Everything is Ducky

    Well, the waterfowl think it is Spring.  The Robson Valley is on one of the migration flyways and so this time of year a lot of ducks and geese can be seen at they make a rest stop on their journey further north.  The lakes have not yet melted, so they find what open water they can in the fields or along the river.  I came upon this mixed flock of ducks enjoying the water in the pasture beside the highway between the Fraser River Bridge and McBride.  

     You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Kona is Going to Miss the Snow

    While I have had enough of the white stuff for the year, Kona will certainly miss the snow when it is gone.  The snow seems to energize her, she romps, jumps, sprints across it, scooping up mouthfuls, as she runs.  Snow brings her joy.

    While this is sort of a goofy looking photo of Kona, it shows her leaping up after eating some snow.  You can still see a bit of snow in her mouth, and the clump she was eating, on her paw.

                                 You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

This is Getting Discouraging

     Here is a photo I took of the edge of my pond this morning after yet another overnight snowfall.  The cattails are blanketed and the the edge water that was open is now frozen again.  The sprouts of daffodils growing beside the house had finally poked through the soil and they too are now covered with snow. 

    Come on Winter, Give Spring a chance.

                                        You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Through a Veil of Snow

     Our loop trail is getting difficult because of all of the pools of water that have enlarged, so over the last few days Kona and I have been doing our early morning walk at Koeneman Park.  The snow there has almost completely disappeared, so it is now easy to walk.

    This morning as we walked, there was a very light bit of snow gently floating down from the sky, and as we turned to head back toward the car, I spotted the Cariboo Mountains, bathed in sunlight, but somewhat faded due to the veil of snow.  It was a nice effect.

                                            You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

The Case of Lucifer The Cat

        The “Case” I am talking about is my electric guitar case, which Lucifer has now taken over as her own.  Before Covid closed down our weekly jam, I pretty much left my guitar case closed with the guitar in it, because I took my guitar to the jam every week, but over the past year I have just kept my guitar sitting out on a guitar stand so I can easily grab it if I want to play, and I left the guitar case open, in the event that I needed to get something out of it.

    Lucifer liked the velvety padded inside of the guitar case, and now she can be found almost daily snoozing in it.  It is sitting on a table in my room, so she feels safe from the dog and comfortable there.

                                        Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Colored Sky and Cattails

I am always on the lookout for unusual lighting and color in the sky.  I noticed the color last night and went out and took the photo above.  When a nice sunrise or sunset is taking place, it is easy to make that the only focus of your concentration but you should make yourself take your eyes off of the sky and look around at the surroundings because often the colored sky is creating some nice effects in other places.

I noticed that the small circles of melt water around the cattails on my pond were reflecting the orangish sky and they made a nice contrast with the bluish hues of the ice.

     You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Water, Water, Everywhere

     I have mentioned before in the blog that as a result of all of the rain we got last year, that the hydrology around our place has changed.  Water from underground sources began to form puddles or springs.  Last fall when a lot of this water started showing itself, I had hoped that through the winter they might disappear, however that wasn’t the case, and now with the melting of snow adding more water, all of those water bodies have actually gotten bigger.

    The photo above shows the huge puddle outside my barn.  If it would have just formed outside the barn that would have been alright, but unfortunately, inside the barn, the floor looks a lot like the outside.  Over the years some cracks appeared on the cement pad that is the floor of my shop.  Now water is seeping though those cracks forming a big puddle across the floor of my shop. 

We have a root cellar under our house, during the winter, when I had to go in there I discovered a 7 inches  pool of water covering the floor.  I I decided to wait until spring, hoping the ground water level would diminish before pumping it out.  I know that hasn’t happened and wonder if it ever will.

    At this point all I can do is hope that once the snow has all melted around our place that we will have a dry period that will slow all of this water down.  Of course there is still a lot of snow to melt on the mountain top above us.

                                You can see my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca