All good things end

Calgary often has a long wonderful autumn season, and this year was no exception. Except it just started raining, and the weather people tell us it will turn to snow. Later this week it will be nice again. Edit update, I started writing this about noon. Shortly after that the light rain has turned to light snow. By 1pm it's fat and fluffy flakes. It begins...

In the meantime, Linda has just left for a walk. She will come back soaked in sweat and snow.

In the other meantime, Calgary drivers will have forgotten everything about driving in the snow, and will still be in just as much of a bullying hurry as ever, so there will be carnage on the Deerfoot, especially in the several construction zones. Just like nearly every snowstorm, every year. But this blog, for today anyways, isn't about idiot drivers.

Yesterday was a busy day putting the back yard to bed for the winter. Linda got a good deal on bulbs, and bought many. Lots of many. Bazillions. She's been working steadily over the past couple weeks planting them, a few hundred a day at least. I don't know where she found space for them all. Let's all hope the squirrels and voles don't eat them.

We had our usual 3 rain barrels set out, plus using the black and green carts and some 20 L pails to capture rainfall during the drought and water main repairs. Except we can't leave them that way over winter. Linda has been drawing them down and soaking in the garden beds.

My task is to empty them out completely, swoosh them with a hose to get the worst of the gunge out, then turn them upside down and cover them with one of those big bags soil gets delivered in. Plus I like to extend the drain pipe out into the lawn, trying to keep the patio from turning into an ice rink during winter if I should want to use the barbecue. As a bonus, I scrambled up a ladder and hosed out the west eaves trough, getting soaked to the ass in the process.

Here's what it looks like just before the rain then snow started. The camera insists on punching up the colour and brightening the scene. It's actually more dreary than this.

1. The patio table ready for the snow. I like watching the snow buildup patterns, looking a little like a waffle. I'm thinking this year I might try to get some abstract black and white photos of it.

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3. The big barcelona barrel is under the yellow bag.

4. The two wood deck chairs are tucked under this bag.

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7. There's a few flowers still hanging in. That won't last long.

8. The two white water barrels are under the yellow bag.

9. That big brown plant actually stood out, kind of glowing a bit against the background. 

10. The side lawn. The brown eyed susans have finally packed it in and drooped over.

The most sheltered plants in the front vases are still hanging in, just barely. There's some fall sprouting crocus plants that optimistic about putting up shoots, but we'll see what happens.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NL)

Film HP5, looking for textures for the darkroom class.

Linda

Of course we had to stop to take this photo. It was one of the planned side trips, and harder than you'd think, since there is no place to park. This made it into the book.

Newfoundland

A really wide panorama from the highest point in Terra Nova park. Yes, we drove to the nearby parking lot, and it's a short hike to this viewpoint. 

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

More of this kind of weather is coming soon.

The flowers of mid October

Incredibly, there are still flowers in our garden during a tour this morning though they're fading fast. I didn't see any bees, but it might have been a bit cool for them, and there isn't much for them to work with. Here's what I found.

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Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NL)

Film

Taken mainly to see if film would pick up the fine hairy fuzz. I'm likely to try to print this in the darkroom, see how it turns out.

Linda

At the welcome to Raleigh chairs, though this was taken as we were leaving. This image made it into the book.

Newfoundland

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

There were no elk in the lake

Much like Two Moose Lake in Yukon that we never saw any moose in, there were no elk in Upper or Lower Elk Lake. However there were reflections, and I'll take that trade.

Sean had suggested a day trip to Elk Lakes provincial park in BC. It's north of Elkford, nearly at the end of the road. That sounded like a great idea to me. I packed along maybe too much gear, including both film cameras, and the digital, plus a bunch of lenses. It made for a heavy pack walking on the nice path to the lakes. 

We followed the yellow path along the lower lake, and then to the upper lake. We ventured a little way down the red path beside the upper lake, but I don't know how far along we went. I'm thinking maybe half way? We had a happy several hours there working the amazing reflections. We think overall it was maybe 7 or 8 Km walking. My pack was feeling very heavy when we got back to the car. 

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2. The lower lake. We sighed in happiness at seeing the calm water. Then a guy fishing waded out and started creating ripples. This was during a quiet moment when he stood still.

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4. Part of the view on the upper lake. Did I mention the reflections were amazing? Maybe not quite as nice as Portal Lake, see here, but we weren't complaining. Later in the day we talked to a guy that said this was his favourite spot in the whole world, and that calm water didn't happen often.

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7. So, people. Sigh. This is an hour and a half up a gravel road north of Sparwood. Then a couple Km walk to the upper lake. We get there and find this family having a picnic. OK, they mostly kept their dogs out of the water, but later chased us down the path, the dogs growling at us. Then more people and more dogs showed up as we were working the scene. Another 8 or 10 people, some with dogs, walked past us, as we were down on a little rocky beach. All were friendly, but I had not expected to see anyone at all.

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It was a long drive, and Sean did all of it, but the photos and quiet at the lake were wonderful. I've got some film photos that I will develop anon and share if they're worth it. Oh, and yes, we stopped for a closer look at the Sparwood big truck.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NL)

Film

Linda

Newfoundland

One of the images that made it into the book.

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

September 2016, the view along one of our neighbourhood streets.