It has again been cool since the Victoria Day weekend. However, it has improved for the weekend! Today was nowhere near as warm as last Monday, but it was a fine day for a walk - mostly sunny, with some wind. The wind and occasional clouds were a nuisance for picture-taking, but I managed to get a bunch. Today I was also looking for things to take backdrop pictures of. I got some (see my BackDrops page), but I also got a number of mosquito bites!
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This pile of wood looks like the remains of an old walking bridge. The trail I am on at this point is below the newer bike path in Queen Elizabeth Park. I think the walk along here would have been quite interesting 20 or 30 years ago. There is a slow seepage of water through the area, and 2 weeks ago there was still a patch of ice down here. What happens is that the seepage continues all winter, and so a large layer of ice builds up. When it is in the shade, and on the south side of the valley like this, it takes a long time to melt.
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I spotted this flower on the trail not far from the old bridge. I think it is fully in bloom, even though it is mostly green in colour.
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This isn't very big shelf fungus, but there is lots of it. I've seen several batches in the area - I think it must be getting more humid than it traditionally is around here.
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This old dead rose-bush on the edge of the river bank has a bunch of spiderweb on it. Unfortunately you can't really see the spiderweb in this picture. I think for things that small I need to try full-detail mode on the camera. A later picture of a small bush really loaded with web didn't show up at all so I deleted it. At least on this one you can still see all of the thorns.
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This apple tree is off on the river bank, quite a ways from any houses. So, it must have grown from a seed dropped by a bird or something. It's pretty impressive, in terms of blossom, for a wild one. Johnny Appleseed must have passed this way!
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This is a bush right at the little lookout point that I go to on this walk. (For any Edmontonians, its the one right above the outflow for Mill Creek.) Since this is a bunch of flowers together, it isn't a saskatoon or wild cherry. Maybe its a wild form of the tame tree that has flowers like this (see my BackDrops page for a couple).
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This is the same wild Clematis plant that I took a picture of last weekend. Those flowers are now shrivelled up. This one is a late one, not quite open yet. I tried several distances, but still couldn't get one in focus. I think the camera, lacking a manual focus, is focussing on the leaves further back.
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Of course I had to take pictures of my usual subjects, just to see how they are changing as the seasons go by. This is the trio of trees.
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And this is the small hollow at the top of one of the hills. From this angle you can't even see the bottom (nothing but dead leaves).
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