Fall in the Okanagan

(Before I forget, the Iceland/Greenland Trip has finally been published on malloysatlarge.blogspot.com)

It is fall here, and the harvest is impressive.  Grape vines everywhere are drooping with loads of fruit, and some of those grapes are being processed already.

Apple trees are laden, and to me they look like “Apple Christmas Trees”.

Fruit stands are open here, there and everywhere, and since it is hard to tell which one might be the best, we’ve been trying all of them.

While the irrigated areas are flourishing, everywhere else is bone dry.  Someone told us in May that that would be the greenest we would see the land, and it was true.  We did get 5 mm of rain in September, the first rain since July 11.

We haven’t had much in the way of wildlife sightings, but since we put new batteries in the game camera (duh), we know there are lots of deer around.

One interesting thing about fall is that we have started getting lots of clouds again, and often they are down in the valley rather than above us.  Sunsets are now quite spectacular.

The ones that are above are often capricious, leading to rain cells, hail, and even a “Thundersnow”, leading to obscene pictures such as this.

There are fall colours here, despite the predominance of conifers, with yellow aspen poplar and red Saskatoons brightening the landscape.

The end of September features the “Festival of the Grape”, a huge event in Oliver showcasing the wares of many vineyards.  We had guests from Gabriola Island to help us do a thorough examination of the possibilities.  Like many other events of this ilk, there were a number of organizations displaying at the event, and I couldn’t resist the sign for the Search and Rescue Association.

One tourist attraction here is a Model Railway Museum.  To put it mildly, it is unbelievable.  It is housed in a small warehouse, and features every kind of terrain and activity you can imagine, while trains of all kinds move through the extensive landscape. 

Check out the ski hill...

The Circus..........

A forest fire...

An accident...

And walking the dogs...

And here is something to give you an idea of scale (the people are 1/2 " high).  Whew!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Race Training

Things are going well:  I have a new scooter, and a hot pink fiberglass cast.  I haven't mastered wheelies yet, but this certainly improves mobility.

I just have received access to photos taken by others on our Greenland Trip and will attemp to get the travel blog completed in a week.  I will post here when it is ready.

In the meantime, it must be officially fall here.  We woke up this morning to find at least 8 mountain peaks across the valley with a noticeable dusting of fresh snow.  It's gone by this afternoon, but I think we have been warned.  Smoke is diminished considerably since all 4 wildfires of note near us have graduated to "held" status, whiich means they are not crossing boundaries any more.  At least 3 have been remote enough to make delivery of heavy equipment for firefighting almost impossible--this means it probably will take winter to stop all the hot spots left.  Welcome to the near "normal".

We are back and the landscaping is done!

The day before we got back from Greenland, Aaron and his crew finished all of the landscaping around our house.  When we walked out from the back of the garage, our front yard looked like this...

Instead of this.....

Aaron had started from the bottom (you have seen a preliminary picture in the last blog).

He put in a patio and designed edging, plants and rocks to give it a more interesting look.

On the south side of the house, we have a deck leading off from the main bedroom.

Aaron has put in steps, a path, more landscaping, and.....

a gurgler!

This is a pondless water feature just beside our coffee deck, and we can hear the water all day.  The stone is big; it's about 2 1/2 feet high and 2 1/2 feet in diameter, and the water splashes and travels down almost all sides, showing the neat colours in the rock.  We figure it is just a matter of ttime before the deer figure out there is a drinking fountain here.

The plants are all drought-resistant and will need virtually no care, and there are some really interesting gnarly cacti amongst the group.

Several of the cacti have bloomed this year, and will probably be very attractive for the next one.  They can grow to be several feet tall, so they are probably of great protective value as well.

If you haven't heard already, I broke my ankle in two places near the end of our trip in Greenland, and just had surgery to get the bones pinned three days ago.  It's been uncomfortable, but I hope to have the presence of mind over the next few days to get the Greenland trip posted.  I will let you know here when that blog is updated.

Cheers for now!

More of all the Previous

Although the subject matter is not entirely new, there certainly have been updates.

Baby season: 

The 5 baby ravens who have been making a terrible ruckous have now expanded their horizons, and are no longer totally concentrated in this area.  This means no more strange objects dropped on the balcony (including Saskatoon berries), no more bird feeders emptying in half an hour, and much more quiet.

The wren nest somewhere in a post above the coffee deck is now quiet:  this means that there are no longer calls of about 15 starving babies responding when parents bring food (big racket).  I can only imagine the reprieve for the poor parents.........

Humming bird juveniles are well launched, and you can certainly see the Calliope babies swarming around Mom at the feeder.  They tolerate another much better than the Rufous Hummingbirds.  It appears males of both types have already headed South, but a female Rufous has now adopted the gnarly aggresive traits of the type:  she fiercely guards all feeders against the upstart Calliopes.  An amusing note is that she has taken up guard on a fake plant at the front door, and immediately nails any unsspecting visitor at the closest feeder.

Weeding wars continue.  There are 12 provincially noted noxious weeds:  I think I have 15 of them.

I spend an hour or two each day with the guiding thought that I am reducing seed stock for next year.  The local landfill will accept doubly-bagged noxious weeds for free and I have already delivered 18 bags in the last two weeks.  Today netted another 5  bags.  I let them sit outside in the sun to acclimatize them to the hereafter.  I practically need to wear a haz-mat suit (polyester scrubs) so that seeds don't stick to the fabric, I spend considerable de-seeding socks and insoles of rubber boots, and then spend considerable time in the shower creating mud in the septic pond.  Nothing like determination!

The good news is that I discover new wildflowers such as the Mariposa Lily (far bigger than

a toonie) as well as lovely mauve blooms of a new unidentified plant this afternoon.  It still astonishes me what can grow in such dry conditions.

The landscaping started last week, and after 8 days on site the crew has virtually completed the patio below.  The landscaper has featured neat rocks as well as native plants (really good cacti).

The before and after pictures show the extent of the improvement.

On the other hand, the soil here is so dry that when they started using a Bobcat the soil was churned to fine dust in no time at all.  This infiltrates into closed houses, shoes, clothing and anything else exposed to air. 

The front yard is home to numerous dump truck loads of sand, gravel and rock.

House cleaning is a hourly process at this point.  The landscaper is awesome and his crew of 6 work like crazy.  This is turning out to be a fabulous process--the results are showing to be well beyond our imagination.

Forest fires are obviously a part of life here, but this year has experienced only 50,000 of hectares of burn versus 400,000 hectares of burn by this time last year.  A fire causing smoke across the valley has been so isolated that they have only decided to assign firefighters in the last day.  A large fire in the US is creating more smoke for us.  Our pristine views are much more obscured by smoke.  Nonetheless, for us the fire hazard is certainly lower than it has been previously.

We leave on Friday for almost 3 weeks, starting in Iceland for 3 days and then embarking on a cruise to Greenland.  The ship will have virtually non-existent internet access, so I will have to post the blog when I come back, after August 24..  Rest assured it will happen and I will let you know.

Weeds, flowers, dirt, rocks and landscaping

Things have been a little quiet until yesterday when the landscapers burst upon the property, ahead of schedule.

As we mentioned earlier, because this was an estate sale, there was no landscaping done on the property before our possession.  And it needs a lot.

Here was our sedate front yard on Monday.

Tuesday and Wednesday have featured numerous loads of dirt mix, gravel and boulders.  The crew is larger than we expected, and they are making big progress.  The disadvantage is that every time the Bobcat makes a path, fine dust is distributed everywhere because it is so dry.

In the meantime, I have been educated on noxious weeds in BC, and now spend a minimum of an hour a day waging war on weeds with no holds barred.  Scotch Thistle, Sulphur Cinquefoil, Hound’s Tongue, and Knapweed fill my waking and dreaming hours.  There are also invasive weeds such as Salsify, which are currently experiencing drought stress and are trying to send a gazillion seedlings out to continue their legacy.  This year’s challenge is to reduce seed stock; next year’s challenge is to pull out the suckers before they produce seeds.

In the midst of the weeds, we have some beautiful new blooms up such as Mariposa Lily.  The blooms, about 2 ½ times a twoonie in diameter, come up on a single stem with little evidence of base leaves.  It is hard to believe this is a desert flower. 

The hummingbirds are emptying the feeders daily, and we have a wren’s nest somewhere in an upright for the bedroom deck.  When a parent approaches with food, it sounds like there is about 20 little ones in the nest clamouring.

Weather has turned from unusually cool to seasonally hot, and temperatures even here are in the low 30’s by the late afternoon.  That’s OK because it is 5-7 degrees hotter in the valley.  We have the fortune of some good breezes so we don’t need air conditioning, but we do close up everything in the late morning to last through the day.

With the prospect of no rain for the next few weeks (normal), the fire season has begun, with many being started by lightning strikes in the last week or so.  We could start smelling wood smoke yesterday, and that will be an issue for the next while.

Stay tuned for updates on the yard!

How to have fun on Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

If you want to have a lot of fun on Canada Day, participate with a “float” on a parade.  Our very active community decided to get together, and with a little $500 grant set up a vehicle to highlight some of the activities carried out by residents on Anarchist Mountain.

The volunteer fire department offered us a vehicle, which was then promptly decked with anything you could imagine from the Dollar stores in town.

Participants then acted out some of the activities—I was supposed to be a birdwatcher.  See my nice origami birds on the side of the fire truck? 

I was decked out in Tilley Hat, binoculars, wild Canada Day socks while I had a “moose” beside me (complete with moose crossing sign on back), as well as well-bedecked organizers.

As part of the theme, we had a little “baby owl” as part of the group—she was one of the stars of the show.

Regrettably, I have no pictures of Brian, but he was the spotter in the passenger seat of the fire truck, so he got a great view.

One of the themes of our community is roads named after wildlife (Bull Moose Way, Peregrine, Eagle Point, etc) and one of the more notorious roads is called Sasquatch.  The residents of Sasquatch featured Mr. John the Squatch, on a bicycle.  He stole the show—nobody looked anywhere else as he cycled around the fire truck.

The turnout on the streets was marvellous.

Some of the fire trucks squirted water at the crowd, but they were sometimes outmatched by combatants ready by the side of the road.

Behind our truck was a float for the Portuguese Society of Osoyoos, complete with a band playing lively music.

There were 47 entries in the parade--not bad for a town of 5000!

After we retired from the parade, we went down to the Legion (of course) to enjoy Beef on a Bun.  Featured was a pipe band from Summerland, who played a great set of music.

Finally, the Legion hosted an entertainer who was a tribute artist.  His first song was that of Johnny Cash, and he did a fine job.

Then he did Elvis.

Then he did Roy Orbison.

The he went on to do Neil Diamond, and Fogarty of Credence Clearwater Revival. 

I have never seen a tribute artist who covered such a diversity of entertainers so well.

After thee parade, everyone went to Osoyoos Lake and covered the beaches as well as filling the lake with watercraft.

Tonight features fireworks touted as the “Second Best Fireworks in Canada” after Parliament Hill.  What a great Canada Day!  Hope all of you enjoyed it as much as we did!