Snug As A Bug

     Pets spend all of their time monitoring their owners.  They always figure out what is going to happen by their careful observations.  Kona always knows way ahead of time, when my wife is headed to town.  She loves riding along, so as soon as Kona is aware that the trip is going to happen, she starts making her desires known, by bothering my wife.

    That happened yesterday, and Kona was very impatient to be put in the car, so she could be sure she was going along.  I put Kona in the car early, to lessen her anxiety, and because it was cold outside, as she sat in the back seat, I draped my wife’s silver down coat around her, before  I went back into the house to help my wife get her boots on.

    When my wife was finally ready to go, she asked me if I would back the car out of the carport for her.  When I got into the car, I noticed that by then, Kona was laying down and snoozing in the back seat, completely covered with the down coat, with only her nose sticking out.  I couldn’t help but take a photo.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

No Aurora, But We Did Get A Sunset

     There was a massive electrical disturbance on the surface of the sun the other day, and so I saw several news articles predicting the possibility of auroras visible across North America last night.  I was expectant at getting the information and I got up four times over night and looked out the window to see if anything was happening, but could see only dark skies.  

    This morning when my clock radio went off, the talk was all about the amazing photos the radio station had received, showing the brilliantly colored auroras that had occurred across BC.     This morning I received a text message from my old friend Gary who lives in North Carolina.  He wrote to say he saw the pink haze of an aurora down in that southern state last night. 

    Well, as usual during most astronomical events, the skies over the our part of the Robson Valley were covered with an overcast of low cloud which blocked out any exciting event happening in the sky.

    We did have a nice looking sunset yesterday and I guess I will just have to be happy to see that.  

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Greggo, One of Robson Valley's Interesting Characters

     The Robson Valley has a wealth of unique characters.  I once thought that we should create a bingo-like card with photos of local characters on it, that we could hand out to tourists, and they could check off the ones that they had run into.  

    Greggo is a trapper who lives in a log cabin 10 miles down a logging road in the middle of nowhere.  Their cabin is “Off the grid” so it is heated entirely by wood.  The logging road that gets him to his cabin, is not plowed in the winter, so Greggo has to rely on a snowmobile trip to get to and from his cabin.

    Greggo is a walking hurricane.  Whenever I run into him, I feel like I have to brace myself.  He is very friendly, constantly patting you on the shoulder, but he speaks very loudly and not alway coherently, and I often find it difficult to understand what he is talking about.

    Here is what I understood from an encounter with Greggo that I had years ago:

            We were walking our dog down Jervis Road one winter’s day, and a car came by.  It was Greggo  and when he saw it was us walking, the car stopped, so he could talk. 

         He said that the day before, they had come to town.  When they were done, his son carried his Greggo’s partner back to their cabin on the snowmobile.  Greggo stayed at the start of the road waiting for for the snowmobile to return to pick him up, to take him back to the cabin.  

        He waited and waited, but the snowmobile never returned.  After a couple of hours, “Greggo.” began to worry that something happened.  

        Eventually his mate came snowshoeing back to Greggo.  It seemed like the snowmobile had a serious breakdown, which left them without transportation into their cabin and not knowing what to do about it, because they really depend on the snowmobile. 

         They have a few small farm animals at their cabin, and they couldn’t really leave the cabin unattended for long.  When I met Greggo on the road, they were driving into McBride seeking a solution to their problem.  I assume the only way they can solve it is to find someone who will loan them a snowmobile for a while.

    We wished them good luck, they got back into the car and drove away.  With all the excitement over, we resumed our walk down the quiet lonely country road.

    

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

How Strange: Kids Playing Outside

     This is a photo I took ten years ago.  Even back then I found it unusual to see some kids outside, entertaining themselves playing hockey.  I remember even further back in 1976, when I was teaching in the two room elementary school how strange it felt during recess, upon discovering that the kids didn’t just go out to run around and play, they just stood outside.  I had to organize some sort of activity, before they would do something beside standing around during their recess.

    Things are many times worse today.  Not only do the kids do things outside on their own, but so many are so messed up emotionally that they just totally retreat to live their lives in their smart phones and computers.  What has happened to kids?

    I heard a talk the other day, that suggested that there was a marked change in the emotional stability of kids that began in 2012.  That happened to also be the year that parents began giving their children smart phones.  With girls, the suspected cause was their introduction to social media, and apps like Instagram that made them feel depressed and hate themselves.  With boys, it was the excitement in video games, which led to pornography, and then to online sports betting. 

    These problems with kids rose not only in US, bu, like the spread of smart phones, they are worldwide.

    The smart phones not only led to emotionally messed up kids, but also, to kids who don’t read books anymore.  Books are just not exciting as the apps on smart phones, that are designed with their algorithms to keep everyone glued to their phones.  Reading has declined by 40%.  

    I found this news very depressing, because I can’t see any cure for those problems in the generation that grew up with the smart phones.  Sad, very sad.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

A Row of Problematic Willows

     I love having deciduous trees around our house, because of the cool shade they provide during the summer.  However, the willow saplings we transplanted when we bought our house almost fifty years ago, have grown so huge and tall, that they now create a threat for the house if they blew over.  Several times now I have had the willows topped when they got to tall, but the trees grow so vigorously with new limbs, that the upper limbs of the trees that sprouted from the cut top, make the trees as high as they were before they were initially topped.

    Sadly, it is now time again to get them topped once again, and this time I want to get the trunks shortened way down, so they don’t create such a threat to the house.  I also want to get those trunks that lean toward the house removed.  Next week the arborist will be coming over to take a look at the project.  

    Topping a tree is one of the worse things you can do to a tree, because cut allows the fungi to get into the trunk, which cause rot that will weaken the trunks and eventually kill the tree.  Like I said, they have already been previously topped a couple of times, and if I get them topped lower, hopefully the trees will once again sprout out new branches, and having the trunks considerably shortened will at least, not threaten the house if they do begin to rot.

    I also have to think about the threat of forest fires.  Most fire prevention plans urge all trees close to the house to be removed, but deciduous trees with their moist leaves, do not burn as readily as conifer trees, and willows grow in moist places and I think the cool shade they provide to the area will help hamper a fire.  At least that is my hope.

You can view buy paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Yesterday's Prince George Trip

    I always hate to have appointments in Prince George during the winter.  The two and a half hour drive there is long and dangerous enough during the long days of summer, but it always scares me more during the winter.  When an appointment is made, we never know what the winter driving conditions will  be when we have to go:  Icy highway?  Big trucks causing whiteouts in front of you during snow?  Rocks thrown up by passing cars from the “sand” on the highways? and of course, there is always the danger of wild animals darting out in front of you.

    I started yesterday’s trip, leaving the house in the dark, at 7:00.  As I was going down our road headed for the highway, I was delighted to see the moon, just a narrow crescent, rising over the Cariboo Mountains.  (photo above).

    On Highway 16 just west of McBride, I saw, in the distance, the lights of several vehicles parked along the highway.  I slowed, and when I got closer, saw that there had been an accident.  There was a car completely turned upside down in the snow-filled ditch beside the highway.  The accident must have just happened, because there were no first responders, just people who had stopped to help.  Beyond the turned over car, I noticed fresh blood on the highway.  I assume a deer or moose was hit causing the driver to loose control.  I don’t know anything about the condition of the driver.

    Yesterday fortunately, the highway to Prince George was clear of snow and ice, so I was happy that I didn’t have to deal with that along the way.

    When I approached the Slim Creek Rest Area, I notice that the rising sun, just coming up behind me, was illuminating the mountain slope to the west of me, while still leaving the lower trees in the valley shaded.  It was really interesting light, with the orangish light on the treed slope and gray-green trees in the foreground.  I had taken a photo of the same color phenomenon years ago, but couldn’t help but take another shot yesterday:

    Upon arriving in Prince George, I scrambled around doing shopping, eating lunch, then going to the periodontist.  it was 2:00 when that appointment was over, so I immediately started my drive back to McBride.  About an hour outside of McBride, I noticed some nice light hitting a snow-covered peak in the Park Range of the Canadian Rockies, so I pulled over and took the photo below through my windshield. 

    Upon finally getting back to our house at 4:30, I unloaded the car, wondered where to put all of the foodstuffs I had purchased, then had a bite to eat, and tried to relax for 30 minutes, before putting on my western shirt and going to square dancing.

    It had been a long and exhausting day with all of the driving and activities, and I really hadn’t been able to unwind, so I was happy when I was finally be able to crawl into bed.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

A Flicker, A Blast of Winter Color

     I have a short section of log that I drilled some holes in which I hung on a tree, and fill with peanut butter every morning.  All of the local birds love the peanut butter, especially the woodpeckers.  A few days ago, there was a beautifully colored Flicker that came for some peanut butter.

    Flickers are certainly a distinct and visually striking bird, and I was happy that even though it saw me through the window, it hung around long enough for me to take the photo above.   I really like those orange tail feathers and the polka dot chest.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca