Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: last day of summer

Back into the archives for two of the three photos posted this morning. There are so many places I am longing to get back to, but just too busy still. Eventually, this should ease - at least I hope so. With all the camera problems I am/have been having, I now discovered that my phone has stopped working. Yesterday morning, I tried and tried to get through to someone and then when I tried to phone my daughter in the afternoon, the same thing happened. Guess I will have to do a bit of Googling to see which one to buy, and then out to a store. By the way, two updates on my cameras: the Panasonic FZ1000 that has had Playback issues from the very start and has been in "repair" twice, is now being replaced. I had been told that the spare part needed would not be back till too late, so I said to send the camera back to me "unrepaired", as I needed it. However, they kept it because they said the part was going to arrive soonerI Now, the part won't be arriving till May and I am without the camera. Result - a new camera, which I sure hope works OK. I sent a very detailed description of my Nikon B700 problem about image shifting to Nikon Support. Reply said that "the jumping in the viewfinder would be the result of the prism in the viewfinder out of place." The replacement camera does it to a much lesser extent if I use the zoom lever on the side of the camera instead of the one on top. The flower in this photo is, I believe (but am not 100% sure), a Milk Thistle. On 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

On 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. I can always find things to photograph there, including this sweet-faced angel. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

On 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

The sun is shining this morning, 11 October 2016, after three grey, gloomy days of snow and a bit of fog. Unfortunately, this was the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, too. Feels so good to see some blue sky today. The temperature is -1C (windchill -6C). On 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/ I'm always happy to see Sunflowers, at any stage of their life, and on this visit, I saw lots of them. Mainly yellow ones, but with a few orange ones mixed in with them. Beautiful to see, on the very last day of summer.

Another day of snow today, 10 October 2016. Needed something bright and cheery to post and thought I'd add this pumpkin that I photographed a few weeks ago. Our temperature is -2C (windchill -6C) and tomorrow morning, it's forecast to be -7C (windchill -11C). Looks like we should be having sunshine the next few days, though, which makes all the difference. On 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

Another day of snow today, 10 October 2016. Needed something colourful to post and thought I'd add this Wild Turkey that I photographed a few weeks ago, at the Saskatoon Farm. Our temperature this morning is -2C (windchill -6C) and tomorrow morning, it's forecast to be -7C (windchill -11C). Looks like we should be having sunshine for a few days, though, which makes all the difference. Here in Canada, it is our Thanksgiving long weekend, with today, Monday 10 October 2015, being the official Thanksgiving Day. Some people choose to celebrate on the Sunday (yesterday) and others on the Monday (today). Have a happy and safe time, whether you are fortunate enough to get together with family or friends, or spend the time quietly by yourself. On 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

Three days ago, on 21 September 2016, I left home in sunshine, but by the time I reached my destination south of the city, at the Saskatoon Farm, it was overcast and dreary. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/ I'm always happy to see Sunflowers, at any stage of their life, and on this visit, I saw lots of them. Mainly yellow ones, but with a few orange ones mixed in with them. Beautiful to see, on the very last day of summer. Could this Sunflower be Velvet Queen Sunflower or Crimson Queen Sunflower? Thanks, Art (Leapfrog)!

Interesting ... I never used to click on the word Flickr (right before the words You, Explore and Create. For maybe a week, I have been clicking on it and this evening I left a thank you comment under today's main image and noticed that this main photo is nowhere to be seen on the Flickr page - vanished. My second and third photos are there and all three of yesterday's images and all sorts of old photos from deeper in my photostream. I wonder if this has been happening on other days. If so, then this would be something that affects views and comments on a particular photo. I never leave comments on other people's photos by scrolling down the Flickr page - I always go to My Contacts page and usually open their photostream and have a browse while I'm there. Hmm .... interesting. HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL, everyone! This morning, the sky is somewhat overcast , and the temperature is 6°C (43°F), supposed to rise to 10°C (50°F) this afternoon. Rain is in the forecast. I love this idea for an outside wall, seen at the Saskatoon Farm yesterday, 21 September 2016. 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 - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. www.saskatoonfarm.com/

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF FALL, everyone! This morning, the sky is somewhat overcast , and the temperature is 6°C (43°F), supposed to rise to 10°C (50°F) this afternoon. Rain is in the forecast. This beautiful Helmeted Guineafowl, along with several others, two or three Turkeys and different kinds of chickens, lives at the Saskatoon Farm. This interesting place is maybe a 20-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary, and I decided to make a quick visit there yesterday, 21 September 2016. 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. These resident birds are also fun to see. The Farm also has a restaurant that offers great food - I had a delicious meal of quiche and sweet potato fries. Quite a few people hold their weddings here. www.saskatoonfarm.com/ "The Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) is the best known of the guineafowl bird family, Numididae, and the only member of the genus Numida. It breeds in Africa, mainly south of the Sahara, and has been widely introduced into the West Indies and southern France.... While guineafowl are native to Africa, the Helmeted Guineafowl has been domesticated and both feral and wild-type birds have been introduced elsewhere." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helmeted_guineafowl “Frequently domesticated and included in exotic bird collections, the helmeted guineafowl is an easily recognizable bird and the most widespread game bird in Africa. In other parts of the world, feral and farm populations of these birds can be frequently seen and escapees are regular.” birding.about.com/od/Grouse-Quail-And-Pheasants/p/Helmete...

The seedpods of Black Henbane are some of my favourite seedpods. I noticed these growing near the edge of the Bow River on the east side at Mallard Point, Fish Creek Park, on 22 September 2015. The water gave me a nice, clear background. "An annual or biennial (forming a rosette the first year) plant that reproduces by seed only. Black Henbane was introduced from the Mediterranean and has been used as a medicinal plant since the Middle Ages, and was also used in ancient religious rites because of its hallucinogenic properties. It was even used as a flavoring in beer until the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. All parts of the plant are poisonous to humans and animals when ingested – tissues contain several toxic alkaloids. Symptoms of poisoning include impaired vision, convulsions, coma, and death from heart or respiratory failure. It is a member of the nightshade family and also called ‘stinking nightshade’. A single plant can produce as much as half a million seeds in one season, which are viable for about 4 years." www.invasiveplants.ab.ca/Downloads/FS-BlackHenbane.pdf - On that morning, I was out with friends on a three hour birding walk. A beautiful sunny day, with the temperature between 8C and 13C, and 44 bird species were seen (not all by me, as usual). The American White Pelicans and the Cormorants are always favourites of mine. After the walk, friend Sandy asked if I wanted to go back to the place SW of the city and SW of Millarville, where I had managed to spot (on 17 September) a group of three mature Amanita muscaria (Fly Agaric) mushrooms. We don't get the bright red ones with white dots here (the kind that you see in children's fairytale books), but we very occasionally come across a yellow or orange one if we are very lucky. I think I have only ever seen these three times - at West Bragg Creek, Rod Handfield's land at this very location, and I think Marsden Creek in Kananaskis. I was so longing to see one again and thought it was worth the drive just to check. Well, I found the field easily on 17 September, but had forgotten about the sign there that said No Trespassing, No shooting, Patrol Area. I wasn't sure what Patrol Area meant, but I could almost imagine several Dobermans being released to attack me! I never go anywhere that has a No Trespassing sign, anyway. So, I walked through the trees along the edge of the field and tried to peer into the field, being careful not to catch the barbed-wire fence. I caught sight of a cluster of three fungi that looked like they were Amanitas, though they were fully "opened" and I couldn't see any spots. Only managed to get one really poor photo. Since then, I learned that this location is actually part of Rod Handfield's land - I thought it belonged to someone else. Rod had always told our botany group that we were welcome to explore his land at any time. When Sandy and I called in on 22 September, we were able to check for any Fly Agarics - not a single one to be found this time, not even the three I had found a few days earlier. Several years ago, there was quite a large patch of them right there. It's a bit late in the fungi season, unfortunately. We wandered through the forest just a little way - such a beautiful, rich forest floor. We have all reckoned that this forest is one of our favourites, with so many things to be found. However, for some reason, we haven't had any trips out there the last three or so years. Many thanks for driving out there yesterday, Sandy - much appreciated!

Took this photo at Mallard Point, Fish Creek Park, on 22 September 2015, during a three hour birding walk. When we reached the bridge over the river, we saw this group of American White Pelicans feeding. I had never seen them feeding in this way, but apparently they perform a synchronized effort to find fish. In this photo, tails and wings are all up and the heads are in the water. A few seconds later, every bird was upright and mostly turned in the same direction. Fascinating to watch. Unfortunately, they were very distant, so this is a fully zoomed and cropped image.