Spring Bouquet

    I have had some kind of flu over the last two days.  That and all the spring showers have kept me fairly housebound.  I did take advantage of a bit of sun yesterday, and walked the trail.  Along the way, I took a lot of photos of the flowers I saw.   Featured are: , Indian Paintbrush, Western Canada Violet, waterlily, Lady ferns , and Lupines.  

My paintings can be seen at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Pollen on the Mountainside

    A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting on the lanai, and I noticed that our table was covered with a yellowish dust.  It was pollen from the spruce, pine, and fir trees that surround us here in the valley bottom.  Even though the lanai is roofed over, the fine particles can easily be distributed everywhere by a breeze.  

    Then Monday, I happened to glance out the living room window and I noticed what I at first thought might be smoke on the mountain, until I realized that it was tree pollen being kicked up by the wind.  Because of the temperature difference, events  like pollen distribution always happen a few weeks later in upper elevations.  I wonder how noticeable it would be if I was standing under that cloud of pollen.

Visit www.davidmarchant to see my paintings.

Recycling Discoveries

    I have a big blue plastic recycling tub that sits beside my desk.  I put all of my scrap paper and junk mail in it.   The other day, I was taking some trash to the dump, and I noticed that my recycling tub was full of paper, so I carted it along to take it to the recycling bins at the waste depot.

    The paper products all go into the big recycling bin.  Normally, I just sort of sling the tub toward the opening in the bin, and the paper all goes shooting into the bin, but on this particular day, I decided instead just to put the scrap paper, a handful at a time, into the bin.   As it turned out, it was a good thing I did.

    I got the first few handfuls into the bin, when I suddenly uncovered two freshly washed towels, amongst the scrap paper in my tub.  That was strange.  I put the tub down and put the towels into the cab of the truck and went back to emptying my scrap paper.  I got a couple of more handfuls in the bin when I came across my tape measure, also hiding in my recycling tub.  I rescued that, and returned to my task only to find an old Forest Service patch that was also mixed in with my recycled paper.

    We have a clothes drying rack that we often set up in my office.  I suspect that when Joan was  taking the dried clothes off of the rack, she set the two towels aside intending to pick them up later.  Instead they got covered with scrap paper.  I probably put the tape measure and forestry patch on the ledge that sits right beside and above the recycle tub, and they had somehow got bumped  and fell in the tub with all the paper and got covered up.

    I think in the future I will continue to empty my recycling tub a handful at a time.  One can only imagine what other treasures I might find.  

My paintings can be seen at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Have Pity on those Poor Potatoes

    Potatoes stored in a cool dark root cellar, somehow know that spring has arrived, and when it does, they do what they are suppose to do; they sprout.  If they are not put in the ground, they sprout where they are.  That is what happened to the potatoes in the containers in the photo.

    A good friend of mine, who will remain nameless, let’s just call him “Dave”, is an excellent gardener.  I am always envious of him, because he does gardening the way it is supposed to be done, and he keeps it neat and tidy.  I, on the other hand, just do the bare bones, and hope my garden will grow.  

    But for some reason, “Dave” got distracted this year, and instead of putting his garden in when he should have, he spent weeks digging up dandelions from his lawn.  I tried to tell him of the futility of such an undertaking, but he persisted.  His garden didn’t get planted.

    Meanwhile, down in the darkness of his root cellar, his potatoes had sensed the season and started growing.  Yesterday, he took us down there for a look.   It was a distressing sight.

    Those poor potatoes need to be in the ground.  “Dave” told me he was going to plant them today.  I hope so, I sure hate to see those poor potatoes put out all that energy for no result.

View my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

June Weather

    Even though June has just arrived, in the central interior of BC, we have been experiencing what I usually think of as “June weather” for a couple of weeks now.  For me, June weather is something that changes every 20 minutes.  We get sunshine, which is followed by showers, then its warm and sunny again for a while, followed by more showers.  All the plants love it and because I am someone who likes to take photos of interesting lighting, it gives me a lot of opportunity for photography.

    This is a photo I took during our afternoon walk.  Shortly after we got back home, we got rain showers, and even a bit of hail.  Normally we get this kind of weather through June and into part of July, then the weather tends to stabilize and in the rest of July and August we get hot sunny weather.

    At least that is the way the weather patterns used to work.  Like in the rest of the world, BC’s normal weather patterns are not as reliable as they once were, but at least so far this year, except for an extremely hot week at the beginning of May, things seem to be happening the way they used to.

To take a look at my paintings, go to:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Mallard Ducklings

    I always had to laugh at our dog Mac, whenever we would take him for a walk at Koeneman Park.  One time he saw a ground squirrel by the parking barriers.  Ever since that encounter, as he got close to that spot, he would get down in the hunting posture and slowly slink up to the barriers, hoping to see the ground squirrel again.

    I have been feeling a lot like Mac over the last week.  One morning during our walk on the trail, when we walked close to a swampy pool of water in the woods, we were suddenly surprised by a group of frightened ducklings, scurrying across the water to escape from us.  Because it was so unexpected, I didn’t have my camera ready, and missed taking a really memorable photo.

    Like Mac, all the days following the encounter with the ducklings, as we approached the swamp, I would get my camera out and ready to capture that photo of the ducklings, and I would quietly sneak up to the pool of water.  Of course, the ducklings were never there.  That didn’t stop me from repeating that behavior every time we passed the slough.  I did it again this morning with the same negative result.

      As we continued on along our trail this morning, we eventually ended up walking along the dam of my pond.  There are generally some ducks out in the water, swimming around, and when they see us, they either swim or fly to the far end  of the pond for safety.

    This morning, a female mallard start swimming to the far end as we approached, but instead of quietly doing so, she was splashing the water with her wings and making a lot of noise doing it.  Right away we realized she was trying to distract us, and we figured she had some ducklings hiding near by.

    Sure enough we spotted a small group of young mallards swimming out from the cattails, or bullrushes, as they call them here.  I am pretty sure it was the same group we had come upon in the woods.  This morning, I was able to get my camera out and did finally get a photo of them.

    Every year it seems that I might get to see a mother duck with ducklings one time, then never again.  They always seem to disappear, going off somewhere to be in a place that is a little more private.  Usually, I see them in the pond one day, then they vanish.  I now wonder if they have been going to the swamp to hide in years past.  This is the first year we are walking close to the slough, so they may have returned back to the pond, after being discovered in the swamp.

My paintings can be viewed at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Adolescent Moose

    You may have noticed that I didn’t get around to putting a blog out yesterday.  I had myself a busy day, and just didn’t have the time. 

    Because it was the last day of May, we had to drive up to Prince George and pick up the three paintings that I had on display in the window of Speedee Printers.  During our 2.5 hour drive to Prince we saw 3 black bears and a wolf.

    When we arrived in PG, parked,  turned off the engine, and got out of the vehicle, we became aware of a strong smell of hot oil and a bit of white smoke drifting up from under the hood of the car.  Having just had a major service on the Subaru, and since we were back in Prince George, we quickly loaded up my paintings into the back of the car and headed over to the Subaru dealer.

    They took a look at the engine and tracked down the oil leak to a break in one gaskets that had been replaced during last week’s service.  As a result, we unexpectedly spent the next two hours sitting in the waiting room of the Subaru dealer, trying to pass the time.  We read all the Subaru brochures, and the auto dealer magazines, and a week old copy of the Prince George paper. 

    We ventured outside for a change of scenery, as our waiting dragged on and on.  We walked back and forth comparing the prices and features on all the 2013 and 2014 new Subaru’s on the lot.  The original time estimate of “half an hour to 45 minutes” was grossly wrong, and we were bored out of our skulls, by the time they had finally got done fixing our car.

    We then, did our usual stop and shop at Costco, after which we drove out to Canadian Tire and Home Depot to check out some products.  By 2:30, we had gassed up and were back on Hwy. 16 heading home to McBride.  Back at home, we unloaded all the things we bought, and ate a quick supper.  Then, even though we were both tired from our trip, we decided that we should force ourselves to go on a walk down our trail, for a bit of exercise and to clear our minds.

    When we got to the opening to the field, there standing in the grass was this young moose.  It is the best photo I have ever taken of a moose while walking the trail.  It stood and posed in the open field, allowing me to snap the picture before it ran off.  Usually my moose photos show the tail end of the animal obscured by trees, as it scampers off into the forest.  Seeing this one made me glad that I had made the effort to take the walk.

    I had previously made arrangements to help an acquaintance with a book last night.  She and her husband are originally from Czechoslovakia, from where they had escaped in 1979.  She had written a book about her escape and new life in Canada, which was published and written in Czech.  She wanted it in english, and asked me to help her smooth out the english translation.  So I dragged myself to their house and spent an interesting couple of hours helping her out with the first chapter.

    It was really nice to finally get back home after a long day.   But at least it had been a varied and interesting one, so the day had been worth all the effort it took to get everything done.

See my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca