Sylvia Stares at the Survival Tree

Sylvia is looking at the Survival Tree, a gnarled lodgepole pine over a century old. But I found Sylvia's gaze more captivating than the tree.

(I took pictures of the tree, too.) 

Cypress Hills Pelican

When I posted a photo similar to this one on Facebook, I misidentified the bird as a heron. It is, apparently, a pelican, as my friend Bruce immediately pointed out. Well, I'm no biologist, I just take pictures and write stuff. In any event, I photographed this fine pelican as it was floating on Reesor Lake in Cypress Hills Interprovincial Park - a gorgeous place. I'd planned to visit the official dark sky preserve on the Saskatchewan side of the park to try my hand at astrophotography, but the sky was too cloudy. Still, I'm pretty happy with the snaps I wound up with.

Driver of the Purple Sage

Our point-and-shoot Canon features a bunch of silly creative modes, and one of these must have been inadvertently activated when Sylvia snapped this photo of me at Cypress Hills on Saturday. Not only is the effect kind of accidentally cool, but I also like the composition - the flowing curves of the door frame and the door itself seem, to my eye, to flow nicely with the hillside.

Cypress Hills Rainbow

Sylvia and I took a day trip to Cypress Hills yesterday. We were somewhat disappointed by the rain, but once the skies began to clear some beautiful views revealed themselves. And then there was this.