Morning awakes

I should have set my alarm for this morning (12 December 2015) after all, as my 'traumatic' afternoon yesterday seems to have tired me out even more than I realized, lol. I actually had to go to a shopping mall, something that I normally avoid at all cost - and just two weeks before Christmas! This insanity was caused by an electric kettle that had finally worn out the evening before and I knew there was no way around it. This trip reminded me why I dislike this time of year so much!

Later, to calm my frazzled nerves, I started looking through some scenic shots in my archives. This was one of the first ones I came across, taken more or less a year ago. A change of colour for my photostream, too.

What a day I had a year ago, on 7 December 2014, with friends Cathy and Terry, in an absolute winter wonderland! We set off about 7:45 a.m. (still dark) and drove westwards to the Kananaskis area of our majestic mountains. Early in the drive, the sunrise turned the still distant mountains pink (zoomed photo that made the mountains appear closer than they actually were). This is always such an amazing sight to see. Full moon for us was 6 December, about 24 hours before this day trip began.

Once we had reached Kananaskis, we drove the area of Highway 40 that is still open (the rest of this highway is closed during the winter months) and also the Smith-Dorrien road. There had been a recent snowfall and the trees were still covered in snow, which turned everywhere into a winter wonderland. There was no wind and the temperatures hovered a few degrees around 0C. Sunshine, a few clouds, and fun company made it such a great day!

My friends had been hoping for a long time to be able to show me a winter Moose and, on this day, they did well, finding a beautiful female and, at another location, a male with antlers that looked rather like two little twigs sticking out of the side of his head. The size of both these wild animals was huge! The closest we saw them both was when they approached the car. You can stop the car some distance away from them, but if they are busy licking off the salt and minerals from any car in sight, they sometimes might eventually come close. All the female was interested in was doing this very thing : ) She would occasionally stop, straighten up and look and listen - usually this would be because she had heard or seen people snow-shoeing or cross-country skiing on a nearby trail through the forest. The rest of the time, she licked and licked and licked some more - the slurping sound could be heard from quite some distance :) At one point, she bent both front knees to kneel, so that she could reach the lower part of a vehicle. Lol, she did a fine job of cleaning headlights till they shone. Impressive and rather amusing at the same time. Free carwash, anyone??

We saw the female first, then the youngish male, and then we saw the same female a second time, later. After feeding on dead leaves and tiny twigs from under the deep snow, she then lay down in the snow among some trees - the first time I had ever seen a Moose lying down. Such a peaceful scene - no one else was around either.

I always feel so privileged when I witness any kind of wildlife, especially so when you get the chance to watch a while and learn the behaviour of the animal or bird you are lucky enough to see. My friends were so delighted to be able to let me experience this, though I've always said that just being in such spectacular scenery and being able to photograph the mountains is more than enough for me.