Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: 6 April 2016

Yesterday's (15 February 2017) high of 16.4 C in Calgary broke a century-old record, beating the previous mark of 15.6 C set in 1916. Our crazy weather! Just the other week, we had windchills as cold as -34C. The last few days have been so mild and wonderful, and the snow is rapidly melting. Makes a wet mess on the roads and you can only drive for a few seconds before the car windows are filthy again. Now if only all the snow and ice could disappear before our next snowfall, it would be worthwhile washing the car. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-weather-record-hig... It's 11:30 am and there are only six new photos showing from my Contacts! Are there really so few people posting on Flickr today (and recently), or is it yet another Flickr glitch? This is a photo from my archives, taken on 6 April 2016 at the Reader Rock Garden. It is always such a delight to see these early spring flowers blooming after seven long winter months of snow and ice on the ground. Each year I go the Garden, I only find one plant of these dainty flowers and it is difficult to get a photo of just one single flower. This time, I managed to get the beautiful green heart shape. On this day, I wanted to see what flowers had started to grow already, as plants in general were blooming early last year, thanks to the mild weather. The main flowers were all the Hepatica, varying slightly in colour with some paler and others darker. There were also scattered tiny Squill flowers and this single Snowdrop plant growing in its usual spot. Funny how this plant hasn't spread anywhere else, at least not that I could find. I haven't been to the Garden since around May 2016 and this winter has been brutal compared to last winter. I must try and get over there this spring.

I added the following to my photos yesterday but had an email from a Flickr member today, letting me know that my (everyone's?) photos are back again on a website that allows photos to be downloaded at all sizes for FREE, after briefly showing as blank, white pages. "Wow, I have to just add the following late this afternoon, as I am so impressed. Just a few hours ago, I posted a new thread in the Help Forum. I really prefer not to post there, but just had to after I happened to come across a website today that was displaying a lot of my photos for FREE downloading and in all sizes. My images are ALL copyright protected. Apparently, they were ALSO displaying download links for all available display sizes for people's photos that on Flickr are NOT set to be downloadable by visitors. Later today, Flickr staff member bhautik joshi PRO answered, saying: "What they are doing is not even remotely OK. We're looking into it." Almost immediately, all we could see on their website were blank, white pages. Amazingly fast action by a staff member, which is hugely appreciated!" www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157668259472146/ flip.life/search/annkelliott/?p=6 flip.life/photo/15482189596/united-church-dorothy-alberta itunes.apple.com/cn/app/fliplife/id1112300459?mt=8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's always such a delight to see these early spring flowers blooming after seven long winter months of snow and ice on the ground. This winter (2015/2016), though, has been so wonderfully mild, with little snow, but it was still great to see the clusters of these Hepatica flowers growing at the Reader Rock garden on 6 April 2016, when I called in after a volunteer shift. I wanted to see what flowers had started to grow already, as plants in general are blooming early this year, thanks to the mild weather. The main flowers were all the Hepatica, varying slightly in colour with some paler, as in this photo. There were also scattered tiny Squill flowers and a single Snowdrop plant growing in its usual spot. Funny how this plant hasn't spread anywhere else. "Hepatica is named from its leaves, which, like the human liver (Greek hepar), have three lobes. It was once used as a medicinal herb. Owing to the doctrine of signatures, the plant was once thought to be an effective treatment for liver disorders. Although poisonous in large doses, the leaves and flowers may be used as an astringent, as a demulcent for slow-healing injuries, and as a diuretic" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatica

It's always such a delight to see these early spring flowers blooming after seven long winter months of snow and ice on the ground. This past winter, though, has been so wonderfully mild, with little snow, but it was still great to see the clusters of these little Siberian Squill flowers (macro shot), growing at the Reader Rock garden on 6 April 2016, when I called in after a volunteer shift. I wanted to see what flowers had started to grow already, as plants in general are blooming early this year, thanks to the mild weather. The main flowers were all the Hepatica, varying slightly in colour with some paler and some darker. There was also a single Snowdrop plant, growing in its usual spot. Funny how this plant hasn't spread anywhere else in the garden. "Scilla (/ˈsɪlə/; Squill)[2] is a genus of about 50 to 80 bulb-forming perennial herbs in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae, native to woodlands, subalpine meadows, and seashores throughout Europe, Africa and the Middle-East. A few species are also naturalized in Australia, New Zealand and North America. Their flowers are usually blue, but white, pink, and purple types are known; most flower in early spring, but a few are autumn-flowering. Scilla has most recently been classified as belonging to the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Scilloideae; the subfamily was formerly treated as a separate family, Hyacinthaceae. Prior to that, it was placed in the Hyacintheae tribe of the Liliaceae family." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scilla

It's always such a delight to see these early spring flowers blooming after seven long winter months of snow and ice on the ground. This winter, though, has been so wonderfully mild, with little snow, but it was still great to see the clusters of these Hepatica flowers growing at the Reader Rock garden yesterday, 6 April 2016, when I called in after a volunteer shift. I wanted to see what flowers had started to grow already, as plants in general are blooming early this year, thanks to the mild weather. The main flowers were all the Hepatica, varying slightly in colour with some paler, as in this photo. There were also scattered tiny Squill flowers and a single Snowdrop plant growing in its usual spot. Funny how this plant hasn't spread anywhere else. "Hepatica is named from its leaves, which, like the human liver (Greek hepar), have three lobes. It was once used as a medicinal herb. Owing to the doctrine of signatures, the plant was once thought to be an effective treatment for liver disorders. Although poisonous in large doses, the leaves and flowers may be used as an astringent, as a demulcent for slow-healing injuries, and as a diuretic" en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatica