Gratitude Monday -- Winding Down

Summer is winding down. Yesterday morning the air had a bite to it and the grass beneath my feet was crisp.
I am grateful for the change of seasons for a variety of reasons, but the main reason is it helps me to appreciate the season as we have it.
Each season has its beauty.
Summer, for instance, had this:

A Time To Every Purpose

We wave good-bye to summer.

As autumn comes around the corner.

Happy change of seasons everyone.

Photo-Finish Friday-- A Summer View

A simple dew drop on a leaf says summer to me.

Simple Beauty

The greatest beauty is in the simplest things.

Gratitude Monday -- Alberta Summer

It's summer in Alberta and that means our provincial flower, the wild rose, is in bloom.
Our summer is all too brief. I'm happy it's here and I'm doing my best to show my gratitude by enjoying it as I can.

Photo-Finish Friday - A Kananaskis Hike

This is the top of the Ptarmigan Circe Trail in Kananaskis. It's one of my favourite hikes.
I haven't done this hike in years and I expect it might be a year or so before I'm able to do it again.
I can look, though, and that's good enough for now.

Photo-Finish Friday -- Exploding Summer Edition

This explosion of life in bloom offers summer in her grandest colors.
I hope this brightens your day.

Gratitude Monday - Soon

Near Num-Ti-Jah Lodge along the Banff Parkway.

Spring is here and with it the promise of sunshine, green grass, and lazy summer days.
But it first brought us a spring snow storm that left us with several inches of fresh, fluffy snow.
Moisture is good, and I am certainly grateful for it, but I'd really rather have a proper summer soaker than more snow.
It is what we have, though, and there's nothing to be done about it except ride it out and know that summer, and scenes like this, will be back soon.
I'm grateful that I live so close to the mountains and that I have a car. I can go any time I please. I am also grateful that I have this photo and many others like it to look at on days when it is snowy and grey.
It seemed like time to put up a picture like this. I hope you enjoy it.

Photo Finish Friday - Warm and Sunny Edition

Click, enlarge, enjoy.

It's been cold and grey and snowy lately. Nothing wrong with that, of course. It's perfectly normal.
But after a while it gets to a person. We need sun and warm and green and we need to be reminded that it'll be along soon enough.
The above picture is intended as just such a reminder.

Green Scene

It's good to be reminded of the abundant life which surrounds and sustains us. It's all gone cold and dormant now, and that's good, too, but the occasional reminder is good for the spirit.

I was going to say something about denial. I changed my mind when all I could muster was "Denial is a cow."

Hoofed mammal, two stomachs, chews cud, gives milk. No, can't quite get what I was trying to say with that.

Maybe I mean it's sacred. Or a good source of leather.

Whatever it was I am not denying the cold. I like it. It's good for writing. But I do think that as the days get colder and darker we need to be reminded it's only sleep, not death, and it'll be green and vibrant again.

Happy days of cold everyone. Enjoy it for what it is because it's all we've got.

The Flying Duodenum

Okay, sure. It's a bit silly, but it's the penultimate day of summer. Not the actual season, but real summer, the one that ends when school starts, and I wanted to have a bit of fun.

The photo is an experiment. It's the full moon taken on the bulb setting without using a tripod. I wanted to see what would happen.

I've done freehand night exposures in the past and many have worked out adequately. I took one of the Eiffel Tower whilst stinking drunk and it's one of my best.

This is one of my more, ummm, interesting results.

I hope you at least get a chuckle out of it.

Last Long Weekend

This is about 90 minutes or so west of Rocky on the David Thompson Highway.

It's the final long weekend of the Summer of '08. I'm not sure where it went. I bent down to pick something up off the floor in early July and when I stood back up August was nearly over.
I tried to get out for a few drives this summer. I went camping once and did a bit of fishing, but mostly I wondered why the days went so fast when they are so long.

In The Trees

A pine siskin waits in the clothes tree before going to the feeder.
An adult male goldfinch checks out his world.

A young evening grosbeak has a look around.

And a young white-throated sparrow has found some good cover.

We've been blessed with plenty of birds this year. It's down a bit from some years, but at least we can keep them fed without being run off our feet.
It's a pleasure to have them around to liven up the place and the young ones are usually okay with posing for a picture.

Smart as a Magpie

We’ve got several magpies around our yard this year. More than in past years and several of them are youngsters. They seem to like our yard and that’s fine.
They are loud. They have great squawking festivals at random times of the day. Although it can be grating it is ultimately a happy aural assault. It’s a sound of summer and it will be gone all too quickly.
I’ve also grown fond of the look of the feathers when the sun hits them just right. Most of the time they look black and white, but at certain angles the black is beautiful and iridescent.
They are a very pretty bird, and really rather smartly dressed.
I am glad I’ve had the chance to observe them because I’ve come to appreciate them and I like having them visit.