Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: gentle

On 14 July 2017, it was a hot day, but our bio-blitz of the Rusty Bucket Ranch, west of Calgary, started at 8:00 am, to catch the coolest part of the day. This was the first time we had been there and we had such a great morning. What a beautiful place and area! Thirteen of us gathered to explore part of the land belonging to Liz and Alan Breakey - 160 acres, mostly wooded, with many streams feeding into Bragg Creek. The gorgeous garden itself was full of bright, healthy plants. Once we were in the forest, we came across all sorts of wildflower species and even a few fungi and slime molds. We all met the challenges of small, hidden logs along the trails, lying in wait to trip anyone who was not paying careful attention. One of the last areas was a bog, where the small, partly hidden pools of water were difficult or impossible to avoid - I nearly lost a shoe in there, lol! On the final stretch back to the house, we caught sight of a distant buck with its new growth of antlers; also, a few of the sheep that the Breakey family raises. A really fun walk for us all, with all sorts of things of interest. Many thanks to Liz and Alan for inviting us to the Rusty Bucket Ranch to explore and list all species seen! Thank you, too, for the very warm welcome you gave us, and for the muffins, delicious lemon drink, and coffee! The beautiful dog in this photo was one of two similar dogs that belong to the Breakey family. This one accompanied us for the whole hike, greatly enjoying our company. After the morning's hike, we all returned to the city and thoroughly enjoyed a BBQ lunch put on by our botany/birding friends, Dorothy and Stephen. I hadn't had a burger in years - and this one was so good! Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for all the time and effort you put into this. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon, chatting with friends and eating all sorts of 'goodies'. Happy to see the tiny Hummingbird that has been visiting your garden, and lovely to see the bright yellow American Goldfinch. It was quite windy, too, which felt wonderful on a hot day.

Good news from the Ipernity Members Association (IMA) yesterday, 15 July 2017, for those Flickr members who are also on the ipernity website! I added it to yesterday's posts, but later in the day, after people had commented. "Dear members, We are absolutely delighted to share with you that the legal basis of our IMA goal to take the Ipernity platform over is achieved: Ipernity S.A. (represented by Christophe Ruelle) and IMA (represented by Eric Desjours) signed the contract regarding the transfer of the Ipernity platform, the underlying intellectual property and associated rights from Ipernity S.A. to IMA. We can share in short the following details of the contract and next steps: The price for the transfer is 1 €. IMA will cover 12,000€ of costs that had been incurred by hosting and maintaining the Ipernity platform during the negotiations. Codes and passwords are being handed over as we speak. IMA has a 15 days withdrawal right. Ipernity S.A. will then start the transfer of the accounts of Amazon, Paypal, Google, etc. Other necessary legal processes will follow. The transfer process will be finished end of July. We will keep you informed! Best regards, William and Eric" www.ipernity.com/group/2260604/discuss/187672 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Two days ago, on 14 July 2017, it was a hot day, but our bio-blitz of the Rusty Bucket Ranch, west of Calgary, started at 8:00 am, to catch the coolest part of the day. This was the first time we had been there and we had such a great morning. What a beautiful place and area! Thirteen of us gathered to explore part of the land belonging to Liz and Alan Breakey - 160 acres, mostly wooded, with many streams feeding into Bragg Creek. The gorgeous garden itself was full of bright, healthy plants, including these Bittersweet Nightshade flowers. Once we were in the forest, we came across all sorts of wildflower species and even a few fungi. We all met the challenges of small, hidden logs along the trail, lying in wait to trip anyone who was not paying careful attention. One of the last areas was a bog, where the small, partly hidden pools of water were difficult or impossible to avoid - I nearly lost a shoe in there, lol! On the final stretch back to the house, we caught sight of a distant buck with its new growth of antlers; also, a few of the sheep that the Breakeys raise. A really fun walk for us all, with all sorts of things of interest. Many thanks to Liz and Alan for inviting us to the Rusty Bucket Ranch to explore and list all species seen! Thank you, too, for the very warm welcome you gave us, and for the muffins, delicious lemon drink, and coffee! The beautiful dog in this photo was one of two similar dogs that belong to the Breakey family. This one accompanied us for the whole hike, greatly enjoying our company. After the morning's hike, we all returned to the city and thoroughly enjoyed a BBQ lunch put on by our botany/birding friends, Dorothy and Stephen. I hadn't had a burger in years - and this one was so good! Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for all the time and effort you put into this. What a lovely way to spend the afternoon, chatting with friends and eating all sorts of 'goodies'. Happy to see the tiny Hummingbird that has been visiting your garden, and lovely to see the bright yellow American Goldfinch. It was quite windy, too, which felt wonderful on a hot day.

On 17 December 2011, I was on the Banff/Canmore Christmas Bird Count (in the Rocky Mountains). This was the 37th consecutive year for this event. My small group covered the Harvey Heights area. The meeting place for the various groups was at the home of Colleen Campbell, who so generously opens up her home to us each year, including giving us a lovely warm place to go back to, to eat our lunches and to finalize the lists of birds seen by the end of the day. Colleen is a long-time Wildlife Researcher, who focused exclusively on grizzly bears from 1993 until 2006. She is also known for her incredibly beautiful artwork - photography is another of her keen interests. She had just taken in two adorable little rescue kittens - they were so soft and gentle! There was room in my backback to have put both kittens in to take home with me - but I thought Colleen might notice that they were missing : ) Colleen, thank you so much from us all, for your generosity and welcome - and that includes the welcome that Jesse always gives everyone. What a sweet, intelligent dog she is!

This was a really quick shot, which luckily came out OK. I pushed myself out the front door yesterday, as the forecast was for cloud and sun. I have done barely any walking for months - actually, all this year - and I'm supposed to do those 10,000 steps every day. After deciding to drive over to Carburn Park again, just in case the Clark's Grebe was still in the area, by the time I had eaten breakfast and got myself ready, the sky was overcast. By the time I reached Carburn, it was snowing and completely overcast. Decided I would still just walk around the small pond - my body was still feeling the effects of a long walk three days earlier, ha. Bumped into a fellow birder and we got talking and ended up walking round the large pond, too. I had just said something about deer in the park, turned around and there was a White-tailed Deer right behind us ; ) Then two more appeared from amongst the trees. Just managed to click in time to catch this sweet moment. No sign of the Clark's Grebe (same as the day before), so I feel really lucky to have seen this bird on Sunday - a bird that is not usually seen in Alberta. By the way, the wire netting you can see in the background is actually wrapped around a tree, in hopes of protecting it from local Beavers. These animals seem to be cutting down an awful lot of trees in our natural areas. It's -6C (21F) this morning and snowing. Forecast for this afternoon is -3C (27F) and ice pellets. Sounds like it might be a fun drive for my volunteer shift, ha. What just happened with Flickr? All I could get was a blank, white page and then I had to try three times to get Flickr to load at all. Anyone else have the same? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_deer www.hww.ca/en/species/mammals/white-tailed-deer.html

Another photo of one of the rescue kittens that were adopted by Colleen in Canmore (near Banff). I got the chance to photograph both of them when we met at Colleen's house for the Banff/Canmore Christmas Bird Count on 17th December 2011.

On December 17th, I was on the Banff/Canmore Christmas Bird Count (in the Rocky Mountains). This was the 37th consecutive year for this event. My small group covered the Harvey Heights area. The meeting place for the various groups was at the home of Colleen Campbell, who so generously opens up her home to us each year, including giving us a lovely warm place to go back to, to eat our lunches and to finalize the lists of birds seen by the end of the day. Colleen is a long-time Wildlife Researcher, who focused exclusively on grizzly bears from 1993 until 2006. She is also known for her incredibly beautiful artwork - photography is another of her keen interests. Recently, she took in two adorable little rescue kittens - they were so soft and gentle! There was room in my backback to have put both kittens in to take home with me - but I thought Colleen might notice that they were missing : ) Colleen, thank you so much from us all, for your generosity and welcome - and that includes the welcome that Jesse always gives everyone. What a sweet, intelligent dog she is!

A young man was showing this rather fine Malagassi Giant Hognose snake at the Calgary Zoo. A little girl gently reached out to feel the snake - many of the parents who stopped to look, declined the offer to touch this reptile.