I smiled when I saw this month’s photo challenge theme. As a generally happy person, I decided to share photographs of people and things that reinforce my good spirits.

1. Family Hike to Arethusa – We’ve been hiking at Arethusa for more than a decade (since our youngest son was four years old) and so far we’ve managed to get back there at least once every year. At the start of September we decided it was finally time to make our 2015 visit to this unofficial trail in the Highwood Pass area of Kananaskis country. With our youngest son determined to sleep in late and our oldest son off at university, this time it was just Mr. GeoK and me. To my surprise and delight, we discovered something new in a little cirque we’d never ventured into before – a pretty little tarn complete with cottongrass. I think this might be my new “happy place”.

NOTE: About 10 days after we did this hike, my doctor advised me to take a six-week break from hiking and taekwondo to give my foot a chance to recover from a nagging injury, so I really feel fortunate that the larch had already turned golden yellow so that I don’t won’t completely miss larch season in the Canadian Rockies this year.

2. Cycling with Mr. GeoK – Calgary has almost 1000 km of pathways, much of it in parks and along the two major rivers that flow through the city. I’m gratified to have so many options given that cycling is my primary form of exercise for six weeks (until the end of October). I’m okay with riding on my own, but feel in particularly cheerful when Mr. GeoK joins me on the trails – especially when he humours me by going along with my photography antics!

3. Beakerhead with Family – This was my second year volunteering as a member of the Beakerhead photo crew. When I learned that one of my assignments was to photograph the Atari Punk Synth workshop, I asked K if he’d like to take part in the workshop and sweetened the pot by offering to register one of his friends, too. I was pleased when he agreed and even more satisfied when he persuaded one of his best friends from middle school to join him.

4. Beautiful Sunrise – Mr. GeoK and I went out for two sunrise photo shoots this month. When I witness a beautiful sunrise, like this one illuminating Mount Lougheed, I can’t help but start the day in a good mood.

5. Shared Interest – It’s not entirely accidental that Mr. GeoK and I share many interests including hiking, biking, reading, certain serial television shows & podcasts, healthy living, a love of good music (although we sometimes disagree on what’s good) and photography, to list a few. I believe that cultivating shared interests goes a long way to enjoying a great marriage. Anyhow, it didn’t take much effort to persuade hubby to join me the evening of September 27th to try to photograph the #SuperBloodMoon. We were beaming when the heavy cloud cover broke for a well timed few minutes right around total eclipse. But we made a poor choice of viewing spots – a pedestrian bridge that attracted a couple of dozen moon watchers, so we didn’t get any great photographs due to vibration. But I am quite content with a few of the city skyline photographs I made earlier in the evening, mainly because I learned from my mistakes when photographing Canada Day fireworks and have figured out the “live composite” mode on my camera!

That’s it for this month from me. Click here for to see the link-up for everyone else who took part this month.

The October theme will be posted at A ‘lil HooHaa tomorrow. New participants are welcome to start the photo blogging challenge any time, so please join us for a good excuse to practice your photography!

PS – In case you haven’t figured it out yet, the italicized/bold words are all synonyms for “happy”.