Sylvia's Simple Shots

The Cormorants at Beaumaris Lake.

There were a lot of young this year who were annoying each other. They were practicing flying, swimming a lot, and trying to land in the trees successfully.

They have a favorite set of trees so it is easy to find the adults supervising.

Love their plumage, green eyes and long yellow beak.

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs.  This was a great story to read.

Natalie Harper finds herself in a tragic situation and goes to San Francisco to her grandfather run his book shop.  The place needs work and she wants to sell the store to ensure her grandfather gets the help he needs for daily living.  Unfortunately, he owns the property outright and refuses to sell.

Natalie engages a handy man Peach Gallagher known in the area for his excellent work.  Little by little the maintenance is done to keep the store open.

Peach has a young daughter, Dorothy, who loves to visit the store.  She and Natalie hit it off.  The love of books is shared and words gets back to Dad about her visits to the store.

Things go from there but the grandfather maintained there was treasure in very old books somewhere on the property.   Through the work done surprises are uncovering.  Very good book.

Finding something interesting and worth watching on TV during the summer can be challenging.

I have been researching what was available on Roku and I found this series.  I believe there was 3 years worth of shows.

It is a British reality show where folks across the UK share their garden (yard) sheds. There are categories and the public has selected the finalists in each.  The show follows celebrities as they visit the sheds.

At the end of each show, the winner of a category is selected by the public.  At the end of the series the creator of the show and the celebrities select the overall winner of the Shed of the Year. 

I invited my aunt and her husband to visit the Edmonton Valley Zoo with me.

It was very hot and we met at 1:00 pm which was toasty.

It was a good walk and we sat down at the cafe at the end and enjoyed a bit of a drink and treat.

Many of the animals were hiding due to the hot sun so that limited the photo ops.

The new merry go round was closed so too bad for us. I have to say I was disappointed with my visit.

The northern Alberta wildfire evacuees were given free access while they enjoyed Edmonton's hospitality.  That was very nice of the city to give them a nice distraction from their difficult circumstances.

Recent Snapshots - Zoo

I took a visit to our local zoo to see if I could supplement my collection of bird photos.  Last time I was there the exhibit was being worked on. 

I managed a decent photo of the Kooburra despite the narrowness of the bars of it's cage.  They did not laugh while I was there but posed quite nicely.

The exhibit is called Arctic Shores and houses 2 type of seals - Harbors Seals and Northern Fur Seals.

They were swimming and have a great time with those of us looking in.  

I love the color of the water and the bubbles they create with their rapid movements.

This is a Barred Owl.  There were a couple in the enclosure and they sat quiet as we the humans admired them from a distance.

I can imagine in his native environment he would be very hard to spot.  Nature is a wonderful thing.

It had rained most of the morning which delayed my plans for a visit.  As you can see the sun did appear occasionally between a very cloudy sky. 

The rain held off for which I was grateful.

This is the one winged bald eagle named Zeus who lives at the zoo.  Of course, it could not be released.

I love it's eyes which are quite piercing. 

I did not watch it feeding but I heard comments from others around who did.

I got a great photo of Lucy the Elephant as she was taking her walkabout the grounds. 

Of course, she had 2 attendants who accompanied her but I was glad not to have them or the row of people taking photo across from me. 

They had just given her a drink and a bit of a spray down from the water hose.   

Nice to see her out and about instead of on concrete.

This Brown Hawker Dragonfly was very cooperative.  It sat there for quite a while so I just kept taking photos from different angles.  Maybe it was having a nap.

I had not see a brown one before.

Excellent opportunity.

Here is a mosaic of three of the animals I photographed at the Zoo. 

The top right hand is a Red Tailed Hawk.  I missed the shot which had him with his wings spread and the red tail very visible.

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Through my Lens #106 hosted by Mersad.