Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: 17 million Thank You's!

In Canada, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May. This happened to be five days ago, on 10 May 2015, and my daughter had asked if I wanted to spend the day out with our cameras, looking for birds and old barns and anything else that was interesting and/or beautiful. I couldn't imagine a nicer way to spend this special day : ) We started off locally, visiting a wetland in the SW of the city, where we had good or reasonable views of several different bird species, including Lesser Scaup, Redheads, a pair of Red-necked Grebe, a Killdeer, Savannah Sparrow, Wigeon, Common Grackle (which I love to see) and, of course, a few Mallards including this female. From that location, we drove some of my familiar backroads SW of the city, where we saw a Snipe walking across a gravel road (it had such a cute way of walking), another pair of Red-necked Grebe, a quick glimpse of a Mountain Bluebird, and a pair of juvenile Swans (very distant, but I think they were Trumpeters). Our drive then took us further south than I had ever driven before. We knew we wanted to see an old grain elevator at Azure (near Cayley) and we were able to find it. Drove a few of the country backroads in that whole area, eventually ending up at Silver Lake, where we watched some American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts. I'd never even heard of this lake before. From there, we drove the backroads east of Highway 2, all the way north to Frank Lake, where we saw Eared Grebes, a Western Meadowlark, Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds, Coots, Canada Geese (of course!), and RAIN! A lot of the day, apart from when we first started the drive, was overcast and we did have a bit of rain on and off. There were some rather black clouds seen from Frank Lake. Managed to get a few photos of a couple of different Swainson's Hawks during the day. Twice, when we had a great opportunity to get photos, they were disturbed by a vehicle driving by. The driver of one car thought it would be fun to drive past as noisily as he could, of course making the hawks fly. We called in at the Saskatoon Farm on the way home, hoping to have a delicious meal there, or at least we drove as far as the entrance. The parking lots were full and overflowing and there was a constant stream of new arrivals. No idea if it was because it was because it was Mother's Day, or perhaps there was a wedding being held there. Whatever the reason, we knew that there was no chance of ever getting a table in the restaurant. Thanks for the treat at Tim Horton's, Rachel : ) And thank you for spending the whole day with me - it made a lovely Mother's Day!

This photo was taken at the Reader Rock Garden a couple of days ago, on 13 May 2015, when I called in after a volunteer shift. Though the flowers look like Forget-me-nots, I knew it was not the usual plant. Thanks to Google and the Reader Rock Garden website, I found out that it is Siberian Bugloss. Also called Great forget-me-not, and Heartleaf. I was happy (also a little sad) just to see so many tiny blue flowers, as Forget-me-nots were my oldest daughter's favourite flowers (she died on 3 January 2015). "Brunnera, or Siberian Bugloss, are from western Siberia. These plants are perennial forget-me-nots, named in honor of Swiss botanist Samuel Brunner. Some catalogs still call this species Anchusa myosotidiflora, its previous name. Showy blue flowers about 1/4-inch across bloom in clusters during spring. The leaves are large and heart-shaped on slightly hairy stems. Plants can reach 2 feet in height but usually grow about 18 inches tall. Where summers are cool, leaves grow larger." From Howstuffworks. home.howstuffworks.com/define-brunnera-siberian-bugloss.htm

On 21 January 2015, just 18 days after my oldest daughter died, my youngest daughter and I spent the day together, out in nature. I knew I needed to get out myself and the fact that my daughter asked if we could do that, told me that she, too, desperately needed to get a break from all the sadness and reminders of her big sister for a few hours. Friends had been telling me how important it was to be outdoors with my camera, especially at a time like this, and I knew they were right. Much as it would have been great to have gone looking for Snowy Owls, I just didn't feel up to that long of a drive. Instead, I drove to a much more familiar, closer area, SE of the city. The day was a mix of sun and cloudiness, and though the sun was in the wrong position for some of our shots, we did OK. As for birds, we saw a couple of Great Horned Owls, a very distant Snowy Owl, a raptor of some kind (either a Prairie Falcon or a Gyrfalcon), several Gray Partridge and what I think must have been Horned Larks. The rest of the day, my daughter and I drove mostly roads that we had driven before, except for one short stretch where we found two old, red barns. This day was as much a barn day as a bird day. The large barn in this photo is one that I had been looking forward to finding and seeing for the first time. I would love to have been able to get photos from both sides of it, but it was in a farmer's field that was, of course, private property. There is an old, round, wooden grain bin and a smaller barn just to the right of this photo. A second old barn that I have already posted photos of, was on someone else's property, just up the road and round the corner from this larger barn. I think being out with our cameras, driving the backroads, was therapeutic - certainly for me, as I could enjoy my daughter's company, and hopefully for her, too.