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Vermont's springtime dazzles in this twilight scene from near Waitsfield. Read more - www.stantonchampion.com/2020/02/17/spring-twilight-waitsf...
Adding a few more odds and ends tonight from my drive the day before yesterday, 30 January 2022. Towards the end of my drive, the sky darkened, giving that beautiful sunlight.
After waking up really late on Sunday, 30 January 2022, I turned on my computer and checked the weather forecast, The hope was that the forecast no longer said that we were in for more snow. No such luck. When I read about the drifting snow, I knew that there was no way I would be driving the backroads in the next while. Getting ready in record time, I thought I would have just enough time to go and see if I could find a Snowy Owl and still be home before the light began to fade - can't do 'night' driving because my eyes can't deal with the glare of oncoming headlights.
Not a whole lot to see out there - but who needs 'a whole lot' when one is lucky enough to find two Snowy Owls? The only other birds I saw were a Merlin and a Magpie. The first Snowy was flushed from behind a bank of snow that had been cleared from the road. I was only driving very slowly, but didn't see the owl till it took flight and landed way, way out in a field. I would never have seen it if I hadn't seen it flying off into the distance. The second owl was perched on a power pole. Never an attractive perch, but I will happily take anything that has a Snowy sitting on top. Most of my photos were taken from way down the road, through the windshield. They looked OK in the viewfinder, but when I got home, they all needed to be deleted. Thank goodness, I stood outside my car for the last owl images, just in case. Even so, not the greatest photo quality, because of being highly zoomed, but again, I am happy to get anything.
So glad I made the decision to go out a second day in a row, which I tend to try and avoid. The wind picked up later in the afternoon, but it was a beautiful sunny day despite some darker clouds forming.
The trees at the very edge of the roads were quite visible, but practically everything else disappeared in a dense fog that caught me by surprise today, 5 January 2019. I had hoped to finally drive east of the city yesterday, after already waiting a couple of months. Then I saw in the weather forecast that it was going to be a very windy day, so my plans changed. When I checked the forecast around midnight last night, we were supposedly going to have sun with some cloud this morning, clearing to a nice sunny afternoon. Yeah, right!! The thick fog had developed way before I left the eastern edge of the city and, though I was so tempted to turn around and head for home, I kept going, hoping that the fog would clear further east. Just the opposite! Most of the drive was in very poor visibility, barely able to see the road I was on and not seeing cars in the distance. Once my eyes looked further than the fences along the road edges, I could barely see anything at all, just dense fog. A far cry from an ideal day for looking for Snowy Owls! Everything was a pale grey or white and I would never have been able to see a distant owl and would barely see an owl perched high up on a power pole. After roughly almost five hours of dangerous driving conditions and 235 km travelled, I just had to give up and head for home.
I did manage to find a few odds and ends to photograph, but nothing too inspiring. Post-processing turned white photos into images that had some colour and detail - not at all how things looked in reality.
T'is but a scratch...
View over a hedge at Lanner Barton.
Darned telegraph wires ruin so many shots...
Today, 12 November 2019, I have just posted five more odds and ends of photos, from way back in my archives, instead of going through photos taken more recently. Mind you, I shouldn't be posting anything, as I have started (yet again) backing up and deleting photo folders from my hard drive, as I am pretty well out of space. Also, I will have to take my computer in before too long to get it changed over from Windows 7 to Windows 10, seeing as support for Windows 7 comes to an end in January. So, a fair bit of deleting would be a good thing to do before I take in my computer. Not to mention a good thing before my computer crashes! I have added the description that was under another photo taken the same day, 19 February 2015.
"This photo was taken on 19 February 2015, when my daughter and I went NE of the city again to search for Snowy Owls. Recently, people have not been reporting many of these owls, though I was told that someone saw 18 of them on the one day. We were not so lucky, but my daughter did a great job of spotting two very distant ones. She also spotted a Bald Eagle perched at the top of a very distant tree.
I always feel very awkward stopping the car and standing in the road, photographing a barn, when there is a house or houses nearby. There were also two old barns across the road from this one. We thought that we wouldn't be able to take photos of the one in this photo, as it was partly hidden by trees, and had a house on the property. While we were photographing the two on the opposite side, we noticed a man down the road, walking towards us, talking on his cell phone. He said that he had seen us and thought he'd come and say "Hi". Said he lived there and that the farm and barn behind us were originally his Grandfather and Father's. He was looking after the house on the property for the owners for a few days, and told us we were welcome to wander round the farmyard and photograph the barn. Needless to say, that is exactly what we did. Greatly appreciated!
Bird-wise, the day was very slow, but we are always happy to explore and find new barns and anything else that we find interesting and/or beautiful. Most of the sky was one huge mass of rather spectacular clouds that just went on and on forever. Not the best light when it came to photography, but it looked beautiful."
This old homestead was seen on 12 February 2015, which was spent SE of the city, with friends Cathy and Terry. They picked me up around 7:00 am and I think I was home somewhere around 7:30 pm, after a great day of searching for owls, barns, and anything else that caught our eye. The weather was beautiful, though cloudy part of the day. The temperature reached a brief high of 13C around 1:00 and 2:00 pm, which felt so good, especially for mid-winter.
Many of the roads we travelled along were roads that I had driven on myself, some of them many times. A few of the roads were new to me, which was a treat, including a "trail" that was so deeply rutted and snow-covered that I'm amazed that we ever got out of there! This track and another backroad that was new to me led to a few old barns that I really appreciated being shown. It's strange how some fields in the whole area were more or less bare and yet others had a lot of snow covering the stubble, with piles of snow lining the edges of the road.
As far as wildlife was concerned, we saw 11 owls - 8 Snowy Owls and 3 Great Horned Owls. The Snowies, other than one perched on a "Wrong Way" sign, were all extremely distant, so my photos are of white specks in a nice setting, ha. If I hadn't been with two people who can spot "everything", I'm sure that I would never have found most of these owls!
Other birds included a flock of Snow Buntings plus two individuals that were actually perched on a fence. Another bird we saw was a beautiful Prairie Falcon perched on an electricity pylon. Also a group of Grey Partridge that suddenly flew before we had noticed them.
This view is of ,from left to right middle distance, Hen Cloud, and The Roaches , and Ramshaw Rocks,near Leek in Staffordshire ls taken from the ridge near the Mermaid Inn (now closed) , looking north westish.
Taken in 2002 , so pre digital for me. Using a Yashica FX3 Super 2000, with Yashica ML28mm, as most of my landscapes where back then . Most likely using a Polarizing filter, as the photo has a blue sky ! (Steve's rule No 1, if there is blue sky at all, get the polarizer out. Ha Ha!)
The resulting negative was then scanned to digital by Kodak, as part of the processing offer. Then cropped and adjusted .
Wednesday, 12 February 2020: the temperature this morning is -14C (windchill -21C). Overcast. We had a light dusting of fresh snow last night.
This morning, I am adding the last few photos from two days ago, 10 February, when I drove south of the city. I had hoped to maybe come across a Snowy Owl or some other bird species. Also, a couple of favourite old barns are down that way, so I knew there would be something to photograph.
Little did I know how my drive would end that day! I had pulled over and stopped, to eat a granola bar. When I tried to start my car, a lot of dashboard lights came on, but the car would not go fully into start, so I couldn't move. After trying a few times, I ended up having to phone the AMA and describe my problem. I knew I would have no option but to be towed all the way back to Calgary, which would have cost me about $250.
About an hour and a half later, a huge truck pulled up and the AMA guy checked out my car. He was so helpful, explaining everything. He said he did notice more green corrosion on the battery than there should be, so presumably that was the cause of the problem. In the end, he gave me a boost and the car started just fine, thank goodness, though I really was not looking forward to the drive back to the city on a fast-moving, major highway, wondering if my car was going to suddenly stop. By the time I was able to leave, it was dark, so I had to do the hair-raising drive with very poor night vision. Something I hope never, ever happens again!
I'm glad that at least I got to see my old barns and was lucky enough to have a little Horned Lark land in a field, close enough for me to get a few photos. I rarely get photos of these attractive birds.
Just waiting for my car to be repaired this morning, 12 February. The battery has to be replaced, plus a new air-filter is needed and brake fluid. The battery worked enough to just start the car at the dealership, but is not recharging. A costly repair, but it is what it is. I will feel much safer going out next time, knowing that I won't be at risk of being stranded again.
That was definitely not an enjoyable experience.
This huge, overhanging limestone cliff is an important landmark in Wharfedale. It was shaped by glaciers that once filled the valley and plucked away the sheer rock face thousands of years ago.
Today, this beetling crag is a challenge for all the rock climbers drawn to it from far and wide. It also forms an impressive backdrop to the annual Kilnsey Show.
The foreground lakeis part of a trout fishery where you can fish for your own dinner.
Nikon D810 85mm
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La licencia y la explotación de esta imagen pertenece a Getty Images.
This photo was taken on 9 January 2016, when I took part in a Mid-winter Bust-out trip east of the city, led by Terry Korolyk. Eight of us, plus our leader, took part in this day trip - maybe when everyone else saw what the temperature was first thing in the morning (-23C, not counting windchill, which would have made it much colder), they changed their mind about going! Everything was covered in a heavy layer of hoar frost, which turned everywhere into a beautiful winter wonderland. The sky was blue - what more could anyone want? Well, a few birds would be nice, of course : )
The highlight of the day was seeing 6 Short-eared Owls, in addition to 6 Snowy Owls (7 seen by the people in the other cars, when we split up at the end of the day). As a photographer, though, the only birds that were barely close enough were two of the Snowy Owls. All the Short-eared Owls were tiny dots in the landscape. I don't know how anyone was able to spot them! Most of the photos I took of anything were so blurry and not fit for use. Zoomed in shots, especially, suffered from heat distortion - and distorted they are!
Our meeting place was right across the city; a drive that I never enjoy at all, but I really didn't want to miss this outing. Some of the roads we travelled were ones that I had driven several times before. Most of the time, though, I had no idea where we were : )
As always happens on any day that I go anywhere, I turned my camera lens to anything else of interest/beauty, even more so when the birds are way, way off in the distance.
Thank you, Terry - it was a great day and much appreciated, as always! You did an excellent write-up of the whole day (not posted here). Many thanks for driving some of us, Andrew.
Irrigation wheels, beautiful barn, and colorful clouds outside Twisp in Washington state's Methow Valley.
Hard to believe that this is WINTER! Some fields outside the city are completely bare of snow; others still look pretty white.
I came across this old, wooden barn on 19th February 2016, when I was exploring some new backroads SE of Calgary. The reason I wanted to make this drive was that friend Phil S. had posted a few photos of a beautiful little white country church; one that I hadn’t seen before. He told me where to find it and this was enough motivation for me to drive some roads that were new to me. Thanks so much, Phil! The church is the Davisburg Community Church, SE of Calgary. I could find nothing online about this church, but then Phil sent me the link to a wedding that was held there, showing the inside and outside.
greenweddingshoes.com/tiny-white-church-in-a-field-wedding/
The church and small cemetery are fenced off, though I did notice one small section of fence along the road had been destroyed – hopefully not by photographers wanting to get a different angle! There is also a No Trespassing sign there. I was able to get two or three angles from the ditch along the road.
From this location, I drove SE towards the Blackie area and covered some of the same roads and backroads that I drove on 15 February. It turned out to be more of a barn day than a birding trip, as all I saw were several Pigeons and a number of Magpies. I really wasn’t looking for birds, though, as my attention was on the road and which direction I was going, trying not to get lost.
The sun was shining early on, but more and more clouds gradually moved in, making quite a beautiful sight over the distant mountains.
After a while, I realized that I could perhaps just make it as far as the Saskatoon Farm in time to order a home-made pizza to take home with me. However, when I got there, I was told that they had stopped making these several months ago. Instead, I decided to stay and have a meal there - quiche and sweet potato fries. Made a very pleasant ending to an enjoyable afternoon.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, EVERYONE!
This beautiful old barn was seen two days ago, 12 February 2015, which was spent SE of the city, with friends Cathy and Terry. This photo was taken about half an hour after sunrise, so the glorious, early morning glow was still around. My friends picked me up around 7:00 am and I think I was home somewhere around 7:30 pm, after a great day of searching for owls, barns, and anything else that caught our eye. The weather was beautiful, as you can see in this photo.. The temperature reached a brief high of 13C around 1:00 and 2:00 pm, which felt so good, especially for mid-winter.
Many of the roads we travelled along were roads that I had driven on myself, some of them a number of times. A few of the roads were new to me, which was a treat, including a "trail" that was so deeply rutted and snow-covered that I'm amazed that we ever got out of there! This track and another backroad that was new to me led to a few old barns that I really appreciated being shown. I think my friends were amused that I fell asleep on this very rough track - after only an hour and a half's sleep the previous night, on top of always being very sleep-deprived, I'm really not surprised. It's strange how some fields in the whole area were more or less bare and yet others had a lot of snow covering the stubble, with piles of snow lining the edges of the road.
As far as wildlife was concerned, we saw 11 owls - 8 Snowy Owls and 3 Great Horned Owls. The Snowies, other than the one perched on the "Wrong Way" sign that I posted yesterday, were all extremely distant, so my photos are of white specks in a nice setting, ha. If I hadn't been with two people who can spot "everything", I'm sure that I would never have found most of these owls!
Other birds included a flock of Snow Buntings, plus two individuals that were perched on a fence - haven't checked yet to see if I have a sharp enough photo. Another bird we saw was a beautiful Falcon perched on an electricity pylon - not a large bird, so presumably a Prairie Falcon, not a Gyrfalcon. Also a group of Grey Partridge that suddenly flew before we had noticed them. We had to deal with a lot of heat distortion during the day, so some photos are far from sharp.
Many thanks, as always, Cathy and Terry, for a great day out, including the delicious chili you made and brought along. A fun and rewarding day! Really appreciated being with you, doing what we all enjoy so much. Thanks, too, for patiently giving me time to photograph the various barns we came across!
Some time back I passed this GMC truck sitting on the side of the road for sale. The odd (and ugly) color caused me to turn around.
Dorothea Mackellar's patriotic poem, "My Country" (1908) was originally titled, "Core of my heart". In this photo even the little wooden farm house (centre left) was standing when Mackellar wrote her poem. I attach a link here to a handwritten copy of her first page: allpoetry.com/poem/8526595-My-Country-by-Dorothea-Mackellar
"Core of my heart, my country!
Land of the Rainbow Gold,
For flood and fire and famine,
She pays us back threefold -
Over the thirsty paddocks,
Watch, after many days,
The filmy veil of greenness
That thickens as we gaze."
Patriotism. An old fashioned word, but still potent with meaning. It comes from the Latin of course (as so much of the English language does).
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair), is better known today for his novels, but in truth he was the best essayist in the English language of his era. His definition stands the test of time:
"By 'patriotism' I mean devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people. Patriotism is of its nature defensive, both militarily and culturally. Nationalism, on the other hand, is inseparable from the desire for power. The abiding purpose of every nationalist is to secure more power and more prestige, not for himself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his own individuality."
Amen George, ever the truthteller!
While photographing a church over in Grainger County Tn. Saturday, I happened to look over on a hill just behind it and noticed this old house with the red barn. Needless to say, I had to include them.
What a scenic drive down this dead end lane. My husband was only willing to make a few stops for me to take a few shots!!!
Here we have what's left of the old Bell Bay Power Station. It was decommissioned in 2009 when the Tamar Valley natural gas generating station joined the grid. Its 110 metre high stack is a dominant feature in the area. A lasting sign of industrialisation within a rural landscape.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Bay_Power_Station
Hydro electricity is the cleanest, cheapest and most sustainable of energy forms available. Unfortunately dams are out of favour. Nuclear is another option, but you'd never convince Australians to adopt that, despite having the largest uranium deposits in the world. Solar and wind power simply can't produce enough efficient storeable energy.
So our choices are narrowed to coal fired plants or natural gas. The move away from hydro electricity in Tasmania has meant much higher power prices.
I am trying to mix things up so as to not bore everyone silly! This shot is out on the plains where grain is supreme at the now closed railway siding and silos at Noondoo on the Dirranbandi Line. I posted a different view of this last week in black and white. The building with blow through air-conditioning in the foreground is the old railway station, now well on its way to oblivion. The disused silos stand watch in the background. I believe grain is now trucked to the current terminus of the line at Thallon. Hopefully with better rain this year, the fields of green wheat now spreading through the surrounding countryside will survive to a golden harvest.
These will be the last photos I post for maybe a couple of weeks, as I am taking a much-needed break!
This was a lovely find two days ago, on 3 May 2018. A bit different from many of the old, abandoned buildings I come across.
Three days ago, I was so torn as to whether or not to accept an invite from my friend, Pam, to take a drive SE of the city. I really, really wanted to go, even more so as I have barely been out for ages. However, I am running out of time to get certain things done, and also I was concerned that if I slightly moved in a 'wrong' way, my knees would give way or my rotator cuffs and lower back would become even more painful. Not what I need, especially right now. In the end, I decided that, yes, I would go after all, and I am so glad that I made that decision.
We started off at Frank Lake, a place that is very familiar to both of us. We knew that Western Grebes and Eared Grebes were being seen and we both hoped they would be there that morning. A pair of Eared Grebes gave a little performance of part of their mating dance. The photo I posted this morning was taken with the Nikon B700 - in fact, I gave up using the FZ200 for pretty well all my photos at Frank Lake and just kept my fingers crossed that the new B700 (with far more zoom, but less sharpness) would give me at least a few photos that were good enough to keep. I am still having the problem of image shift on some of the shots - photo jumps upward, downward or to one side, cutting off parts of birds and resulting in ridiculous compositions. At Frank Lake, I could rest both elbows on a very sturdy window ledge, making it impossible for normal, self-created camera shake to happen.
Though I have quite a few photos of Eared Grebes on my Flickr photostream, I think I only have one previous photo of a Western Grebe. I don't see them very often and when I do, they are so far away. They were far away when we were there, but we were able to watch as they did a bit of their mating dance, including when each bird gathered a beak full of wet, rotting plant material and they went face to face in an amorous gesture. These birds also swam off separately, giving us a few chances for further shots. Still at the blind, we were so lucky when a pair of Eared Grebes came close enough to capture a shot or two of part of their mating dance.
By the way, the blind is surrounded by lake and flood water! Parts of the boardwalk were under 5" or 6" of water, through which we had to wade. If you do go, make sure you concentrate, or you might find yourself swimming in the lake! Elsewhere in the whole SE area, there was a lot of water in some of the fields, creating what I suspect will turn out to be only temporary sloughs.
A few of the other birds we saw two days ago at various places included a few dozen Tundra Swans; plenty of Northern Shovelers; several Western Meadowlarks; a Great Horned Owl and her little white, fuzzy owlet, sitting on a distant nest; and a Ferruginous Hawk female lying down in her nest. Of course, the usual suspects included Canada Geese, Mallards, and so on.
When it came time to leave Frank Lake, I had assumed we would then start on the drive back to the city. Instead, Pam surprised me by saying that we would go further south - and further south we definitely went! Made such a great day. Thanks so much, Pam, for this treat - greatly appreciated.
This is the first of the photographs I took last Tuesday afternoon between four and eight when I drove to George Town. I have decided to take outdoors photos covertly (while still following all the safety regulations of physical distancing).
This trip afforded me plenty of material to work with, so it's not that I have to go out every day. Perhaps once a week will suffice. But I want to express my freedom.
I'll post the results in no particular order, although each series of 4-5 photos will have a direct thematic link.
© I m a g e D a v e F o r b e s
Engagement 1,500+
Not the one for city slickers or 'townies' and very much in a rural area just 10 miles out of Glasgow City Centre with some beautiful Spring landscapes of the Campsie area. ( East Dunbartonshire ) The Bus is the X85 from Glasgow Buchanan St Bus Station at Stance 35
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Francisco Aragão © 2020. All Rights Reserved.
Use without permission is illegal.
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pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planaltina_(Distrito_Federal)
The five photos posted today were all taken on 18 July 2020, when I drove SE of the city in search of a ghost town. I am adding the description that I added under a previously posted photo taken on the same trip. Not many photos left to post from this amazing day.
"Yesterday, 18 July 2020, was such a beautiful day and a very rewarding one. My destination was, for me, an exciting one - an old ghost town that I had never seen before. A long, return drive of 454 kilometres on a pretty hot day was needed, in order to check out this new location. In order to do a long drive like this, I need to do it when the evenings stay light as late as possible, to make sure I don't have to drive in the dark. Completely tired out at the end of the day, but it was a good tiredness - and, more importantly, a journey that made it so easy to physically distance.
My favourite kind of day always includes a bit of everything - old barns, birds, landscapes, skies, wildflowers, and anything else. This day delivered most of those treats.
Leaving home by 8:30 am (later than I had hoped), most of my drive was highway travel. Not my favourite, but kind of necessary in order to get so far. Roads were fairly empty, which always makes a drive more pleasant, especially when I know I might want to stop to take a photo at any time.
It was definitely a Meadowlark day and it was nice to see one of them with a beak absolutely full of insects for its babies. Other birds included a few familiar species, but ones that are always good to see. I saw one Common Nighthawk this time, unlike the five I saw recently, but one is always enough and greatly appreciated.
Once I got into unfamiliar territory, I had to travel quite a distance before seeing any new-to-me old barns or homesteads. Found the first ones before I reached my destination. Once I reached the ghost town, I thoroughly enjoyed wandering around, taking photos. It is only a small place with a handful of old buildings, but very nicely kept. One of its main buildings is a small, country United Church, kept in great condition both inside and out. I had read online beforehand that people can go inside the church and sign their Guest Book, otherwise I probably would not have gone in. Really liked the door knobs to the front door.
From there, I took more or less the same route home, stopping only to photograph a few birds en route. I arrived home at 8:30 pm, with a smile on my face and eyes that were still open, thanks to taking some black coffee with me in case of emergency (i.e. unable to keep my eyes open!)."
There's always one or two that don't look at the camera when you try to take a family portrait! It's the same in every family!!!
Il y en a toujours une ou deux qui ne regardent pas la caméra quand on veut prendre un portrait de famille! C'est la même chose dans toutes les familles!!!
Have a great week-end everyone!
Bonne fin de semaine à tous et à toutes!
Along Downes Rd in Abbotsford, B.C. there is a nice fenced pasture with two grand trees at the top of the hill.
There are some nice places to swim in the Corra Linn Gorge, although the water is very cold! Here a swing has been rigged up to the old iron bridge. These local guys were checking it out before the summer season starts. I also owe them a great debt of gratitude. My battery happened to die beside the side of the road when I parked the car. As these young men came back up from the river I told them I was about to call the RACT. "Oh, don't do that," they said, "You'll be waiting awhile. Give us five minutes and we'll be back." They dashed up to the farm and brought back jumper leads to get me going again. Country folk. I love them!
[Enlarge and look around.]
After waking up really late today, 30 January 2022, I turned on my computer and checked the weather forecast, The hope was that the forecast no longer said that we were in for more snow tonight and Monday and Tuesday. No such luck. When I read about the drifting snow, I knew that there was no way I would be driving the backroads in the next while. Getting ready in record time, I thought I would have just enough time to go and see if I could find a Snowy Owl and still be home before the light began to fade - can't do 'night' driving because my eyes can't deal with the glare of oncoming headlights. Note: no snow arrived here overnight or today. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Not a whole lot to see out there - but who needs 'a whole lot' when one is lucky enough to find two Snowy Owls? The only other birds I saw were a Merlin and a Magpie. The first Snowy was flushed from behind a bank of snow that had been cleared from the road. I was only driving very slowly, but didn't see the owl till it took flight and landed way, way out in a field. I would never have seen it if I hadn't seen it flying off into the distance. The second owl was perched on a power pole. Never an attractive perch, but I will happily take anything that has a Snowy sitting on top. Most of my photos were taken from way down the road, through the windshield. They looked OK in the viewfinder, but when I got home, they all needed to be deleted. Thank goodness, I stood outside my car for the last images, just in case. Even so, not the greatest photo quality, because of being highly zoomed, but again, I am happy to get anything.
So glad I made the decision to go out a second day in a row, which I tend to try and avoid. The wind picked up later in the afternoon, but it was a beautiful sunny day despite some darker clouds forming.
The rural areas of Tennessee and Virginia are lovely, as this painting by my friend, Joan Keith's mother shows. Joan is from Virginia, and her husband, Jim is born and bred in Bristol, Tennessee. He lives probably not 2 miles from the place he was born.
This lovely painting hangs in the dining room, and is one of the first things you notice either coming or going from the house. I fell in love with it, and a sense of peace comes over me just looking at it! Joan's mom was quite an artist, and it was a joy to see her work displayed throughout the home.
Skiff is a hamlet in southern Alberta. Before friends Cathy and Terry, and I, set out on a three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park (26, 27 and 28 August 2014), I had discovered that we would be quite near to Skiff and its old grain elevator. I had mentioned this to my friends, asking if a quick stop to get a couple of shots might be possible if we had time. However, little did we know that we would end up having to stop in Skiff anyway, as Skiff was the closest place for us to get to after we got caught in a severe storm. We stopped at some kind of machinery warehouse to ask something and one of the workers said that he had never seen a storm like this one! A couple of minutes away, we found the beautiful, old elevator. You could still feel the tail end of the storm, with very strong winds blowing, barely letting me open my car door and walk with great difficulty to get my photos. I was surprised that my photos came out at all, I was being blown so much off balance.
The weather forecast that I saw before we left Calgary said that we were in for three beautiful days of sunshine. So, luck was on our side, giving us warm, sunny days - until the BIG STORM hit! We had driven eastwards from Waterton, hoping to see Yellow-bellied Marmots and, if we were really lucky, a Burrowing Owl. The storm was approaching very fast, around 5:00 p.m. just before we started our return trip to Calgary. It was like nothing I had ever seen before - a menacing cloud that was travelling fast and furious. I have recently posted a couple of photos of the storm. Despite trying our best to get away from it, it eventually engulfed our car, surrounding us with more or less zero visibility, pounding hail, thunder and lightning, and tremendously strong winds. There was nothing to do but sit tight in the car, hoping that the hail would not break the car windows and that this severe thunderstorm would not develop into a tornado! This storm was very scary, but at the same time, "exciting" (only because all turned out OK in the end!). Fortunately, we weren't caught in the very centre of it. Our road trip sure went out with a bang! Later, I contacted the Alberta Tornado Watch and posted a photo for them to see. They said the storm that happened that day was a mesocyclone.
This elevator is the sole remaining elevator in Skiff and, though now wearing Parrish & Heimbecker colours, may well have been an Alberta Wheat Pool elevator originally. If so, it was built in 1929 with a 40,000 bushel capacity. The annexes were added in 1948 (East) and in 1952 (West). The larger one is on the east side. The elevator appears to still be in use. There is very little information online about it, unfortunately.
www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMKTFF_Alberta_Wheat_Pool_1_S...