Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014April23

On 14 April 2014, my youngest daughter and I spent the day driving some of the backroads SE of Calgary. Some of the roads were familiar to me, and others were new territory. This photo was zoomed in, which meant that the Rocky Mountains in the background look closer than they really are. "Heat wave" distortion and haze make the old barn and beyond look blurry (certainly on a 24" monitor), but I thought it was still a nice rural scene. It's 9C this morning, 23 April 2014, getting up to 12C this afternoon. It actually rained yesterday evening, which felt a little strange after getting all our precipitation in the form of snow the last seven months. More rain in the forecast for this afternoon, then a sunny day tomorrow, followed by two days of mixed precipitation or snow. In other words, a typical April here, where we keep thinking that spring may have finally arrived, only to have it snow again. This happens over and over in this month.

These beautiful seedpods of the Sacred Lotus are one of my favourite things to photograph at the Calgary Zoo. The tropical flowering shrub in the background created a bit of bokeh to add colour to the image. Macro photo taken in the ENMAX Conservatory on 9 August 2012. "The pods/seed heads contain the Lotus seeds within little circular chambers on the flat surface of the top of the pod. These circles appeared to cradle the seeds, which are round, within the pod until fully ripe. Both the chamber of each seed and the seed itself got larger and larger until the pod bent over to finally release the seeds into the water." www.flowersociety.org/lotus-plant-study.htm