Swan And Friends

    I always get a special kind of excitement whenever I see wild swans as they migrate through the Robson Valley every Spring and Fall.  Throughout my early life my only experience seeing swans were the domesticated ones that were sometimes put in lakes to add a sense of peacefulness to the gardens that surrounded them. 

    I was quite intrigued upon moving to the valley, to hear about the wild swans landing on Horseshoe Lake.  Wild swans seemed so exotic and it was a thrill to first see them and that thrill remains.

    I think most of the swans have now flown on to more southern climes,  but this lone one was still hanging around Horseshoe Lake yesterday.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Living In The Third World

    While what Brazil’s President Bolsonaro is now doing to the Amazon is clearly ecocide.  Canadians can’t be too smug because a lot of those same things are being done here.  I like living in a place that is surrounded by pristine wilderness, but it becomes depressing to watch how it is gradually and continually being whittlied away, as nature is being converted into money.

    I took this photo on our recent trip to Valemount.  I assume this area is being cleared for agriculture, but we also saw the all of the heavy machinery stripping the area beside Highway 5 to make way for the Trans-Mountain Pipeline “upgrade”, now owned by the Canadian taxpayer.  The size of the pipeline is be tripled so that the heavy oil from the Alberta Tar Sands can be shipped to Asia.   

    All the “green” talk about carbon reduction is sadly just that; talk.  The pipeline will assure oil will continue to be pumped into the atmosphere for 50 more years, and oil company stockholders will continue to increase their already obscene wealth.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Not A Robin; A Varied Thrush

    For a couple of weeks now as I have driven down the road, I have noticed robins out in the yards and wonder what are they still doing here, they should have flown south.  When I saw some of these robins around our house, I realized that they weren’t “robins” at all, but Varied Thrush.  They do look somewhat like robins, but they are a bit bigger and have a similar orangish chest.  They are flashier looking than a robin, sporting a black band below the throat and some the orange patches on their wings.

    They generally live deeper in the forest, but I generally see them very early in the spring before all the snow melts and of course, this time of year.  I used to call them “Telephone Birds” because from a distance their call sounded like our telephone ringing in the distance.   When we first move to the Robson Valley, I would sometimes be outside working when I heard their call, then go into the house to answer the phone.  

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Hydrology: There's Something Happening Here

    You have heard me often complain about all of the rain we have gotten through the Spring, Summer, and Fall, and how there are puddles and standing water in places where I have never seen it before in the forty years I have been here.  It has gotten to the point where even if it isn’t raining outside, I don’t want to go out and walk through the yard because of the mud under the grass.

    Months ago I re-cleared our old trail that snaked through the woods and now I have no desire to walk it because of all the mud and water that I would have to slog through.  

    The white lines in the photo above, shows the location of the trail.  Under the dashed line there is now probably 2-3 feet (60-90 meters) of water, and where you see water in the photo, it is usually just a dry depression.  There is probably at least 5 feet  (1.5 meters) of standing water.  This is not part of a stream or have surface water feeding it, the water is coming from underground sources.

    The last two years have been incredibly wet, after two years of being very dry.   It seems that our weather is flip-flopping back and forth between extremes.  I would sure appreciate getting back to what used to be our normal moderate weather.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Kona Has Baby Sitters: Squirrels

    See the  squirrel up on the board, Kona sure does.  She is transfixed by the critters.  They are always coming to the bird feeder to get the sunflower seeds, and Kona loves nothing more than to chase them up a tree then, watch them jump from branch to branch and tree to tree.  When they stop leaping around Kona  sits as still as a statue to watch them as they scold her about preventing them from going to the bird feeder.

    While it takes the pressure of us about keeping Kona entertained, it does have its down side.  Because everything around here is still so muddy, it means when we do get Kona back into the house, I have to immediately carry her to the shower so I can wash the mud off of her feet.

You can view my photo-realistic paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

All Souls Day

    Today is All Souls Day which is part of the the Day of the Dead holidays in Mexico.  Forty years ago we traveled to Mexico to explore the Aztec and Mayan ruins and experience the country.  We weren’t aware of the Day of the Dead when we made our arrangements and were quite surprised to suddenly see the many displays of gruesome foods in store front windows:  sugar skulls, chocolate coffins, and “Bread of the Dead”, all displayed for customers in the stores of Mexico City.  

    Eventually we found out what it was all about.  On this weekend it is customary for families to pack up a “picnic” lunch and go to the graves of their ancestors.  There they eat their meal among the tombstones and talk to their deceased family members.  Marigolds seem to be the flower of choice for the occasion. 

    It all seemed a bit strange to us, but I guess foreigners viewing our “Halloween” have a similar feelings.  Below are some old photos of what we saw relating to the Day of the Dead.

Take a look at my photo-realistic paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Halloween Pranks: On The Wane?

    When I was a kid, around Halloween all of the guys at school would talk about all the tricks they were going to play on Halloween night.  Mostly they talked about “soaping” windows (streaking a window by rubbing a bar of soap on it).  I don’t know if they ever did it, but they talked about it a lot.  I was a very good boy and was more interested in collecting candy than causing mischief.

      Upon moving to Canada I did start seeing the mischief that was part of Halloween.  When I was teaching in the two-room school in Avola and living in the teacherage which was located on the school yard, my students told me they were really going to soap my vehicle on Halloween Night.  There were some pretty deviant kids in the class, so I took the threat seriously.

        I was happy to discover on Halloween night that it was pouring rain.  “Ah hah,” I thought, “with all this rain, I don’t think  I need to worry about the kids being out soaping my truck windows tonight,” and so feeling safe, I left the Scout parked beside the house instead of moving it away to hide somewhere else.

    I was right; the kids didn’t soap the windows of my truck, instead they dumped flour on the wet Scout which dried and hardened into a crusty scab that covered the hood, windows and doors.  

    I was surprised at the “vandalism” that we found on Halloween in rural BC.  It continued when we bought our house and moved to McBride.  Luckily, living away from town and not being a teacher spared us from the mischief, but there were always problems in town.   While working at the Forest Service I always heard Halloween stories of tricksters overturning rural outhouses.

    Every year the McBride residents braced themselves on Halloween.  Soaping windows was a common prank, but a bigger and more popular “Trick” was throwing eggs at houses.  It got so bad that the local groceries would hide the eggs and only sell them to adults who were going to eat them.

    Fortunately, those kind of pranks have pretty much disappeared.  I haven’t heard of any egg throwing for years.  It seems like these days the “trick or treaters” concentrate of treats and not the tricks.

Take a look at my photo-realistic paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca