Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: beauty in winter

Happy Christmas, everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful day today (Christmas Eve) and tomorrow (Christmas Day). Here in Calgary, it's 11:00 am as I type. The temperature is -12C (windchill -17C), and there is a Snowfall Warning in effect. Yesterday and today, I think we've had more snow than we've had all 'winter', and it's still snowing. A quick look through my window and I think I've decided that I can survive my Christmas dinner without roast parsnips - in all these years, I have never forgotten to buy them before! Blame it on the dizziness that I've had for at least 10 days now, lol, though it's not as bad as it was before. For many people, Christmas is a very difficult time, for various reasons. My thoughts are with them and, as always, with those who for one reason or another will spend Christmas alone. To those of you who don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a happy weekend, anyway. Wishing you all a HAPPY CHRISTMAS and all the very best in the New Year! If you will be on the road, please don't drink and drive! Two days ago, on 22 December 2016, my daughter and I had our Christmas together, as she has to work on Christmas Day. We went to the Saskatoon Farm and had a delicious breakfast. She is in so much pain that we can't go for a drive to look for Snowy Owls or old barns. She has an appointment next month and is more than ready to take the absolute earliest date for her major surgery. The Saskatoon Farm is an interesting place that is maybe a 25-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside greenhouses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They have a restaurant that offers great food. They had so many Sunflowers growing there this fall, both large and small like this one, though they are all dead now, of course. Love to see them in all their stages. www.saskatoonfarm.com/ On the way to drop my daughter off at home, we called in at the Glamorgan Bakery - a well-known bakery that we have used for the last few decades. It always feels good to see their traditional cookies, Cheese Buns, cakes and pies. Thanks, Rachel, for a lovely few hours spent together - the best Christmas gift possible.

Just a reminder that some things about winter really are beautiful. I doubt that anyone wants to hear those words, though, after seven months of endless cold, snow and ice, lol! It's 3°C this morning and we should be getting rain later with mixed precipitation overnight and light snow tomorrow morning. These ice crystal-covered blades of grass were seen on 7 January 2013 at Hull's Wood in Fish Creek Park.

On 1 April 2014, I arrived home from an appointment and running a few errands, and this is what I saw when I looked up at my bedroom window. These delicate icicles made a fringe all around my roof, and they looked so pretty. Just had to get my camera : ) For a day or two, something similar was happening along the bottom edge of my car, too, lol! Yesterday and today have been more like spring - sunshine, blue sky and a few degrees warmer. The snow has been melting quite nicely, which feels so good, after six months of snow and ice on the ground. Maybe spring is here to stay?? This morning, the temperature is -2C (windchill -6C), but it's supposed to get up to 10C this afternoon. Monday and Tuesday are forecast to get up to 14C, followed by slightly cooler days.

I arrived home yesterday (1 April 2014) from an appointment and running a few errands, and this is what I saw when I looked up at my bedroom window. These delicate icicles made a fringe all around my roof, and they looked so pretty. Just had to get my camera - not sure which setting I had it on, but it's not just a regular image. The last few days, something similar was happening along the bottom edge of my car, too, lol! Temperature this morning is -3C (windchill is also -3C). A few flurries are in the forecast for this afternoon and evening, but at least we should be getting sun for the next few days, which will feel so good! Is it just me, or maybe a temporary glitch, but the Sets that a photo is in on Flickr seem to now be above the Groups that it's in? If this is a "permanent" (ha, ha) change, that's great!

I love coming across patches of delicate ice formations and this area was along the edge of a very tiny creek in Griffith Woods three days ago, on 10 February 2014. It always seems so wrong if one has to walk over an area like this, destroying all those amazingly formed crystals. Yesterday, after my volunteer shift, I called in at a shopping centre to see if a small computer store was still in existence. A number of years ago, they did such a good job of transferring all the data from one computer to a new one for me. The time to go through all this has again rolled around and I was hoping so much that the same store would be there. I was so relieved to find it and now have to face the nerve-wracking time of getting used to a new machine (with Windows 7, not 8!). My new computer is still in its box (since late December), waiting for the day when I finally get myself sufficiently organized to bring it out, and that day is almost here. Really, really hoping it won't be too difficult to set up and then work out how to use it. Guessing it will be maybe three days or so that I will be without a computer, so when I suddenly "disappear" next week, you will know the reason : ) Today, a plumber is coming to install a new kitchen tap and replace a bathroom sink and tap. I had no idea that my bathroom sink was metal and apparently the pipe beneath has completely rusted and is slowly leaking. And to think I thought that all I would need would be three new washers, lol! Shopping for new taps and clearing out the cupboards under both sinks has left me with less time recently, but this will be a good thing done. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/12501609915

This photo looks so much better on a black background! Yesterday was a day of huge responsibility! My youngest daughter wanted (i.e. desperately wanted!) to see her very first Snowy Owl. So, off we went, SE of the city. I took her to various areas where Snowy Owls had been seen on 25 January, when I went there with friends and we saw 8 Snowy Owls and 8 Great Horned Owls. Nothing, absolutely nothing! All we managed to find was a flock of Horned Larks and a handful of Ravens. If nothing else, my daughter has now seen just how difficult it usually is to find a Snowy : ) Of course, we were happy to stop and photograph a number of old barns and homesteads during the day, and the distant, magnificent Rocky Mountains were almost always in view over the golden stubble fields. We also stopped to look at two old, very similar grain elevators - Herronton and Brant. Recently, I did post a photo of the one at Herronton. Four or five hours later, we called in at the Saskatoon Farm on the way home and drowned our disappointment in a delicious meal. Their food is so good! Passed a few of these Sunflowers there and, of course, couldn't resist taking a few photos. A most enjoyable day, even if we didn't see a Snowy. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/12366854403

We saw this lone Richardson's Ground Squirrel at Sikome, Fish Creek Park, yesterday, looking very out of place in the deep snow : ) Poor thing, I hope he managed to find his burrow again and will stay there till spring has really arrived. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson's_ground_squirrel