley Provincial Park. The University of Calgary held their Open House at their Field Station in Kananaskis today - near Barrier Lake. Four of us went to the mountains for this and enjoyed going on a botanizing walk first on our own. Then two of us went on a Butterfly walk with a young, very knowledgeable guy named Steve, who is at the Station for part of the year. We saw several different butterflies and two or three other insects - and we made it rain, LOL! The wildflowers are just so spectacular at the moment - a joy to see so many bright orange Western Wood Lilies, for a start. Absolute food for the soul! Barb, if you happen to read this - thanks SO much for the drive today and for changing your plans and going out of your way for me. Appreciated SO much!!! This is all interfering with being on Flickr - sorry, everyone! Fall and winter are getting closer and closer and our very short growing season will be over and I won't be out for as many full-day botanizing outings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennaria_rosea