March 2021

 

Despite our fervent hopes, March was just another cool spring month, with snow on the ground right up to the end of the month.  The highest temperature reached here was 11.8.  Ah, those were the good old days!  By the middle of March, the pundits were saying that the snowpack was about 120% of normal, and they started worrying about floods.  By the end of the month, having only received about .2 mm rain, now they are worrying about wildfires.  One small one has already been noted in Oliver which is just north of us.  Cannot win for trying!

 

Our game camera was not useful this month.  I placed it at a couple of locations in our yard, but didn’t consider the winds.  (We had an extremely windy couple of days near month end, with gusts reaching up to 87 km/hr.)  When I tried to download pictures today, I discovered 6002 of them.  (No kidding.)  After reviewing them, I realized I had 6002 pictures of dead grass stalks waving in the wind, none of which would be of any interest to you. 

 Fortunately, we did better at home or when out and about.

 On the home front, we had 4 does visiting the bird feeders.

 

Driving nearby, we came across a small flock of bighorn sheep—the ewes.  Much of the time they were too busy eating to put their heads up for a nice touristy photo.  Apparently, the rams’ horns can weigh as much as 30 lb. per pair which makes nodding their heads a weightlifting exercise in itself.

 

Walking around Lake Osoyoos gave way to some interesting sightings.  We get hundreds of American Coots sitting in the water nearby throughout the year.

 All of a sudden, the separated birds started scooting together very quickly (which I was unable to photograph successfully) until they gathered in an extremely tight formation.

 

I couldn't figure out what was happening until I saw the problem above:  a Bald Eagle was trying to catch a coot for lunch.  By forming together, it made it too difficult to find an outlier coot for a meal.  Very very interesting….

 

We are used to steady aircraft patrols from the US, mostly fighter jets and then sheriff’s helicopters patrolling the border.  For much of March, things were really quiet.  Then, someone must have unlocked the doors on the closest air base.  The jets were up all day, having fun, and leading to many of us trying to catch the after image of their antics.

 

March is the month of our roof avalanches, and this year was no different.  However, with the heavy layers of snow and ice, standing close under the roof was a life-threatening experience.

 

When the ice fell off the back side of our garage, it tore out the roof vent completely as well as damaging a number of tiles.  Note that these tiles are concrete; ie they are not easily dislodged.  The roofer will be visiting us soon.

I may have mentioned that we are trying to identify the clouds we see in the sky each day because of the great variety showing each day.

 A particular mountain feature is Lenticular Clouds, which easily describe the way they look.  They are formed as moving air goes up and down contours.  Brian captured a couple of sets in this picture.

Now that the winter fog has gone, we are getting some better sunsets, ranging from little to big.

 

We were given a housewarming gift from friends over 20 years ago, which constituted a Lee Valley Garden Diary with entries for every day for 10 years.  We are now embarked on our third volume.

 To liven up our coffee corner in the morning, we are now reading daily entries for each day for the last 20 years.  What was amazing in 2020 was how quickly things evolved with the advent of Covid-19, from toilet-paper hoarding during the first two weeks to increasing shutdowns as the disease progressed.  A year later, we are again regressing into more restrictive lockdowns as the third wave starts making itself known.  Brian and I have been able to book our first vaccinations for April 14.  (Thank God we are old!)  Friends and family are starting to trickle into the system, so we may all have a little more hope.

 Thank you for visiting.  We are both doing well, thanks to our rural location, and hope you are similarly in a better position as things develop.