Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014August15

This handsome Elk bull was quite a distance away, but thanks to 48x zoom (focal Length (35mm format) - 1200 mm), it almost looks like we were standing next to each other : ) My friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, had left Calgary early morning on Wednesday (14 May 2014) and I think it was around 12:15 a.m. midnight (Thursday, 15 May 2014), that they dropped me off at home after two long, wonderful days in the Rocky Mountains, west of the city. Wednesday night was spent in a spotless motel, in a place that had so many Mountain Sheep roaming the streets, lol! Though we were hoping to see at least one Bear, I knew I would be happy as can be to see absolutely anything beautiful : ) At one point, we drove past a site that had quite a few wooden cabins. A large, Elk-shaped object caught my eye in the far distance, among the cabins. At first, I wondered if the owners of the site had added a sculpture for interest. However, when we went to check, this is what we found : ) This huge Elk bull was wandering in between the cabins, happily feeding. Unfortunate, really, when wildlife becomes this accustomed to humans, but it did give us a chance to see one of these impressive wild animals at closer quarters. The whole time we watched, I was very aware of the huge size of this wild animal and never forgot for a moment that wildlife can be unpredictable! The only thing that was not good on this trip was that I was in absolute agony - the rotator cuffs in both shoulders were inflamed and the excruciating pain spread down to my lower back, making it difficult to even walk. Three months later, my shoulders are not as bad as they were, but it's taking a long, long time. So many things require the use of ones shoulders, so it's impossible to rest them for a long period. It was certainly bad timing for this trip, ha! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk

Yesterday, 13 August 2014, I had a volunteer shift and afterwards, as I sometimes do, drove to the Reader Rock Garden. Thought I'd better see what flowers were in bloom, as summer is slipping away so fast and I haven't taken all that many colourful images of flowers, garden or wild. They come in so handy during the seven long months of winter that are not all that far away now, breaking the monotony of "white" photos. Some of the flowers were well past their prime, but still make an interesting shot. Love the colour of these beautiful Gladioli - the three stamens at the centre remind me of those little matchbooks, the ones that have a strip of matches all joined together and you tear one off as you need it. "The genus Gladiolus contains about 260 species, of which 250 are native to sub-Saharan Africa, mostly South Africa. About 10 species are native to Eurasia. There are 160 species of Gladiolus endemic in southern Africa and 76 in tropical Africa. The flowers of unmodified wild species vary from very small to perhaps 40 mm across, and inflorescences bearing anything from one to several flowers. The spectacular giant flower spikes in commerce are the products of centuries of hybridisation, selection, and perhaps more drastic manipulation." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladiolus Beautiful red Gladioli are seen in the painting, Vase with Red Gladioli (1886), by Vincent van Gogh.

Yesterday, 13 August 2014, I had a volunteer shift and afterwards, as I sometimes do, drove to the Reader Rock Garden. Thought I'd better see what flowers were in bloom, as summer is slipping away so fast and I haven't taken all that many colourful images of flowers, garden or wild. They come in so handy during the seven long months of winter that are not all that far away now, breaking the monotony of "white" photos. Some of the flowers were well past their prime, but still make an interesting shot. I was happy to find several of these mushrooms, especially as I, and others, have had practically no luck in seeing any fungi (yet). Some years are good fungi years and others are not. With a late spring and late summer, maybe it's still too early, though August is apparently the peak of the mushroom season here.