Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: cuteness

September 11th, a day never to be forgotten. My thoughts are with the thousands of people who died that day and others who suffered terrible injuries, their families and friends, and all the emergency responders (Firefighters, EMS, Police, and others) who worked tirelessly. A day that can never be erased from our memory. Hard to believe that 15 years have already passed! All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 10 September 2016. This was the second day in a row that I did a long drive that I had never done myself, and had longed for years to be brave enough to do. The day before yesterday, I drove way down south as far as the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre (drove 496 km that day). Then, yesterday, my daughter came with me to Kananaskis and I drove the HIghway 40 loop, going south via Turner Valley and then coming home via 1X and Highway 1A. I had been to Coaldale maybe five times before with various friends, and I had been to Kananaskis quite a few times over the years with various friends. What a way to introduce a new car to life with Anne Elliott, lol! By the end of yesterday, it was so dirty from all the dust gathered, especially along the rough, gravel Spray Lakes/Smith-Dorrien trail (only drove part way along this mountainous road).. Also covered in splattered insects which were unlucky enough to fly into my car. This morning, it has been raining, thank goodness, so hopefully my vehicle will look a bit cleaner. If I had been able to do these drives a little earlier in the summer, I would have done so and not on consecutive days. However, I would never have taken my 17-year-old car, for a start. Then, when I checked the Bird of Prey Centre's website the other day, I discovered that yesterday was the last day it would be open before closing till next May. As far as the Kananaskis trip was concerned, there has already been snow in some areas of the mountains, and I definitely did not want to risk doing my very first drive there in snow. So, two wonderful days, for which I am truly thankful! About three weeks ago, I had been with friend, Pam, for a long day out in Kananaskis (the mountain area of the Rocky Mountains that is closest to Calgary). What a great day we had, seeing so many different things in such beautiful scenery. Yesterday's trip with my daughter followed a good part of the trip I was on with Pam, which was great. Our first stop yesterday was at Highwood House, a very convenient place to stop for things like coffee, washrooms, gas station. All the Hummingbird feeders have been taken down now that the Hummingbirds have left. From here, we drove north to Rock Glacier to see the little Pikas (also called Rock Rabbits). I'm pretty sure we saw just two individuals and managed to get some rather distant shots. As usual, they were darting all over the massive scree (talus?) slope, busily collecting plants to store and dry in their "caves", ready for the winter months. There was very light rain while we were there, but that cleared up for the rest of our journey. A couple of short YouTube videos in case anyone wants to hear and see these absolutely cute creatures: youtu.be/US_Hy_eGPtg youtu.be/OQ2IgcjVIfc Further along, we called in at Boulton Bridge, as I wanted to do a quick check to see if there were many mushrooms around. Recently, I had been there with friends, Dorothy and Stephen, and we found lots of interesting mushrooms to photograph. Yesterday was very different and it was obvious that the peak of the season is already over. Trying to find Buller Pond, where I had stopped with Pam the other week, we ended up at an area called Peninsular, part of Lower Kananaskis Lake. I love the mountain folds seen across the lake. A short drive along the Spray Lakes/Smith-Dorrien trail, followed by continuing along Highway 40 past Barrier Lake, brought us to Highway 1. We crossed over and found 1X, which then took us to Highway 1A leading to Cochrane. From there on, I was on very familiar driving ground. Many thanks, Rachel, for coming out with me yesterday. We had a great day in such magnificent scenery with enough wildlife to keep us happy (Pikas, Bighorn Sheep and a tiny Chipmunk who was munching on a bright red berry.

I finally made it to the Calgary Zoo yesterday afternoon - I desperately needed endless colourful and beautiful things to photograph, lol. Luckily, when I passed the endangered Amur Tiger area, the three baby Tigers came outside for a short while. This one was just emerging from the covered, closed area, where you can just make out the mother lying down inside. There were so many people standing there and there always seemed to be tall people wearing light-coloured clothing that created really bad reflections in the glass. I managed to touch up this photo sufficiently to post : ) Don't you just love those huge paws and that tongue sticking out? Kind of reminds me of my baby pictures - I had my tongue sticking out in so many of them, ha! Three new animals make such a wonderful addition to the endangered Amur Tiger population. By the way, the Tigers have a huge area of trees, grass, fallen logs and a small creek running through the area - not like being in the wild, of course, but so much better than a small cage. They also have just a very small separated area (seen in my image above), with a hammock, where certain animals can be separated when necessary, for various reasons. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siberian_tiger Later note added on 14 June 2012: Tigers that used to be known as Siberian Tigers are now known as Amur Tigers. The name change is because their range now only includes the Amur Valley in Eastern Siberia. The link below is from YouTube, showing the three Amur Tiger cubs at the Calgary Zoo. This video from the den box camera was taken on Friday, April 20. youtu.be/XFyAFe0nCeY