magical colors

Some gardens are still wearing summer colors, even as the temperature seems to be jumping into fall. I love the contrast of fuschia against the veined green of this plant's leaves.

waiting, dreaming

Oh! Denise just asked me to let you know she needs a little more time to decide which photos she will share in her galleries. I've been watching over her shoulder and she is making really good progress. She thinks she should be done already... I told her she is being too hard on herself; we've only been home for just over a week!

The temperature outside this weekend made me think of fall, and fall made me think of visiting Acadia. It's the middle of September now so we'll be home for a short while - then in the middle of October we'll be heading to Acadia for a long weekend. I should have enough time to come up with a list of places in the park where I'd like to wander. I already told Denise we just have to go to the Schoodic Peninsula - I really like jumping around on those big rocks.

I'm so glad there's a new wander coming; it's time to (re-)focus my dreams.

--- Rover

here's a photo of me at Grassi Lakes

decorated windows

I love the window decorations at the Mut Hut Pet Emporium in Canmore. Rover posted two examples while we were still traveling; I can't resist sharing another one tonight.

What an awesome way to entice pets and their owners to enter the store!

My phone did a nice job capturing the window decoration, some items inside the store, and reflections from the outside. If you look closely you should be able to see me holding my phone taking this picture.

natural birdfeeders

I love the sunflower bird feeders in the garden at Stevens-Coolidge place.

Do you think that setting the flowers horizontally to make the seeds more accessible attracts the birds more than the flowers swaying in the wind?

sunflower smiles

high on Parker Ridge

I loved the trail up Parker Ridge in (I think) Banff National Park. The trail wandered through some trees at the start, emerging to open sky with views of mountains.

ever green

A quick drive along part of the Bow Valley Parkway on my first day in Banff National Park gave me a glimpse of many shades of green. The trees wore several shades of the color, and the river took on its own (glacial) blue green hue.

mountain reflections

My first visit to Vermillion Lakes was under a very clear sky; I hoped for and was rewarded with a better view on a return visit.

What luck! a blue sky decorated with wisps of clouds, wonderful reflections...

mountain reflections at Vermillion Lakes
Banff National Park

daylight and time zones

Oh! The sun set last night so much earlier than it did when we were wandering in Canmore, Alberta last week. We had lots of time in the evening to wander the trails along the Bow River and watch the setting sun highlight the mountain tops. I was surprised by the early dark so I asked Denise about it. She told me it's because we live in the east side of the Eastern time zone and Canmore is on the west side of the Mountain time zone. There is probably also a bit of difference in the length of day because of the north to south difference between North Andover, Massachusetts and Canmore, Alberta.

I just checked, sunset yesterday in Canmore was at 8:15 PM, and sunset here in Massachusetts was at 7:10 PM - that's why the difference jumped out at me. Along with getting dark earlier at night it also gets light earlier in the morning here.

Just to show you the difference, when I looked outside at 7:20 yesterday evening it was almost full dark. Denise took the photo below at 7:10 last Wednesday evening and you can still see blue in the sky.

--- Rover

magic evening light over the Bow River
Canmore, Alberta

sunset on the Bow River

A walk along the Bow River provided a chance to absorb beauty, to watch as the sun left a bit of late day light on the high Canadian Rockies...