A touch of filter was added to this image in post-processing.
A day I look forward to each winter - the drive that my daughter and I spend together to celebrate Christmas. It is always uncertain what the weather will be like and, in fact, I was not expecting my daughter to suggest that we still drive SE of the city. It was somewhat foggy and overcast, but I am so glad that we decided to go after all. The sky and the snow-covered ground were pretty much the same colour and the light was not the best for photographs. Despite that, we found ourselves in an absolute winter wonderland, with everything covered in snow and frost.
We set out around mid-morning, knowing that our drive would have to be fairly short. Our first stop was at Spruce It Up, a great garden centre next to the highway.
From there, we went further south to the High River area and travelled along a few of the back roads which, thankfully, were in reasonable condition. Bird species were very few; Magpies, Horned Larks and three flocks of Gray Partridge.
Perhaps the highlight of our outing was a very distant herd of Elk near the beginning of the drive home. They seemed 'confused' or 'concerned' and some kept looking back across the field from where they had come. Then my daughter spotted a brown shape down in the snow and we wondered if one of the herd had been injured. Perhaps they had just crossed the highway and one of them had been hit by a vehicle?
Despite the shortage of birds, we had fun seeing and taking photos of several old barns that looked beautiful in their snowy setting.
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