The Ice Trail + Area in Autumn September 30, 2024

 The Ice Trail donned in autumn hues with an added touch of frostiness!

Today was my second try at enjoying a loop walk around Bowness, Baker and Bowmont Parks.  My plan to do this the other day was thwarted when on the drive out of my neighbourhood, my tire picked up a roofing nail.  It was smooth sailing today and I arrived to beautiful sights with a crispy coolness in the air, enough so that gloves and hat were necessary accessories.  First on my agenda was to check out the locations where I skate in winter.  

This is The Canal! 

This is The Lagoon!

This is The Ice Trail!

These Parks are perfect places to witness the shades of autumn!  

An added bonus was the clouds continued to put on a performance.  

The framing opportunities were plentiful!  

It's Baker Park where you will find Siberian Larch Trees!  The Larches along this section ranged in colour from some still sporting green to others being prime and yet others were some where in between. 

This is a close up view of a Siberian Larch Tree.  

I would never even attempt to paint one of these!

The clouds dissipated by the time I arrived at Bowmont Park 

yet the colours carried on and now reflections added to the views. 

view looking back down at the pond

beautiful tree-lined trail

The above photos show just a fraction of the beauty I captured.  These parks were the perfect place to be to say good-bye to September.  By the time I arrived back at my vehicle, I had covered just over ten kilometres.  This brings me to 1911 kms covered to date this year.  My goal was to cover 2024 kms by the end of the year but I now hope to do that by mid October.  

🖌🖌🖌🖌🖌🖌

I snapped this shot of a female Mallard Duck on my most recent visit to Carburn Park.  While I have taken many photos of mallards, for some reason this one appealed to my senses.  I kept looking at it wondering could I do a watercolour painting of it! I tried but failed! I tried again, ugh! I wanted the painting to include  the duck, the water and the leaves but no luck!  Then I had a thought, just paint the dam duck anyway!

This is my watercolour painting of the female Mallard Duck!

To fill my need to paint leaves, this is what I came up with!  

A freehand willy nilly whimsical masterpiece!!!

birding autumning painting September 28, 2024

It was a bounty of beauty

too much for one frame

colourful tree after tree

happy t'was here I came!

Autumn can be fleeting so I am filling these precious hours and days with the season's sights of all sorts!  I have been looking back at previous years late September and early October postings, I googled to see what others are currently seeing, I have been walking the local trails admiring the colours and I created this simple watercolour painting.  

When heading out this morning, my hope was to see some birds that may not have migrated yet but more so to witness Mother Nature's autumn presentation.  Many things lately motivate me to get out there and one of them is that I have a story and photos to share so I can participate in Eileen's critter party!  When I arrived at Carburn Park this morning my first thought was here we go once again, those clouds are still full of music and have so much dancing left in them to give.  

Fulfillment came in short order!  The colours and the reflections were incredible right from the get go!  I shared space with a few other picture takers, all of us in awe of what we were witnessing.  At these split seconds in time, thoughts about anything other than what I was seeing were completely erased from every corner of my mind.  

it was a bounty of beauty 

colourful tree after tree

I heard the call of the wild so left the ponds behind and 

followed a trail that would take me to even more beautiful sights.  

You're still here was my thought when I saw a group of pelicans!  

I chatted with others who were also surprised to see a group of eight had not migrated yet.  

Ring-necked Duck

White-breasted Nuthatch

they will be here throughout winter

Yellow-rumped Warbler

a few still hanging around here

Black-capped Chickadee

they will be here throughout winter

watching the river run

Feeling content with the birds that I did see and was able to capture photographs of, I then took a little more time to admire the scenery before leaving the park.  There were a few locations where the fallen leaves were accumulating but I still want a bigger pile before I go "swishing".

reflection

perfection

Speaking of reflections, I created this watercolour painting!  

six mountain peaks

reflecting in water

form three W's

that tell a story

Wildly Wonderful Waterton

Stay Tuned!

autumn heat wave

"I must go down to the seas again!"

On a hot day it's nice to be near a water source, be it the ocean, the sea, a lake, a river, a creek!  As I walked along, the clouds put on a performance.  I believe they were still feeling the music from the other day.  The trail ahead was calling me, I liked what I saw and I aimed for it.  I walked and walked and walked in the direction of the horizon before me.  It looked inviting and it looked refreshing on this hot morning.  I walked and walked and walked, that blueish turquoise never got closer.  You see, that's not the horizon, that is not a body of water!  That long line of cloud is a chinook cloud and underneath it is the sky!  The only water source along todays eight kilometre walk was Nose Creek!  

 in celebration of the Larix lyallii (Alpine Larch Tree)

While the heat was waving outside, I reflected back on Saturday which meant my thoughts turned to snow that needed to be added to this watercolour painting.  In the past I attempted to sketch larch trees with coloured pencils and paint them with watercolours but never really felt totally pleased with the outcome.  I was ready to make another attempt. Before painting anything, I had to place masking fluid on every single branch and needle to preserve the space.  The tree was the last thing I painted and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it come to life.  It consists of a few layers of paint, starting with a beige then yellow then gold then orange. I wish I could attach to this blog post the feel of a larch tree, the needles are so very soft. Below the paining are my reference photos which I took on Saturday. I call this a success! 

cityscape escape

A cityscape style of escape was not my intention as I drove down the "speedway 500" in rush hour traffic but a six car pile up in a construction zone brought me consternation and I had to "save the day"!  I gingerly worked my way to an earlier exit, parked at Bottomlands and went on my merry way covering kilometres with views of city centre and such.  I knew I had to make it "merry" to "save the day".  So I savoured the sights, the warm breeze and being near water during this heat wave.  Once again the clouds were captivating!  They added a top frame to The Confluence Historic Site & Parkland.  The Sunflowers were demanding attention in the East Village Gardens.  There's the city centre cityscape! Two wire fences and a narrow road separated me from the beautiful Cinnamon Black Bear! After covering eleven kilometres, I felt content that I found a way to "save the day" and was ready to head on home.  

Nose Hill all dressed up for Autumn September 23, 2023

There is always a good reason to hike up on Nose Hill!  The last time I went it was to see the goats, the goats left last week, so today I went for other reasons!  Wanting to get my fill of fresh air and exercise were two of the reasons but the main one was to see the autumn shades.  

I got the last few minutes of the morning glow!

The colours were right there as soon as I stepped out of my vehicle and they were everywhere.  

It seems this time around, I just can't get enough of the moon!  

Every turn in front of me, I took it!  They took me to places where I was in my glory being in the middle of autumn shades.  What I began to notice were the clouds, they must have been full of music because they danced for my entire hike.  I was on cloud 9!

With all the rain we received on Friday, 

I wondered if the pond would be full again!  

I arrived to this view!

One minute I had this view then turned my head in another direction.....

.....and had this view!

My mind was already wandering and wondering!  Could I do those clouds justice by recreating them in a watercolour painting?  At times they were a distraction from admiring the autumn hues!  Where do I look?  What do I admire?  So much beauty!  It's overwhelming!  It's fulfilling!  

Then I have to make a decision, which path do I take?

I know I can't go wrong which ever direction I head!

I picked the trail that lead me to a view with yet different kinds of clouds.

Yup!  That's the moon up there!

I made a big loop which brought me back to the pond and this is what faced me when I arrived.  I used this photo as my reference for the watercolour painting at the first of this blog post.  

 

How do clouds like that even form?

a wide angle view of the amazing clouds

I wandered and wondered lots up on Nose Hill this morning!  

In fact, I did Eleven kilometres worth!

Path after path after path and I could have carried on with even more path after path after path but it was time to head on home and see if I could do justice with those clouds in a watercolour painting!  I am content with the outcome but realize I need a lesson or two on how to paint clouds!