autumn fall

It was about a year ago that I posted on a little-read blogsite about fall. Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. The air is very fresh, the city is ablaze with color, and its time to don all your favorite sweaters and jackets and scarves that have been hiding away for the past few months. Most of all, fall comes with the taste of pumpkin pie and apple spice. What could be better?

But on this blogsite I then breathed a deep sigh of discomfiture, because here in Saskatoon fall is about three weeks long. After this short time we are presented with snow, along with the knowledge that winter, storms and freezing toes and fingers are not far away. Suddenly the scarves and the fall jackets are replaced with snowpants and toques and face protection from your eyelashes up and your eyelids down.

This year, however, we seem to be granted with a rare reprieve. Its almost November, now, and not a single bout of snow. Usually by Thanksgiving it will have started to snow at least once. The snow may not stick and it might be laughable, but its snow none the less. This year, however, summer stretched its legs into September, and fall, instead of rolling into its back and calling it quits, decided to push forward also.

So it is this time of year that one needs to take advantage of the wonderful weather. So after a long week of trials and tribulations and a long day of insults (the most significant one being that it is a Saturday and I woke up at 6 and left before it was light out), I put a pause on dinner and enjoyed the last few hours of sunlight the day had to offer.

Double-crested cormorant

Quite an unexpected find were the cormorants. Watching them attempt to perch on the electrical wires was laughable - their long necks were wobbling around as they tried to find their balance. The longer I stood, the more I saw; most were flying around the river in circles trying to find a place to land and almost all ended up choosing this wire in the end.

Swimmers

My favorite shot of the day, quite unexpectedly ended up being this shot-in-motion of one of my flying friends. It reminds me of a happy watercolor, where the details don't matter and its all about the colors blending together. Sometimes the best results come from unexpected mistakes.