Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#214

There was just something I liked about seeing this row of five small granaries/sheds. Though not as photogenic as the red "Famous Five" granaries SW of Calgary, I ended up taking several shots of these rather plain ones. After just regular editing, I thought I'd try adding an editing filter and see what happened. This added so much more detail and character, so I decided I would post it. Looking at the sky, you can tell what kind of weather it was that morning - not what we wanted at all, ha. Three days ago, on 29 September 2014, I finally drove out across the prairies to an area that lies NE of Calgary, that I had longed to go to for so many years. It must have been 30+ years ago that I first saw one particular area of the Badlands of Alberta. A few times, I had been fairly close when I went on several botany trips out that way, but when you are carpooling, you can't just go wherever you want. So, my youngest daughter and I decided that we both wanted to make this trip, All summer, we have been waiting for a day on which she didn't have to work and where the weather forecast was for no rain on the day or there had been no rain the previous day. The Bentonite Clay in the area becomes treacherously slippery when wet. The forecast for yesterday was for a mainly sunny day - at last, we were going! I think this was the longest day of driving I had ever done, especially to, and in, an area that I'd never driven to before. For anyone who doesn't know me, I have battled a driving phobia for decades, plus I have no sense of direction, lol! Thankfully, my daughter has an amazing sense of direction, so I knew we wouldn't be stuck out on the prairies in the middle of nowhere. A typical question at too many intersections went as follows: me - "Do we go left?"; my daughter - "No, we go right", lol! I met my daughter at 8:00 am. and I got home shortly before 9:00 pm. Much of that time was spent driving; the rest was spent wandering round three main areas - The Hoodoo Trail, Dorothy and Rowley, in different directions from the town of Drumheller (known for its remarkable dinosaur findings). The forecast was far from accurate on our drive out to the Badlands and I began to wonder if we'd made a mistake going on this trip on that particular day. However, knowing that snow would be returning very soon ("returning" because we had two snowstorms on 9 and 10 September!), I was beginning to feel rather desperate and really didn't want to risk not getting out there this year. The afternoon was less cloudy and we did have some sun. Our main destinations were the Hoodoo Trail, the almost-ghost-town of Dorothy (calling in at Wayne as well), and the historic hamlet of Rowley that lies north of Drumheller. I had longed, for a long time, to see the two small, old churches that are to be found in Dorothy, as well as the old grain elevator. Both churches have been restored, which is good in some ways but they have lost some of their weathered character. From Dorothy, we drove over 11 bridges to call in at Wayne, and then we then drove to Rowley to see the old grain elevators and to wander round this very small, historical place. There are actually three elevators there. Dorothy felt and looked almost deserted, whereas Rowley was beautifully kept. From Rowley, we made our way back across the prairies to Calgary. I had planned on getting back before it got dark as I no longer like night driving and very rarely do it, but we didn't quite make it. On the return drive, the last sighting was a Great Horned Owl that was perched part way up a power pole. Well done, Rachel, spotting this welcome bird! Not easy to see in the dark. By the time I got home, I was so tired and my arms were so painful from driving, but, what a great day we had!!

Skiff is a hamlet in southern Alberta. Before friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, set out on a three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park (26, 27 and 28 August 2014), I had discovered that we would be quite near to Skiff and its old grain elevator. I had mentioned this to my friends, asking if a quick stop to get a couple of shots might be possible if we had time. However, little did we know that we would end up having to stop in Skiff anyway, as Skiff was the closest place for us to get to after we got caught in a severe storm. We stopped at some kind of machinery warehouse to ask something and one of the workers said that he had never seen a storm like this one! A couple of minutes away, we found the beautiful, old elevator. You could still feel the tail end of the storm, with very strong winds blowing, barely letting me open my car door and walk with great difficulty to get my photos. I was surprised that my photos came out at all, I was being blown so much off balance. The weather forecast that I saw before we left Calgary said that we were in for three beautiful days of sunshine. So, luck was on our side, giving us warm, sunny days - until the BIG STORM hit! We had driven eastwards from Waterton, hoping to see Yellow-bellied Marmots and, if we were really lucky, a Burrowing Owl. The storm was approaching very fast, around 5:00 p.m. just before we started our return trip to Calgary. It was like nothing I had ever seen before - a menacing cloud that was travelling fast and furious. I have recently posted a couple of photos of the storm. Despite trying our best to get away from it, it eventually engulfed our car, surrounding us with more or less zero visibility, pounding hail, thunder and lightning, and tremendously strong winds. There was nothing to do but sit tight in the car, hoping that the hail would not break the car windows and that this severe thunderstorm would not develop into a tornado! This storm was very scary, but at the same time, "exciting" (only because all turned out OK in the end!). Fortunately, we weren't caught in the very centre of it. Our road trip sure went out with a bang! Later, I contacted the Alberta Tornado Watch and posted a photo for them to see. They said the storm that happened that day was a mesocyclone. This elevator is the sole remaining elevator in Skiff and, though now wearing Parrish & Heimbecker colours, may well have been an Alberta Wheat Pool elevator originally. If so, it was built in 1929 with a 40,000 bushel capacity. The annexes were added in 1948 (East) and in 1952 (West). The larger one is on the east side. The elevator appears to still be in use. There is very little information online about it, unfortunately. www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKTFF_Alberta_Wheat_Pool_1_S...

"The Hypsizygus tessellatus or shimeji is an edible mushroom native to East Asia. Buna shimeji is cultivated locally in Europe, North America and Australia and sold fresh in markets." Taken from Wikipedia. I think I'm right in saying that these are Bunapi shimeji. At least two years ago, I noticed a small container of these at Safeway grocery store, but felt they were too expensive to buy, just to photograph. Then, very recently, I noticed that Safeway had finally got another package of them lying on the shelf amongst all the more usual mushrooms. Not expensive at all, so here they are, lol! Needless to say, this is a macro photo. And, no, I didn't eat them : ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypsizygus_tessellatus en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimeji

We came across this young, male Wandering Garter Snake yesterday afternoon, when several of us went to 12 Mile Coulee. It's quite a tough walk, being steeply uphill and downhill for the most part. The weather was cold and overcast, apart from a short bit of sun, and it started snowing part way throughour walk. This snake was tightly coiled to keep warm and was tucked under a small bush. I had NO intention of getting any closer, to remove the slightly annoying dry blades of grass! I saw the tail end of a second snake slithering through the grass right next to this snake.