A morning of intermittent sunshine, blue sky and pussy willows.....

As we have lunch the sun skims over the top of  K mountain and the witches ball 

glows blue and silver

Yesterday was a grey day, but nonetheless we had such a lovely, satisfying afternoon.

Went for a drive, - out of the house, at last!

Took the camera and found colour in the early spring sap

rising in the willows.

in the bare-boned whiteness of an old barkless stump, home to some of the 

wild creatures that live in Ginty's Pond

and vicinity

the willows and the birch trees anticipate spring, and send sustenance up into their branches

while the ducks at the Pond sail into the stillness of the shoreline

the dried grasses will be glowing today in the sunlight, but

yesterday they were beautiful subtle shades of cream and sand

and naples yellow.

the grass on a newly burned slope  is thick and rich until it reaches

the fading remnants of the fire retardant that extinquished the blaze before it consumed

the whole mountain side.

Charles takes a beautiful wintry picture of Keremeos Creek, and is that a 

flotilla of ducks just at the bend, in the distance?

The Similkameen Valley is also known as Eagles' Valley, not only by the First Nations people

but also by those of us who have lived here long enough to appreciate

that this is a habitant of these beautiful birds.

I have written here before, I believe, of how I saw three great eagles circling

the funeral cortage of one of the elder natives (who was our neighbour) as it wound up the valley,

 in the early years 

when we first came here to farm with other Veterans of WW 2

We stopped to take a picture of the story of Eagle Valley that is located in a little turn out

on Highway 3, that runs through the Lower Similkameen Indian Reserve

and an enlargement of the two members of the Band who are pictured here.

We also photographed some of the older houses in Cawston and in the Lower Similkameen,

and we reminisced about one, in particular, which is now in a sad state of disrepair and 

has been empty for decades, but once housed people that we knew, and who were friends.

We passed by ranches where a sweet new crop of calves are awakening to the

wonders of life in this valley and the hills where the ranchers have

pastured them for a hundred and fifty years and more

Finally we passed by a sign which expresses the feelings of those who live in this valley

about a proposed National Park, which is highly favoured by environmentalists in

California and people in Timbuctoo and Europe and other far-flung spots, but threatens the peace

and livelihood of those who farm, and live here.

The very few who are in favour of this National Park put their signs high  on 

telephone poles to keep them comparatively safe from the locals......