May 2020

Another month in lockdown, although restrictions are lifting a little bit.  We are lucky to be living ruraly, with no big populations living nearby, and both of us are safe and healthy.  Our provincial doctor, Dr. Bonnie Henry, is getting kudos for her careful attention to health while giving a detailed stream of public information that has been factual, comprehensive while not being alarming.  There are certainly few occurrences here of big crowds defying limitations impose upon them.

In times like this, small pleasures become big ones, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Brian’s New Camera

We bought a new camera for Brian that requires intelligence and practice.  (I am far too lazy to be interested in either kind of output).  It has meant we have some beautiful new photos of moonlight and sunsets.  Be prepared for more as he sharpens his skills.

Going for a Walk

With a lifting of some restrictions, we went with friends on the mountain to scale the “Tower Trail”.  This trail begins on the next nearest road to us (named Sasquatch!), and involves walking through some beautiful alpine meadows that are already in bloom with a number of plants strutting their stuff.  There were some big bugs, about 1 inch long, and looking very gnarly.  Apparently, they are called blister bugs because of the impact of their bites.  Fortunately our acquaintance did not extend that far.

We can see the tower from our yard (faint outline in upper left quarter of photograph).

Turns out we had an excellent view of our house from above.

This was only topped by an email sent by friends who live on that road, and captured a view of our house that was the pot at the end of the rainbow.

Story of the Dish

The best part of the month has been the “Dish”.  A neighbour has a bird bath in her yard, and I was envious of all of the activity at it.  This piece cost $170.00 at a local store, and my Scots grandmother would have been horrified.  Instead, I used a cheap pottery plant dish, and placed the game camera on a nearby column, right at ground level, on the patio outside my workroom,to capture whatever activity there might have been.

The first shot was that of a mouse.

I knew the chipmunk liked the dish.

The birds liked it as well, and it was visited by Cassin’s Finches as well as a Stellar Jay.

One night, we knew we had had a lot of wildlife activity in the yard, and I checked the game camera.  Downloading 195 pictures, I was very surprised to find many of them were whiteouts.  Then, the mystery was solved.

Mr. or Ms. Bear had decided to visit.

They had taken down a line of bird feeders, including two hummingbird feeders, one of which was just above the dish.  The bear was so close to the camera what the flash was being reflected right back.  I got a couple of vague photos of the head and that of a retreating bear. 

Given the size, it was clearly a juvenile.  It hasn’t been back (to our knowledge) since, but the neighbourhood is thrumming to the excitement of a mother bear with three cubs roaming around.  A neighbour below us saw them at night yesterday.  Things are never dull here.

May has not been a warm month, but we have received over 60 mm of rain compared to 40 mm in May last year, so things are looking beautifully green.  With the coolness, I haven’t bought bedding plants until two days ago, and then we received a severe thunderstorm watch.  Buying for here is a challenge, because you need both deer-resistant and drought-resistant plants.  (And even if they are deer-resistant, apparently fawns eat anything….)  These will go out in the next few days and be prepared for more wildlife sightings in the future!

Thanks for checking in.  I hope you are all well and coping.

April 2020

I apologize for the delay in this post.  It appears that spilling a glass of wine on the keyboard renders the keyboard unintelligible to Google.  Thank goodness for another machine in the household.

This month’s blog is living proof of how circumscribed our lives have become since the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown.  Frankly, it has been very hard to find items of any interest whatsoever to share with you, but I will endeavour to at least highlight some of Mother Nature’s accomplishments in our realm.

Our spring has continued to be cool, but that hasn’t slowed our wildflowers much.  New ones have been coming out all month.  Many of the blooms are small to tiny, as fitting our dry climate.  For example, Sagebrush Buttercup plants are barely a couple of inches high, but their bright yellow blossoms are the size of a quarter.  

The very smallest flower has the biggest name, which is unique in itself.  Maiden Blue-eyed Mary blossoms are only about 1/8” in size but include marvelous colours of blue, white and yellow. 

Some plants have the weirdest names, like Wayside Gromwell, but since Lemon Weed is an alternative moniker for this guy, I prefer to use that.  Honestly, botanists can be as bad as lepidopterists!

Bluebell is a common name for over 80 different plants; this one is a Mountain Bluebell.

To give lie to my previous statement about small flowers in a dry climate, our Arrowleaf Balsamroot plants stand over a foot high, and the blooms are the size of small saucers.  This one is merrily blooming in front of a blooming Wax Current bush while Lupen leaves are sprouting in front of the Balsamroot.  In a few weeks we will have a profusion of blue flowers everywhere.

I made an interesting geological find on the property next door, where the owners have started building a house.  The area has been dug in preparation for foundation work, and the well has been dug. This is where I made the discovery.  Some of the soil in a layer was very chalky looking.  When I grabbed a piece of “rock” it turned out to be very light and full of holes.  After some research, I realized I had found a piece of volcanic tuff, formed by an explosion of magma.  We have extensive evidence of glaciation here, and the mountain is known for its granite, but there are numerous examples of volcanic activity in the past.  What a busy geological site!

Like everyone else, we have had little occasion to go out to do anything.  Brian, who despises shopping with a passion, is now eager to drive me for my weekly trip for groceries.  He won’t come into the store, but the thrill of driving somewhere is impossible to resist.  We have cleaned almost anything cleanable, have fixed anything fixable, and are living a life of boring virtue.  Our neighbour, who works in a building supply store, says that paint has been flying off the shelves, so other people are obviously as desperate as we are to occupy our time profitably.  We are still luckier than most because our location brings us into contact with few people.  I hope all of you are safe and healthy as well.