April 20th, 2011

We surprise a sweet herd of grazing deer!

It is Monday, and we have an early afternoon appointment in Oliver.  We set off to travel the Richter Pass Highway.  It is not a road for dallying, but I have the camera 'at the ready' and manage to snap a few pictures of the Lower Similkameen Valley before we start to ascend the Richter Pass, over the mountains into the
Okanagan Valley.....Charles notes the lack of run-off in the Similkameen River, and shakes his head at the thought of the results of a sudden hot spell which would bring the mountain streams in a race to fill the river bed.

Before we make the turn to Osoyoos we pass Mount Chapaka, straddling the border between British Columbia  and Washington, and remember visiting Charles' sister and her husband where they were camped on the far side of the mountain, fishing at a lovely little remote lake.

We speed along through the Richter Ranch 

and I catch a picture of the old, winding take-it-easy road that we used in our early days in the Similkameen, and upon which my prairie bred father clung to his seat when he accompanied Charles to a meeting at the other end of the old mountain 'trail'.

we pass Spotted Lake, which is looking quite colourful, and and beautiful with it's white ringed circles of different hues

Over the top, and into the Okanagan Valley, and Osoyoos in the distance, which is 

where we turn north to Oliver

Business finished, Charles very sweetly abandons the fast highway and we turn to go up into the hills, 

through the Willowbrook community and every onwards to come out at Twin Lakes and there, just around the corner, is the construction line-up!!!  But what a lovely drive we have had

on this quiet country road.

There are lots of small holdings along with larger ranches and rocky outcroppings

Eventually we come to the perimeters of the White Lake Radio Astrophysical Observatory

whereupon a sudden snow squall sweeps down upon us and our first pictures of the

Observatory are shrouded in mist and snow

the storm carries on its way. the sky clears and we are able to see the large dishes which scan the heavens for signs and portents.

We note that besides being the home of this famous observatory the land also shares accomodation with

the Sage Thrusher, and we keep our eyes peeled, but see none

We continue along the road to Twin Lakes

and as we turn a corner we come upon the most delightful scene -

a dozen white tail deer, grazing the tender new green grass, 

quite oblivious to us, except for one curious doe who raised her head

in friendly fashion.

I am so excited about seeing these lovely creatures and we linger, watching them feed.

Eventually we think about the timing of the construction line-up and continue on our way past the golf course, where once we enjoyed eternal frustration.

Into the breech once more, waiting for the long line of cars to move past the mammoth machinery, through the dust and the rocks on the road.  I spy a hawk, hovering overhead, and try to get a decent picture,

but alas, to no avail.

At home our visiting son, David, captures a picture of a sharp shinned hawk who has come to terrorize the

little birds and stayed to pose.

as well as two blackbirds, sitting side by each on a distant branch.

All in all, a really perfect day, - most satisfactory for my soul.  The kind you say 'thanks' for......

 ABC Wednesday

The letter this week is N, which stands for Nebula

Stellar Spire in the Eagle Nebula

Appearing like a winged fairy-tale creature poised on a pedestal, this object is actually a billowing tower of cold gas and dust rising from a stellar nursery called the Eagle Nebula.  The soaring tower is 9.5 light years, or about 90 trillion kilometres high, about twice the distance from our Sun to the nearest star.

Stars in the Eagle Nebula are born in clouds of cold hydrogen gas that reside in chaotic neighbourhoods where energy from young stasrs sculpts fantasy-like landscapes in the gas.  The tower may be a giant incubator tor those newborn stars.  A torrent of ultraviolet light from a band of massive, hot, young stars is presently eroding 

this fabulous pillar..information from the internet

.A great place to go to see and explore heavenly creations such as this amazing nebula is The Galaxy Zoo, and a visit to this link will introduce you to a tutorial on ways to assist astronomers  in their discovery of the great array of fabulous objects in our universe.  


For other great interpretations of the letter N take the space ship over to ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kindly crew of helpers.

Up and over the Yellow Lake Pass


We have been back and forth to the city these last few weeks and each time we go it is an adventure in timing our departure so that we arrive at the spot where traffic is stopped for road construction just when the Flagger is starting to wave us through.

This is a big project, - liable to last out the summer, but in case you are planning to visit the road closures are not likely to be so regular for too much longer.

Ten minutes on the hour and the half hour, to get great lines of traffic through from east and west, and a total closure from ten to eleven and from four to five.   The Green Mountain road offers an option if you want to turn off before the construction and wind your way on a narrow, twisty road through green evergreens and poplars and alders just coming into leaf - pretty, but slower, and we usually take our chance on the main highway - partly out of curiosity to see the behemoth machines perched on the side of the mountain and thundering along the road with great loads of rock and boulders, biting away at the bluffs that have towered above the road since it was opened in 1958.

There was still snow in this little valley when we came through a few weeks ago.  The road was once a trail  from Osoyoos to Penticton,  a hundred years ago, and as it nears Penticton it passes through property owned by the Penticton Indian Band, but at the other end, nearer the highway, there are the remnants of old stage coach stoppings, and this old barn that has crumbled badly since we last were through this way fishing.

We went along the Highway on Tuesday.  I have the camera, and watch for new leaves, patches of buttercups,  and any wildlife that might be traveling the woods, looking for sustenance.  As we come up the hill to where traffic is stopped at Yellow Lake I see what looks like a very large woolly dog, ambling along the roadside at the bottom of the bank, but it is, in reality, a small brown bear that has all the lady Flaggers on the road agog with  excitement.

The animals that inhabit the land around the lake must wonder at the noise and confusion - the helicopters taking out brush from high on the hillside where the new road will go, and bringing in telephone poles, and the constant to and fro of heavy machinery.  On one of our trips to Penticton we were stopped further up the road, and while we waited a Canada Goose came up from the lake to peer at the long line of cars.

The ice was not completely gone from the lake, and out in the middle an osprey sat at an ice fishing hole, waiting for lunch.  I fished out the long lens, but wasn't able to get a good picture of him. and so we continued
on our way through all the dust and enormous machinery.

Some of the rock is quite beautifully coloured.

and on our way home we came upon these lovely buttercups, and the driver slowed

down a little so that I could get a rather blurry picture!

Monday we will be going south and over the Richter Pass, so we will see if Spring is still flirting there, or if she has settled down and decided pitch her tent until Summer arrives.

Another morning in the garden with the spade and the handy dandy tool that digs the dandelions.  Lunch and a quick clean-up and off to town to a lodge meeting to keep the ladies in step with some Scott Joplin piano.

Lodge meetings and membership are going the way of the mainline churches, - I can remember being young (25 or so) and newly introduced to the lodge and all its facets that are disdained today, not just by the young, but also by the Red Hat group of middle aged matrons out to have fun, fun, fun!!!

It was a night out - Dad was home baby-sitting and the girls were doing their thing in a well organized and disciplined way.  What was it about turning sharp corners, doing good work, remembering passwords, the ways of the lodge and each officer in it;  all these things that appealed to the enthusiastic  young women of the 50's and 60's.

There was the concept of 'sisterhood' which was taken very seriously, - and 'service', which had been a part of our life forever.  Whatever it was, the Lodge flourished, and so did the friendships it fostered; and the confidence it inspired as young women learned to do their part with poise and precision.  Lots to be said for those days, and the Lodge today is made up of the remnants of those happy times;  little old grey-haired ladies, to all appearances, but the Spirit  is still  splendid and the values remain the same.  And the memories of those no longer living and the years of faithfulness are precious to all.

They are fortified with a few younger woman who do the hard work and keep the flame lit.  The password disappeared a long time ago, along with the opportunity to blackball new candidates for membership (which, of course, one would NEVER do) and slacks were allowed in  place of skirts, but with great reservation.  I occasionally see ladies of the lodge cross their legs - definitely a no-no in days gone by.  But what remains is the idea of service and the loyalty and friendship that sustains the ancient sisterhood.

I came home with a good feeling of having been among friends.

ABC Wednesday
April 12th, 2011

The letter this week is M

and M is for Music and Mozart, - his Piano Concerto No. 9, played by the marvelous musician,  Mitsuko Uchida with Jeffrey Tate conducting the Mozarteum in Saltzburg.

Jeffrey Tate suffers from a major disability; a spinal malformation resulting from congenital spina bifid and kypho-scoliosis.  My admiration for this man and his accomplishments is boundless,  and you can find more about his life and his achievements here in an article by David Blum at Classical Music.

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For more interpretations of the letter M Move over here, to ABC Wednesday, with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kindly helpers.

April 11th, 2011

The sun shines, but April still shows her fickle side as random clouds

 drop snow lightly on the Cawston Bench.

As I struggle with the Cutch Grass and follow its long straggly roots half way

across a bed of Iris I feel the warmth of the sun on my back

and the fresh spring breeze on my arms.

When I glance up there is a shimmer of green on the curly willows, -

tiny leaves are opening and create this lovely aura around the trees,

and they glitter in the sunshine.

Two red winged blackbirds converse back and forth amongst

the branches, and I scold them as I see them for their impudence in gathering their friends around to eat most of  the buds off the forsythia tree closest to the bird feeders.

I think about moving the forsythia tree away to safety, but then decide 

it will be easier next year to move the feeders to another spot, away from the shrubbery.

I pick a few violets to bring their tender fragrance into the house,

and admire the little patch of daffodils that are ringed around the 

Philadelphia Orange.

Too soon it is time for lunch and I look around regretfully at the beds 

that need new compost and and the new peony bed that is infested with grass

and dandelions.  Still, tomorrow is another day, and it shows sunny on the

weather report.

I have been reading a garden book, - a remainder that I picked up at the

pharmacy and one that is quite a bit more up-to-date than the more formal

tomes I use for research.  This is a book by Katherine Whiteside, entitled "The Way We Garden Now".  Full of wonderfully concise tips on easy ways to garden -

most appealing to someone whose energy is not what it was, but who still finds these new ideas appealing.

What do you think of a Sunflower Folly???

I can imagine a small table, a couple of chairs, a cup of tea.

(or even some other refreshment) 

in the midst of marvelous waves of colour,

with the bees buzzing round

and the sunshine filtering through the lovely tall branches

and in the fall, when the seeds have ripened,  the

little birds that come to feast and visit.

Heavenly!

What will Charles think of it, I wonder???

Another rainy day!!

Charles is off to singing and I have been playing the piano, - practicing for a funeral on Saturday, and then I get carried away and play just one more piece, and then another, and all the while the vacuum cleaner is sitting in the middle of the floor behind me......

However, I have stopped for coffee and just a few lines here.

Yesterday we had blue skies and sunshine and I was out in the garden skirmishing with the cutch grass and looking for signs of the Chinese Lantern underground railway.  They are not selling tickets yet, but the tracks still lie undisturbed beneath all the stations located in the Iris and the Peonies and amongst the yellow daisies and shastas.

Here is the hawthorn tree, with its buds shiny and pregnant against the blue sky.

A clump of early daffodils, just on the verge!

Off in the distance the snow is still deep at Apex, and the skiers rejoice, and I rejoice too because the snowpack in the hills spells relief for the underground lakes that are being emptied by civilization and too many vineyards and orchards.  This is really cattle country, -  with its meagre rainfall the country suffers with the demands of too many thirsty trees and grapevines.

Before I come in I take my shears over to the fence line and trim the Meadow Rue that grows over Miss Roo's grave, and contemplate what lovely herb or flower we will plant where Caspar lies in eternal rest.

My coffee cup is empty, and the vacuum cleaner gets impatient, - just time to spiff things up before lunch.

ABC Wednesday
The letter this week is L

Lang Lang plays Liebestraum by Liszt



Enjoy, and visit here at ABC Wednesday for other Lovely interpretations of the Letter L, with many thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and her kindly helpers.

Touching up the odd photograph

If you are particularly observant, or interested in such things, you will have seen that I have been taking part in Kim Klassen's Photoshop SkinnyMini eCourse and finding myself becoming addicted to adding all sorts of delightful things to very ordinary photos.  And 'layers' are no longer a great mystery to me....

 I can get myself into such a confusing situation that Photoshop just throws up its hands in horror and quits, right there on the spot.  But on the whole I seem to have absorbed a fair bit of information about textures and filters and levels and other manipulative tricks.

The photo in my heading is a picture we took of some mountain sheep, feeding by the side of the road and looking for a clear spot in the traffic to cross to the creek for water.  Charles spotted them first, - as he usually does with his keen eye and quick wit.  I, of course, caught just a glimpse of them as we sped by, but being the darling that he is Charles found a turn-around spot and we went back to get pictures.  I have fancied them up a bit, and perhaps made them look as if they survived the winter in better shape than they did., but still they were pretty agile and alert.

Two or three years ago a local photographer trekked the hills with his video camera around Olalla  (where this flock hangs out).  He produced a really fascinating and enjoyable film of the sheep in the autumn, at mating time, and some splendid pictures of the competitive rams.  I am beyond trekking the hills, so am content with watching this DVD and thrilled  when the opportunity arises to see even part of the flock up close.

Yesterday morning Charles and the family down the hill were in the right place at the right time and were awed at the sight of a small flock of Trumpeter Swans circling low over the pasture and then heading to the river.  I, alas, heard them conversing but missed seeing them.  I understand they are lingering in this area, between Keremeos and Okanagan Falls, so perhaps there will be another opportunity.

Nobody had a camera handy so this picture is courtesy of Charles Brandt and was taken in the Comox Valley.  They are such a magnificent, graceful and elegant bird and it is encouraging to see their numbers increasing.  I'm sure if my pictures were well organized I could find amongst them pictures of trumpeter swans taken on the Meadow where Dave and Nicky and Vince live.

I picked my first bouquet from the garden this morning to comfort someone who had lost a dear friend, - just a few a white hellebores, a couple of deep purple ones and a bit of flowering forsythia, - a small start but the beginning of the generosity the garden abounds in from daffodils in the spring to chrysanthemums in the fall.

It was a cruel April day today, - a gusting wind, cold with showers, and so the bees were home doing whatever they do in their hives, but yesterday they were out buzzing and gathering honey wherever it was available.

Here is a picture I have been toying with, and I am off to spend the evening hours doing more!

ABC  Wednesday

The letter this week is K

K is for Kindness

What do we live for if it is not to make life less difficult for each other.

George Eliot

Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness.  Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.

George Sands

Just because an animal is large, it doesn't mean he doesn't want kindness;  however big Tigger seems to be, remember that he wants as much kindness as Roo.

A.A. Milne

Compassion is the basis of all morality.

Arthur Schopenhauer

I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Ettiene De Grellet

If you have a rose to give, give it now.

Tomorrow may be too late.

If you will Kindly click here you will arrive at ABC Wednesday where there are many more interpretations of the letter K, - with thanks to Mrs. Nesbitt and all who so kindly help her.

A typical Spring Day

Gorgeous when the sun was shining and the sky was blue,  - not quite so gorgeous when the wind came out to play awhile, but still beautiful enough to encourage us to have a lovely, productive morning in the garden  where the Hellebore has finally come to see what spring is all about and has her first pure blossoms.

Lunch was a little late as Charles finished pruning the Philadelphia Orange and I wheeled the prunings and more debris down to the ever growing compost pile.

Before we settled for a small nap we discussed a little picture taking drive, - well,

I suggested it and Charles didn't say no.

So around about three o'clock I put some chicken breasts in a casserole, along

with a bit of honey, some butter and a dash of nutmeg, and

then added carrots, mushrooms and some small potatoes,

and slid it all into a 300 degree oven.

We were all set to go,

and here are some pictures we took as we drove slowly by Ginty's pond.

Things are slow at the pond, - didn't see any turtles, but you might see a couple of ducks

mid-left in the picture if you enlarge it

The water lilies have thrust their lovely green heads above the water.

and here is a rather dark and mysterious corner of the waterway

some pussy willows along the road

and at the other end of the pond some more ducks and shimmering reflections

We came home around by the Creek to see how the water flowed and how the banks were faring.

Only the willows were vibrant with colour, - the grasses are still sombre and show no greenery

I have been practicing some of the things I am learning about editing in the 

Skinny-Mini Photoshop e Course.  Great fun, although I am still very amateurish -

bear with me......

Supper was done and delicious when we arrived home!