Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: siding

This morning, I am only posting one photo, as I have a very early start to the day. Will have to add a better description later. This photo was taken yesterday, 24 September 2017, when I ended up driving east of the city on my own. The meeting time for a trip east with other birders was given incorrectly in our newsletter, which said 9:30 am instead of 8:00 am that was given in a different place. Three of us arrived around 9:15 am, only to discover that no one else turned up. So, we went for a walk at the meeting place, Carburn Park, and afterwards, I decided that I would drive east of the city and wander around a few of the back roads. It was definitely a good decision as, though I didn't see many birds, two of them were beautiful Great Horned Owls. Continuing in the evening.... I ended up driving very different back roads to what I had thought of doing. They were all in the south area, and many were new roads to me. Old barns outnumbered birds photographed, with about five new barns and just two owls. The first owl I came across flew low across the road in front of me. At first, I thought it was a hawk of some kind, as Great Horned Owls aren't often seen flying in the daytime, It landed on a fence post in a field, where it sat for a minute or two, before flying to a distant old barn window on a farm property. Needed full zoom to get photos of it. Later on, after getting myself completely lost, I realized that I was not too far from an old grain elevator that I had discovered four years ago. On that day, I remember being so happy to have come across this elevator. When I got out of my car and walked a bit closer to get photos, I couldn't believe my eyes when I noticed a Great Horned Owl sitting in a window. I never expected that there would be an owl in the window again, yesterday, but there it was! Happy day! As for today, 25 September 2017, I spent the day with a friend, travelling south of the city to the Pine Coulee Reservoir and area. The rolling hills of this whole area are so beautiful. The birds we saw were all far away, needing Tony's spotting scope, except for a Eurasian Collared Dove and several small birds. Meanwhile, I was enjoying the scenery and anything else that caught my eye. We called in at the Pine Coulee campground and the Willow Creek Provincial Park campground and did a walk at each. Both were deserted and very peaceful. At the Willow Creek Provincial Park campground, the silence was broken by the call of a Belted Kingfisher. There was a bright yellow sign warning that there was a Bear in the area, but it was nowhere to be seen. The weather was perfect all day, starting off chilly, but getting up to about 20C in the afternoon, and a sky full of clouds. Thanks so much for the invite, Tony - much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed! Pure luxury, too, not having to drive.

Update on the Waterton wildfire, from CBC News - includes a poor quality helicopter video showing the townsite and the Prince of Wales hotel. Just amazing work done by all the firefighters! Thank you so much for everything you've done! Apparently, a few Elk and Bears have been seen in the town, which is great news. Plants will recover - some plants grow after there has been a fire, and some actually require a fire in order to grow and bloom. The status of the fire is now "held", which means that it is no longer growing but it is still burning in spots. Crandell Campground was significantly affected, which presumably means the same for the nearby Canyon Church Camp. Also, the Bison Paddock was damaged. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-waterton-lakes-nat... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Three days ago, on 17 September 2017, after noticing snowflake icons in the weather forecast for Calgary this week, I decided I would do a drive east and north-east of Calgary. In 2016, I had done a similar drive with my daughter, but this time I did not go as far as Drumheller. Actually, I still drove quite a bit further than I had intended - 346 km, 215 miles. If I had had enough self-discipline, I would have left home much earlier, as it was 11:20 am when I finally got into my car. My intention was to drive a few back roads, searching for old barns. Most of my drive was on highways, simply for the purpose of saving time, so it wasn't till I was more or less at the furthest point that I actually saw a barn. I couldn't see a sign pointing to this old grain elevator, so it took me a while to find the hilly, gravel road leading to it. By this time, unfortunately, there was a haze over the landscape and the light was far from good. Having driven so far, I was determined to take photos. Though this photo was OK in the original shot, I added a touch of filter in post-processing, to bring out more detail. As with any beautiful old elevator or barn, it will be a sad day when this one finally collapses. It certainly does not look in good condition, with its outer layer (fire retardant?) peeling badly. "The Elevator is marked P&H. This company, Parrish & Heimbecker, was one of the smaller players in the Canadian grain industry with a fewer number of elevators seen when compared to the big boys like UGG (United Grain Growers), Pioneer and the Alberta Wheat Pool (“The Pool”). Interestingly, each elevator company used specific colours on their structures making identifying them a fairly easy task. P&H mostly used either silver like what’s seen here, or a light yellow-ish colour – most other companies stuck to one colour. The elevator here was built just after the rail line was opened (early 1920s) and the large annex attached was added some twenty years later. An annex like this was a quick and easy way to increase capacity and a large elevator allowed for more efficient loading of rail cars. While solid looking, the building is succumbing to the elements. The siding in particular is starting to peeling away. There used to be a second elevator here, an AWP, Alberta Wheat Pool built late 1920s, that was torn down in the 1980s." From the link below that leads to an excellent site by Chris and Connie "bigdoer". www.bigdoer.com/461/exploring-history/sharples-alberta-gh... While I was standing there, taking photos of the grain elevator and the old barn that isn't seen in this photo, a farmer came down to the gravel road on his tractor (?) and stopped to have a pleasant chat. I guess I could have asked for permission to walk closer to the barn, but it is not on his property. Anyway, I never go close to barns or go inside, as I never ask for permission. That doesn't stop a lot of photographers, but I can't do it. This barn is next to the road, fortunately. I told this pleasant man that I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, and he said that we WERE in the middle of nowhere, ha. I was planning to go back the same way I had come, but he told me that there was an old house the other way, that people photograph. That changed my mind, though I knew I would continue to feel in the middle of nowhere. Definitely worth it, as I also came across a site of old, abandoned miners' cabins before reaching the old house. When coal was no longer mined, the area was left and the railway lines were torn up at a later date. One other abandoned house I passed was one that my daughter and I had found last year. It was built among the rolling hills, far, far away from any road, and is a very impressive sight. This year, they were doing road work repair by a bridge just a matter of feet away from the only possible place to pull over and stop. Thankfully, I was still able to stop and take photos. Altogether, a good few hours out. Though I didn't see a lot, the things I did see were most welcome and appreciated. I was glad to get in one more long drive before 'the white stuff' arrives and keeps me close to home.

This is a photo from my archives, taken on 10 September 2013, at the Reader Rock Garden.

City workers spent so many months on major road construction along highway 22X, building the eastern part of a huge ring road around the city. This was one of the main reasons I hadn't driven out that way for almost two years, as the roads were one huge confusion. After my drive five days ago, I can't see myself ever going out that way again, lol! Knowing that I had to concentrate really hard on the endless road signs, I was fairly sure that, now that construction had more or less ended, all I would have to do was drive in a straight line. Well, somehow, I was in the wrong lane and, to my horror, found myself heading north on the new ring road. All I could do was just keep driving, hoping I would eventually hit Glenmore Trail which would take me east of the city. Thankfully, that is exactly what happened. I did end up in a totally different area to the east, but ended up seeing two beautiful barns - one red and one white - because of it. Later in the afternoon, I ended up in the rough area I had originally planned on, thinking that the drive back to Calgary would be just one straight line on 22X. Finding my way to 22X brought me to two lovely finds - an old grain elevator that I didn't know about, and a beautiful Great Horned Owl. How wrong I was about the return drive! Somehow, I found myself on Deerfoot Trail, heading south towards the Canada/US border (well, Okotoks might be a little less of an exaggeration, lol!). Nothing I could do, but just keep driving south until I was able to turn off at some familiar place - which happened to be The Saskatoon Farm : ) Fancy that, their restaurant was pretty much empty and I was just in time to enjoy their Quiche meal : )) And so I eventually arrived back home, feeling both relieved - anyone with a driving phobia will understand! - and so happy and thankful for my various finds.

Friends and I ended up driving through the hamlet of Herronton (SE of Calgary) on 25 January 2014, and stopped long enough to take a few shots of the old grain elevator there. Not fun walking even a few steps, as the recent melting snow has frozen over everywhere. I'm puzzled by this image, as the white paint drops are running sideways - the windows must have been painted before being installed. The green siding of the elevator does run horizontally. "There were 1,651 elevators in Alberta in 1951, but by 1982 a total of 979 elevators remained. The 1990s spelled the death of the wooden “country” or “primary” elevator. At the end of the 1990s, as the full impact of both of the ending of the Crow Rate in 1995 and further impending rail abandonment was felt, the pace of demolition accelerated at an unprecedented rate. At the end of the 1996-1997 crop year, there were only 327 elevators left. Alberta’s largest cooperative grain companies, the Alberta Wheat Pool (which amalgamated with Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1998 as Agricore) and United Grain Growers, ultimately formed a new corporate entity known as Agricore United in 2001, issuing issued public shares. Demolition of country elevators has continued, and in 2005 there were only 156 wooden elevators of any kind still standing, only a handful of which are used by the grain trade. The Government of Alberta has recognised the significance of the traditional wood grain elevators, and has designated 12 as Provincial Historic Resources. They are located in the following communities: Andrew, Castor, Leduc, Meeting Creek, Paradise Valley, Radway, Rowley (3 elevators), Scandia and St. Albert (2 elevators)." www.grainelevatorsalberta.ca/articles/HRM-history.pdf "The Herronton elevator is a large former Alberta Wheat Pool elevator. The rail line here is not used. The last grain trains were loaded here a long, long time ago (late 1990s/early 2000s). This massive “single composite” elevator dates from 1965 having been rebuilt from an earlier structure (dating from 1930)." www.bigdoer.com/2848/exploring-history/grain-elevators-an.. .