I wanna hold your hand!

A creepy capture by Kim:  “I thought this photo would be great for Halloween.   My girl and I went for a drive and found this house out by Pigeon Lake area.   We both got a little spooked when we heard noise in the bush .. haha!”

DID YOU KNOW?    Halloween dates back to an ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain (pronounced “sah-win”) - to celebrate the end of the harvest season.    The ancient Gaels believed that on October 31st, the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped and the deceased would come back to life and cause havoc such as sickness or damaged crops.    Masks and consumes were worn to mimic the evil spirits or appease them.

SCARE UP A PHOTO YOU HAVE SHOWING MOTHER NATURE OR HER CREATURES.    WE OF THE FRESH AIR PHOTO NATION DON’T SPOOK EASILY, SO GET OUT THERE, GET CREATIVE, AND GET BACK SAFE AND SOUND!

The "down" side of a feathery family

Terri and Derek must have heard the quacking and commotion!    They were at Hawrelak Park  in the spring and witnessed what could have been one of Mother Goose’s first outings with her babies.    “Hard to tell where one started and the other began.   So cute!”    So true!

DID YOU KNOW?    Goslings keep their yellow feathers until they are a few weeks old.    The little ones above are starting to get theirgrey feathers which puts them AT about 3 weeks.    Then all of a sudden at nine or ten weeks, they grow flight feathers and start to look like smaller versions of mom and dad.    A huge number of Canada Geese stay here over the winter but the majority still fly south to the U-S and Mexico.

DO YOU MIGRATE IN THE WINTER, OR DO YOU HANG AROUND HERE AND BRAVE THE ELEMENTS?    PHOTOGRAPH THE ELEMENTS AND SHOW OFF YOUR KOKAK MOMENT WITH US; MEMBERS OF THE FRESH AIR PHOTO NATION.    UPLOAD YOU PICTURE TODAY, SEE IN ON BT AND THIS BLOG TOMORROW!

Constable Trevor Krysko, EPS

Boy, was our Wednesday night all over the map. From the high of celebrating an amazing honour for my wife Kari (and 39 other inspiring Edmontonians) to the low of a double break and enter, we went from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other in two short hours.

Click on the video below to hear the full story. A debt of gratitude and huge shout out to Edmonton Police Constables Michelle Horchuk, Brad Currie, Peter Coates and Trevor Krysko (pictured above) as well as the dispatch operator who helped facilitate a quick arrest.

Thank a police officer today! And again… enjoy jail, buddy.

rpj.

I'm awake now!

September of 2011 will go down in history as providing many spectacular sunrises.    Stephen agrees:  “We always have wonderful sunrises coming up over the city skyline.   It’s a lot harder to capture them because it is still dark when I go to  work now.   The camera I used is a fujifilm point and shoot underwater camera.   I just put the camera on the sunrise setting and you see the end result!”

DID YOU KNOW?    We Canadians deal with the dark for almost half the year!    In the summer, the sun rises in the 5 o’clock hour, but in fall and winter it doesn’t make an appearance until the 8 o’clock hour.    That’s why some people tend to get the “winter blues”.    Some folks even have a condition called:  “Seasonal Affective Disorder,” or SAD.    Here are some things you can do to stretch the sun shine:  Trim tree branches that block light, keep curtains open during the day, move furniture so you can sit near a window, and add standing bright & cheery lamps.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE – SUNRISE, SUNSET OR MID DAY?    POINT AND SHOOT EITHER OR – AND ENJOY ON THIS BLOG FOR EVER MORE.    BT VIEWERS DESERVE TO BE ILLUMINATED TOO.    UPLOAD YOUR PHOTO TODAY!

Fall fantastic near Fork Lake

Mother Nature may have provided a lot of soggy days in June and July … but she is making up for it with a stunning September and October.    Keven agrees:  “This colourful photo is from the Beaver River valley not far from Fork Lake.   There is a ridge about 250 feet high overlooking the valley.   It’s much like the North Saskatchewan River valley but with a much smaller meandering river“.

DID YOU KNOW?    The meandering Beaver River originates in Beaver Lake just south of Lac la Biche.    With many twists and turns, it eventually flows into the Hudson Bay.    In fact explorers George Simpson and David Thompson used that very passage to get to Alberta, but it was too shallow and meandering for them to use as a regular trading route.

SHARE YOUR MOMENT OF ZEN WITH US.    WE MEMBERS OF THE FRESH AIR PHOTO NATION WOULD BE EXTREMELY GRATEFUL AND WOULD REPAY YOUR KINDNESS ON TELEVISION AND THIS VERY BLOG.    UPLOAD YOUR PICTURE TODAY.

Can't reach the itch!!!

Wow – this is something I have never seen before.    We thank Murray who was quick with the camera:  “Sometimes you just have to scratch an itch!   This little male American Goldfinch is busy changing his summer feather colors to winter colours so is taking a time-out from feeding to scratch”.

DID YOU KNOW?    The American Goldfinch is also known as the Wild Canary.    They move to Alberta in the spring to build a nest and build a family.    During the winter they leave us for nice warm places like Mexico.    This little guy above is a bright and vibrant yellow in the summer and as we can see:  olive during the winter months.    His bright plumage during the breeding season helps him to attract a pretty young wife.

THIS IS A FAMILY AFFAIR!..  HEAD OUT WITH THE KIDS AND CAMERA CAPTURE A FRESH AIR PHOTO OF YOUR OWN.    ON OUR MAIN WEBPAGE CLICK ON’CONNECT WITH BT’, UPLOAD YOUR PIC AND THEN WACTH FOR IT ON BT AND THIS VERY BLOG.