Category Archives: Photography

sundogs…

19 Monday Sep 2016

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spent some time recently considering what makes things special…

an event, a workplace, a person, a view…

and how do we make them special… 

is it being in the right place at the right time… is it an aura they produce… is it just being open to hear/see/feel…

last night I noticed a sundog in the sky which is very odd at this time of the year… usually they are visible when it is very cold, but after a little research I discovered this:

Sundogs can and do occur worldwide and during all seasons, but they are most common during winter months when the sun is low in the sky and ice crystals are more common. All that’s needed for a sun dog to form are cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. Only these clouds are cold enough to be made of the plate-shaped ice crystals we mentioned above. The sun dog occurs when sunlight is refracted off of these crystals…

it is just over the tree canopy to the left of the sun in this picture… 

what made me look out the window at just that moment… and actually see the tiny version of a rainbow…

chance?

dropping…

18 Sunday Sep 2016

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had some fun with my camera first thing this morning as I took pictures of the flowers in the house…

we will see if they end up dropping the rest of the blossoms or whether they will happily open…

beautiful hibiscus flower…

mandevilla blooms in the hanging basket which I set into the gardenia plant… hope they all make it through the winter…

grocery shopped at Safeway, dropped off the bags, and then went to Costco with my kids…

always find a few things there that I really need… today it was a cute Tommy Hilfiger sweater and some fancy olive oils…

great to have supper together again… and both my son-in-law and grandson did a few jobs around the house for me…

now I am curled up on my bed watching the Emmys and catching the odd Pokemon…

lazy…

17 Saturday Sep 2016

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I’ve been using Saturday as my lazy day… 

trying to make time on Fridays to have a meal or visit with friends and book any appointments I may need, so relaxing on Saturday makes sense… 

soccer is over so the kids will be coming again for dinner on Sundays… I try to do grocery shopping and a few chores around the house that day as well…

today I barely got off my butt… it was beautiful outside but couldn’t even get up the energy to go out to sit for a while…

eventually I went out and brought in the six plants that need to overwinter in the house… 

not sure how I feel about the ones I’ve put in front of the living room window… could be blocking the view too much…

think these might be okay, although I may move the one in the dining room…

will see how it goes…

did have some fun with my lunch… read that today was guacamole day so decided to have it as part of my meal…

used roast beef slices as the bread and made a sandwich with guacamole, lettuce and tomatoes… tasty, lol…

even managed to fit in some chips…

rather fun…

drops…

16 Friday Sep 2016

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spent the morning wandering through the Park…

most everything was damp and there were lots of drops on the flowers…

this branch was so pretty with the raindrops…

purple water lily in the lily pond…

dahlias are so beautiful… even if they are not purple…

these are so delicate and airy… and the water drops look great…

not sure what kind of duck this is but it was kind enough to stand still so I could get a good shot…

once I got home I had some lunch and a nap… and headed down to the U of W to watch my grandso play volleyball… it was great fun and they played really well…

got this great shot of some of the action… then we blasted to their house, grabbed jackets, picked up supper and headed to his final soccer game of the year… at the end of the that game, one of his buddies poured water on him so he was rather damp on the ride…

back to the volleyball tournament where he played one last game… 

I think he will sleep well tonight… me too, lol…

view…

15 Thursday Sep 2016

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been thinking about different points of view… and how important it is to be open to looking at things from another perspective…

had a few opportunities lately to think about, and look at, things from another angle… it is good to be reminded that there are many ways to see things…

sometimes I can get stuck on one idea, and not be able to see some of the other ways of looking at it…

at lunch today was looking at the steeple from a different view…

same steeple, but different…

a great reminder not to expect others to be a certain way…

nice view…

happy…

14 Wednesday Sep 2016

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took a few photos over the weekend that made me happy, so decided to share them with you…

Bob and Tom who took us on a wagon ride at the Zoo… they are so cute…

a beautiful butterfly posing in the Shirley Richardson Butterfly Garden…

a jet flying over the soccer fields on its way in to land…

sun and shadows on a wonderful walk through Bruce Park, while I was getting poke balls at PokeStops…

a pile of flower petals in the English Garden…

a stunning purple water lily in the lily pond at the Leo Mol Garden…

finally the view out the window this morning…

sunshine is one of the things that always makes me happy…

squirrels…

13 Tuesday Sep 2016

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a few days ago I noticed that the impatiens plants have been decimated in the garden… all that is left are the stems… not a leaf or a flower in sight… at first I thought it was the bunnies…

then I noticed that the hibiscus had broken branches…

yesterday while I was making supper in the kitchen a squirrel jumped onto the rail right beside the patio door…

they have broken branches on one of the cedar trees by the bird feeder, which they think is their personal food container…

I had wondered how the birds were emptying the feeders and then noticed this… they are jumping up from the ground… yikes…


they are everywhere…

listen…

12 Monday Sep 2016

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been thrilled to get some great shots of Canada geese over the last few days…

I love the sound as they arrive in the Spring… and their calls as they travel through the sky on their way to and from the fields where they are now filling up for their flight south…


I hear them and usually, by the time I get the camera up and focused, they are gone… got most of these at the Park…

a few days ago I started my morning listening to them flying over the house… the next night I heard them flying by just after dark…

one year we went to FortWhyte Alive and watched the evening return of thousands of geese from their feeding grounds… the sight and sound was amazing…

of course the sound in the Fall is a bit sad because they are either preparing to leave or actually going…

still it stops me in my tracks wherever I am, and I gaze up to the sky until I spot them… hope you get to hear some where you are…

nature is awesome…

fleeting…

11 Sunday Sep 2016

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what a lovely ending to my vacation…

enjoyed a walk to and through the Park before a breakfast date with my sister-in-law, nephew and his girlfriend…

after breakfast we took a quick tour of the Gardens…

she lives in Calgary so it is always great to spend time with her when she comes to town…

had just pulled my camera out to take a picture of a butterfly bush when this butterfly decided to land on it… and pose…

surprised how this picture turned out with the light and dark from my shadow…

I love this spot and often sit here for long periods of time… a favourite place where my beloved and I would rest when we walked through the Gardens…

and my kids came for supper… soccer is over, yay… we had a great time, Pokemon-ing and visiting… everyone enjoyed the food and there were leftovers to share for a few meals this week…

kitchen is tidy, laundry is done and I am ready for my return to work after a fun and fleeting break…

I think I enjoyed every moment of the ten days… lots for the memory banks…

fun…

10 Saturday Sep 2016

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picked up by the kids and went to Pokemon Day at the Zoo... there were lures set up at all the PokéStops…

great fun to see people of all ages playing throughout the area… got my picture taken with two of the Pokemon trainers…

they didn’t mind taking a photo with me and the kids thought it was hysterical…

from there we went to Grant Park Soccer Fields where the middle guy played his two final games of the year…

that’s our guy on the left…

this shot even has the ball in the air, pretty cool…

to top off the day we went downtown to Manyfest… way too many people for me… the food truck lines were crazy… eventually, after spending a long time in food lines, we ended at the shaved ice truck….

there were a lot of flavours to choose from…

sure looked pretty… and I think that every drop was eaten up…

going to bed now, that was a busy day…