A Few Patches of Pink

    This certainly isn’t one of those majestic sunsets with the entire sky slathered with broad strokes of brilliant and varied colors, but after a fairly gray day it was good to see at least a bit of pink up there in the sky.  Today it is showering and I fear the moisture and coolish weather in the forecast is going to wreck our outside Tuesday Night Jam.  I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, we had beautiful evenings to do our music in most of the Tuesday evenings this summer, compared to last summer when we seemed to have dicy weather  just about every Tuesday night.

    I am still holding out some hope that maybe things will improve by 6:00.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Creeping Into Autumn

    While some of the foliage of other plants are starting to show some slight yellowing, our Virginia Creeper seems to be leading the parade in showing off Fall Fashions  The Creepers cover the gateway to our garden and seeing them in color is always a treat.  I was even inspired to do a painting of them a few years back:  http://www.davidmarchant.ca/Color_%26_Light/Creeper.html

 

Cover Story: CSN

    When Crosby, Stills, and Nash had pretty much finished recording their first album, they hired a photographer friend to take some shots for the album cover.  They and the photographer Henry Diltz drove around LA looking for an interesting location to shoot the picture.  They took shots at many locations and as they drove around, they saw a derelict abandoned house with a couch sitting on the porch, so they stopped, had CSN sit on the old sofa, and Diltz took some photos.

    When Diltz had the photos developed, Crosby, Stills, and Nash came over to look at them and they immediately all agreed upon the shot where the three of them were sitting on the couch in front of the old house.  Great, problem solved, but then someone noticed that they were sitting in the wrong order: Nash, Stills, and Crosby, instead of Crosby, Stills, and Nash.  

    It was suggested that they could just flip the photo around so the order would be correct, but that would make Stills look like he was playing the guitar left-handed, and that wouldn’t do.  Henry Diltz said, “Look, let’s just drive back out to the house tomorrow and take another shot with everyone sitting in the right order, that should only take five minutes.”

    It was agreed, so the next day they all drove back out to the place and and to their surprise, they discovered that it had been bulldozed to the ground the previous day and the remains of the house lay in a big pile at the end of the property.

    Their plan defeated, they just decided to go with the photo of the group sitting in the incorrect order on the sofa for their album cover.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Sorry, Bears

    Every year about this time we are faced with a dilemma;  When should we pick the apples?  They are not quite ripe yet and really should remain on the tree longer, but if we leave them, chances are very good that a bear will come along, eat them, and at the same time trash the tree getting to them. 

     There is a provincial-wide program to get people to pick the tree fruit before it becomes habitual for the bears to come in people’s yards to feed.  It is tragic how many bears are killed in BC because they come into people’s yards, particularly in bigger population centers.  Although we have always managed to live with bears without ever thinking they should be killed, they have destroyed trees and fences protecting trees.  It is probably safer if they don’t come around the yard.

    I have always been amazed in the past at how many times I have looked at the maturing apples on the tree and thought, “Tomorrow I will pick them,”  only to discover the next morning that a bear had somehow realized my thoughts and come during the night and ate all of the apples and wrecked the tree.

    So yesterday I picked the apples on our two trees.  I always feel halfway sorry about doing it, because the bears probably need the food more than we do, but they always end up destroying the tree, so they will just have to look elsewhere for food.

See my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

 

This comfortable read was a well-constructed historical fiction built around “the Blitz” of Britain.  The storyline follows Grace Bennett, a shy young woman who had been working in a northern English town at her miserable uncle’s store while living with his family after the death of her mother.  After becoming fed up with her situation, she along with Viv, her lifelong friend, take advantage of an offer from her mother’s best friend to move to London and live at her place.

She and Viv arrive in London, in August, 1939, just before Britain declares war on Germany.  Their excitement about moving to the big city is somewhat dampened by all of the preparations for war that they see.  They are greeted warmly by Mrs. Weatherford her mom’s friend, in whose home they will live.  Viv has typed up some fake reference letters to help her find employment, but ethical Grace refused Viv’s offer to type up some fake letters for her.

Viv’s letters succeed in getting her a job at Harrod’s Dept. Store.  Without any reference letters from her miserable uncle, Grace’s job-seeking must be helped along by the strong-willed Mrs. Weatherford, who pressures the owner of a book shop, to get Grace employed.  Elderly Mr. Lewis, owner of the shop, didn’t really want an employee, but submits under the pressure of the willful Mrs. Weatherford.  Grace is not very enthusiastic about working for the taciturn Mr.Lewis, whose shop is unkempt, dusty, unorganized, and chaotic.

Another reason for not being motivated about her new job is the fact that Grace has never had time to read, or enjoyed doing so, but she is happy to find some temporary employment, which could lead a letter of reference for a more exciting job, and Mr. Lewis agreed to employ Grace for six months.  He doesn’t really need her and tells her she can just hang out in the back room instead of actually working.  Grace soon becomes bored with doing nothing at work, and to kill time begins to clean up the shop and organize the books.  She sets up appealing displays to attract customers, and rejuvenates the place, without much positive feedback from Mr. Lewis.

A kind and handsome longtime customer of the bookstore, befriends Grace and encourages her to read.  Encouraged by the attractive fellow, who brings in one of his favorite books for her, Grace begins a journey into literature, that changes her life.

When Britain does declare war on Germany an eight month long period called the “bore war” or the “Phoney War” begins.  All sorts of preparations for war begin; blackouts at night, everyone carrying a gas mask, bomb shelters are built in back yards, rationing of food, but no actual attacks occur.  Nevertheless, Grace who wants to do her part, joins the ARP (Air Raid Precaution Unit) and works with a rather gruff man patrolling the dark streets several nights a week.

When Germany does finally attack London and the air raid sirens go off, everyone just thinks it is another dril, and they are caught unaware as bombs begin to drop.  Soon the bombardments become a terrifying and unrelenting daily and nightly reign of terror, causing citizens to sleep in bomb shelters, as their homes and neighborhoods are blasted apart and fire bombed.   Grace’s nightly ARP patrols immerses her into the horrors of bombardment while during the day she becomes more and more involved in keeping the book shop afloat.

The constant bombardment not only changes the face of London, but also the changes the direction of all the lives who live there, including shy Grace. This is a heartwarming tale about people working together and helping each other during years of hardship and sacrifice.  It was thoroughly enjoyable and historically interesting.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Spotted Sky

    Today is overcast and gloomy and not very inspiring, but in an attempt to be more uplifting I thought I would show you this photo I took a couple of days ago when the iridescent blue sky was peppered with white puffs of cloud floating by.  

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Polyphemus Moth Caterpillar

    This amazing looking creature was crawling on our back deck yesterday.  It was certainly photo-worthy so I took this picture (with my iPhone).  I didn’t know what it was, but I have the iNaturalist app on my phone, which sends the photo to experts who might know and they reply back with an identification.  The app also helps scientists learn about the distribution of various plants and animals.

    In this case it was identified as a Polyphemus Moth.  The Polyphemus Moth is a member of the Giant Silk Moth Family which can have a wing-span of 15cm (6 inches) (Yikes!).  The caterpillars are hungry critters that can eat 86,000 times their weight.  This one was sure roly-poly.  I put it down in the grass after I took the photo, figuring it had a better chance of survival off of our deck and the next time I looked it had gone.

    It’s pretty amazing what things are out there that you usually don’t know anything about.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

My Latest Painting: "April"

    This morning I painted the last square on my painting “April,” which features a stormy sky, dry grass, and the naked trees that we see while waiting for Spring to arrive.  It is a departure from the type of painting I usually do.   It is more impressionistic, rather than being super-realistic.  It is also a full landscape, rather than one of the close images that I usually do.   It shows the scene we see from our house.

    The acrylic painting is on an 18” X 24” canvas, and I began painting it in May.  It took me 70 hours to complete.  

    I’m not sure what I will paint next, since I only have some odd-ball shaped canvases left and will have to figure out what images might work on those kind of shapes. 

You can see my other paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca 

 

Road Closed

    For more than a week we have been trying to take our dog walks at the McBride Airfield, but have been unable to because Airport Road is closed.  We couldn’t figure out what was going on, but there seemed to be a lot of big dump trucks hauling loads of gravel and a sign telling us that the road was closed.  

    Friday evening we thought that we would try again, thinking that probably the trucks wouldn’t be running and the crews not working, but when we arrived the closed sign was still there.  No one was around and our curiosity got the best of us so we parked and walked down the road to see what had been going on.  

    Two big backhoes blocked the road at the bottom of the slope.  They had been digging down to where the culvert at the bottom of the slope lay, so maybe they were replacing the culvert, although it didn’t seem like a new one, actually there were three laying in a line, not connected.   It also seemed like they had been raising the elevation of the road with fill.

    After our observations, we still didn’t really know what they were doing down there.  We had never recognized there was a problem at the bottom of the slope, but who knows.  I found it interesting that we could see a fire truck parked up by airfield.  I guess they had to do that for safely reasons, although there is very little air traffic that use the field and there are no personnel at the airfield to man the fire truck if something did happen.

    It seemed strange to see all of the work on Airport Road, when we never noticed any problems there, while the road to the high school has been closed at Dominion Creek for months and months.

    We were left with more questions than answers, but at least we had a little outing.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

McBride's Famous Spider Webs

 

    Yesterday I showed you some photos of some spider webs.  Every time I come upon a spider web my mind flashes back to November, 2002 when McBride got its 15 minutes of fame because of an extraordinary explosion of spiders in a field near McBride.  The event made not only the national Canadian news but also international, in the “freaky events” slots of some world news broadcasts.  The photo above, showing some of the spider webs, is from a video I shot and sold to a Canadian Broadcaster.

    I had noticed the webs in the field, which lies right beside the highway, east of town.  One Saturday morning, we drove out with some friends to the effected field to take a closer look, and I made a video.  It was an amazing sight.  The thousands of spiders had built webs on top of spider webs, on top of spider webs.  The fences looked the most dramatic, but the whole field was also covered with low-lying webs.  

    I was so impressed at the sight that I contacted Discovery Channel Canada and sent them some stills I made from the video, showing the amazing spider webs.  They didn’t contact me, but must have passed on the message to their parent company CTV, who phoned me and said they would like to have the video for the evening news, and they would pay me.

        I ended up taking most of a day off work at Forestry, so I could drive up to Prince George to the university, where they had a connections that could transfer the video to the station (technology is much easier and improved these days).  That night, when I got back home, I sat, ready to record with the VCR, when the news item came on.  The clip did get play all around the world, in the bizarre section of the news broadcasts.  I got $200 for the video.

    Unbeknownst to me, Matthew Wheeler, a friend and local photographer, was doing the same thing and he had photos published in The Globe and Mail, the big Toronto newspaper and his video played on another network.   He was surprised to see my video on the news and I think he was a bit taken aback, because he thought he had a scoop.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Web Sights

    It was 4°C (39°F) yesterday morning, so there was a heavy dew on the ground.  The rising sun was still low in the sky when I walked out on the pasture and looked back toward the house.  The backlit dew was sparkling on the grass and making the numerous spider webs glow.  I had to take a photo.

    I knew from past experience that I was difficult to focus my camera on the spider webs, so I went in and got my new iPad to see how that would work.  Despite the awkwardness in holding it to take a photo, it worked really well.  Here are a couple of shots.

 Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Billowy Clouds

    I wonder how many people look at clouds.  I know Joni Mitchell does (from both sides) and even though I generally only see them from one side, I love to watch their ever-changing formations and light.  Yesterday when I was looking upward I saw these beautiful white clouds against the intensely deep blue sky.  I had to snap a photo.

Check out my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Red-Osier Dogwood

    Red-Osier Dogwood is a tangled bush that is common and thrives around our place.  Its white berries look pretty ominous to me and they are bitter and considered inedible, although they were eaten by some of the native tribes.  I know the berries are eaten by bears because we have a Red-Osier bush outside our bedroom window and in the past our dogs have freaked out, hearing commotion outside in the bush when bears have stopped by for a meal.

    I mentioned that they are a tangled bush and it is a frustrating job whenever I have to clear or trim one of them because their branches intertwine, and root if they touch the ground.  The “Red” in the name comes from the red colored stem of the plant.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

The Remarkable Salmon

 

    Every August the Robson Valley is the destination of one of nature’s most remarkable events; the migration of the Chinook Salmon.  These are huge fish, 10-50 lbs. (5-22kg), the ones in the photo were probably close to 30 inches (75cm) in length , after spending 4-5 years in the Pacific Ocean, they enter the fresh water of the Fraser River and have to fight against the raging currents to swim 1,350 km (840 miles) to the place of their birth to lay eggs.  The swim takes them 3 months and they don’t eat during that time.  

    By the time they arrive, their bodies are pretty battered up and almost totally devoid of energy, but they have one job left to do:  lay eggs.  The female swims around making a depression in the gravel, lays her eggs, and the males fertilizes them.   Once this job has been completed, they die.  It is always with wonder and sadness that I watch this event.

    One of the best spots to view the spawning salmon is George Hicks Park, beside Highway 5 in Valemount.  We were in Valemount yesterday, so when down to see the salmon.  We saw only one pair of Chinook Salmon spawning.  I assume these were the early arrivals.  

    A few years ago there was a massive landslide across the Fraser River down South that became a major roadblock to the migrating salmon.   An effort to remove the slide debris has been in steady, but has not yet been completed.  To allow the salmon to migrate, they have been caught, trucked or helicoptered passed the blockage, then released to continue their journey, but of course, not all the salmon can be helped, so the numbers that can return to lay their eggs has been greatly reduced.

View  my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

A Flock of Geese?

    I haven’t heard any honking geese fly over yet, but I did spot these geese down at Horseshoe Lake.  It is always a bit unsettling to see a group of geese this time of year because it is an indication that Fall is approaching, and that is followed by Winter.   Maybe this was just a geese get-together and not something more ominous.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Backlit Cabbage Leaf

    Here is the last in the series of photos I took in the garden with my iPad the other day.  I really like this one it.  It is so unexpected in both its coloring and textures.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Green Cabbage

    Here is another photo I took the other day when I tried out the camera on my iPad.  It is a lot like my first painting, although that was  a red cabbage.  You can see that painting at:  http://www.davidmarchant.ca/Color_%26_Light/Cabbage.html

 

iPad Camera

    I use an iPad a lot and recently I bought myself a new bigger (12.9 in.) one.  It was advertised as having a sophiticated camera system (photo below), but I didn’t really buy it for the camera, I wanted an iPad the size of a small laptop computer that I could easily type on (I also bought the combination keyboard/iPad cover.)   I had previously bought a laptop but couldn’t get used to using the touchpad so returned it.  I kept touching the laptop screen to do things because I was so used to using an iPad.

    Anyway, I really hadn’t made use of the iPad camera until yesterday when I was walking past the garden and noticed a poppy and thought, “I should try out the camera on my new iPad,” so I went into the house to get it.  When I took a photo and took a look at it, I was amazed at the intricate details of the flower.  In the photo above you can’t really see the tiny details in the picture due to the reduction of the resolution, but on the 12” iPad screen it was truly striking.

    Of course, using a big iPad to take photos is pretty awkward.  I found the iPad difficult to hold when taking a photo and it would certainly be a pain to carry it with you when outside hiking around.  A regular camera is a lot more convenient and easier to use, but I certainly the photos taken on the iPad are really impressive when viewed on the iPad.

You can take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Japanese Barberry: Invasive Plant

    About 4 years ago I saw a an interesting bush at a nursery and bought it.  It was a Japanese Barberry.  It had striated leaves that turned pinkish in the fall, and I thought it would look attractive beside the house.  The next summer the small Barberry was pretty much overtaken by my Hostas and Day Lilies, but it survived.  The same thing happened every year.  Because of where it was planted, it didn’t get a lot of moisture from the rain, so I babied and watered it so it could develop.  

    I really hate invasive plants.  I have spent hours every summer trying to prevent the spread of Canadian thistles.  Hawkweed in my lawn spread to quickly to stop.  When I heard that Purple Loosestrife, an attractive and vigorous flowering plant that someone had given us, was invasive, I ripped it out of the flower garden.  It chokes out native plants along waterways.  Anyway, you get the picture, I try to do my part in preventing the spread of these invasive plants.

    The other night I came across an article about invasive plants and in reading it, saw the name “Japanese Barberry”.  “What?”  That’s the plant we have beside the house that I have been babying for years.  The very next morning, the first thing I did was to dig it out and put it in the wood stove to burn. 

    What is the problem with Japanese Barberry, you might ask.  Well, I guess it spreads easily, has prickly spines, so it creates nasty, rambling barriers for wildlife and people, and it seems to be a favorite shelter for mice, who carry ticks that then climb up on the leaves to catch passing animals.  This includes ticks that spread Lyme Disease.  

    Who needs a plant around that causes so many problems. 

    It makes me really mad that stores are allowed to sell plants and animals (like exotic snakes) that are invasive and get away, causing so many problems.   At least my Japanese Barberry isn’t going anywhere, except up the chimney as smoke.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Tomato Rainbow

    I always grow a variety of tomatoes in the greenhouse, but they are mostly shades of red because I like their flavor.   Readers might remember that last spring I lost most of the tomatoes I had started because of a frost.  Luckily my friend David had some extra tomato plants and he gave them to me.  I was pretty surprised to see what they produced when they started to mature.  (The green tomato is not mature, I just accidentally knocked it off the plant when I was picking the others.)

    Certainly it is the most colorful tomatoes I have ever produced.  It looks more like a basket of Easter Eggs than a basket of tomatoes. 

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Sunspot

    Last night as I was packing up the gear after our jam on the train station porch, I noticed this one illuminated spot on one of the peaks near Beaver Mountain.  We had had a heavily clouded day and this was the first sign I had seen that the sun was still up there behind the clouds.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

So That's Where You Are

    We drove up to Prince George yesterday and when we got back home and opened the door, Lucifer our cat came out, happy to be out of the house.  We then opened the tailgate of the car and began the long process of unloading the things we bought on our trip.  A few hours later after we had eaten, we realized that we hadn’t seen Lucifer for a while so I went out and called.  She is generally really good about coming when I call, but she didn’t show up.

    I kept calling and started to check all of the places we sometimes find her:  the roof of the house, the balcony, the shop, and the barn, but she was not to be seen.   I was starting to get worried when my wife opened the car door to get something she had left there, and what did she see?  Lucifer, content and happy lounging in the car.  I guess she climbed in when the tailgate was open and made herself comfortable.

    We have a regular routine at night before we go to bed.  We walk the dog one last time and make sure Lucifer is inside the house before we secure the door.    I was sound asleep at 12:30 when I awoke hearing meowing, some of which sounded kind of muffled.  Lucy likes to sleep in my open electric guitar case, and my first half-drowsy thought was that the lid of the guitar case had fallen closed and trapped her inside.  I turned on the light, but that wasn’t the problem.  

    The meowing continued until I realized that it was coming from outside the house.  I went to the window and discovered that Lucifer was out on the roof.  Obviously something had gone awry during our pre-bed routine and Lucy had been locked out of the house and had finally had enough foolishness and wanted back into the house.  I opened the window and let her in.

    She was happy to be back in the house again and cuddled up tight against my thigh as I lay in the bed, triying to go back to sleep.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Companion Planting

 

    A lot of insect pests like to eat cabbage.  Some gardeners cover their brassicas with Reemay cloth (a thinly woven material that keeps the cabbage butterflies out), but we always plant marigolds around our cabbages and that keeps the garden pests away.  Marigold have a strong scent that insects don’t like, which masks the smell of the cabbages.  Marigolds also add a bit of color to the garden as a bonus.

See my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Rainbow Weather

    Fortunately we’ve gotten a break in the hot dry weather and with that change to showery/sunny weather rainbows have been produced.   Yesterday we had the double-rainbow above, while this morning I saw the rainbow below, in front of Lucille Mountain.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Our Darkest Hour by Jennifer Robson

Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson, published 2021

This novel begins in Venice in 1942, centering around a Jewish family.  The elderly father is a renown medical doctor, now unable to practice openly due to restrictions put onto Jews by the Fascist government.  The partially paralyzed mother is confined to living in a care home after suffering a stroke.  Nina, the daughter, a young lady, daily visits and cares for her mother and in the evening she is taught medicine by her father.

As the Nazis begin to increase their presence in Italy, things begin to become more and more dire for the Mazin family, and the father, who will not leave his invalid wife, schemes with his friend, a Catholic priest, to get Nina away from Venice, out to an isolated rural farm where she might escape the wrath of the Nazis.  The priest knows of a trustworthy young man, Nico, who will take her to his family’s farm to live.  Nico had been training to be a priest, but had discontinued the training after the death of two of his brothers left his family’s farm short-handed.

To make the scheme work, Nina and Nico must pretend they are husband and wife and when they show up at the farm, his family is very surprised at his sudden “marriage”.  Of course the reader by this point, knows what will eventually happen when these two characters are thrust together, so it is no surprise to the reader that all of the pretending and having to act married, eventually does lead to love between the two, despite the vast differences in their backgrounds and religions.  Nina must pretend to be Catholic and must keep up the pretenses with everyone, even Nico’s family.

Nina slowly adapts to the hardships of living on a small farm with Nico’s father, Rosa his sister who runs the household, and his several younger brothers and sisters.  Life is good on the farm until the Nazi presence appears in the tiny village.  Their presence is particularly ominous because Nico is part of the network that smuggles Jews and others fleeing the Nazis, out of Italy.

Zwerger, an Austrian, the commanding officer of the local Nazi troops, is of course a vane and vile creature, who had once attended the same seminary as Nico, until he was kicked out for bullying.  He calls on Nico at the farm to “renew their acquaintance” although he is really there to show off his new status as a Nazi officer.  

He becomes very suspicious of Nico, who was training as a priest and has suddenly married.  He periodically visits the farm and becomes even more suspicious at Nico’s many absences.  He interrogates Nina several times, showing more and more evil intent, even shooting the family dog at one point.  Luckily Nina has enough medical skills to save it.

Eventually Zwerger secures evidence of Nico’s activities and Nico is almost immediately shot by firing squad, but saved by the intervention of the local priest, but he is whisked away by the Nazi’s to have a so-called “trial” in a city.  Nina is hidden by the family, who by this time know her true identity, but when Zwerger threatens to kill family members until she is found, she gives herself up.

She is taken into custody at the same prison where Nico was taken and sees a hooded corpse wearing Nico’s clothes still hanging on the gallows and during her questioning, Zwerger confirms her suspicions that Nico has been killed.  She then is loaded into a cattle car, transported, to join others of her religion, in the living hell of the Nazi death camps.

I will stop at that point in the plot, even though there is much more to come in the novel, even a satisfying ending.

I have read all but one of the Canadian author, Jennifer Robson’s historical novels and have enjoyed every one of them.  I was happy to see this one on the shelf as a choice for this month’s Book Club.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

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Wow, Surrounded by Food

    Because of the flooding that took place, this pasture was unusable for quite a while.  Once the water receded, the cows were put back in it.  I noticed this cow almost totally concealed by the really high grass and wondered how it felt to be surrounded with what seemed like a limitless supply of food to eat.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Yikes, Look at all of the Lightning

    Living where we do, surrounded by forests, we worry a lot about forest fires, especially now since climate change is making itself so obvious.  One of the major causes of forest fires is lightning.  Way back when I was working for the Forest Service, technology was beginning to be developed that showed almost immediately where lightning was striking.  

    I figured that surely after all these years, there must be some apps developed that made this technology available to everyone, so I checked, an sure enough there are a lot of them out there.  I downloaded one called “Lightning Tracker” and it is sure nice, when there is a thunderstorm to immediately see where the lightning is hitting.

    Above is a screen shot I took on Sunday evening after a thunderstorm.  The blue circle is where our house is located and all the red dots are recent lightning strikes, the yellow dots are older hits.  I was pretty shocked to see how close and how many strikes there were.  Luckily most occurred up in treeless alpine areas, and the strikes were accompanied with rain, so they didn’t cause any forest fires as far as I know. 

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca