by Marja-Leena 
– when a grandchild brings you a couple of leaves in the colours of fall
– when going back to the print studio feels like going back to school
– when dear artist friends gather together again after a summer break
– when Indian summer comes with hot afternoons and cool nights with heavy dews
– when the last of the tomatoes are almost all ripe
– when the bell peppers are finally turning red
– when juggling new schedules and fitting in visitors too
by Marja-Leena 
Hazelnuts or filberts drying in the sun
granddaughters picked this first crop ever to be harvested from our tree
only because we cut it down before the squirrels got them all
a tree that was planted by squirrels in an unsuitable place
how we are all looking forward to a taste!
Added later, the gorgeous photo below of the nuts still with their “skins”, taken by Elisa and found on her blog
Added September 5th:
After a few days of sunning (the nuts, not me!), I could not resist the urge to crack open just a few as I wondered if they might just all be hollow as we’ve found them in the past. Indeed the first few proved to be so, but the next few had the withered and undeveloped beginnings of nuts. I suspect we picked them too early even though the squirrels had already been investigating them. I’ll wait for daughter and granddaughters to crack the rest to see if any good ones can be found. We’re all quite green regarding nut harvesting, though Elisa is a keen forager.
by Marja-Leena 
These fallen flowers are from a favourite houseplant of mine called angel wing begonia, named for its distinctive wing shaped leaves. I think these fading petals look like angel wings too.
by Marja-Leena 
late afternoon shadow play
by plants not hands
behind curtains
still hot, mid to high 20s
blessedly cooler nights
hinting autumn
by Marja-Leena 
Up close to a few of the flowers in the garden, indoors and out
by Marja-Leena 
Yesterday evening after a very hot day, and after a simple supper on the deck, we sat back in our chairs to enjoy the cooling air. I glanced up and looked at the wispy clouds in the sky. Really looked. Nothing unusual, I’ve seen more dramatic clouds, especially from airplanes, but for some reason these gave me a lovely feeling of peace and beauty. Youngest granddaughter then came upstairs with a book and asked me to read it to her as a bedtime story, but first we looked at the clouds together and I took a few photos. A simple yet deeply pleasurable evening.
by Marja-Leena 
These are the final group of photos taken in the Royal Tyrrell Musum. Now I hope they will bubble and stir and come forth in some future work. Some have already done so in the past.
Should you have missed them, information and more images can be seen in part 1, part 2 and part 3.
by Marja-Leena 
More photos from that long ago visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta. Unlike most of the photos I’d taken there, two here captured some information – the third photo shows a nothosaur, and the last one a part of a bobastrania. I will have to look them up.
For me, the shapes, lines and textures of these fossils, most fossils, are visually very entrancing and intriguing. The knowledge that these are the remains of very ancient living creatures captured forever in rock touches something in my soul and makes me feel very small.
Added a few hours later: Evidence of earliest animals found in Newfoundland – a fascinating discovery in an already amazing fossil site! There is also a mention of BC’s Burgess Shale fossil site. If I recall correctly the Newfoundland site was featured in one of the episodes of the Geologic Journey series shown on CBC.
by Marja-Leena 
I came across an envelope of photographs, yes, the print kind, taken in the amazing Royal Tyrrell Museum in Alberta in 1999. I had written about this exciting trip a few years ago, along with some photos – please visit. Except for the second one, these are ammonites. I’ll post a few more images in the days to come.
I loved revisiting the Museum’s site and you may too, including some information about the fossils in the Burgess Shale and the Devonian Reef. Did you know parts of Alberta used to be covered by a tropical sea?
I found this creepy photo from the visit here. And you may recall my series of photos taken at Vancouver’s Beaty Biodiversity Museum last year with these photos of fossils.
P.S. See a cross-section of an ammonite here and here. I picked this up as a souvenir in Prague ten years ago!
