Deer Hardly There

I took this shot on the west coast in October. This deer was in an apple orchard and barely visible untill he raised his head...the camoflauge was incredible.












When I played with the photo in Photoshop it was interesting to see how the deer's fur blended with the colour of the dry grass.

Gotta canoe

This IS one of the things that defines Canadians!

And this photo was taken is in the middle of a big city...

if you're Canadian canoeing is somehow in your blood...

if you're Canadian, you'll canoe just about anywhere.

Wild Blue Skies

This past weekend we had some more blue sky days.


This past weekend we had some more blue sky days.

On a bike ride down by the river I couldn't resist taking photographs against those skies.ays.

....

...and today I had time to play with the results!

I couldn't decide which of these three was my favourite...so I posted them all!

Wild Dancing Tables!

I guess these tables are not actually dancing...but they look as if they could!

They are at a local cafeteria in front of a wide curving window with huge mountain views.

On a sunny Sunday they glowed with cheerfulness!

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday is hosted by Marytheteach right here :
http://workofthepoet.blogspot.com/

Every Tuesday there are beautiful photo's...with some cheerful red in them. Some have a lot of red...some have a very little. In my picture you get to play 'spot the red'...because it's a very little! I took this picture on a deserted West Coast beach last summer and I don't think I even noticed the little red lady at the time!

Like Some Shoes On a Wire - Sorry Leonard!

Steffe from Sweden asked me what's with the shoes on the wire on my Buster of a Blue Sky Day.
I didn't know they had a meaning so I asked around. Here's the answers I got:-

They're selling drugs somewhere near here.
It's gang territory.
Someone lost their virginity.
..or my favourite...
Someone didn't like their sneakers!

There's some interesting information (and photo's) on these websites

http://urbansemiotic.com/2005/12/28/shoes-on-a-wire/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-shoefiti_city_zonejan22,0,7233589.story

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dgbalancesrocks/121887934/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/topsy/100748496/

And here's some more shoes drying out in the weekend's sunshine outside our neighbours house.

Funking Up Those Blue-Sky photos

So I took all those photo's in Kensington....and then I had fun playing with them!
You can see the some of the originals in the posting - Buster of a Blue Sky Day - here.

http://clearlyflew.blogspot.com/2009/04/buster-of-blue-sky-day.html

Shadow Shot Sunday

Two shots this week, one taken outside in my local park where a group of birch trees cast their shadows on the snow.

And one taken inside at my local mall.
This patch of light made for some very effective shadows and people don't seem to mind you pointing your camera at their feet. This woman, busy texting, didn't notice me at all.
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To see great Shadow Shots visit Harriet's Blog at: http://heyharriet.blogspot.com/
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A buster of a blue sky day.

Yesterday was a beautiful, blue-sky, gift of a day.
Alberta specializes in big blue skies and yesterday's was a buster.

I took a walk round the funky neighbourhood of Kensington and stopped for a while in one of my favourite cafes to sip coffee and watch the world go by.

Parts of the city are still wrapped in winter - like these bushes swathed in burlap against the intense cold we had up until a couple of weeks ago. These plants on the shady side of the street probably won't be unwrapped until May - we often get late frosts in May.

The May long weekend is the date that we are (unofficially) allowed to start gardening in this city! Before then you dice with the probable death of your precious seedlings at the hands of fierce winter storms.

But not being able to garden means that there's plenty of time to sit on benches in the sunshine and enjoy chatting with old friends while you watch the last of the river ice melt.

And as soon as there's warmth, a true Canadian's thoughts turn to the great outdoors.

There were plenty of big toys out from their winter hibernation today - urban toys like these bikes...

...and other toys better suited to the wilds - like this canoe.

I must have seen at least eight canoes strapped to cars today - the spring runoff from the mountains makes the rivers fun for confident canoeists right now. Blue Sky Days...I love them.

The ducks are back!

Spring is here!

The ducks are back!

For the past five years this pair of ducks has turned up in our back yard in Spring. Sometimes they arrive ridiculously early in March. This year they are a little late -but nontheless welcome for that! They nest beside a pond just accross the way from us but the pond never has water before the May long weekend. Every winter the pond is emptied and then, in spring, the Fire Service guys come and fill it up...too much risk of it freezing before May.

These ducks hang around the neighbourhood wandering in and out of yards eating bird seed and waiting for the water. Some years we get big spring snowfalls, wet heavy snow that can be deep. When this happens the ducks waddle around up to their necks in the white stuff looking very surprised. Things always work out though and by June they are wandering down the pathways trailing a necklace of fluffy ducklings. They stop the traffic every time they cross the road from the pond to their residental neighbourhood hangout .

Welcome back guys!

It's good to see you again!