Sometimes You Don't Find What You're Looking For

     Last Sunday I went for a walk at Heritage Ranch. I described Heritage Ranch here.

     My intention was to try to see some birds and maybe get some photos.  Heritage Ranch is scenic so I thought I might get photos of the area.
   
     There were huge cumulus clouds on the horizon so I thought I might find a good position for a photo.

     Well, I didn't find what I was after. I got led astray. Sometimes you run into other things and get sidetracked from your original goal.

     First, I was surprised to see so many late blooms in the meadow area and in the brush beside the river. Next, some horses looked as if they wanted to be photographed. The horse photos led me to find other horse photos.

     So with these two things getting in my way I saw few birds and forgot about landscape. I did see pelicans soaring on some good updrafts. 

     Now I like plants but I haven't put in the effort to identify them. Some of these I know and some I was able to find in the guidebook. I hope you enjoy what I found.

 I think this is potentilla that got away.

     

Oh I did get some cloud!

I did get a landscape.

I tried Hard !

     A few days ago when it was full moon I looked out and saw the picture I wanted. Things were just right for me to get the big full moon and a small silhouette of spruce tree across the moon. 

     So I focused the camera and zoom zoomed and took a photo. Hm Not bad but not exactly what I wanted.

     Okay! Try a few more. I take a good look at the photos and then try something else. No way. Things got worse.

    Now I hope I learned a few things. My point and shot will sense one part of the image. I wasn't very careful checking what was sensed. I think the branch and the moon got mixed up and hand holding a zoom isn't the greatest when you're 75.

    Now maybe it would take some extra lighting on the tree to show up the branch as the photos a few minutes later didn't show much branch and the moon was right out of focus. So I guess I'll have to decide which one I want to focus on.

    I like to think I learned something. We'll see when the next full moon happens if it's not cloudy.

I almost got this one, but I didn't get the branch across the moon

I got the branch sort of but the moon got fuzzy

The tree was fine but the moon did something funny

       As I was doing this I was thinking of music with moon in it in some way. I was thinking of Elvis's Blue Moon. Now you can't have Blue Moon because that's mine. What else can you think of?

Do No Harm

    I just finished reading "Do No Harm" by Henry Marsh. Do no harm is an idea that medicine bases its  practice on so the title is most appropriate. Much of what Henry Marsh writes about is not doing harm and how he agonized over that situation.

   I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book as it gave a look into the brain, brain surgery and medical practice.

    For most of us the brain is a mystery. For neurosurgeons like Henry Marsh, they know it's parts, how it works and what they can do. He tells about all the different tumors which may be found in the brain. Each type of tumor has a special method of surgery. For some tumors surgery is not an option. In many cases the tumor grows back and is worse than the first time.

   Henry Marsh finds it difficult when a patient or family wants more surgery and Henry Marsh knows that very little if any good will be accomplished. There are times when surgery should not be done and Marsh did the surgery. This bothered him.

    Another common brain surgery is clamping off aneurysms and repairing other blood vessel problems. Then in surgery he has to work around blood vessels as a major proportion of our blood is in the head and if a vessel is cut it gets very bloody in a hurry.

   Henry Marsh was very honest about mistakes he made and it bothered him terribly. He made sure that patients were aware of the risks.

    Henry Marsh was very honest about his opinions of the health system and how you have to jump through the hoops. Many times it's useless to jump through hoops.

    I enjoyed this book and highly recommend that you read it.

Heritage Ranch

       Heritage Ranch is  400 acre property in my city that was bought by the province and given to the city for park space. There are several Km of river bank. There's valley bottom and escarpment and some land on top. Much of the valley bottom is old quarries that have been rehabilitated as ponds. There are huge piles of overburden. There are quite a few aces of very good native habitat.

      The powers that be at the time decided to call the area Heritage Ranch and center the area around an equestrian theme. The equestrian set up is still there and has gone through some good times and bad times. There are many other activities in this area such as trails used for walking, cycling and skiing. The ponds have been stocked with fish. 

     Heritage Ranch is one of my favorite places so I decided to spend a few hours there this afternoon. I was hoping to get flower shots and some images that caught my eye. There were also cloud banks around. Who knows what you might see on the river?

     I'm not a horse person but that's what caught my eye and before you know it I had a lot of horse photos. 

      One thing I couldn't find was a sign for the place.

      

A couple of horses not used for trail riding today

Fancy one horse"vehicle"

Fancy team coach

Rig used for summer rides

Tack room

Ready for a trail ride

       Now there just happened to be a wedding to take place. The wedding party was to be driven to the altar with the fancy vehicles. The wedding and reception were to occur down in the valley. There are many excellent sites for a wedding and a barbecue was set up for the reception.

You always need a couple of good wranglers

My Animal Was Back!

      There are many Jackrabbits in my city area. Sometimes I see them on a daily basis and then sometimes they are visiting someone else. They sometimes have their resting place in my yard and use it for a week. They are free to come and go in my yard as long as they don't touch my garden. Well, one of these fine creatures has touched my garden and he is banned. 

     When the plants are new and small, the jackrabbit can do a lot of damage in a few minutes.

     So since I don't have gates, I have had to set up some barricades. I've also had to board up some areas under the fence where the piker knows he can enter. 

    Today I left one of the barricades down and I found this guy ensconced in the middle of my back yard. He wasn't to pleased about leaving. I was within three meters ( 10 ft)  of him before he caught on that I meant business. I told him that, "I would kick his butt if he didn't leave immediately."
  
    It did make it easy to get some photos.

August Long Weekend

    We have just finished our August long weekend. Few people call it by the proper name of Heritage Day week end. The Monday is referred to as Heritage Day.

    In 1974 Alberta declared the first weekend in August to be Heritage Weekend. It's not a mandatory weekend. Businesses can stay open or closed. I think most people get time off for the weekend. Nova Scotia and the Yukon have the first weekend in August as a holiday but they celebrate something else.

    The purpose of the week end is to celebrate our heritage.  Again what happens is all over the map. Some communities have all kinds of heritage activities. The city supports the celebrations. Food, dance , music, language and culture are displayed. Face  paintings seems to be a popular activity. It certainly gets the attention of the kids.

     Edmonton has a city wide celebration with a huge music festival. It's  wildly popular week end.

     Our community had nothing scheduled. We just took the time and ran.

     Stopping to reflect on our heritage is a very beneficial thing to do. We understand more things from our past. This makes other things in our world make more sense. 

     Now I know many other places get the first weekend in August as a long weekend. Did you have a long weekend where you live? That was the theme for your August long weekend?

    Now being sentimental, I like August because my Dad's middle name was August!!!

   

Colors

     Where I live there are very few rainbows. When there is a rainbow you'd better look fast because it doesn't last long.

     Last week there was a super rainbow. I was in such a hurry to get photos I took them through the window. This rainbow was a complete arc, large and very bright colors. I would say it's one of the best rainbows I have seen. 

    Now I couldn't get to an open area to get the whole arc.

    Maybe next time.

     Now how many songs can you think of with rainbow in them. You can't have Over the  Rainbow because that's mine.