Don’t You Know What You’re Smelling?

    Kona thinks of herself as being a great hunting dog.  Whenever we take her for a walk in the snow, she continually scans the surface looking for tracks.  Every time she finds a track, she sticks her nose in it to figure out who had made it.  That’s fair enough, but what gets me is that 90% of the tracks she sticks her nose into, are tracks that she herself has made.  I don’t know if she can’t recognize her own smell or if her hunting instinct is just so great, she can’t help but automatically react whenever she sees a hole in the snow.

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Aspirin Cartoon

       All I have to give you today is a cartoon.  You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Springtime in the Rockies

 

    Well, a mini-blizzard was not exactly what I had been hoping for, but that is what we got yesterday.  It was full of fury, creating whiteout conditions as the snow blew sideways.  I had been happy to see a few patches of brown grass showing through as the winter snow melted, but they are now once again buried in the white stuff.  Following behind the wind and snow came colder temperatures.  This morning it was -12C (10F).  

This kind of flip-flop in the early spring is not that unusual in the Interior of BC, but it always does feel like a betrayal as we so eagerly look for warmer weather.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Hovering Ice Saucer

     I noticed this bit of ice, seeming hovering above the ground, yesterday.  The ice formed when the water was about a foot higher, then when the water drained away it was left in the air, supported by the stems of plants that went through the ice.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Arriving Geese

     Even though the lakes are still frozen, there is the constant sound of honking as more and more geese arrive in the Robson Valley.  They are able to find some open water, like this huge “puddle” that has formed by the melting snow, on the frozen ground.

    Hearing the geese does make one think that Spring is upon us, but those warm Spring-like days have been held in abeyance by the the hesitant deterioration of winter.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Snow on Pussy Willows

    I thought this photo of a snow and rain laden pussy willow sort of symbolized the Spring that we are experiencing.  We have been getting a bit of snow every night, but the daytime temperatures are warm enough to melt the new snow away by the evening.   Some of the wind-blown fields in the Valley are bare, but most of our property is still covered with about 7 inches (17 cm) of snow.  There are a few bare spots beginning to appear.

You can view my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Elk Cause Change of Venue

    We like to vary the location of our afternoon walks, so yesterday, since we had recently walked Jeck Road and Horseshoe Lake, we decided to walk down the tarmac at the airfield.  We got there, parked the car, and I was just about to open the door for Kona, when my wife said, “Wait, there are elk out there.”

    That pretty much scuttled our walk at the airfield.  Kona goes nuts if she sees (or smells) unexpected people or animals.  She strains at her leash and can’t be calmed.  Knowing how she would probably react to a herd of about 40 elk (not well) we decided to drive over to Horseshoe Lake and do our walk there.

    It was an unexpected large herd of elk (Wapiti) at the airfield.  They were all spread out, so I couldn’t get a photo of the entire herd.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca