Seven weeks later, I'm back

And what an interesting seven weeks it has been. Lots of interesting things went on -- a few reunions, two moves, two weddings, plenty of dancing and singing, not quite enough camping, and plenty of blooming beauty in our garden. It's hard to know where to begin. I won't be covering it all in chronological order, so no worries about long "What I did on my Summer Vacation" posts. With the garden needing attention, I just don't have that kind of time. Short bytes only, I promise.

Today I'll start with this beautiful picture, taken by Lee while we were at our campfire near Long Lake, AB. He didn't hear a sound -- it was movement that caught his eye, as she was completely silent when she landed on the stump. She didn't stay long -- other small things on the ground were more interesting than we were!

I was laying on the bed in our tent trailer, all screens open, reading, when an intermittent screech eventually reached my book-absorbed consciousness. In the dusky light, it took me a minute to spot a young owl perched in the old pine tree beside our vehicle. So I grabbed the camera and went out to see if I could get a picture, or perhaps a video.

Turned out it was two young owls, perhaps offspring of the beauty we saw earlier. By the time I turned on my camera, the larger of the two had flown to a more distant tree, but the young one was curious, and stayed to check me out. The video below isn't great quality and it ends abruptly (darn mosquitoes!) but it gives you an idea of our evening visitors. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xG0edxu-eU

For the remaining nights we were camped there, we heard the young ones in the darkness, calling to their mom, or to each other. It made me happy to know that they're living in such a beautiful and relatively unspoiled place.

Stay tuned for more stories from the past seven weeks.