Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Clover

Yesterday was a fungi day (well, morning), but we came across a few wildflowers, too, including this Alsike Clover, which is a hybrid between Red Clover and White Clover. I always think that the result is an attractive, small flower. At least, I have always been told that it is a hybrid, but I have just this minute read the following on Wikipedia. "Despite its scientific name, alsike clover is not of hybrid origin. The plant gets its common name from the town of Alsike in Sweden from which Linnaeus first described it. He thought it was a cross between white clover (T. repens) and red clover (T. pratense), but in this he was mistaken and it is a separate species." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifolium_hybridum It was a late start to my day this morning. Yesterday, 6 August 2016, was a physically and mentally exhausting day, and I'm still feeling the effects. A great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as his forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful finds. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year has turned out to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we have been getting the last few weeks, apart from the scattering of sunny days. This year has so far had such weird weather - a very mild, dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and now a wet, thundery summer. We met a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there, maybe four years ago, we had seen a beautiful Amanita muscaria mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the walk. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this poisonous species. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us! Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I have had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. The muffler and a few other things died several days ago and instead of spending a fortune on repair, I decided I would rather put that money towards a new vehicle. I had been thinking about replacing it the last few years, but now, enough is enough! Just hoping that my car lasts long enough for the drive to the dealership. The noise it makes is just awful, from the faulty muffler and from a dreadful rattling noise, so it will be a most embarrassing ride, lol. I'm down to deciding between two models and will have to make up my mind today. All being well, within the coming week, I will once again have a set of wheels, which will feel wonderful. Thanks so much, Sandy, for making it possible for me to go on the great morning at Rod's place and then, for giving up your whole afternoon, helping me look at cars and for also test-driving both. Appreciated beyond words! You are making this whole ordeal of replacing my car so much less traumatizing than it would have otherwise been!!

Note: this is my main photo today, so hopefully Flickr or something else won't change the order seen by some people. Posting late, this morning. Today, 6 August 2015, the skies are heavily overcast with no sign of the sun. So far, it's not raining, which is good, seeing as we have had such crazy weather the last two days - Severe Thunderstorms which produced masses of accumulated hail and really bad flooding in parts of the city. My own area only had the lightning, very strong winds and torrential rain, but my daughter now has a "lake" outside her place and she said that the hail in some doorways was piled almost a foot deep! Last night, I saw someone's video taken when they were riding on a bus somewhere in the city - the water was so deep that it was swirling inside the bus, around their ankles! If ONLY all this rain could have fallen in California instead, to help them with their devastating forest fires! No tornado passing over the city this time, unlike recently. Temperature just after lunch is only 12C. This photo of a tiny Skipper butterfly on a Red Clover flower was taken on 23 July 2015, at Darryl Teskey's property. It could just as easily have been taken on 3 August at the Timber Ridge Conservation Site, where we saw lots of these Skippers. These unusual butterflies have such large eyes : ) On 23 July 2015, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I was invited to go - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, many places treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always on a bio-blitz, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. This summer, with quite a few botanizing outings like this, plus two 3-day trips to Waterton Lakes National Park, I am so far behind with the photos that I need to edit and e-mail!

Grabbed this one from my archives, from July 21st - I don't seem to be getting enough time to look through my photos at the moment, so I'm not necessarily too happy with some that I post. This one just felt summery, which is needed today. Photographed this Eastern Kingbird just south of Highway 22X, along 85th St. loop. It's -3C (windchill -9C) this morning. I thought I heard on my radio alarm that there was a 60% chance of snow today, but it doesn't mention it on the Weather Network. Hoping snow keeps away, as they are supposed to be coming to replace my front door this morning - they came a week ago to explain that there had been a mix-up and they couldn't do the door that day. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_kingbird/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Kingbird

This small, bright yellow mushroom was a little worse for wear, but I wanted it for a record of what was growing in the forest on Rod Handfield's property on August 13th. This pretty little Clover leaf was overlapping the edge.

Clover really is quite beautiful when the flower is seen up close. Red Clover is a plant introduced from Europe as a forage crop. Now it grows wild along roadsides, on waste areas and lawns, June-September. Photographed this particular flower two days ago at Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66).

I remember being surprised when I came across several stalks of Red Clover deep in the woods at Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66). The sun just happened to pierce the trees in this one spot : ). I guess I just didn't expect to see Red Clover growing there - don't ask me why! This member of the Pea family is an introduced plant from Europe.

This was a particularly nice clump of Red Clover - posted with longing for spring next year!

I'm never sure if I'm looking at White Clover or Alsike Clover. I know it's not Red Clover, because it does not have the three leaves immediately below the flower. An ordinary, everyday flower, but so pretty when seen close up.

It's worth taking a close look at any Clover flower to find the hidden beauty.

"Alsike Clover is a hybrid between red and white Clover, with pinkish white, stalked flower heads." From the book, "Wildflowers of Alberta" by Kathleen Wilkinson.