This was such a fragile, drooping, dying little mushroom, but it brought me so much joy seeing it, growing with a few others at a local Birthplace Forest back in September. Wanted to capture it while it still had some life left in it, before its beauty was gone forever.

This morning, I joined two friends to cover a certain area of Fish Creek Park for the annual Fish Creek Park New Year's Day Bird Count. I knew that doing this, like in other years, it would raise my spirits and indeed, it did : ) It was quite cold, but it was sunny and a delightful morning, just beautiful in the Park. I forgot to check with my friends how many species we ended up seeing, but we had a reasonably good morning of birds. We also had more than our fair share of Mule Deer and White-tailed Deer and a Coyote, all of which I love seeing. By lunch time, anyone who has been part of this count meets at a local Tim Horton's for something to eat - and coffee, which always tastes so good after walking for something like three hours.

Oh, and Happy New Year everyone!!! Thank you so much for your continued kind, comforting comments and e-mails, every one of which is so much appreciated!