Late this afternoon Charles and I went off to pick up the newspapers and take pictures of river and rock, trees and skies.

At the Sportsmen Garage, where the papers lie in wait for us, we took our first picture of the Talus Slides that are found on the mountains of the Similkameen. In this picture you can see the trails of the rocks which slip away from the tops of the hills and slide to the bottom where they form a rocky debris. When No. 2 son was in his teens he and a friend were recruited to help a research team studying the formation of the Talus slides.

On slides which are more or less stable there is some growth, - in the summer a green haze covers some slides, and in the autumn the growth turns red and gives a rosy cast to the slide.



These Talus slides are unique to this area, and you can find more information about them here.

We turned down a back road, admiring an orchard planted to pillar type trees, heavy with scarlet apples.



Across the bridge and meandering eastward down the riverbank, the low water sparkled in the sunlight, rippling over rocks that hug the bottom of the river bed when the river runs swift and high. Now there were people wading in the small pools and a fisherman casting from the edge of the water.





The water and trees are quiet and serene, and inviting on a hot afternoon.



A scout quail keeps watch on an old log while his charges scurry off the other end when we slow down, into the grass where they are hidden.



Westward from the bridge the road winds through ranch country until it comes to a great outcropping of multicoloured rock.



The river, the rocks, the sky and the warm afternoon, - we all say goodbye to August and will enjoy the crispness of September.





We came home to supper in the slow cooker, - another plus.