November 2019

The weather--naturally

November has come and gone and we still have no snow on the ground so it can’t be winter yet--really?  The ski hills have been opening up regardless since there is more snow to the north of us.  We’ll wait a bit until the base gets a little deeper.

Despite the lack of snow, we have been getting typical winter conditions for this time of year.  Although the lowest temperature has been a little below minus twelve, we have received very little frost because of the low humidity.

We have already had a couple of our winter fogs that envelope the house completely. 

The side benefit of fog, in contrast to the terrible driving conditions, is that we do get hoar frost, which highlights some of the cobwebs on the exterior of the house.

If the fog doesn’t rise up to the level of our house, we get to enjoy it from above while it fills the valley.

We have enjoyed some really spectacular sunsets this winter, and it is very easy to stay up for them since the sun set at 4:03 pm on November 30.

You would think that winter would be marked by the stoppage of the fountain at the waterfront.  NOT!  The Santa Claus Parade was held on November 29 and the fountain was still running despite the icicles.

Snooping on the neighbours

I have mentioned in previous blogs our fascination with people building below us down the hill. 

Summer featured numerous blastings of rock.  This was followed by huge rearrangements of rocks, including trucking out at least 100 heavy truckloads of blasted material.

This last week a huge piece of equipment was moved back to the site and numerous truckloads of sand were delivered.

We had to check it out!  The rock hill has been hollowed out, and sand established for the foundation of the house.  Down the slope you can see the huge amounts of rock tumbled over the edge.

In our (often) idle moments we ponder how much the blasting, excavation, removal of rocks, and delivery of sand has cost.  This is without even starting to build the house! (And they had a well drilled, electricity brought in, and will have to arrange for septic before they even get a building permit…)  A little fixing up on our property looks positively benign in comparison!

The Saga of the Game Camera

While we were in Ontario last month, someone snitched our game camera.  The most likely suspects were a survey crew who worked on the neighbour’s property during that time, because it wasn’t in any obvious view.  After grumping for a couple of weeks, I relented and bought a new one.

The pictures seem good and clear, and we got a couple of surprising ones featuring birds (stellar jay and woodpecker). 

The deer cooperated by moving by nicely although the darn stag first stopped on the patio to try eating my plants.

The deer decided to prove that we didn’t need the game camera so we got some great shots from the bedroom windows over the last couple of days.

Brian is Improving

After being taken off the immunotherapy drug, he is starting to regain energy, appetite and better sleep.  This will take a while to get back to fighting trim because he is a svelte 156 pounds (maybe 25 more than me) and he is working hard to ensure I don’t pick him up in a fireman’s carry and force him to do housework.

We’re looking forward to December and the festivities and hope you do too!

October 2019

I don’t think it matters where you are in Canada, but Fall is a beautiful season.  Here in the Okanagan, you don’t get the same in-your-face colours as you do in Ontario, but there are still a lot of photo-worthy landscapes.

As you might expect, generally colours in our part of the country are the more muted greens and browns associated with aridity.

A calm day on Lake Osoyoos can lead to this relaxing scene.

There can be more arresting pictures when you get precipitation on the heights. We have had snow on the mountaintops that has endured through the month.  This is Mount Baldy, our local ski hill about 45 minutes from our place.  Although this picture only hints at the future, the larches turn bright gold against the greens of the Yellow Pines and Douglas Fir, providing striking views.

You sometimes will get a little red (especially if someone plants a variety of maple) but even more interesting is the variation of colours in the orchards which turn out to be showpieces in themselves.

On October 6, we decided to take an hour’s drive east to Greenwood, on the Crowsnest Highway which is practically at our door.  Greenwood was a mining town that was huge in the early 1900’s with a large pit mine delivering silver and copper.  The mine is no longer operating but it had a huge impact at its time.  The town highlighted that mining history with a good museum, local sculptures featuring mining activities, interesting dining establishments (like the Mine Shaft Café—very good!) and a walking tour highlighting some of the important buildings in town.

The City Hall was at one time a very luxurious home, while across the street the Fire Department is housed in a typical wooden building of the time. 

The names of the streets are interesting and apparently there is very good water at Greenwood (so they say!)

One of the most poignant attractions was a park featuring Japanese-Canadian friendship.  Apparently, Greenwood was chosen as an internment camp for the BC Japanese during WWII.  Unlike some communities, Greenwood welcomed the Japanese, put them to work wherever possible, and generally gave them respect not necessarily found elsewhere.  Although many Japanese returned to their original locations at the end of the war, a significant number stayed in Greenwood and continued to be contributing citizens.  This park is a reflection of that spirit.

On the Thanksgiving weekend, we flew out to central Ontario to see a special ceremony for his brother, who had been appointed President/Principle of King’s College in London, an affiliate of Western University.  I didn’t take enough pictures of the ceremony, which was held in a large beautiful chapel nearby.  (King’s College is a Catholic college; while Dave is not Catholic he was hired because of his expertise in philosophy as well as his huge contributions in his position at the University of Regina.)  To my amusement, the induction process is called an “Installation” which makes me think of an assembly plant process.  Not in any way, shape or form!  

The formal ceremony, held in the chapel, featured a string quartet, a wonderful choir and a soloist as well as various clergy decked out in clerical splendor.  Even more striking were the robes of the various scholars from different academic institutions who presented Dave with certificates of acknowledgement.  (This is really where I missed the boat…)  The robes of many colours were only surpassed by the hats, many of which resembled large squashed pancakes perched on top of the head with a large silver or gold tassel hanging off the side.  (I talked to one woman afterwards who said these robes often cost $1500 to $2000.)  No signs of poverty here!

One of the nicest parts of the event was that all four Malloy siblings were together at one time, which hasn’t happened for many years.  My photography skills were nowhere to be seen—when I finally chose a picture that didn’t have terribly weird expressions on at least one face, I merely put a large lamp behind Brian’s head.

Another nice event was having many of us together for brunch before the ceremony.  On the front right of the picture you can see Dave, Val (his wife) and Bronwen, one of their girls.  On the left are Brigid (second girl) and Gaelen behind (one of two sons (the other was in Mongolia I believe and couldn’t get out easily.).  Various outlaws and spouses lurk behind.

On the way back, we saw my oldest brother Jim, who came out to the Edmonton airport when we had a couple of hours waiting for our flight back to Kelowna.

As enjoyable as this was, we did almost 2000 km of driving that week, from Toronto to Port Dover (sister Barb) to London for the ceremony (Dave) and then to Ottawa to briefly see his mom (Mary, who will turn 100 in early February).  With 5 beds in 7 days and 3 hours of jetlag, this is less appealing to us old farts, and we have vowed not to do any more of this nonsense for a while!

Brian’s oncologist has decided to stop all treatment because he was suffering a rare reaction to it that affected his glands in nasty ways.  The fatigue and lack of appetite that plagued him in Wales are still major setbacks to overcome.  My mission in the next few months is to try to get him back into a “Chubby Chicken” status as soon as possible.  Well-rested Chubby Chicken.

Thanks for checking in, and hopefully November will be a fascinating month for all of us!!

September 2019

This posting will be short this month, because some of the info has been posted to malloysatlarge.blogspot.com.  Check there for our trip to Wales this month.

Since we had to cut our trip short, much of the last part of the month was getting over jet lag (8 hours) and coping with mountainous piles of laundry.  After a week of feeling really stupid, we have finally adjusted to a more normal state at home.

Fall is a time for some different cleanup chores, and one of mine is to clean out bird boxes on our property.  There are bird boxes throughout the area, because the developer put his carpenters to use building bird boxes.  They seem to be quite successful.

This year, one of ours was occupied by a wren family.  Apparently, the chicks start out tough, because the nest is built of twigs without any padding whatsoever.

Mountain Bluebirds are kinder to their young, using grasses for their nest building.

A number of larger boxes were hung high in trees, ostensibly to attract owls.  I don’t know about that, but a pair of flickers happily use the box on our property, and they are reputed to be steady occupants through their lifetime.

I have to say, the last three days of September degenerated into continual blasphemy.  The four-letter S-word was repeated everywhere, and we were not talking about remains of digestive activity. from human, bird or beast.

The first morning we woke up to some wet snow on the deck.  (Yes, that 4-letter S-word).

New show always attracts the boys outdoors.

Unfortunately, the boys tend to harass photographers.

The next day featured steady light snowfall all day.

After three days of this nonsense, some light appeared.

You can see the snow level at least down 1/3 from the mountain tops—that doesn’t look like it will disappear in a day.  Ski hills are trumpeting how much snow they received, and how good things are going to be.  Sheesh!!$@#)*

Bring on fall in October!  The wine festivals will be starting!

August 2019

It’s hard to imagine that we are halfway through the summer—where does the time go?

Lots of interesting things happened this month!

Fine Dining in the Neighborhood

To begin with, some of our neighbors below us decided to have a long-table dining event for the neighborhood.  They barbequed pork loin, while the rest of us contributed pot luck to the meal.  Not only did they arrange for proper tables, tablecloths, and chairs but they hired a band of local musicians to serenade us while we dined.  We did miss the candles of course, but there was a fire ban on.

Fire Season

Speaking of which, the fire season this year has been extremely benign.  There never has been enough smoke to obscure the view, or even to cause some alarm.  Thank goodness!

One of the activities of our FireSmart group is to monitor the “Wapiti Firepit” every second Saturday morning.  A site used by the developer, which is essentially a gravel pit, is offered each year for people wishing to deposit yard waste like pinecones, trimmings, branches, etc.  The pit has been well-used, with over 120 loads deposited this year, preventing people from having to burn on their own properties with the risk of the fire getting out of control.  After the first snow, the local volunteer fire department lights the fire and tends it until it dies out.  (I’m sure they love that part!)  The only reason why I mention this is that as gate-keeper, you have more responsibilities that one might imagine.  I had a stare-off with the locals last weekend and it was unclear who was more curious.

Walking Around

As Brian and I prepare for our walking trip in Wales, we have been taking hikes around the neighborhood and in local environs.  Friends invited us to join them on a hike up the side of a little mountain at a town called Midway, which is just beside the US border.  It was a beautiful day with striking views from the trail.  The funniest part came at the top—we crossed over from Canada to the US to have a picnic.  (Heavens, we were at least 20 feet into American soil, and we weren’t even shot!)  The border is noticeable.

Midway had a number of several interesting attractions, but the best was the house of a local stone artist, with all kinds of funky examples of his structures.

Brian is Recovering

Brian’s neck has finally healed from the radiation burns, but is still very sensitive.  He has embarked on the immunotherapy, and has responded well, but is starting to show increasing signs of fatigue.  I am sure he will be so relieved when this is over.  He did finally get out kayaking this year in the middle of August, at Christina Lake, and enjoyed it hugely.

Introducing the “Bomb”Pit

New neighbors are providing us with huge entertainment.  We haven’t met them because they are merely preparing their building site on a small knoll below us, and we see heavy equipment.  Things then became more notable, because I heard a strange electronic warning signal.  I just happened to be looking at the side when there was a huge blast and a column of dirt rising in the air.  They were dynamiting rock to prepare the site.  The first blast tore out the side of a stone outcrop, the second blast spread more rock around and down the hill.  (Boulders were easily 4 feet cubed!)  On weekends we would walk by to see what had been done.  Finally, I heard the warning when I was near the camera and caught a small blast.  Going, going, gone……

Beasts

Naturally, I save the best parts for the end of the blog, when I get to talk about the various fauna sightings, and this month we had many.

I am proud to announce we have our own rattlesnake.  We “caught” this guy, who was about 2 ½ feet long, crossing our driveway.  Fortunately, there was no need for a standoff.

We put the game camera alongside a well-traveled deer train, and got to see fawns, mom with fawns, and then the stags who are developing their horns now.

There is no photo evidence to offer, but we have seen a solitary turkey as well as ruffed and dusky grouse. 

We had a big surprise with a sighting of a little guy about the size of a loonie, lurking on a doorsill in the morning.  It is a toad, it might even be a spadefoot toad which is considered endangered here, but how the heck did it wind up 3000 ft high on a dry mountain?

Another big surprise came with the sighting of a big guy.  Naturally, he was attracted by the bird feeders, and had a nutritious protein-laden snack to help build up weight for winter.

As a clear sign of impending fall, we note what things we haven’t sighted.  We got up on the morning of August 15 to sit outside for coffee, and it was eerily quiet.  In a bit we realized there were no wrens (the family had been there days before), and no hummingbirds!  A couple of hummingbirds straggled through over the next week:  they were transients from the north on the way south.  Birds are starting to flock, and the shadows are certainly getting longer.  We have bought our ski passes at Silverstar again this year, and I guess we will have to start looking forward to the next season.

Hope this finds you well and happy, and thanks for your interest!