Quilting and other Things

Went to see the Calgary Zoo. It was very hot. Many of the animals were more sensible than the people and stayed under shelter or in their huts. Reticulated Giraffe from Western Africa and are an endangered species. They eat 16 - 20 hours a day and upto 140 lbs Slender-Tailed Meerkat from Southern Africa. They stand up like this to watch for predators From one of the greenhouses. Crocodile Monitor Lizard from Papua New Guinea. They can grow up to 13 feet and weigh as much as 200 lbs Grevy's Zebras. They are from Africa and on the endangered species list Inland Bearded Dragon from from central Australia. They like bugs, flowers and fruit to eat. I forgot to take a picture of his sign! African Blue-Bellied Rollers. This is a male. This display had just male birds that were waiting to be sent to another zoo. Chilean Flamingos are a species at risk. The pink colour comes from the red carotenoids in the algae they eat. There were four elephants. This is one of the three...

In May when I went to Lake Louise it was still mostly frozen. So I went back to see Lake Louise in July. (May photos are half way down this posting) Road side pull over just past the entrance to the Bow Valley parkway. I skipped the parkway this time to get to Lake Louise quicker. A panaroma view at the second pull over The first few flowers were in the garden at the Fairmont hotel at Lake Louise. The others are wild flowers growing in the area. I followed a walk around the edge of the lake. The lake is 70 meters deep and warms up to 10C (50F). The colour of the lake is from the rock flour (finely ground rock dust from the glacier) that comes into the lake with the glacier melt. As more melt comes into the lake, the colour turns from a blue to green. Later in the summer as the flour settles to the bottom of the lake, the colour turns back again. There wasn't time to go the whole way as I was due in Banff at 6:10 for a wilderness tour. The tour was interesting -...

I'm reading Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain and working my way through the exercises. The first hand picture (holding the sketch book) was done just as I was starting the chapter that has you tracing your hand on a view plan. The second hand picture is after tracing my hand several times. I didn't do the exercise correctly as I traced the hand then drew it. Forgot I was suppose to transfer the markings to the page. The steps, nesting tables and end tables are all after reading the chapter on perspective and measuring something in the scene with your pencil and drawing everything relative to that measurement. Callee doesn't approve of my trying to trace her on the view plane or my trying to measure the distance between her ears relative to the height of her ears. Holding Sketch Book June 28 Sleeping Callee Cat June 29 EDM # 10 - Hand after tracing on view plane June 29 EDM # 61 - Nesting Tables July 10 EDM # 23 - My Foot while curled up watching TV July 11 E...

The first coin is a nickel from 2005. It was issue to commemorate 60 years since Victory in Europe. Its a repeat of the original 1945 design. The bunny nickel was the first non-quarter special coin I saw.

Today I went for a hike on the Bruce Trail following the Spencer Creek Gorge trail. It took about 3 hours to walk around the loop (6.2KM). Filled the drinking bladder which worked really well but ran out near the end of the trail. The trail starts with a view of Tews Falls. The falls are 41m high -- Niagara Falls are 50m high. The current here is no where near what the current at Niagara is though as I saw a family wading at the top of the falls only a few feet from the edge! Found this little guy crawling along the side of some steps so played with the macro setting on the camera: This is the first of many sets of stairs on the walk... The trail is really well marked. The white blazes are the main trail and the blue ones are a side trail. This pole says the main trail goes straight forward and a side trail turns left. I went down the side trail. There were a number of little butterflies enjoying the flowers. I'm still playing with the macro setting on the came...