Irricana, founders campground

Hello dear ones, it has been a wonderful week.
We ventured down to Irricana on the May long weekend for our first camping trip of the season. Having never stayed in Irricana we were delighted to find the campground hosts to be friendly and a joy to be around. The flavour of the water was, to say the least..UG, reminder to self, always pack lots of fresh water. But that aside everything else was great, right down to the gentle rain on monday.

Irricana Sunset.

Friday evening we enjoyed bison burgers loaded with Hutterite sweet tomatoes while basking in a spectacular sunset.

Monday morning we awoke to drizzle, so while sipping sweet brew of campers-wide-eye I pulled out the watercolors and attempted to capture the soft morning haze fostered by moisture laden air. Thank you Robert Sinclair for valuable advice heeded from the previous posted about workshop. I feel I captured the essence of the moment. Now you are probably wondering what happened to saturday and sunday, well stay tuned as there will be some fantastic bird photos to come.

Now I must get back to work as many exciting ventures are in process. Presently I'm busy painting a 24 x 30 inch canvas for a submission that is due by next week as well as writing proposals. So back to work I go. Oh, also I've been accepted into the Master Naturalist Program put on by the City of Edmonton which I will post about as I go through the program. So as stated, stay tuned, more to come.

Deep Dark Woods

We went for a walk in the woods today

down in the deep dark woods 

where the snow underfoot crunches 

sending mice a scuttling amongst abandoned fall leaves

and what should we spy sporting a flash of Christmas red 

a female Pileated Woodpecker

 we went for a walk in the woods today 

down in the deep dark woods

and the gifts of life gave another splash of red

a male Pileated Woodpecker

We went for a drive today

out across the barren prairie

out across the stubble catching snow

who should we meet

a Snowy Owl

we went for a drive today 

and the presents kept piling up

as the sun receded the earth began to glow

such a beautiful day

spectacular