Happy New Year 2026
Gotta say I’m starting the New Year right with two posts. The previous post should have happened yesterday but it didn’t. At least if happened. I didn’t post as much in 2025 as I had planned. Here’s hoping 2026 turns out as a good years for creative photography. As has happened for many years we have a new calendar to hang. As I mostly took photos of dogs and flowers last year, I have my trusty Trail Camera assistant to thank for a number of shots for the 2026 calendar. Below are the photos we get to look at each month for 2026.
Ian’s Lights
About 1/2 a mile south of McLean Sk. the month of December you will find some Christmas magic. More Christmas lights than you can count. If you are the type of person that needs more information. Check out Ian’s Christmas Lights/Friends of 1-D Fundraiser on Facebook. Or follow this link https://www.world-spectator.com/news_story.php?id=5959
Tuesday night we went to see the magic. A perfect evening. No wind and a mild temperature. How many times do you think a person (an old person) can say WOW on a 45 minute walk. As it turns out – quite a few. The photos are nice and tell the story but you need to actually walk amount the lights to feel the magic. They are closed now for the season but come December 2026, I will be walking amount the lights looking for the magic of Christmas!
Mounted Shooting
Can you pat your head, rub your tummy and recite a nursery rhyme? How about ride a horse through a designated pattern, and using blank ammunition in different styles of guns and shoot ten ballons. Fastest time wins. I spent a Saturday watching members of the Sask Mounted Shooters show how its done. Mounted shooting requires competitors to use four guns — 2 single-action revolvers, 1 lever-action rifle chambered in pistol caliber, and 1 side-by-side double-barreled shotgun. I was only able to watch the revolver part of the program. It is a pretty fast action sport. Here are some shots from the morning. Click on the image and then right click to see the complete image and move thru the gallery. Enjoy!
Mid Summer Festival 2026 edition
It’s hard to believe August has arrived! Doesn’t seem that long since school was just let out for the summer and the wild roses were blooming. This weekend we celebrated mid summer. Once again the Mid Summer Festival in Fort Qu’Appelle didn’t disappoint. There were old favorite vendors and quite a few new booths. I spent an hour wandering and enjoying everything I saw. Visiting with friends I met as I wandered the grounds. I hope you enjoy the selection of photos I’m sharing with you. They are an excellent example of what there was to see. Enjoy! Click on the image and then right click to see the complete image and move thru the gallery.
Saskatchewan Highland Gathering and Celtic Festival
In May I was able to delete an activity from my Bucket list. The Saskatchewan Highland Gathering and Celtic Festival in Regina. Four things if I ever go again. There are a lot of people; Take a chair; Eat before I go of as there are lots of food truck and it all smells delicious; Plan to spend the whole day. It was very entertaining as I expected t to be. Just people watching was fun. I didn’t stay for the whole day. Here was a few shots of what I did see. If you are wondering as I did what the things on the socks were I can tell you. They are called Kilt Flashes. Some say the are to indicate a man’s marital status and another thought is they are to help keep the socks up. Maybe I will go again in 2026. With chair and full tummy. Click on the image to see the complete image and then right click and move thru the gallery.
Crocuses 2025
Each year I say no more. For 25+ years a dog and I have gone crocus hunting so I have more than enough photos of these cheerful little flowers. This year was no different. I have more shots to add to my collection of these spring blossoms. I’m sharing this year’s addition. I hope you enjoy them. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery. The file will automatically resize.
They Walk Among Us
I had the privilege of seeing a herd of about 40 white tail deer. Spring is slowing arriving in my area and the deer are on the move. For awhile it was a pretty decent winter for them, then the snow started to pile up deep and hard. In some areas on hills the wind cleared the snow away and the deer were able to graze. I hope you enjoy these graceful animals.
Auld Lang Syne
The song that will been sung across the world at midnight. The old Scottish ballad written in 1788. Some people will raise a toast to the new year 2025. Some will look at the clock, see it is midnight, mumble the words to the song, turn over and go back to sleep. Others, me probably being in that group won’t welcome 2025 til I wake up in the morning. However you celebrate the new year, Happy New Year!!! No new year’s resolutions in this house. The only constant happening is the new calendar, as it has for almost 30 years. Below are the shots which we will enjoy this year as the months go by. Starting with the cover! I hope you enjoy the picks for 2025. Look forward to sharing my photography with you in 2025.
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Plans
We are all familiar with the phrase “The best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry” a line from a poem by Scottish poet Robert Burns – AI Overview. Early on in the fall a client contacted me about taking shots to be used as 2024 Christmas card. A productive photo shot was held. Before a shot could be chosen and a Christmas card produced, a postal strike happened. This gave me a chance to try different backgrounds, maybe producing an imagine which could be used in 2025. I share with you the results.
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Creativity
Creativity should happen all year long but ….. it doesn’t. In my world anyway. So that means I am scrambling come the end of the year for a Christmas card(s). This year there was a postal strike that went on until it was to late so send cards out. A card that hadn’t been designed yet, If a card had been designed and sent out, it would have been the 26th card to be designed and sent to family and friends, Would that make 26 cards collectors item? The cards below were designed for Facebook.
Summer Days
Maybe there is method in my tardiness. On a -25 degree day it’s nice to remember a beautiful warm day in August. The following photos are from the Mid Summer Arts Festival, held in Fort Qu’Appelle SK. I went with friends and we all enjoyed what there was to see. Paintings, I would have loved to add to my imaginary house of art, pottery, metal creations, cloths and accessories made of fabric and much more. Following are just a few photos of what we saw. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
November 24th
A birthday was celebrated on November 24th. Josie and Chase turned 4 years old. They entered our lives in February 2021. The years together have flown by.
Softball
In my last post — way back in August. I did have good intentions. I said I had another “first ” to post, which is shots from a girls’ softball game. Less than 15 minutes from the ball diamonds and I had never been to a game. The girls played good ball. Not the Blue Jays but they put on a good show. I’m hoping to visit the diamonds next year. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
Graduation
It’s mid-August already. Summer is just flying by. Soon the yellow school bus will be zooming past my door and many young people will be leaving home for advanced learning. Good luck to all! Rewind a couple months to June and I will share some photos celebrating four young men’s graduation. They looked pretty spiffy. If you haven’t figured it out, the young men in blue are twins. My first “twin” shot! It was a graduation/family affair. Moms, Dads, Grandparents, Siblings, Aunt, Cousins, Escorts and the family dogs. And a 1946 (we think) jeep! It may sound like chaos but it all came together to be an awesome fun photo shot. I did some creative editing with some of the shots, with permission. I hope you enjoy view these shots as I did taking then. Check back for my next post. It will be another “first”! Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery
Flyball
This summer I had an opportunity to watch super fast athletic dogs in a flyball competition. Here is a brief description of flyball from Wikipedia. Flyball is a dog sport in which teams of dogs race against each other from the start to the finish line, over a line of hurdles, to a box that releases a tennis ball to be caught when the dog presses the spring-loaded pad, then back to their handlers while carrying the ball. Very fast action. The dogs are amazing. Any breed can compete. The competition was in a curling arena which made for poor lighting for taking fast action. I pushed my Canon 7D to the limit and it didn’t let me down. Minimal post editing was done to the pictures which I’m very pleased with. I hope you enjoy the shots of these amazing animals. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
Flowers of Briercrest Farm
This summer in much of Canada has had very high daytime temperatures. I was able to spend some time in a beautiful flower patch that seemed to thieve in the heat. Thank you to the keepers of the flower patch at Briercrest Farm that allowed me to photograph these gems as I wandered. The lilies put on a magnificent show. I hope the flowers brings you as much joy as they did my camera and me! Enjoy! Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
Impressionist Art
It’s been very hot in our area these past days/week, so time outside is limited. The pups and I are staying in a lot. To pass the time and exercise the brain, I’ve been working thru some online courses on various subjects. The late is one was on Photographing flowers. Very enjoyable and I learnt quite a few things. Now I wish I’d planted more flowers and have added that task to my 2025 list of things to do. One of the things I learnt was how to take photos of flowers that look similar to the Impressionist paintings. One of the elements of Impressionist art is “Painted scenes that looked fuzzy and unrefined”. I think I’ve accomplished that in my photos. A adobe presets were used on a few of this shots. They were fun to do and I’m happy with the results. Now to find more flowers! Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
A Challenge
If you are familiar with Facebook, you will have seen the challenges people send out — post a photo each day for ten days and nominate another person to do the same each day. I usually avoid these as I don’t have ten people to nominate. A friend approached me about doing this and she agreed that I could post the ten photos without nominating anyone. Here are the ten photos that I posted.
PWP week of Dec 24 – Dec 30 23
Last day of the year. A year that went by very fast. This weeks post has a bit of everything. More Christmas, the last of the year. Last of the year of everything. Dogs, trees, frost, whole moon. Finally learnt how to take decent shots of the moon. Even got a shot of it while I was in the city. We had frost yesterday, it painted everything white. Made plain old barb wire knots look pretty good. The end of the year means a new calendar for 2024. I’ve included the shots we will get to look at monthly for a whole year. The end of the year also means the end of my weekly posts. 52 weeks 52 posts. I’d like to thank everyone who came along with me for the ride. I hope you enjoyed the weekly offerings. Although there will no longer weekly posts. I will be still be out and about with my camera and will post what I capture. Online photo courses are on the schedule for 2024. Will post what I learn. I wish everyone of you a fabulous 2024.
PWP week of Dec 17 – Dec 23
We are having such beautiful weather it feels like Easter not Christmas. Are you ready for the day? I enjoy seeing all the different ways and decorations on display this time of year. A small town Saskatchewan has a wonderful light display. The night I went in not all the lights were turned on. Josie and Chase took time to pose for a Christmas picture. Maybe next year’s Christmas card? I caught one of Chase sleeping, as he breathed, his whiskers moved. Horses eyes are truly windows to the soul, I enjoying capturing them. The last photo before Christmas is one of Bandit dressed for the season. Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.
PWP week of Dec 10 – Dec 16 23
Another week had flown by, leaving me in the dust. This week we have another assortment. Christmas shots of course. And dogs. Megs came to visit and Josie proved to be an excellent babysitter. She has her babysitting certificate and is working hard to be the top of Santa’s good list. Presents arrived and one had Snoopy wrapping paper. It is a really good description of winter fun. Took my camera to town one afternoon and cruised main street. Also found a really good use to old tractor tires. Never know what I’ll find. Enjoy. For those of you who follow my posts, I try and have the content posted by 9:00 (CST) Sunday AM. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
PWP Dec 3 – Dec 9 23
HO HO HO it’s that time of year. Christmas is in full glory every where you go. Visited a festival of trees. Put my name in to win one I really liked but Lady Luck wasn’t with me. A few days later I toured around a Christmas village. That was my week. No dogs, no skies and no horses. Enjoy! For those of you who follow my posts, I try and have the content posted by 9:00 (CST) Sunday AM. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
PWP week of Nov 26 – Dec 2 23
Welcome to December. One month left in the year. Kind’ve scary! Not many shots this week but I get E for Effort and I didn’t dip into the Archives! Kathy decided she could pose for me. Nice to still see the grass and not banks of the white stuff. Once again the skies are putting on a great show. A wintery shot of the beaver house. Of course I had to get one Christmas photo in. Likely be more next week. Enjoy! For those of you who follow my posts, I try and have the content posted by 9:00 (CST) Sunday AM. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery.
PWP Nov 19 – Nov 25 2023
I had the camera out a bit this week. The pups had their 3rd birthday so photos were a must. They’ve sure changed. All grown up, so fast. We had two huge Rottweilers visit one morning. Guess they were out for a tour. Thank goodness Chase respects his boundaries, and the visitors stayed on the road. They found their way home. While at the pet store one day, I saw that a Pet had taken her owner over to stock up on supplies. Either that or the Pet was driving the getaway car! A few mornings have been foggy hence the pretty trees. Spent some time at Agribition and saw part of the heavy horse pull. There was only 3 teams competing, and one was out when I got their. Once again the sky was beautiful. Such vivid colors. I spent a bit of time practicing post editing skills with a beautiful doll. More practice is needed. For those of you who follow my posts, I try and have the content posted by 9:00 (CST) Sunday AM. Click on the image and then right click to move thru the gallery. Enjoy!
Prairie Wind Photography 