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A fine Mid-September day at the Historic MJ Hogan Grain Elevator in Seneca Illinois. The Elevator is located along the I & M Canal and once used the Canal to ship Grain. Three exposure HDR processed with Photomatix
The lane from Five Turnings down to Trevella Stream. I found no signs of any ice on the roads, and had no issues with grip so all these lanes were perfectly navigable for cars and so on.
Did everyone remember to set their clocks forward an hour? I totally forgot - a good job I didn't have an appointment or something. This morning, too, I have had the Blue Screen of Death twice - ha, three times now!! Each time, I was on Facebook.
After all the stress the last nine or ten days over a photo of me being posted on Facebook, I was absolutely desperate to get out for a few hours on 5 March 2019, even though I really didn't feel like going. After losing so many hours of sleep for over a week, I would happily have climbed back into bed instead, even more so once I hit the highway south. There were so many huge semi-trailer trucks and at times they seemed to be in competition with each other. I don't remember it usually being this bad.
Anyway, I headed south-east of the city, though I would have loved to go east instead. The whole Facebook mess has left me feeling like I shouldn't go in that direction, though, needless to say, plenty of people are still going out there.
The weather was beautiful and milder than the last 6 or 7 weeks of deep-freeze. First of all, I did the usual drive around Frank Lake - and saw nothing. After driving a few roads north of there, I again saw no birds, other than four Magpies. Feeling totally uninspired and my heart just wasn't into it at all, I ended up calling in at the Saskatoon Farm on the way home.
A plate of delicious quiche, a few potato wedges, fruit salad and a much-needed cup of coffee were so welcome. After that, I asked if the huge greenhouse was open. When I tried to get in, I couldn't and had to ask someone to drag the extremely heavy door. Someone must have closed it sometime, as when I went to leave, after spending time with two pigs, lots of chickens, turkeys, domestic Helmeted Guineafowl, two bunnies and lots of House Sparrows, I couldn't budge the sliding door. Same thing with the other three doors. It was ages before someone heard my banging on the door and I was so thankful when a young man turned off his snow-clearing machine and yanked the door open. I told him that I had visions of having to sleep there overnight!
The view from the lane at Treworgan, near St Erme. The bike is the same colour as the farm gates - oh no!
Lots of photographic opportunities now I'm living in the New Forest, couldn't resist the Highlands in the heather this Autumn
Problems again with Stats Flickr views - more or less stuck again. An issue that is being reported by others, too.
Sunday, 19 July 2020: our temperature around 2:30 pm is 20C (windchill 20C). Sunrise is at 5:44 am and sunset is at 9:39 pm. The sun has disappeared and the sky has clouded over this afternoon.
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!)!
A quick return to winter for these five shots. These, and a few more, were taken yesterday, 10 February 2020. I had checked the weather forecast and saw that snow was in the forecast for three or four days this week, so I decided to drive south of the city and hopefully come across a Snowy Owl. 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! 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. Today, I will have to phone my garage and arrange to get the battery looked at, before I can drive anywhere else. 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.
The engineer is blowing the horn for a rural crossing as an eastbound Decatur & Eastern Illinois train passes a soybean field east of Tuscola, Illinois. The train is on former Baltimore & Ohio tracks
Tonight, I am posting the last of my photos of the colourful Grad Barn, plus three photos taken on a birding walk this morning, 15 February 2022, at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park.
Each year, the farmer who owns this barn allows the graduating class from the local high school to decorate this old building in any way they wish. A fun idea and it certainly adds a splash of colour. I was absolutely fascinated to read a little bit of history from someone who was a contact of mine on Flickr a few years ago. Her Grandmother was apparently born in this house/barn. It was later converted to a granary and now, of course, has become the canvas for local students.
Four days ago, on 11 February 2022, I decided to make the most of a milder day with no fresh snow. I overslept by an hour, which made my day shorter, which was too bad. My plan was to go and find this old Grad Barn again. It's so colourful and I always enjoy seeing it, though it is a long drive. I might just have to go back again later in the year, to see if newly graduated 2022 students have signed their names on the old wood. The first time I found this structure was back in 2016, when I was on a long drive with my daughter.
As well as this barn, I also wanted to see if I could find a Snowy Owl. After driving various roads with no luck, I bumped into a friend who was also looking for Snowies. He had come across one, which he said he accidentally flushed as he hadn't noticed it until it flew across the field. He told me he had also seen a Great Horned Owl in a barn window, and he very kindly described where he had seen it. Needless to say, I went looking and was delighted to find both barn and owl. I zoomed in from the road, so I'm not sure if the owl was asleep. In the short time I was there, the owl didn't shift position at all. This sighting made my day!
The day was very quiet birdwise, other than an occasional Black-billed Magpie. I did come across several barns that I had seen before on previous drives.
The 5 km walk this morning had a layer of fresh snow everywhere, covering a treacherous underlayer of ice that had melted, been churned up, and frozen again into a really nasty surface on which to walk. Amazingly, no one actually fell, but there were a few slips, including by me. For all our effort, we only found seven species of bird! The only bird I photographed was a cute little Mountain Chickadee. Not good light in the trees and I should have used a different setting on my camera. More snow falling this evening.
I very rarely post any black and white photos, but decided to post this one, taken on a Christmas get-together with my daughter. This rather fancy metal silo is huge, with stairs on the side of it.
With a lot of snow forecast for 8 of the following 10 days, I feel very lucky that my daughter and I had such a beautiful day on 17 December 2017, for our Christmas get-together. Along with the snow will come much colder temperatures, too, unfortunately. It was such weird weather, as the colour of the sunrise sky lasted all day, till we left just before sunset. A gorgeous Chinook Arch crossed the sky, staying the whole day. Some of the fields were bare, and others had a light dusting of snow on them.
The day started with breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm - always enjoyable. They do close from the end of the day on 23 December and open again in the morning of 17 January. A well-earned break for everyone who works there. As always, we walked around the grounds to look for things to photograph and, as usual, we were in luck - dead Sunflowers, cats, dogs, and a little House Sparrow that was inside one of the greenhouses.
From there, we continued south to the area east of High River and drove some of the usual back roads; ones that I had driven just four days earlier. Of course, we were hoping that we might find a Snowy Owl, though I knew not to get our hopes up. Before too long, my daughter spotted our first Snowy Owl of the season - the tiniest speck of white that I could barely see with the naked eye, but it was a Snowy and that was all that mattered. Later in the day, she somehow spotted a second one; again, the tiniest speck perched on a very distant fence post.
A few minutes before this second sighting, my daughter spotted two handsome Mule Deer bucks - looked like father and son - lying down next to a metal grain silo, near the edge of the road. They stayed there for a while, which was surprising, as males tend to be far more skittish. Eventually, they stood up and walked off into the field.
Of course, we couldn't resist taking shots of any old barns, sheds and houses that we came across. Altogether, a great day that was much enjoyed. Thank you so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me, and doing something that we both love! These are my absolute favourite days in the year.