July 2020

Season Change

July is the month when we finally went from Spring to Summer.  On July 1, the high was 14.2 degrees; on July 31 the high was 34.9 degrees.  Osoyoos had a record high of 39.3 degrees on July 30 but we are lucky up on the mountain and generally experience temperatures 5-6 degrees cooler than that below.   Thank goodness!  However, we are now closing up the house at 9:30 am to avoid the heat inside.

Up to this point, we had had twice the normal amount of rain this year, with June featuring temperatures 5 degrees below normal.  That changed!  The grasses have turned brown and crispy, and a lightning storm yesterday started 15 spot fires.  We’ve been blessed with low wildfire activity this year, but that has changed in a heartbeat.

Covid-19 and BC

Although BC has been extremely good on holding the lid on Covid-19, tourist season has then wreaked havoc.  There were two private parties in Kelowna on Canada Day (featuring tourists from Vancouver and elsewhere) that have now resulted in 137 cases of infection and over 1000 people needing to self-quarantine.  This whole area depends on tourism, but we locals are finding it more of a threat than an improvement to the economy.  Downtown is crowded with larger groups of people, most not wearing face masks, and most appearing oblivious to the threat of infection.  They are on holidays from elsewhere and they seem to think it is not a problem.  Brian and I have restricted our visits to town and stores even more, and are looking forward to September for a reprieve.

Brian’s Bike and Kayak Month

The good weather has finally allowed Brian to get out on his bike, and he has put more than 600 km on it.  In addition, he was able to get out for a kayak trip on Jewel Lake—named very appropriately for its beauty.  He didn’t need to miss Georgian Bay, for there was a loon to greet him here instead.

WWWW—or W to the fourth Power

Or maybe it should be to the fifth power because I am going to assail you with the Wild Woman’s Weed Wrestling Whines.  I promise not to bore you further after this post, but I will vent now in hopes of gaining your generous sympathy.  Stay tuned for very very small W5 comments when I am more restrained later.

With two times the normal amount of rain this spring, every plant on this acreage flourished.  The good news was that we have had an enormous of number of wildflowers blooming this year.  The bad news is we have had an enormous number of weeds growing enormously.  I try to put in 14 hours of weeding per week, and that amount of time lends itself to wild fantasies coursing through my otherwise unoccupied head during those hours.

At the beginning, I considered that pulling out large weeds (like a 4 ½ foot thistle) meant that I could line up carcasses on the patio for admiration.  These honkers are huge.  I can pull 3 mustard plants or 3 knapweed plants, and fill a wheelbarrow.  Big deal—I could have a thousand wheelbarrows of work.

I thought I had pictures of the carcasses on the patio, but I couldn’t find them, so I will spare you.  Be thankful.

Last year I measured my successes in how many large bags of weeds I took in for disposal (100).  This year, I have found a kindly friend with a large trailer, and now I am counting trailer loads.  See my happiness.

 

 There will be a similar load in two weeks from this.

Speaking of the wildflowers found (still there is good news), Mariposa Lilies have started blooming, and there are more here than I have ever seen before.  The flowers are the size of a lime, but have little other than a thin stalk to the ground.  For a desert environment, they seem a bit miraculous.

The Joys of the Wapiti Pit

Our community has an incredibly fortunate deal with the local developer where they allow use of one of their gravel puts for community members to dump flammable yard waste for safe disposal during the fire season.  Pine cones, needles and pine branches are generally the first offering, but noxious weeds disposal is a great alternative. (The alternative for this stuff is to take it to landfill more than 40 km away one way, and bagging all noxious weeds in double plastic bags for disposal). Volunteers (me and our FireSmart Committee) monitor access to the Wapiti pit every second Saturday  through the summer season, and at the end of the season, generally after the first snow flies, the local volunteer fire department has a wonderful time burning off the debris (they really are arsonists,) and then monitoring the site afterward for hot spots.  Last year we accepted 174 loads of debris: this year we are already past 350 with four weekends to go.

Critter Watch

With the feeders down for the bears, I have far less sightings, but there are still highlights. 

The first batch of wrens have fledged and the parents are obviously bringing food to another clutch.

California quail have shown up on the patio and driveway, although I haven’t been quick enough to catch pictures.

We have been treated to aerial displays of Common Nighthawks this last week—the first for me.  They are elegant fliers, but their family name of Goatsuckers seems a bit weird.

We had a week snake on our coffee deck—not sure what kind.

 

The Month Upcoming

 

It is so hard to believe it is August already, and I know we are all experiencing different degrees of constraint due to Covid-a19.  We hope this finds you all well and safe. 

 

 

June 2020

Weather and Plants

June was cooler and wetter than normal, but not record breaking.  Nonetheless, we had a fire going two nights in June.  We have only sat outside a couple of times because it has still been too cool to be comfortable. 

The extra moisture has done wonders for the wildflowers.   I keep finding new ones, often with improbable sounding names.

Witness Graceful Cinquefoil, Parsnip-flowered Buckwheat as well as Pussytoes.

Lupines are in bloom everywhere.

The cacti have thrived and are throwing out many new lobes.  

Unfortunately, it also did wonders for the weeds.  They are no longer herbs; they are freaking shrubs.  BC put a fire ban early in place this year because of fears of a normal wildfire season as well as fears of having wildfire fighter camps being too constrained because of Covid-19.  That restriction was lifted a few days ago, which now permits me to use a blow torch as well as a chainsaw to go after these horrible plants.

In addition, the huge amounts of pollen scattered by these abundant plants has given hay fever sufferers one of the worst seasons in years.

Brian and his Camera

Brian continues to play with his new toy and getting some impressive shots of our local sky phenomena.

We Can’t Get No Signal!

Our TV signal was lost and we had to call in a technician.  He didn’t show up that day (much to our annoyance, but we did discover a possible reason for signal failure).  While we were waiting for the technician at the last minute, Brian exclaimed, “Look at what was coming down the driveway!”  It was the healthiest mom bear we had ever seen along with two boisterous cubs.  

I had taken in the bird feeders just that morning, because there had been a fair amount of bear activity on the mountain (including at my feeder), and the bears will come back to known sites of food for weeks. 

This mom certainly did—she immediately climbed the tree holding the feeder wires, gnawed at the wires to no avail, and then settled down to mutz on the ground to see what leftovers were available. 

 In the meantime, the cubs were hilarious.  After following Mom up a tree, they then decided to attack a couple of trees nearby, racing to them and then climbing on opposite sides.

A rock provided a good balancing place while Mom was busy.  Mom checked out a couple of bird nesting boxes nearby.

Then we discovered the solution to our TV signal problem.  The dish was on a tree nearby the bird box.  Mom climbed the tree and investigated the dish; it was clearly not stable enough to withstand her exploration.

The bear cubs are not the only babies around.  One morning I noticed a couple of smaller than usual chipmunks.  While I watched them for a few minutes, they spent considerable time racing after one another while exploring the yard.  Then the final clue was given:  they stopped mid-race to have the best 3-minute wrestling match available for youngsters who needed entertainment.  After the wrestling, they continued racing around the yard.

The wrens fledged at the end of the month, and for a day there was multiple flights made as the parents took them out to find bugs.  I hear other nestlings, but unfortunately one set makes a terrible squawking sound, only interrupted when a parent feeds it, leading a horrible gurgle in its place.  It shouldn’t be long before we start to see fawns.

My favourite statue in the area, that of a Peregrine Falcon bearing in on a marmot, is still a favourite marmot basking place.  I drove by, only to stop quickly, seeing a marmot on the Peregrine as well as one on the prey below.  Regrettably, the one moved below, but at the same time I discovered three of them had been basking there. 

The Dish

The water dish has continued to give us good sightings of chipmunks, mice and the wren, but it also has turned out to be a descriptive weather dish.  We even had hail in one of our recent bouts of rain.

The town is opening up.

We were able to go back to our gym at the beginning of the month, with enhanced cleaning protocols that have improved the gym cleanliness considerably.  Going to town has become a BIG excitement.

With the advent of the July 1 holidays, many more tourists have been coming to town.  Although it is a blessing for the tourist driven businesses and vineyards out here, it is a still a little concerning given so many strangers coming in.  This is such a different world these days.  I hope we are not being too isolationist, since we also rely heavily on fruit pickers (especially Mexican and Jamaican) which are far scarcer this year.

Projects

Like with most other people, June was a month of renovations and other improvements.  I had a small exercise place in the basement, but had equipment strewn around.  The first project was to clean up the area and build shelving to hold my stuff.

With pleasing progress in that area, I then tackled the kitchen closet which had been configured as a clothes closet since it was beside a door leading to the outside.  With less kitchen space than I had in the last place, I really needed a pantry.  No classic woodworking was involved here—it was a quick and dirty plywood job, but I am happy with a lot more storage space.

Projects will probably continue next month while we gently reenter a more normal world.  We hope you are all keeping safe and sound, albeit bored.  Thanks for visiting!

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.

March 2020

It is hard to believe how much our world has changed in a month! 

The first two weeks consisted of relatively normal activities (to be described in a minute) while the last two weeks have seen a virtual shutdown of our neighbourhood and Osoyoos.

Normal Stuff

A local nature charity hosts a series of presentations in the spring, featuring a feature film and then having a live presenter.  The film covered how a number of Canadian species of birds and animals coped in the wintertime.  The presenter was “Houdini”, a great horned owl living at a raptor rescue center just north of us.  Houdini was dropped from a nest when he was very young (probably by a crow) and suffered extensive injury.  However, he was treated and has mostly recovered, although he is cannot be released because of damage to one eye.  He is brought out for public education, and you can see what a magnificent bird he is.

The second week of March we went skiing at Silver Star near Vernon, and had some of the best skiing we’ve had this year.  As we go up one lift, they always have a Santa’s Postbox along the way, suitably festive for each relevant holiday.  Now it was ready for spring and St. Patrick's Day.

The other notable signage was in the village, meant for summertime guests.

Our return timing was good, missing a storm while driving, but arriving back to find 6” of fresh snow on the ground.  Oh well, I suppose that happens in winter.  The next day, the hill cancelled all events for spring break because of the threat of Covid-19.  Normally the two weeks involved are a big source of revenue for the hill, and this early closure will be financially challenging for them.

Driving back we make every effort to stop for dinner in Peachland (population 5500) at a fantastic German restaurant called the “Gasthaus on the Lake”.  Not only is the food delicious but the décor provides lots of things to look at.

Signs of Spring

This month has had a cheerful progression of spring events/sightings.

On March 2, the juncos were back, March 12 there were robins in the valley, and on March 19 the first chipmunk was out.

On March 22, our earliest spring flower was blooming.  The Sagebrush Buttercup is a very small plant with a big bright flower the size of a quarter.

On March 27, the beginning of the cherry blossoms were opening up.

As usual, roof avalanches were the big excitement at home, making a lot of noise when the snow finally fell.

In the meantime, the pruners have been visible in the vineyards.  More and more land is being dedicated to grape growing, and this is an example of a newly planted vineyard.

It fascinated me to learn that each vine is surrounded by a protective milk carton.  It seems to work because everyone does it.  Some use different cartons for different grape types.  Apparently here they have planted Half and Half and Fat Free Milk vintages.

Covid-19

As you have most likely experienced yourselves, the last two weeks of March have been a total game-changer.

One of the things that I didn’t expect was the closure of the US/Canada border.  We live at most a couple of hundred yards from it on our property, and can see it readily across the valley every day.  (In wintertime, it is more visible because the line of snow stands out clearly.)  The cleared area is only 15-20 feet wide as you can see from a closer picture.  Most of our view, in fact, is that of the US, and my camera thinks it is in Washington.  The closure has given me a sense of unreality as I look across the way.

The town of Osoyoos (population 5000) has been very hard hit by this restriction because it is about a 5-minute drive to the border, and another 10-minute drive to the town of Oroville, Washington, (population 1680) where one can buy cheap US gas and cheap dairy, poultry and beef products.  People cross the border for daily work and it is a significant entry/exit point for snowbirds and tourists.  Osoyoos is extremely dependent on tourists, and the town has practically had to roll up its sidewalks.  Most of the businesses in town are small ones, and many have been closed as mandated by the Government of BC.  Bank customers line up on the sidewalk outside the doors.  Restaurants that don’t offer take-out or drive-through have been closed, leaving empty parking lots all around.  One of the grocery stores has a security guard to make sure people don’t stand too close in line.

As everywhere, shelves have been emptied of toilet paper for three weeks now.  I have to pass along a great quip I heard early in the month.  I go to a local barbershop for my haircuts (I don’t need a hair “dresser” for my kind of style) and there are two barbers there.  You take a number and wait for your turn with Josh or Sue, and in the meantime any conversations going on in the room are shared by all.  (It is worth going there just for the social experience.)  So, Sue has an east Indian boy in her chair while his father and sister wait for him, and there are a couple of us other customers standing by.  Sue was regaling us with how much toilet paper she had stowed away in her bathroom, and how she won’t let anyone inside to prevent a case of toilet paper envy.  The boy’s father mentions that, of course being Indian, he loves VERY VERY spicy food.  A Canadian friend of his was asking him what were the normal procedures in India and the father replied that they used water for cleaning.  When the friend expressed incredulous disbelief, the father coyly mentioned that toilet paper was flammable!  The whole room broke up on that one.

A number of our neighbours have been in self-quarantine after coming back from the US, so things are very quiet everywhere.  It is easy to isolate because of the size of our lots, but it is almost like no one dares venture outside.  I am happy to report we are both doing well, and able to keep a nice level of physical activity to prevent from going stir crazy.  Brian has been able to get out on his bike a couple of times already, and temperatures are warming up.

A side benefit of all this is that we are getting a number of fun things and chores done that we might have avoided otherwise.  I started working on a quilt that had been packed away since the move, and am making nice progress on it.

I hope this finds you all well, safe and sound.  It will be interesting to see how we all view this in hindsight.  Thanks for checking in!