A prairie view

Nine days ago, 21 January 2015, my daughter and I spent the day together, out in nature. I know I needed to get out myself and the fact that my daughter asked if we could do that, told me that she, too, desperately needed to get a break from all the sadness and reminders of her big sister/my older daughter for a few hours. Friends have been telling me how important it is to be outdoors with my camera, especially at a time like this, and I know they are right.

Much as it would have been great to have gone looking for Snowy Owls, I just didn't feel up to that long of a drive. Instead, I drove to a much more familiar, closer area, SE of the city. The day was a mix of sun and cloudiness, and though the sun was hidden by clouds or in the wrong position for some of our shots, we did OK.

As for birds, we saw a couple of Great Horned Owls, a very distant Snowy Owl, a raptor of some kind (either a Prairie Falcon or a Gyrfalcon), several Gray Partridge and what I think must have been Horned Larks.

The rest of the day, my daughter and I drove mostly roads that we had driven before, except for one short stretch where we found these two old, red barns. This day was as much a barn day as a bird day,

Normally, I never walk from the road on to the surrounding land, even when there is no "No Trespassing" sign, so we were standing on the road, photographing this second barn. While we were there, a lady on horseback came towards us along the road, calling out that it was her property, so to go over and explore. A similar story to the Great Horned Owl story under one of my recent images, thanks to someone's kindness. We smiled when she apologized that the barn wasn't in better condition - as we told her, we like barns to be old and weathered, of course!

I think being out with our cameras, driving the backroads, was therapeutic - certainly for me as I could enjoy my daughter's company, and hopefully for her, too.