Zonnige perioden met af en toe een fikse bui..............Large...View On Black

 

Na 2 minuten kwam er een flinke hoosbui.................

According to the Weather Forecast the Snowfall would reach Athens on Monday Noon...

Usually Voula is less affected by the low temperatures.

On Monday morning the sky was clear. By 9:30 sleet started to fall and within a couple of hours the Heavy Snowstorm had reached our neighbourhood.

Due to the low temperatures the Soft Snow became Ice.

Yesterday it was Sunny most of the day but the low temperature kept the Ice all day long.

Even now there is water from the melting ice falling from the roof.

This was a Snowstorm not only in Voula but throughout the Attica area that soon completely covered many roads and trapped the people in their cars or in their homes...

. . . a chance of snow.

Snow seems to have disappeared from the weather forecast for Calgary for the next few days. It was supposed to snow last night and this morning, but, instead, we have blue sky and sunshine. Yesterday, thinking I had better get out for a drive before this snow arrived, I drove east and north-east of the city, which I haven't done for ages. Not my favourite drive to get out there on a very busy highway with endless, enormous trucks, and it is also an area that I can easily get lost in once I get there. As it turned out, it was a cloudy, windy day. and definitely not good for taking photos.

 

The birds that I was hoping I might come across were nowhere to be seen. No problem, though, as I had already seen both species on a recent outing. Instead, I was so happy to see a flock of Gray Partridge and a handsome male Ring-necked Pheasant. The Partridge flushed from the edge of a gravel road and, as they always do, took flight over a field and disappeared from sight. As I watched, one individual partially showed himself, presumably checking for the group whether I had continued with my drive.

 

The Ring-necked Pheasant was crossing a field at a farm and not too far away. After turning in different directions, it gave a very loud squawk and off it flew, disappearing over an adjacent field. It had been ages since I last saw one of these spectacular, colourful birds, so this was a pleasant surprise.

 

These Pheasants are well-established in the wild in North America, but more are raised and released in Alberta every year as game birds.

Capitol Reef, Utah, USA

We studied maps, tides, weather forecasts as we wanted to shoot a vertical wide angle image right above the Angel on top of the Mont St Michel.

The Angel (Michel Angel) raises at 157 meters (520 feet), and the idea was to bring the kite and camera right above it. This was my first VHF radio assisted autoKAP session... with Heidy radio-guiding me on the other side of the Mont. (almost as efficient as a video link!)

The Ricoh GX 200 was attached 100 meters (300 feet) below the Dan Leigh Delta R8 to get some “clean” air, most of the shots were made from 15 to 50 meters (50 to 150 feet) above the angel and I had close to 400 meters (1300 feet) of line out. Thanks to Emmanuel (alias Maneke) for his assistance!

Dan Leigh Delta R8 – Ricoh GX 200 – Wide Angle adapter (19 mm equivalent) – Travel autoKap rig designed by Brooks Leffler- 130 kilos Cousin Dyneema line

  

daily weather forecast in Ireland

Our weather forecast was for quite a bit of thunder, today but thankfully, so far, that has been the case! Great that what was expected hasn't arrived ... just looking out towards the Carrick Hills during my walk, this afternoon!

 

366/2024 - The Future Is Now ... 366 ~ 225

 

Stay Safe and Healthy Everyone!

 

Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!

Got up this morning, 25 April 2017, to find it's still snowing, and heavily. Actually, the weather forecast for this week is for rain and snow.

 

This morning, I posted four more photos from Day 5 (of 8 days) of our trip to Trinidad & Tobago. Also added this Hummingbird photo that was taken on 20 March 2017, at the Asa Wright Nature Centre on the island of Trinidad. I'm not 100% sure that I have the correct ID. Of course, this is a telemacro shot - the actual bird is tiny in comparison with the size in this photo.

 

This adventure was only the second holiday (or was it actually my third?) of any kind, anywhere, that I have had in something like 30 or 35 years! The other holiday was a wonderful, one-week trip with my great friends from England, Linda and Tony, when we went down south to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons in September 2012. I have had maybe half a dozen weekends away, including to Waterton National Park, which have helped keep me going.

 

Six birding/photographer friends and I decided that we would take this exciting trip together (from 12-21 March 2017), spending the first two or three days on the island of Tobago and then the rest of the time at the Asa Wright Nature Centre on the nearby, much larger island of Trinidad. We decided to take a complete package, so everything was included - flights (we were so very lucky to get Black Friday prices, which were 50% off!), accommodation at both places, all our food, and the various walks and day trips that we could choose from. Two of my friends, Anne B. and Brenda, saw to all the planning of flights and accommodations, which was so very much appreciated by the rest of us. I could never have done all this myself!

 

What a time we had, seeing so many beautiful and interesting things - and, of course, everything was a lifer for me. Some of these friends had visited Costa Rica before, so were familiar with some of the birds. There was a lot more to see on Trinidad, so we were glad that we chose Tobago to visit first and then spend a longer time at Asa Wright. It was wonderful to be right by the sea, though, at the Blue Waters Inn on the island of Tobago. Just gorgeous.

 

The Asa Wright Nature Centre, on Trinidad, is such an amazing place! We stayed in cabins up or down hill from the main building. Really, one doesn't need to travel away from the Centre for birding, as so many different species visit the Hummingbird feeders that are right by the huge, open veranda, and the trees of the rain forest high up a mountainous road. The drive up and down this narrow, twisting, pot-holed road was an adventure in itself! Never would I ever do this drive myself - we had a guide who drove us everywhere in a van/small bus. I had read many accounts of this road, lol! There was just enough room for two vehicles to pass each other, and the honking of horns was almost continuous - either to warn any vehicle that might be coming fast around the next bend or as a sign that drivers knew each other. The drive along this road, from the coast to Asa Wright, took just over an hour each way.

 

Even after five weeks, I still miss the great food that was provided every single day at Asa Wright and even the Rum Punch that appeared each evening. I never drink at all, so I wasn't sure if I would even try the Punch - glad I did, though, as it was delicious and refreshing. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all served buffet-style, with a great variety of dishes from which to choose. To me, pure luxury. So very, very grateful to have been invited to be part of this amazing adventure.

Weather forecast was unclear at the night, a day after passage of typhoon Yun-Yeung. I drove my wagon 4 hours toward north. It was cloudy or rainy through the course, and I could view no stars. When I reached the site, sky was cloudy except small starry hole around the zenith. The ground was wet. Sky got clear, while I prepared two sets of my rig slowly. It was the first night to use the heavy equatorial mount, SkyWatcher CQ350 pro. I could find how to align the mount with the hand controller then.

 

I could see nice cloud layer below the site after the end of imaging session. It was another nice morning. I drove down through fog.

 

After all, I could enjoy imaging of the comet during twilight in the morning. The object got low in the east northeast, 6.5 degrees above horizon at the beginning of 1st. exposure and 7.0 degrees at the end of 5th. exposure at 35 minutes after the beginning of twilight. This may have been the last chance for me here to detect the comet before the perihelion passage on September 18, 2023.

 

The comet was drifting fast toward east a bit southward in Leo. Ion halo was round and bright. Ion tail was long and showing multiple stream lines. White dust coma was not clear, and dust tail was not detected or overlapping with ion tail.

 

Sun Distance: 0.351 AU

Earth Distance: 0.855 AU

 

equipment: Guan Sheng Optical Ritchey–Chrétien telescope RC-CF 10" f8, TS Extension for The Baffle Tube, TS 2.5" field flattener, and Canon EOS R-SP4, modified by Seo-san on SkyWatcher CQ350 Pro Equatorial Mount, autoguided at a star nearby with Fujinon 1:2.8/75mm C-Mount Lens, Pentax x2 Extender, ZWO ASI 120MM-mini, and PHD2 Guiding with comet tracking off

 

exposure: 5 times x 60 seconds at ISO 6,400 and f/8

 

The exposure started at 19:16:12 September 9, 2023 UTC during twilight and under 24.4-day 23% illuminated moonlight. I used the equatorial mount for the first time at the night. It showed nice guiding quality.

 

site: 1,460m above sea level at lat. 38 07 51 North and long. 140 27 51 East in Volcano Zao Katta-Dake Miyagi 宮城県 蔵王 刈田岳

 

Ambient temperature was around 17 degrees Celsius or 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Wind was mild or none.

The weather forecast of the previous evening "promised" me a great orange sun rise because of the high humidity.

 

But unfortunately no fog and no great orange skies.

Storm Imogen is blasting the western areas of the UK but the evidence of it's approach is fairly obvious, not a day for working outside for me!

 

The weather forecast for yesterday, 27 August 2021, was originally for rain, and I almost cancelled out for a Fungi Foray west of Calgary. This was the first chance I had to get out and look for fungi this season, so I would have been very disappointed to miss it. Deciding to risk it, I joined a few others to go on a three-hour walk through the forest, searching for mushrooms and anything else of interest. We were so lucky that the rain stayed away.

 

We were successful in finding a number of small or very tiny fungi species, but there was a very obvious lack of larger species, especially Boletes. Makes one wonder if perhaps someone had very recently been through the forest, collecting all the Boletes to cook. Our leader, Karel, found one of my absolute favourite mushrooms, Strawberries and Cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii. It was still young so did not have any of the ruby coloured droplets on the top surface. (Two previously posted photos in comments.)

 

Three hours of searching produced enough species to make the walk worthwhile. My photos are not going to be too interesting and most definitely not spectacular. It's always a real challenge to get photos when there is a group of people standing around the leader - some tall people, too : )

 

After the walk, I decided to call in at another forested area before driving home. Just a twenty-minute walk and most unrewarding. In 2019, this area had many beautiful mushrooms. The photo I posted today of Wolf's Milk slime was taken at this location. We did see some on our foray, but my photos were rather blown out.

This morning I woke at 5.30, and checked the weather forecast. A freezing~cold, cloudless morning was predicted. Time to head to the nature reserve I was planning a while now, so I took the train to Boortmeerbeek. Under the church, near the train station, I saw the board with the 6k walk route. I headed to the nature reserve at the blue hour with the first light.

In the city, all snow on the roads was cleared, but in the nature reserve, the snow on the trail was about 30cm (1 foot) deep. I had a blast, once again.

The new outdoor gear (Jack Wolfskin winter trousers and beenie hat, and Lafuma gloves) once passed the test, I was warm and confy.

 

3 standard RAW exposures HDR

 

If you have some 10 seconds to spare, please vote for a picture I entered in a national photocontest here. Please hit the "stem" button, that's Dutch for voting. I still need some more votes! Thanks in advance.

 

View On White

The weather forecast is looking a bit pants for the next few days so thought I’d take advantage of last night’s clear skies and pop over to Saltburn for a few clicks. I’m so glad I had my gloves with me this time as it was a bit nippy on the owld fingertips

Rain on the pavement in front of the Scottish Parliament Building in Edingburgh.

……the weather forecasters are predicting a string of 90+ degree days for eastern MA- and it’s not even august yet!! The UK and the EU just had record breaking heat. So tell me that climate change is not real??

ANSH scavenger12 hot

Finally, my first upload from Cape Town, South Africa :)

Arrived here last Monday for a 2 month project at one of the country's largest theatre complexes. So I'll be trying to share some of the incredible sights, views and events of this wonderful city. Stay tuned!

 

"The mountain says windy"

Here in Cape Town people don't need weather forecasts, they just look at the mountains. Evening clouds over Lion's Head means rain the next morning and clouds over Table Mountain or Devil's Peak (in the picture) announce heavy winds.

This shot was taken at night, out of our apartment, when the first clouds came rolling over the top and into City Bowl.

The BBC weather forecast was correct within one hour, but the rain arrived early! In light but dense rainfall, carried on a strong south westerly wind, 60103 'Flying Scotsman' passes the hamlet of Morralee on the Tyne Valley line returning the 'Waverley' excursion to Leeds, the 1Z64 18:18 Carlisle to Leeds on Sunday 7th August 2016.

 

© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission

office and colleague, perth

Following the Bog Trail before a rainstorm.

 

Swan River National Wildlife Refuge. Flathead National Forest, Montana.

Weather forecast showed 100% cloud but decided to go out anyway.

A peaceful morning with a bit of colour in the sky, plus a pleasant chat with another photographer.

The weather forecast was not for unusually high winds (it's VERY often quite windy in this area), so we planned a hike to the summit of Loder Peak. But on arrival, the winds were much stronger than we like, so we set out regardless, mainly because it was relatively warm, just above zero ° C. The strong winds kept up, and seemed to increase in speed the higher we got. While the winds didn't drive the 'feels like' temperature into an uncomfortable range, it was a nuisance and one had to be quite careful in spots to avoid being knocked off-balance. Door Jamb Mountain summit is around 1950 m's above sea level.

  

We walked just under 5 km's return distance, gained 637 m's in elevation gain, taking 2 hours, 45 minutes to do so.

 

The weather forecast for the weekend was absolutely dire but I took a risk and threw a leg out of bed to go see if anything was happening across the bay. It was. Gorgeous light and interesting cloud formations that changed by the second. It was pretty windy so I had to get a solid stance whilst shooting forming a kind of tripod, sat down with my elbows on my knees. The rest of the weekend weather was pretty grim and grey but we still had a good time in the south of the Lake District.

A few days ago the weather forecasters said that it would snow yesterday and today. Not only is there no snow, there wasn't a cloud in the sky today. I hiked the west rim of Waterworks Canyon on the flanks of Cleman Mountain and found approximately 55 bighorn sheep. It took several hours of very slow movement towards a group of about 35 sheep to get close and get them positioned near or on the horizon. There are almost always sheep in the area in November, but it is sometimes difficult to get them in position to see blue sky behind them. I could get the two larger rams on the horizon but will take what I got. I spent about 3 hours with this group of sheep and got within 100 feet. These two rams were laid back and unconcerned that I was within 100 feet from them. The largest ram was laying down when the smaller ram walked up and laid down. The larger ram was out of my line of site most of the time.

 

Thank you everyone who takes the time to view and comment on my photographs . Comments, awards, faves, and invites are greatly appreciated.

 

IMG_5295

20180806_3895_7D2-130 Not what the weather forecast said (218/365)

 

The weather forecast was for drizzle in the morning and clearing up and sunny in the afternoon. If anything the drizzle got heavier!

 

#9869

 

Grosté Pass, 2.550mt, Brenta Dolomites. On a (damn) cold, windy day. Never trust too much your weather forecast channel... | 2016©AlbertoBregani

yesterday the weather forecast said it should be rain this saturday.

it had been raining this weekdays,

so i was really disappointed at that news and hoped it would be clear, sunny...

but after all, today's sky, it was incredibly clear blue sky and it became very hot!

our hope came true. :)

 

雨続きの一週間、週末も雨かぁ…晴れて欲しいなぁ…と願っていたら。

嘘みたいな青空、しかも半袖でも汗！？

夕方には結局崩れちゃったけど、久々の青空楽しみました。虹も見ちゃった！！:D

 

2006.05.03@arakawa riverside, TOKYO, JAPAN

*camera--LOMO LC-A(cross-process)

  

Adding on the morning of 19 May 2021: just had a quick look at our weather forecast and I see that snow flurries are expected tonight, with scattered flurries tomorrow and wet snow for Friday. All my windows and door are being removed and reinstalled on Friday! If the snow does arrive, I wonder if the repair work will still continue. Typical Calgary, our high just four days ago was 24C. This morning, our temperature is 6C (windchill 3C). Sunrise is at 5:40 am and sunset is at 9:25 pm.

 

Tuesday, 18 May 2021: our temperature was PLUS 15C (windchill PLUS 13C) at 3:00 pm. Sunrise is at 5:42 am, and sunset is at 9:23 pm. Very windy today.

 

On 15 May 2021, I finally did a long drive that I had wanted to do the last few years, but never really been brave enough to do it. So glad I made myself do this, and it was a great day.

 

Much of the driving was on backroads that had a thick layer of loose, chunky gravel, making driving very unpleasant. It tends to push the wheels towards the side of the road, so one has to concentrate on trying to drive in a straight line. My arms and wrists ached like crazy from gripping the steering wheel.,

 

It looked a good day to go for a long drive to take my mind off all the repair work that has to be done. The forecast looked good, though it made no mention of the haze which made scenic shots useless. It felt so good to see quite a few birds for a change. The highlight of my day was briefly seeing a Swainson's Hawk perched on a fence post. I took a couple of shots, which had to be through my windshield. The hawk put its head down and that is when I realized that it had a snake held in its talons. It took a couple of pecks at the snake while I was watching (and taking a few seconds of video), and then off it flew. I wonder if it had a nest with babies in it nearby.

 

Another highlight for me, was to come across a beautiful female Merlin, also perched on a fence post. It had been quite a while since I last saw a Merlin.

 

At the beginning of my drive, I would have liked to call in for breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm, but I knew it would be really busy on a Saturday. Likewise at the end of the day, I would have liked to call in at Frank Lake, but I always try and avoid busy places. Makes no sense when someone has the weekdays in which to visit places like city parks. Some people are still working, so I prefer to usually leave the parks for them at the weekends.

 

I did call in at one of my favourite sloughs on the way home and enjoyed watching quite a few White-faced Ibis feeding and preening. So peaceful in a place with no other cars or people.

 

Of course, no day would be complete without spotting an old barn or two. These included one of my absolute favourite barns, photographed and posted previously, too.

 

The next two days, I have to get all sorts of things done because I know the repairmen will be taking out all my windows and putting them back, along with new frames on Friday, 21 May. I will have to be home, as they will need to have access to inside my place. It has now been just over six weeks that they have been replacing all sorts of rotten, wooden beams outside and adding two (?) layers of whatever material they use, before they eventually install new siding.

Ok, the weather forecasts were not promising a lot. But right after I had my stuff mounted outside, the clouds rolled in... again.

There have been a few of these idle runs lately ... it's frustrating. I Hope for clear skies soon...

I really would like to take some images with my small apo. Its euipped with a Starlight Feathertouch 3" and the HSM Motor.

I have to say that the feathertouch focuser is by far the best I ever had. Way better than the moonlight 2.5" ( in my opinion).

Before the start of winter, the weather forecast was that it would be strong and snowy. I was looking forward to that, to having a bit of atmosphere to capture some good photos, as Autumn didn’t fulfil my full expectations, although it was always going to be the most beautiful season for photography.

If I’m not wrong, we have just three days of mild snowing as of today. It is still mid-January, so the probability of heavy snowing in my local area is still a possibility. Still, as time goes by, I’m becoming increasingly sceptical about it. So, I decided to use every chance I had to get photos with snow in it.

A few mornings ago, when I woke up and saw there were whites around I was actually not that excited at all, because I thought it was not enough amount of snow that fall through the night. I was prepared to go outside anyway regardless of the weather. As I was moving up, I noticed that the amount of snow was actually quite higher than I imagined in the first place. Suddenly, I was a bit overwhelmed with warm feelings, although it was cold outside.

It is actually quite funny, how weather can reshape the look of a landscape, at least for photography purposes. I photographed that morning, many sights that I wouldn’t imagined being photogenic or having that catchy factor to even consider getting a photo.

For this photo, I was passing by the road that is beside the one I ended up photographing. By chance, I noticed the road lines leading further into the part of the forest. After a quick observation, I composed a photo that I probably liked the most that morning from a bunch I’ve got. Now, I mentioned the way the weather can reshape the landscape for photography purposes. Not in a million years would I even consider photographing this location in any other weather conditions due to how much trash is on the ground under the snow. Also, there are some power wires here, but they are perfectly blended in the scenery.

All in all, I had a much fun morning in the forest photographing. One of the reasons was that I didn’t expect this amount of snow. But you know what they say, best things happen when you least expect it.

 

I took advantage of a good weather forecast, set the alarm for 3:30, and then drove 45 minutes South West of Brisbane this morning to have a play with my Tokina 11-16mm lens.

 

This is a single 30 sec exposure at f/2.8 and 3200 iso. The foreground lighting (me) was from a torch reflecting off my car nearby.

isbeblownaway.

Up early this morning, planning on joining a group of people for an outing NW of the city today. However, the weather forecast is for 80% chance of thunderstorms all day, so I've changed my mind about going.

 

On 2 May 2016, I was incredibly fortunate to be able to witness about 30 (?) of these Grouse, mainly male with just a handful of females, displaying at their "lek" or communal dancing ground. On this particular day, five of us went to see this. There had been a couple of possible chances for me to get out there, but these had fallen through. Then, out of the blue, friend Dorothy phoned me, asking if I had been able to get to the lek yet. She said that if I hadn't been, her husband Stephen would be willing to drive me there! This was such a wonderful surprise, though anyone who really knows this couple already knows what amazingly kind and generous people they are. I was so happy to get this unexpected chance and the three of us had a great morning, in good weather and in good company. Two young men also went, making their own way there. Delightful guys, highly respectful of not only the Grouse, but also of us, constantly moving form their seats to allow us to get our turn, and vice versa. They could so easily have left the 'hide/blind ahead of us when the Grouse had all left, but instead they waited till we were all packed up and then made sure that we were all able to safely get over the very awkward stile at the fence line. Having been out there last year, on 13 April 2015, I knew of this problem and had bought a three-step step ladder a few weeks ago, just in case I was able to go sometime this spring. This made so much difference, thank goodness, especially as I was really tired after staying up all night in order to leave at a very unearthly hour of the morning.

 

So glad we had a nice, sunny day - the day I went a year ago, the weather was overcast and not good for photos. This year, I got to see the Grouse in beautiful sunrise light, too. Of course, the 'problem' of clumps of tall grass was exactly the same this year, lol, keeping the birds somewhat hidden, but every once in a while, a bird would come out into the open. Most of the time, they were quite distant, but we were very lucky that several did give us a closer view. Such magnificent birds, with their yellow 'eyebrows', purple patch below the side of the neck on the males, and glorious feather pattern. Their dance display to attract the females is so fascinating to watch.

 

Just after we got back to our cars, another car came along the road and stopped to talk with us. It turned out that this gentleman was indirectly connected to the lek. He voiced his huge concern at how many people had been out there this spring, feeling that this was not good for the Grouse. He said that hopefully no more people would be going, so that the Grouse would be undisturbed in their mating. We agreed with him and thought that maybe people should not be allowed to visit every year, but perhaps every two or three years. I have passed on his words and great concern to our Naturalist leader who organizes these visits.

 

After we left the lek, we travelled a few nearby backroads, hoping to see a Western Meadowlark. We saw 10! It had been so funny, while we sat in the blind at the lek, a Meadowlark was somewhere nearby and sang for us for about four hours! When we at last emerged into the sunlight, there was no sign of it anywhere. We did manage to get a few distant shots of two or three of them.

 

Thank you so much, Stephen and Dorothy, for offering to take me - so very kind and thoughtful of you, as always! The stop for having our sandwiches was great and the muffins you brought along with you ended the morning very nicely.

 

If you have time, the following 2:30 minute YouTube video by the Alberta Conservation Association is very good for showing the action of these birds. There are several still shots first and then the video starts. Pretty amazing! The birds remind me of a child's wind-up toy : )

 

youtu.be/vRUVIU4UfYo

 

I came across an excellent brochure (pdf file) about Sharp-tailed Grouse on the Internet and will use some of the information from it, instead of using my own words to describe what goes on at a lek. I had seen females of this species before, on Christmas Bird Counts, but not a male and not at breeding time.

 

www.ab-conservation.com/downloads/educational_materials/b...

 

"Sharp-tailed grouse perform spring courtship displays on communal “dancing grounds” called leks. Here, males compete for breeding opportunities by displaying their "dancing” ability to females. Most activity on the lek occurs in the early morning just before sunrise and for a few hours afterwards. The males’ energetic display includes fluttering wings, rapid foot stomping and spinning in tight circles - reminiscent of wind-up toys. The most dominant males court females with low cooing sounds and by strutting around them with inflated air sacs on their neck and fanned tail feathers. It is nearly a winner-take-all form of competition, as only a few of the males are selected as mates by the females.

 

Leks are found in areas with dry open ground, where dancing activity keeps the vegetation well-trampled. Leks are used over several weeks beginning in late March and are often used for years, even decades. They are an important part of sharp-tailed grouse life, and the loss of suitable lek habitat can be a limiting factor for sharp-tailed grouse in Alberta.

 

Male sharp-tailed grouse gather on the lek in late March. In April the females arrive, sparking increased displaying by the males. Peak attendance by females on the lek occurs between mid to late April in much of Alberta. Once they have selected a male, hens breed once and then seek out a place to nest, usually in late April to early May.

 

Leks are an integral part of the lifecycle of prairie grouse. Active leks should never be approached, as any disturbance to the birds may disrupt breeding activities and result in the abandonment of the lek. The locations of active and historical leks are of great interest to grouse biologists.

 

Native North Americans called the sharp-tailed grouse “Fire Bird” because of their reliance on fires to keep their habitat open in wooded areas. Suppression of natural fire in parkland and boreal areas reduces the amount of open grassland available to sharp-tailed grouse.

 

Sharp-tailed grouse were an important food source for native North Americans and they continue to be a popular game bird for hunters today.

 

In Alberta, the sharp-tailed grouse is listed as “Sensitive.”

While exact population numbers are not known, there is a feeling that sharp-tailed grouse have decreased significantly in numbers over the past 40 years. This trend is supported by lek counts, hunter surveys, aerial counts and Breeding Bird Survey data. Declining numbers are the result of a reduction in the quality and quantity of sharp-tailed grouse habitat, particularly the loss of quality nesting and brood-rearing habitat." From www.ab-conservation.com.

 

www.ab-conservation.com/downloads/report_series/Use-Habit...

Yesterday, 6 July 2015, the weather forecast looked good for the High River area. However, when I got there, the sky was overcast, the distant Rocky Mountains had completely disappeared, and the light was not good for taking photos. For some reason, all the birds, including the Ibis near the blind at Frank Lake, were unusually active, which didn't help!

 

There were three things that I thought I would try and photograph - yellow Canola fields, any kind of bird sitting on a fence post with Canola behind it, and an Eared Grebe with young ones on her back. Managed the first two, but there was just the one Grebe near the blind but too far to photograph when she had a single baby on her back. I was lucky, though, to find several close White-faced Ibis at a slough NE of Frank Lake.

 

Can't remember exactly where these two sheds were seen. This was only a short trip and I really didn't feel like driving around for too long, trying to find a beautiful old barn. Too many outings in the last 10 days or so, plus too much time spent on editing just a few of the photos, and very little sleep, ha.

Homage to Todd Hido ...

With a reasonable weather forecast predicted I decided to get up for the sunrise yesterday morning and headed up above Castleton to see how I would get on from the top of Winnats Pass. The wind was incredible as I made my way over the fields towards the pass that I was virtually blown off my feet but it was more than worth it as the pre dawn light was fantastic. I just loved the light falling on this stile so I stopped and set up my camera to capture it before I ruined the pristine snow that had fallen overnight.

(Olympus EM-1 mkii 7-14mm f/2.8 pro 3 seconds f/6.3 @ 11mm Kase Wolverine GND-R 0.9 (3 stop) Reverse grad)

 

www.stephenelliottphotography.co.uk

The weather forecasters called for snow ... and that's exactly what it's doing. Warmer temperatures are also forecast for the next few days so I think this white stuff won't stick around. There is a beauty to the silence of a snowfall that I like, tho.

The weather forecast said it was mist but it felt like a combination of mist and a sea fret. No wind and very little light getting through so the fishing boats and their reflections not moving at all

See Part 1 in my archives Peepz. And if you're in a hurry, you may want to read this later, or in bits...it's bloody long. It's a work in progress...

 

"The Diamond Ring"

 

As my gaze scanned the small, crowded bus depot in Adelaide that December morning, I had all but given up trying to find a lift with anybody from the bus, as I hadn't met anybody on the truck stops we'd made along the way. The ticket counter wasn't open yet, so I decided that I should just wait there until it opened, and figure out what to do next after that. In the meantime I could put out some feelers and try and sense whether anybody else there looked like they might be headed for the eclipse. At that point I was still convinced I should try to get on a connecting bus to Ceduna, where most of the eclipse watchers would be, but I was sure that the tickets were sold out. I hadn't ruled out hitching on the road, but hoped it wouldn't come to that. I was also a little dubious about the weather. It was seven thirty in the morning, and the clouds formed a thick blanket of grey above the city.

 

The day before, I'd checked the weather forecasts to see what the outlook was like and it was sketchy. There was going to be cloud cover in most of the places along the path of totality, but the forecast said that the clouds should clear to just a scattering by mid or late afternoon. It might have prevented me from going at another time, but because I felt so driven to go I trusted that wherever I ended up would be the right place, with the right people and the right conditions. Still, I couldn't help having a slight sense of trepidation over whether all my efforts would end up in travelling over a thousand miles to watch a total eclipse of a total eclipse.

 

So with all that and more whirring around my skull, I let my eyes skim the crowd while my otherware kicked in at the non-local levels, and before I knew it I couldn't help but notice these two guys who were standing in one of the aisles a few feet away from me. It was their wooden case that first caught my attention and it got me pretty excited when it looked liked it was just the right size for a telescope. When I looked for who might own it, I scoped them. They looked a little fatigued, but ready for action.

 

The tall one that looked like Tom Selleck was dressed in loose khaki shorts with cargo pockets, a matching polo shirt, chunky white socks and brown suede walking boots. Short blondish-brown hair peeked out from beneath a baseball cap that made his rugged features look slightly boyish, but he looked to me to be around forty. Standing next to him was a guy of similar age, who looked like your classic computer programmer or science genius. He was more slightly built, had a pale complexion and black rimmed glasses. He was wearing a black leather jacket over his knitted jumper and polo shirt (which was underneath and neatly tucked in to his jeans), a black belt and some well-worn brown leather shoes.

I was totally loving their look. I had to meet them.

 

I approached them and asked if they were going to see the eclipse.

I think they might have been a bit surprised to have been approached but they smiled and said yes. I found out that their names were Gerard and Alan, then they told me that they'd been on the same bus from Melbourne I'd been travelling on. I had been all the way up the front in seat 1D behind the driver, and hadn't seen them behind me in seats 11C and D.

 

I told them that I was going to try to get to Ceduna. They glanced at each other making me feel uneasy and they said that the weather forecast didn't look so good there. It was much better where they were going, the Wirraminna Rail Siding, in the desert, but first they had to go to Port Augusta where they would be picking up their car.

 

It became instantly apparent that going to the desert over the coast was a way better idea given the weather, so I figured that the best thing for me should be to try to get to Woomera with them (which is where I thought the Wirraminna Rail Siding was). I imagined this really cute country town where there would be balloons and streamers in the streets and lots of bakeries. I thought that we'd get there, mingle with the others who'd gathered, and then I could find accommodation and another lift back to Adelaide the next day. I asked that if I could get Port Augusta, would they let me hitch with them to Woomera? We all decided to have breakfast together and see.

 

As soon as we sat down they were pulling out all these crazy maps and charts that they'd downloaded off the net, one with a pencil line drawn by hand marking the path of totality. Others had bright highlighted sections where they'd made other notes. They had made all the calculations for latitude and longitude, timing down to the second, were a wealth of astronomical knowledge and they told me all about the amazing capabilities of the camera gear they'd brought. They were prepared for everything. I could not believe my luck. They even had spare eclipse glasses! They were able to tell me everything I needed to know and I really hoped it could all happen so that I could travel with them.

 

After breakfast I noticed that the ticket counter was about to open and I watched as about twenty people formed two queues in front of the two nearest windows. A third window had also opened but no-one seemed to want to go there and at first I stood at the end of one of them then figured it wouldn't hurt to ask, so I went over to the third window. When I asked if that was the right ticket counter for a bus ticket to Port Augusta I was told it was and got my ticket in about 30 seconds, beating everybody. It was a completely full bus, confirming to me again just how much we make our own luck.

 

The guys agreed to let me join them in Port Augusta and I felt this wave of gratitude leave my body and travel out into the cosmos. As I looked at them hanging out together with their impressive assortment of camera gear, tripods, bags and telescope, with their open, friendly faces, smart casual clothing and a tendency toward geekishness, they looked like my very own Batman and Robin. I smiled inwardly. My prayers HAD been answered! I DID find the right people to travel with right there on the bus!

 

It was a moment I'll never forget.

 

After that I found a pay phone and rang Bimbo Deluxe, a bar I had a residency at, and left a message letting them know I wouldn't be coming in for my set that night.

 

We got on the next bus, me alone behind the driver in 1A again, and them just a few seats behind. I spent a bit of time visualising a bright blue, cloudless sky for the eclipse, and reminding myself to be in the moment, trusting as much as possible that life would take me where I needed to go, as the frequencies of gratitude for all that had occurred up until then filled me and flowed outwards from me. All the seeds sown by reading the CWG series which had tied up so many loose ends for me in my esoteric studies, were beginning to sprout and I wanted to breathe as much life into them as possible. I wanted to see how they might grow, as I did. I thought about Time. Then I slept deeply.

 

"Alan and Gerard spent the trip working out the orbital distance of the Moon and the rotation of the Earth in order to finally understand the path taken by the Moon during the eclipse and the speed at which it travelled. This was facilitated by the calculator in the mobile phone. Alan also worked out how photo exposures and bracketing points using full and ½ stops."

 

This is what Gerard wrote about what he and Alan did on the bus to Port Augusta, in his own account of our travels called "Eclipse 2002". He has even named the subtitles in Chapter 1, which will give you a greater idea of what's to come.

 

Subtitle 1: Alan's, Gerard's and Liz's Big Time-Warp Adventure

Subtitle 2: Port Augusta or Bust!

Subtitle 3: The Kangaroo Did It

 

I believe all time is happening in one eternal now. Especially since studying the Maya's supreme understandings of cosmic timing cycles and mathematics. Whenever I begin to worry about anything "in the future", I ask myself, "Am I OK, in this moment?", and the answer is always yes, so it's a good way for me to quell my fears and anxieties, and to trust life more. I really started this practice on a regular basis during this trip. And I was more than ok, as I was soon to see..

 

When we arrived at Port Augusta, the sky had cleared and a few tufts of white dotted the sky, which was a relief, and a beautiful gleaming silver sedan met us at the terminal. It belonged to Gerard, and I asked how even though he lived in Melbourne, his car was quite conveniently waiting for us in Port Augusta, at the bus terminal. After we piled into the car I heard the first of many stories during that trip that would change me forever.

 

The guys had so much gear it was hard to believe they'd carried it all by themselves and for a few moments I had my doubts that we would fit everything of theirs into the car, let alone have room for me or my scant belongings. After some tricky packing though, a space was made available for me to squeeze into in the back seat, behind Alan who was in the passenger seat, and with Gerard expertly handling the wheel, we set off for last minute supplies.

 

The whole transition from the bus to the car couldn't have been timed more perfectly or executed with more ease. It was a good sign, but once we got in the car I really knew that the gods had smiled down on me. They could've had a big old pick up truck for all I knew, but instead I was able to relax in the luxury of black leather seats and enjoy the views from air conditioned comfort, gaze out at the sky through the sunroof and tinted windows and tell the outside temperature from a LED display in the wood dash. To top it all off, I had just met the two coolest, smartest straight guys I'd met in ages, and we were about to embark on a truly amazing adventure together. I was happy and grateful to be alive.

 

We stopped in Pt Augusta's main shopping drag for some lunch, supplies and fuel for the trip. After some bad cafe food Alan and I headed off to the supermarket while Gerard attended to some other business and we quickly dashed around picking up water, bags of fruit, nibbles, and chocolate (for me). I asked Alan if they'd like to have something to eat later, maybe for a picnic? This seemed like a good idea to him (I don't know if the guys, for all their planning, had considered the necessity for food at all), and I picked out a roast chicken and some salads. I completely forgot to buy a disposable camera in Adelaide so I tried finding one there only to discover they were sold out. There was a Woolies a block down too (also sold out of cameras), but I quickly purchased a cotton blanket as I had nothing warm with me, and hoped it would come in handy, seeing I already had my pillow and I had no idea where I was sleeping that night. All I knew was that the eclipse was in less than four and a half hours and when we met up with Gerard a short time later, it was agreed that there was no time to spare, so we, and the fully-laden car, swung back onto the road and headed for the outback. Alan had a collection of maps in the glove box that he would refer to from time to time as Gerard brought us up to a comfortable cruising speed of 130 kph. ETA was going to be 17:45 at our desired spot.

 

They were both great story tellers, although you could see that Alan's more outgoing personality was more suited to it, but Gerard certainly didn't seem concerned, and I realized later that even though Gerard had heard Alan tell most of his stories several times before, he obviously still liked to hear them, and he often helped coax a story out of Alan's memory banks by reminding him of some of the funny details.

 

I began to hear about how they had been driving through the South Australian countryside a month earlier, taking photos and generally enjoying a break from work for a few days when they had hit a kangaroo when it suddenly jumped out in front of the car and stopped them all in their tracks. Gerard's car had been in the shop at Port Augusta getting extensive repairs done ever since, and as the eclipse was occurring at the same time they could collect the car, they decided (at the last minute too) to come and get it and see the eclipse at the same time. At the end of their story we all fell silent for a moment as it dawned on us that their encounter with the kangaroo had actually created the conditions for us to meet as we did. The kangaroo was pivotal to the whole story and we knew it. I silently thanked the kangaroo for it's role in all this, and for the ripples that that moment created when it lost its life that night, as I marvelled at the way our lives had intersected.

 

Whatever green countryside there was around Pt Augusta soon made way for flat, dry earth covered in clumps of long grasses, low bushes and small trees as we sped towards Woomera. We passed a few old run down towns that looked like the only public outlet was the petrol station, and I wondered how people out there spent their time, and how children, if any, could cope with the sheer barrenness and isolation. Then we passed Pimba. It was so third world I was totally taken aback. I felt like I'd stepped into an alternate reality, into another version of Australia, one I would never want to dream into reality, but it already was. It was quite a sight. We all unanimously agreed that it was a "hole" of gargantuan proportions, a "standard reference hole" at that, as we passed the shabby weatherboard houses that all seemed to be just barely standing, with each and every backyard sporting massive piles of rubbish and broken down, rusting machinery. I thought I'd seen bad, after all, some of my poor Filipino relatives used to live in houses where to get there, you'd have to walk on wooden planks to avoid the mud, streams and little fishes everywhere, but this was BAD.

 

I could see why the area we were fast approaching was home to a detention centre for illegal immigrants, a former nuclear missile testing ground and hot spot for UFO sightings. There was nothing. For miles around, nothing. Just red earth, a bit of scrub, and the wind and sky. I must admit as well as watching for the clouds to clear up even more, I was constantly on the lookout for any unusual aerial phenomena as I'd thoroughly done my research and the probability for a sighting was in my estimation, high.

 

While we drove to our destination we all got to know each other a bit better which was easy as we all seemed to like one another. At first I was a little unsure about whether Alan was actually happy about me being in tow, as the two of them had conferred briefly before deciding to let me come, and I'd picked up on a vibe. I couldn't blame him if it he wasn't all too pleased, as my coming along had interfered with their plans and well, "guy time". I soon put those thoughts to rest though as it as it soon became apparent to all of us that that the extra pair of hands I now afforded them, might've actually come in quite handy.

 

We went over a few things about the way the guys wanted to set up their gear, and what we would do when totality arrived. Then they started describing to me how they would like me to help change a solar filter on "the Lens", this massive super-telephoto thing. They explained that When Gerard said "totality", I had to take the filter off and to put it in a special Tupperware container that they had brought with them. I was like, "Oh my God, are these guys for real? We're actually practicing a DRILL for taking photos!". Say what you will, I thought they were unreal.

 

I know that sort of daggy technical stuff about photography and math and astronomy that we talked a lot about is pretty boring for most people but I frickin love it! And I didn't even need a camera after all! It was almost too much, too good.

 

When we passed Woomera it dawned on me that we weren't going to stop there, and that I'd gotten my wires slightly crossed. But as we drove past it, I thanked my lucky stars I wasn't going. The town looked horrible, with a big vintage fighter plane mounted on a big metal brace near the "Welcome to Woomera" sign near the town's entrance, to show off our so-called military "might", right(?), and the selfish misuse-use of our country's resources by stupid white guys who are all dead now anyway. I didn't see one person anywhere. The whole town looked deserted and felt like a museum you'd never go want to go visit. It didn't look like anywhere I could find accommodation at either, that's for sure. The Wirraminna Rail Siding was another 73 km on from Woomera, as I quickly learned, as the guys handed me the map and asked me to calculate the distance.

 

When I realised that I had no plan of action for after the eclipse, or anywhere to stay, and that I was in the middle of nowhere, I decided to just go with the flow, and didn't worry too much about it, and drew comfort from the fact that at least I'd had the foresight to bring dinner.

 

When we started getting close, the energy in the car changed from quiet expectation to a more intense, hair prickling kind of anticipation. I'd been chatting quite animatedly with the guys from the back seat the whole way there, but now I was nearly bouncing up and down like a child with excitement as we passed the parked cars, then bus loads of Japanese tourists, four-wheel drives and camper vans. The Japanese tourists had lined up all their shiny camera gear in front of their respective buses and had about 30-50 telescopes per bus pointed at the Sun. We kept driving though, for another couple of k's, headed for as close to the centre line of the path of totality as possible. When they explained this to me, I nearly exploded with glee, although I didn't really grasp the enormity of this fact until the moment of the eclipse itself.

 

The sky had finally cleared to just a bit of late afternoon haze, and the temperature was up around 27 degrees, a far cry from the sombre 11 degrees that morning in Adelaide. I was being taken to a spot on the earth that would be precisely in line with the Moon and the Sun as the eclipse took place. I thought back to the day before when all of this had been just a dream. I knew I was experiencing life at a much a higher frequency than the one I normally did, and things that would normally take a lot longer to materialize, seemed to be taking form almost instantly.

 

We finally saw a place where we could park. There were a few people dotted around the brush nearby. Some guy was hanging out at his ute with his sheepdog about 30 metres away. He looked liked a local with his cut-off sleeves and messy shoulder length hair. There were a couple with a tent next to their car some distance away too, as well as a tourist bus parked on the other side of the road behind us. Although there were really only a few others in the close vicinity, the air still felt tantalisingly pregnant with expectation.

 

We began unpacking the car and setting up all the gear. Alan had cut some sheets of polystyrene back in Melbourne to make a viewing box and we set about putting it together. The tripods were set up and the telescope came out of it's handsome handmade box. Gerard took care of setting up his two cameras and the Super Lens and soon everything was done. He found himself afterward, aching for somewhere to relieve himself and decided the only gentlemanly thing to do was drive the car down the road a couple of k's and find somewhere totally private. I think he had to go quite a way though as he was gone for quite a few minutes...

 

I had mentioned to Alan and Gerard earlier that I was interested in UFO's and I was secretly hoping I might get to see one fly past as the only other time was a long time ago, and it was pretty far away. I kept my eyes peeled to the skies, which by now were absolutely clear of any haze and a vivid, bright blue. YAY.

 

During the 1991 eclipse in Mexico City, tens of thousands of spectators saw a huge metallic disc sitting stationary as it slowly spun in the air and emitted a reddish glow. It was captured by 17 different cameras at the time and you can get the videos online if you do a search. Anyway, it was in the air above the city for 30 minutes before, during, and after the eclipse. But that is something I have learned since.

 

We did the practice run of the drill for when totality struck, when Alan would have me change the solar filter on the camera lens. Gerard was supposed to alert us when totality came, which only lasted 32 seconds, by saying "Totality". I would quickly remove the filter and say "Off", and put it into the special Tupperware container, heh. When totality was nearly over I was to put the filter back on and say "On" and he would continue snapping. It was a pretty funny and well, beyond cute for me. We laughed a lot while we were practicing too, so you can see they don't take themselves too seriously. Along with their brain power, personalities, preparedness and 5 star transport, it was everything that worked for this li'l diva. It was so hard to believe how amazing this was all turning out, but I kept reminding myself to accept it, because it was exactly what I'd set out to create. I was ticking off all the things on my checklist of requirements effortlessly. They were the perfect eclipse companions.

 

It was getting close to the time when "first touch" was going to occur and both Alan and Gerard started getting really anxious and a bit fidgety. They made last minute checks of their gear, which turned out to be good thing, as Gerard realised that one of the lenses on his camera wasn't right and changed it. They checked their watches, which had been synchronised to the second (NO! Really? Yes...REALLY), and I got some of the prepared polystyrene board so Alan could project the Sun's image onto it from the telescope's eyepiece while they both took pictures. The wind was up and it was becoming increasingly difficult to hold it so that it was straight, but I managed, and they were able to capture all the crucial moments without too much trouble in the end, but how the hell they'd planned to do all that on their own, I have no idea. There was only about an hour to go until totality and I wondered when the sky would begin to grow dark.

 

We occupied our time by switching from eclipse glasses to looking through the Super-Lens and watching the projector board. After 40 minutes or so I noticed that the desert was beginning to look darker and redder. It was so beautiful with the contrast in colours so much more pronounced all around us. Then it became darker and darker very quickly. The soil, the rocks, the trees, everything now looked like a deep blood red. We looked at each other and knew that this is what we'd all come so far to see. The hairs began to stand on end on the backs of our necks. The Moon's disc was almost all the way across the Sun, and we couldn't wait for the last of it to be covered. As Alan was focussing through the camera, Gerard and I put the glasses on and watched. We grew more and more animated as the last couple of minutes ticked by, talking about how it was going to be great. They'd told me earlier that when the Sun was in totality, it was ok to remove the glasses due to the rays being blocked, which I didn't know, so now I was really hanging out for when I could look at the Eclipse with my naked eyes.

 

"All is ready. The sky is clear of any obstruction, the gear is set-up and as good as it can be. 14.5cm telescope, low power eyepiece and reflective board, Nikon 1200mm lens on a cinematographic tripod with a Nikon F100 behind it loaded with several feet of Fuji's finest 400 ASA film ready to go. All the planning has been for this moment. Researching the websites for eclipse locations, photographic exposure tables, rain and cloud-cover forecasts; the planning, the buying, the hiring, the building, the packing and the travelling have come down to this moment, which finds Alan, Gerard and Liz at the side of the Stuart Highway A87 halfway between Pimba and Glendambo in South Australia on Wednesday Dec 4 2002, at 19:40 and 43 seconds local summer time."

 

More from "Eclipse 2002".

 

Then Gerard yelled out "Totality!" and exactly what happened next is rather hazy. I know that at some point filters must have been changed and photos were taken, but what I do remember is Gerard saying, "Liz, you should take the glasses off". I turned my back to the sun, whipped them off my face and when I jumped back to look at the sky, my jaw fell. It was so incredible. Oh my God, OH MY GOD, the COLOURS!" And then I was suddenly going "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!" at the top of my voice and started pogo-ing up and down on the spot like an African Masai tribesman, not caring at all what Alan and Gerard must have thought about my rather vociferous, ebullient display. It was just so stunningly beautiful. Think of Jodie Foster's face in Contact when she travelled through the wormhole and saw the galactic core for the first time. Ok? Awesome. That was me. That was ME!!!!!

 

It was so ineffable, so untranslatable, so profound, to watch the perfect circle of the Moon's disc finally moving into place, and exactly covering the Sun's. The resulting diffuse flares of intensely-hued colours that began around the white-hot corona, and radiated trails that filled the entire dome of the sky overhead and as far as one could see. They formed in streaks of rich fire-orange, electrically charged gold, plasma-perking purples, reds of all shades, the deepest royal blues and St Germaine's violet flame. Small fiery orbs of intense orange, called Bailey's Beads, gathered and bubbled around the edges of the Moon's jagged mountain peaks and looked like liquid mercury. Stars became visible for those few moments, as did the planet Mercury, which hung like a small jewel in the sky beneath the Sun.

 

Nothing can prepare you for that moment. No photo can ever do it justice, no words can completely convey all the emotions that you experience or what your eyes actually see. It is like looking into the Eye of God.

 

Physically being a part of that alignment makes you understand just how synchronised this universe is. As I watched the Moon gliding over the Sun, as our planet turned, I felt like I was a both a witness to and a part of a great cosmic clock, and I was watching as the cogs were sliding perfectly into place. It stirred something so deep and ancient within me, my enduring connection to the Sun, and I knew that I could never be the same again. Looking back I realise that the rays of light I was exposing myself to were in fact carriers of particular frequencies that open usually inactive codes within our DNA, often referred to as "junk". What a crock. It's not junk, it's programs and codes that help re-install our Otherware, and we all have it in our DNA.

 

All across the desert, from all the different groups of people scattered around us and beyond our line of sight came cries out to the sky like mine. People cheered, hooted, honked, laughed, screamed, clapped, cried. Dogs howled. Their voices were carried by the outback winds high up into the air where they met and playfully merged with the sounds of others that had come from further away, then they dropped back down to earshot where my ears would catch them, and I could feel their wonder too. We all knew we were part of something infinitely greater than us, that we were seeing something incomparable, that we were part of some vast intelligence that permeates and synchronises the entire Cosmos.

 

The guys were similarly affected and started exclaiming things, which again are hazy. What is clear, is how we all just looked at each other at one point, and with crazed smiles across our faces, spontaneously hugged all at once, laughing. Then they both paced around our site afterwards saying things like, "No one can ever take this away from us. We can say WE WERE HERE", and "We saw it!" We really saw it!" and, "We can never say "Awesome" about anything else again!" I thought statements like these, especially from Gerard, were rather brave, as I couldn't imagine him having outbursts like this very often, and we all went "Yeah!" quite loudly in agreement...and laughing that excited laugh that is almost the same as the one you do when you drink too much red cordial.

 

I thought a lot about the unbelievable relationships of proportional size and distance that it takes to actually create a total solar or lunar eclipse from our vantage point on earth. It is not a coincidence that the sun is 400 times bigger than our Moon, or that it also happens to be 400 times further away from the Moon than the Moon is to Earth. Unsurprisingly, I've wanted to learn a lot about sacred geometry since then and from what the astronomers are saying about the layout of the Universe, it seems nothing has been placed anywhere by accident.

 

At the end of 32 seconds, after the Moon began to move again, the first rays of light emerged again and for the briefest time, we were treated to the dazzling "diamond ring" effect that results. It's what most of the eclipse watchers as their favourite moment and I now know why. We took more photos and continued to watch through the cameras or the on the projector board for at least another half an hour. The Sun had only been 14 degrees above the horizon when totality had occurred so the Sun set quickly as the last whiskers of the pinks and oranges of sunset trailed across the sky. We packed up and left there, as I continued to watch the sky out of the car's back window, for as long as any traces of light remained. By 9:15 they'd all disappeared, having been devoured by the by the encroaching darkness, and we were plunged into night once again.

 

Then I realised I could start looking for UFOs so I spent the next twenty minutes scouring the skies some more.

 

We were all still pretty high from the eclipse experience, but by that time we had settled into our own reveries and the car was silent. We decided to drive down the road a little further until we found a spot to stay at for the night. The guys figured they'd just sleep in the car, and that was fine by me. I was SO glad I'd bought that blanket, let me tell you, as it can get nippy out there in the desert, even in summer. We'd passed some lovely salt lakes on our way there during the day, but hadn't had time to stop so we decided to try and find one to make camp at. Gerard found a great spot down a dip off the road beside one of these giant salt lakes that was quietly shimmering as it reflected the starlight. As there was no moon or cloud, the stars lit up with sparkles over the black canvas of the sky. It had been awhile since I'd been out to the country and I'd forgotten just how many stars there were up there, but it was great to be reminded. I breathed in deeply and imprinted all I could about that moment into my DNA. The Milky Way was looking particularly milky, and when I remembered we had a telescope with us I nearly lost it. I completely forgot all about stargazing that day, which for me is unusual. I'd wanted to bring my own telescope but knew it wasn't practical, and I hardly thought I would get the chance for sky watching without having my own transport.

 

It was becoming more and more evident that our meeting was no accident. Every single thing that I had visualized was coming true, and I felt totally in the zone. The best part was that I could get an astronomy lesson too, something I hadn't even thought remotely possible when I left for Adelaide the night before. I'd only just begun studying backyard astronomy on my own for a few months at that stage, so I really appreciated the opportunity to learn some more from people who actually knew their stuff.

 

We set up a rug to sit on, a buffet was laid out on the boot of the car, and we had a fabulous starlight picnic, then Alan got to work putting the telescope back together. He'd not only painstakingly constructed the box for it, he's also done several clever modifications to the telescope itself. It was incredibly smooth to manoeuvrer and the viewfinder was mounted in such a way that made it permanently aligned to the eyepiece. Not bad compared to my clumsy thing, which was big and had a great lens, but needed constant adjusting.

 

Gerard had a red-light torch for perusing the star map, and between them both they had all the star maps you could wish for, including a current one. I'd brought my Mighty Bright light as well so we consulted the maps for awhile under the open hood of the boot, deciding finally that we should definitely try to get a rare glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy, which was going to be low on the horizon, but still visible for a little while from where we were. It's the closest spiral galaxy to ours, and part of our local system of stars, but it's still 2.2 million light years away!

 

So we began. We looked at binary star systems including Sirius A and B, the Great Square of Pegasus, found Andromeda (it looked amazing, though tiny - but who cares, I saw it with my own eyes), some pretty star clusters, a wild nebula in the Orion constellation, and loads more. We had a ball. I was completely enthralled. Alan turned to me after awhile and asked whether there was anything I would like to see, and I faltered for a minute. I tried to pull a star's name, a constellation, anything from my rather limited astronomical knowledge that I'd like to view. Then I remembered! It slipped off my tongue so easily like it was something I said all the time: "I'd like to see The Pleiades please". With a quick look at the sky map, he and Gerard quickly turned the scope into position and aimed. When Alan told me I could take a look, I put my eye up to the lens. I could not have been less prepared for the reaction that I had next. It all happened in the instant when the photons of light, carried across space for my eyes to see, entered my retina. I was greeted by the most gorgeous display of hundreds of shining points of light, like diamonds on black velvet, in a beautiful cluster formation, with the seven main stars of the constellation contained within my field of view. It was breathtakingly beautiful and I gasped audibly. Within nano-seconds every part of my being, down to my DNA, was resounding with the recollection that the stars I was looking at, were HOME. Yes home. H-O-M-E. What!?@!

 

Tears had welled up in my eyes and I just wanted to cry it was so beautiful, but I had to catch myself in front of the guys, as I didn't want to come across as a complete lunatic. I didn't even know what to think myself. I had to process this. It was happening so fast. So I composed myself and said something like, "Wow. That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen." (twice in one day, shit, what was happening to me?), and I found it very hard to tear myself away from the telescope after that .

 

We did however move away for awhile, and we all sat around chatting some more, and telling more stories. I didn't speak about what had just happened to me. I just sat with it and tried to make some sense out of it. I really knew very little about them, except that they were also known as the Seven Sisters and were a favourite for stargazers. The Pleiades weren't a part of my research or knowledge base at all. I don't even know how I even remembered the name. Whatever was unfolding though, I knew one thing was undeniable. I must be going insane. NO, just jerkin with ya, sorry, anyway, it was undeniable.

 

Everything in me knew that I was somehow deeply connected to this star system, but how? I resolved to do some investigating when I got home. But that night in the Australian Outback, in my planetary home, I knew that I had remembered another home, a galactic home, and that it was just as real. It thrilled me to the core. I was beginning to remember who I was!

 

Gerard retired early that night, and went to sleep in the driver's seat fully reclined, while Alan and I told a few more stories. I'd asked him earlier in the car if he'd ever seen any UFO's and had hinted at something but didn't really want to discuss it much. But when we were alone I asked him to tell me again and he did, reluctantly at first, but then much more engagingly, as he began describing some unusual sightings he'd had growing up on the coast in New Zealand.

 

These were not some pissy two second glances at a tiny little light in the sky type of sightings, his were skilfully detailed, varied, and in one case he watched some craft over a few hours. He eventually worked out that there must have been a flight path near his home because he would regularly see them all following the same course. Commercial and Air Force planes would also fly past but whenever he would ring Air Traffic Control at any of the Air Force bases or airports, he would be told that it was one of their regular flights, just a bit off schedule. Then he would say, "NO, I saw Flight Number so and so depart on time, this was something else," which always fucked them up. I heard some pretty amazing stuff and realised there was more to this funny computer guy cum action hero, than I thought. It didn't surprise me in the least that we could have something like that in common. I've always been attracted to people that, despite appearances, upon scratching their surface, you find that there's a whole lot more going on with them than you knew.

 

Alan declared he was sleeping outside on the rug, and I stayed up late into the night, just me, the telescope, and the stars. I finally had to go to bed when I looked directly up at the sky overhead a couple hours later, and the black void turned into a flat plasma screen and the stars became eyes, and they were all looking at, Me. That was the limit.

 

I was able to lie down quite comfortably in the back seat if I lay on my side in the Toblerone-shaped wedge that had formed under the reclined seats from the front. I adjusted my pillow, put the blanket over me and slept like a baby.

 

I found out later that the salt lake we were led to is named, quite appropriately, Lake Hart. Heart....geddit? Can you believe it? I actually couldn't. The gods have such a sense of humour.

 

Since then a lot has happened, and my kin in the Pleiades are now a big part of my life. They have taught me so much. I'll write a lot more about them in later posts, trust me.

 

And for the next two and a half days Gerard, Alan and myself ended up staying together. I gave them several opportunities to ditch me, but we were really having a lot of fun, and they would always invite me to stay on. We were well matched intellectually, but we all had quite different worldviews, so it was nice challenge for us to be mutually respectful of each other's ideas while trying to challenge one another as coherently as possible. We spent much time on the road exchanging ideas, trying on stuff for size, or sometimes throwing them in the 'too hard" basket. If Alan slept then Gerard and I would talk about stuff and vice versa. They both worked as computer technicians, which is how they met, and pretty early on it became obvious to me that some of my ideas about reality were pretty hard for them to hear. They were always open-minded enough to let me speak though, and they'd bounce things off me. We talked sporadically about some of the ideas in the CWG books that were relevant to that moment, or about a particular insight I'd had, or how you might apply some of the ideas to your daily living, and it sparked much interest and debate. I found out about a year later that Alan and Gerard had both decided to give the books a read a few months after our trip, which was brilliant.

 

It was always reciprocally enlightening, being in their company. They were an absolute mine of information about all sorts of things and we never ran out of topics to discuss. And it wasn't long before I threw away my return bus ticket and we leisurely drove me around some of the most beautiful South Australian countryside on a very scenic route back to Melbourne. We went through quaint little towns that they'd found on previous jaunts, and I saw the constantly changing landscape from high lookouts and wide open roads.

 

I've experimented with stretching time ever since I first discovered that when you fall in love, you can make a kiss last an eternity. You can also make a boring flight pass more quickly if you get good at it, or create an atmosphere at a party where a deep, lengthy, important conversation that seems to last for hours, passes in only twenty minutes. I've always liked bending and stretching time to suit my needs and on that trip it happened constantly, but it felt out of our hands for the most part, like we were caught in a strange time-warp so we just surrendered to it. "Is that the time?" was something we ended up saying more times than I can remember. And the best part was, it wasn't just me saying it, we all were.

 

We "parked" out the next night in a back street of a village. We got there quite late at night, and parked the car at what appeared to be a dead end street, with no neighbours to annoy. The next morning, we were mildly shocked to discover that we'd parked only a short distance away from the municipal dump! A few curious Jersey cows had congregated at the fence beside the car as well, and from beneath thick eyelashes, they were casually eyeing its sleeping inhabitants. The next night we were in the Barossa Valley, slightly more prepared, and we woke up to a gorgeous view of a hillside covered in rows and rows of lush green grapevines and blue sunny skies.

 

Once we got back to Victoria, we made for the Grampians, where time seemed to bend and take on a mind of its own again. No matter how we tried to stick to a schedule, or drive faster it just seemed to take a really long time to get back to the City. We saw wild deer in the mountains though, which I loved, and we used the drive to delve a little deeper into our exchanges. My cheeks welcomed the break too as they'd begun to ache a little due to all the laughing I'd done over the last few days, and especially that last day. Alan had let loose with some of his real life death-defying adventures at around lunchtime and he had me crying with laughter a few times. He really is Batman if all that stuff is true, and he told them like it was. So at around dusk, the tone changed slightly and I got to hear about a poltergeist that he'd lived with for over a year, and some other pretty far-out stuff that had happened to him. Gerard spent some time wanting to discuss the Akashic Field, so I fielded questions from both of them about that for awhile. We talked about reincarnation, dimensions of reality co-existing in the same space without knowing about each other, consciousness, the astral world, the Noetic Sciences Institute, a whole lot of stuff that I really love and it was a nice way to leave things.

 

We'd gone from being complete strangers to all being deeply transformed in some way by our meeting, in three and a half days. We'd trusted in our flexibility in each moment, and stretched ourselves beyond our normal comfort zones, creating or participating in large and small miracles, so it seemed, at every turn. We used our brains, which came as a great joy to me as I don't get to talk quantum physics with many of my disco friends. It's not their fault I know...but it was a nice change. I also knew that I'd helped to open up their perspective in many ways, as they did for me, in HUGE ways. My heart knew that I had been drawn to them because their soul's urge for change, and expansion, had already begun, by nudging them into unconsciously creating the conditions for me to enter their lives. I'd definitely sent out a call for them too, for the same reasons. The difference was that they had no idea I was coming along. I, on the other hand, had been certain that I would find them.

 

We finally made it back to Melbourne sometime around 9 pm that night. It was a lot later than we all thought we'd be back by, and we'd all been together non-stop for 3 and a half days. On our way home, I told them where I lived and it turned out that Alan lived just around the corner from me! It was nice, as dropping me off didn't pose any inconvenience at all. We swapped numbers and said our farewells amidst bear hugs and kisses goodbye. It was good to be home, back to my bed, but I could've kept going for at least another day if I'd had to. They dropped me off right to my front door.

 

We all knew it was meant to be, and it was.

We've all kept in touch too, Batman, Robin and I.

 

I'm forever in their debt for everything they shared with me, for their kindness and generosity and for behaving like perfect gentlemen the entire time. Men like these are really rare... but if you are one them, you should try going to an eclipse!

for the next 7 days :)

From a Facebook posting by John Barry Graham on 8 August 2023:

 

"A tornado in 2015 took the roof off. The community that saved and restored the two old churches has $16,000 saved up thus far to put a new roof on and save the elevator. It is the most photographed elevator in Western Canada."

 

Drone footage of Dorothy elevator and old bridge East Coulee, by DanOCan

 

youtu.be/fVB-qjzcL4c

 

I had put these five photos aside when I last deleted a few more photos from my computer. Gradually, I will add the description that I had written under a different posted photo taken on the same day.

 

Just playing with the settings of my camera, Panasonic FZ200, back in 2014. Taken on 29 September 2014, before the roof was blown off in a wind storm in 2015. Unfortunately, it has never been repaired.

 

"On 29 September 2014, I finally drove out to an area that lies NE of Calgary, that I had longed to go to for so many years. It must have been 30+ years ago that I first saw one particular area of the Badlands of Alberta. A few times since then, I had been fairly close when I went on several botany trips out that way, but when you are carpooling, you can't just go wherever you want. So, my youngest daughter and I decided that we both wanted to make this trip. All summer, we had been waiting for a day on which she didn't have to work and where the weather forecast was for no rain on the day or there had been no rain the previous day. The Bentonite Clay in the area becomes treacherously slippery when wet. The forecast for this day was for a mainly sunny day - at last, we were going!

 

I think this was the longest day of driving I had ever done, especially to, and in, an area that I'd never driven to before. For anyone who doesn't know me, I have battled a driving phobia for decades, plus I have no sense of direction, lol! Thankfully, my daughter has an amazing sense of direction, so I knew we wouldn't be stuck out on the prairies in the middle of nowhere. A typical question at too many intersections went as follows: me - "Do we go left?"; my daughter - "No, we go right", lol!

 

I met my daughter at 8:00 am. and I got home shortly before 9:00 pm. Much of that time was spent driving; the rest was spent wandering round three main areas - The Hoodoo Trail, Dorothy and Rowley, in different directions from Drumheller (known for its remarkable dinosaur findings). The forecast was far from accurate on our drive out to the Badlands and I began to wonder if we'd made a mistake going on this trip on that particular day. However, knowing that snow would be returning very soon ("returning" because we had two snowstorms on 9 and 10 September), I was beginning to feel rather desperate and really didn't want to risk not getting out there this year. The afternoon was less cloudy and we did have some sun.

 

So, the first of our destinations was The Hoodoo Trail, a small area of protected, spectacular hoodoos (rock formations), and then we went further, to the almost-ghost-town of Dorothy. I had longed, for such a long time, to see the two small, old churches that are to be found in Dorothy, as well as the old grain elevator seen in this photo. This photo was obviously taken before the sun eventually came out. This abandoned icon of the prairies stands at the edge of the main road and will probably end up crumbling or being destroyed before too long, like so many other grain elevators in Alberta. Such a waste, that they are not protected.

 

After that, we drove over 11 bridges and called in at the tiny hamlet of Wayne, passing the old Atlas Coal Mine. Much as we would have liked to visit the mine, we knew that we just didn't have time. Then we went to Rowley to see the old grain elevators and to wander round this very small, historical place. There are actually three elevators, with two being right next to each other and the other one a little further from them. Dorothy felt and looked almost deserted, whereas Rowley was beautifully kept.

 

From Rowley, we made our way back across the prairies to Calgary. I had planned on getting back before it got dark as I no longer like night driving and very rarely do it, but we didn't quite make it. On the return drive, the last sighting was a Great Horned Owl that was perched part way up a power pole. Well done, Rachel, spotting this welcome bird! Not easy to see in the dark. By the time I got home, I was so tired and my arms were so painful from driving, but, what a great day we had!!

 

"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

 

www.bigdoer.com/8049/exploring-history/prairie-sentinels-...

 

An interesting film about how the old grain elevators work (or worked). Grain Elevator by Charles Konowal, National Film Board of Canada, 15:57 minutes in length.

 

www.nfb.ca/film/grain_elevator

The weather forecast predicted some fog yesterday morning so i wake up early to visit the border of the "Westerschelde" .

Unfortunately there was no fog but instead there was beautiful light!

Regardless of the late hour, my lack of shoes, garbed in pajamas, I feel obliged to witness the rain stop and begin again 12 minutes later. Isn’t technology wonderful?

 

Note....I took this with my iPhone so it is a camera shot, NOT a screenshot. I just got this Apple Watch 7 and had "issues" getting it activated at Verizon via their Smart Assistant on chat. Deliver me from going through THAT again! Four hours later, I do not have the watch doing cellular work. Next day after my nerves calmed down, I visited the local company-run Verizon store. I was so fortunate to have Thomas approach me. HE endured the conversation with a real person in upper-level tech support and performed all the button presses like a PRO (which he was), and I witnessed from the comfort of a nearby leather bench. It was so good to walk out of there with this watch working AND connected.

YET, I know I can take screen shots ON the watch or BY the watch, so why do I not show a watch screenshot?????? I will have to ASK SIRI what the shortcut is for screenshots on the watch.

Isn't it amazing that my brain and time are concerned with an insignificant detail of a machine......and not the things precious to me? We do make choices. We must live with the consequences.

 

NOTE2.....Yes, on the watch under SETTINGS/general/screenshots/enable and you take a screenshot.

So I will upload an update....do not know how to add another photo into the comments of THIS photo, so...it will be the next photo in my stream.

Saturday's weather forecast wasn't looking so hot (again), so Mari and I decided it was time to finally make a trip across False Creek to check out the Foncie's Photos exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver. While I enjoyed Foncie's photos, it was actually the permanent exhibition, Neon Vancouver | Ugly Vancouver, that really caught my eye. I guess I just love old neon signs! March 29, 2014.