Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: colouful

Happy first day of WINTER, everyone! Yesterday, 21 December 2015, my daughter and I had our Christmas get-together. Like last year, she asked if I wanted to spend the day out of the city, looking for Snowy Owls (and other things). We were both so happy to at least see a (very distant) Snowy Owl, which she cleverly spotted, even though we had hoped to find a much closer one. Thank goodness, last year, my daughter and I did see and photograph beautiful Snowies that were nice and close. Finding one of these magnificent birds of prey was not the only purpose in our minds, though. It was our Christmas get-together, and we had a great day, in beautiful sunshine and in one of my favourite areas to explore. We had first planned to go NE of the city, but my daughter, waiting for her surgery on 11 January 2016, didn't feel up to travelling that far. Once she has recovered from her surgery, we can always go NE of the city and try for owls again. So, plans changed and instead, we went to the Saskatoon Farm for breakfast. That is where I photographed this amazing and unique wall of teapots. I was surprised to see that the trees and plants had been removed from in front of the wall and paving stones ahd been laid down, resulting in a clear view of the wall. This interesting place is maybe a 20-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside green houses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They also have a restaurant that offers great food. www.saskatoonfarm.com/ Afterwards, we then went a bit further, to drive some of the roads east of High River, hoping to possibly find a Snowy Owl. We went as far as Mossleigh, where we stopped to take a few quick photos of the three grain elevators and then found a group of several old barns that I don't remember seeing before. They were off the main road, but fortunately the narrow gravel road had enough snow packed on it that the short drive was very smooth. From there, we also stopped at the little wooden church at Dinton, seen in my next photo. Later in the afternoon, we couldn't resist the temptation to call in at Glamorgan Bakery on the way home and buy a few Christmas goodies, followed by a desperately needed food shopping trip. I just hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping and had run out of even basic things. This was a huge relief, especially as I have a very long day tomorrow, taking part in the Drumheller area Christmas Bird Count. Actually, last year, my small group saw several Snowy Owls on the long drive to and from the Badlands of Alberta, so maybe I'll be lucky tomorrow. Thanks so much for a great day out, Rachel. The best kind of day, as far as I am concerned : ) Many thanks, too, for the beautiful, very carefully chosen (as always!) Christmas gifts. Love the owl that looks rather like a furry, stuffed children's toy, that is in fact a wonderful heat pad (that you warm in the microwave), full of lavender. Haven't used it yet, but it will feel so good on my neck and shoulders that are painful from whiplash, thanks to the woman driver who suddenly came out of a parking lot exit and cut across my lane of moving traffic about three weeks ago! Nothing I could do, as I couldn't stop in time to avoid impact. So, I'm looking forward to having an owl on my shoulder : )

Three days ago, on 13 October 2014, I had spent a few hours east of the city, driving the backroads, looking for barns or anything else to photograph. Heading back to Calgary, I took a wrong turn just outside the city and ended up on Deerfoot Trail heading south. All I could do was keep driving on this major highway until I came to somewhere familiiar where I could turn around. This happened to be The Saskatoon Farm. I was just in time to have a meal in their restaurant before heading home. This interesting place is maybe a 20-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside green houses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They also have a restaurant that offers great food. There is quite a beautiful view over the river, too, especially in the fall, as seen in this photo. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

I love this idea for an outside wall, seen at The Saskatoon Farm yesterday, 13 October 2014. They also had other colours of teapots on different parts of the wall, including a lovely shade of bright blue, which I have posted before. I had spent a few hours east of the city, driving the backroads, looking for barns and anything else to photograph. Heading back to Calgary, I took a wrong turn just outside the city and ended up on Deerfoot Trail heading south. All I could do was keep driving on this major highway until I came to somewhere famiiiar where I could turn around. This happened to be The Saskatoon Farm. I was just in time to have a meal in their restaurant before heading home. This interesting place is maybe a 20-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside green houses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They also have a restaurant that offers great food. www.saskatoonfarm.com/