good to be bad

With a title like "good to be bad" I can only imagine your mind is wandering in all directions wondering where the heck is she going with this! Well, stick around and you will find out!  My goal this morning was to hit the hills up at Nose Hill to work on my stamina with elevation gain and to cover ten kilometres.  I had success with both!  It was great to get back at being out the door early where I could experience the golden glow and long shadows.  You can see the trail meandering up to the right of my shadow, that's my first goal, to get up there.

A large swath of Nose Hill is fenced off by an electric fence.  

That's to contain the goats when they are out working.

A dirt trail follows right beside the fence. 

The last of this season's Alberta Wild Roses.....

.....were looking vibrant and healthy!

I made it to the top of the main hill and aimed for the pond.  I was shocked to see how full it was for mid August. Then again, after all the rain we had no wonder it has a very early spring time look. 

I watched these two Sandpipers for quite some time! 

Once again, I used my iPhone for all the photos.  

I cropped the photo to get this look. 

It was early when I was here having an autumn chill in the air.  

It felt nice plus it was cool enough to keep the bugs at bay.   

Along with the Sandpipers, Merlin also suggests I heard these.  Well I did hear them and see them, all except for the Northern Cardinal which I doubt very much there was actually one up on Nose Hill.  I saw many other birds and hawks.  I saw four hawks hoovering and circling around a small area.  When I looked closer, I saw a porcupine making its way through the grass below them.  I also experienced a pair of Cedar Waxwings dive bombing me, I knew then to move along quickly.  At this point in August it seems late that they would be protecting young ones.  They wanted me out of there and I skidaddled away!

Good to be Baah'd

Thank You for sticking around!  After covering the elevation and most of the kilometres I had planned to do, I followed the dirt trail back to the parking lot.  As I rounded the corner what to my wandering eyes should appear but the goats!  When I was up there last week, they were no where to be seen.

two Shepards in the top right corner

The goats were right there on the other side of the electric fence.

One of these things is not like the others!

Can you spot it?

It made my morning to see the goats up close.  I watched them for half an hour along with many other people who came to see them.  As I neared the parking lot, I looked back up the hill to have one last glance of them at work.