Hello October : October 3, 2025

sisters strolling sharing stories

When given the option I prefer "sooner rather than later".  In this case I wanted that and we planned for that but when life happens like it did the past three weeks then there is no choice but going with "better late than never". Our stars aligned on this later date when my sister and I headed off for a visit to Wyndham Carseland Provincial Park to enjoy a little hike followed by a picnic.  Driving directly to the day use area is available until October 11th, after that the gate is closed until May of next year.  

We arrived at the Day Use area and drove straight to where we wanted to later have our picnic.  

We opted to head into the forest to walk for an hour or so.

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view of the Bow River that we followed and could see off and on along the way

Wyndham Carseland is in Vulcan County where we noticed a posted sign saying the fire danger is high.  I noticed in other areas west of Calgary the rating is extreme.  It was easy to tell why the high rating, the forest is tinder dry and everything crunched beneath our feet.  As I noticed in other areas, the autumn shades here are muted too given the dry conditions.  That being said, the colours were still so pretty.

Mother Nature's welcoming arch to walk under!

my sister lead the way

I followed, stopping often to snap shots.

While I stopped to snap shots 

she stopped to investigate the red berries! 

My hope was we would see lots of birds and ducks.  It was quiet on that front but we were fortunate enough to see some.  My favourite was this Red-Tailed Hawk that flew circles not far from us. It circled then hoovered high above over the River.  I expected to see it dive down but it never did. 

I then noticed this Ring-billed Gull was part of the circling with the Hawk.

the Red-tailed Hawk again 

Black-capped Chickadee

When the Canada Geese flew over us my sister said "they are flying south". She realized back when our world changed in 2020/2021 that not all Canada Geese fly south for the winter.  While she was stuck in the city that winter, we saw many Geese while out walking which surprised her. So, these Canada Geese may just be out for a Friday afternoon jaunt. 

the sun shining on the male Mallard's neck

After completing our out and back walk, we set the table! It was time to sit awhile, share more stories, savour the picnic lunch she made, feel the sun shine down on us and enjoy the shades of autumn surrounding us.  

While arranging my Cobb Salad in the bowl with her home-made biscuits to the side, 

a leaf fell from the tree above. 

This is my attempt at including a little autumn feel to the setting. 

My sister's setting happened naturally.

The trees above shone brightly in her cutlery. 

After packing up and before leaving,

we captured one last memory of the day.  

The idea of doing a watercolour painting from one of my photos came to mind while I was driving home after dropping her off at her home.  After scrolling through my photos, I decided to go with combing two of the photos and creating the painting you see at the top of this blog post.  I tried to add a little more definition to the blob people and use the correct clothing colours.  It was a joy to paint us strolling just as it was a joy to share the day with my sister!