Kricket

Meet Kricket. The freak of the horse who would make Mr. Ed the ideal equine wife! She lives on the doorstep, sticks her head in the door, is in love with our vehicles and has an unhealthy appetite for dog and cat food.... She also takes lovely photos. When she's not coming to close to snoop... While there are spots on this photo from my dirty, dysfunctional censor I still love it. The clouds, the background, Kricket's expression. The fact that she was actually standing still...

It was a gorgeous October day that I took advantage of by going for a stroll with all the acreage critters. It was the same day I took the previous photo of Pilsner! Now I'll have to go for another walk to get photos of them all in the snow but until then I hope Kricket will help tide you over!

Enjoy!

Pilsner

I went for a lovely walk today. Petrie and Mystic decided to join me but Mystic is a horrible poser. I did get a couple of nice shots of Petrie though. Still, the shot of the excursion was of Pilsner! He was quite content suntanning here and while I really wanted a nice photo of his brother, Frosty, I didn't get anything like this! (Frosty was too busy going to the washroom...) Pilsner is about 6 months here and while his dad and his bro are both Manx you can see he has a full tail himself! He's obviously just eaten otherwise he'd be bugging me and meowing in my face instead of lounging so nicely.

Enjoy!

Back in Canada

It's been a while, I know. I took a slight break to go travelling and see some sights in Australia! I sure did miss Canada and seasons but while it's good to be home, it's hard not to miss Australia as well. You can see things there that would only be in a fantasy novel in Canada! I also got to experience just about every natural disaster that isn't possible here in Alberta and that's unforgettable in itself.

I should be able to update here fairly regularly, at least for a little while :3 The main chunk of photos will most likely be from Australia and why not! It's gorgeous over there and I'd like to share the little places I went with everyone! First up is the majestic Barron Falls...

Now originally I'd have been hard pressed to find a river that I've ever seen that's the size of the Barron River. Running right through Cairns it was one of the first I seen in Australia and it was HUGE. I was then told it's a tidal river, meaning at high tide it's higher therefore bigger, and at low tide it's smaller. Also it was flooding when I first seen it... Still, massive river. Then I found my way to the start of the Barron River. No longer massive if was the size of a small stream. There's many different river crossings across the Atherton Tablelands where I was staying and at each one it gets slightly large. I loved seeing how it grew.

The Barron Falls are right where the river meets the edge of the Kuranda Range. It pretty much has to fall a couple hundred feet to get down to the level of Cairns and the Coral Sea. Here you can see it as it was when I first arrived in Australia. While it wasn't flooding it was extremely high and the reddish brown tinge is from the soil erosion. This part of Australia has extremely red dirt. I went back again just before I left Australia and while still beautiful it wasn't near as awe inspiring. That photo may be posted later.

Enjoy!

40 Mile Pass

One of the peaks of the 4, 5 or 6 day rides, 40 Mile Pass is a wide open plain between the Sawback and Vermillion mountain ranges. Known for being super windy it does have one bonus, no trees to soak you through!

As you've seen in the previous post, we had quite a dump of snow on the 21st of September. While it had melted at lower elevations, 40 Miles up high enough that there was still quite a bit there. In this photo you get to see Fresh Meat and Swine (with their beverages of choice of course) meandering their way down the valley. The view is looking North, back towards Flints. It was an awesome ride, fairly warm and we had Fresh Meat serenading us with country songs the entire way!

Enjoy!

Tear Down Snow

So tear down has come and gone once more. This year was not super warm like last year. Therewas no skinny dipping in Rainbow Lake, no riding in your bra and, best of all, no bugs! There was, however.... Snow! Gorgeous, refreshing, cold and wet. Stoney Creek was fairly uneventful. No snow, little rain, a couple drunk packers puking their guts out. Typical stuff. I jumped ahead of everyone else and skipped town after Stoney however and headed straight to Flints. Catching up with guests and the snow it was a nice relaxing evening and a wet and sloppy morning! Taking down a fence in half a foot of snow is definitely an experience not to mention all the snowbound tents. Want a little insight into what I'm talking about? Behold the Flints Park Teepee on the morning of September 21st, 2010. We cooks of course left it up for the guys to deal with although I did kindly sweep the snow off of it for them :)

Enjoy!

Elk Cow

With calving season just weeks to days away for the elk, the cows are starting to hang out close totown – and the stables – more regularly. Safety reasons and such. On one bright, sunny afternoon there was a handful hanging out behind Boones right when I happened to be off work so I stole a couple quick snapshots. Here is one of them! I converted it to black and white simply because, with the sun directly into the shot, the colour was a bit off. Washed out and silhouetted and such. With black and white it looks much less blazeh. So here you have it, fat cow elk ready to pop!

Enjoy!

Snow, Snow, Goose!

During a freak April snowstorm, which has since hit many more times and carried over into May, I decided to go for a walk. Actually.... I think this may have been on my birthday... Some gift to myself eh lol

In any event, for a walk I went and these geese I did find. They of course, swam across to the other side of the river but on the way I got a couple decent shots! In the background would be Mount Norquay but the ceiling was low that day, of course, so all you get is clouds!