Road trip - day 1

Ok, yesterday was a long driving day so I postponed the posting and working with photos until today.

Started off early from Agassiz - on the hwy by about 7:30 - 8 am after picking some lettuce in my garden and dropping it off at Anita's. I did a few stops along the way, but not many. First stop was in Rhododendron Flats in Manning park in hopes of catching the rhodo bloom that happens in June but I guess I missed it.

From Day 1

Or at least most of it... I did find a few in the shade. These are wild Pacific Rhodos.

From Day 1

Next stop was Hadley - I spotted a neat rock and stopped for pictures. Ended up learning there is an old gold mine up on the cliff, meeting some.. interesting characters including one particularly odd shop keeper who built "art" out of bits and pieces of washing machines, gearboxes and other machine bits. Also spotted this happy scarecrow which made me laugh. If you look close on the left ridge you can just make out the gold mine on the mountain.

From Day 1

From Day 1

Kept going, listening to my audio tapes, and stopped at the top of the hill coming out of Osoyoos for a scenic panorama.

From Day 1

Lunch was had at boundary Creek Provincial Park - it had a creek for the dog to lie in and we were both getting a bit warm. I found this caterpillar while the dog was wading and I was trying to read.

From Day 1

Got to Nelson in the evening - had dinner with the neighbours and am quite enjoying staying at the Grandparents cabin with my Aunt. I took some other pictues on a hike today but that I will update tonight. More stuff will probably happen between now and then!

Macro

From Photo of the day (2009)

Spotted this flower while out walking the dog this morning. It struck me that every part of it was blue. Picture came out not bad.

I got this other one of a bee later on the same walk, figured I missed so many pictures this month I could put in two.

From Photo of the day (2009)

Stave lake

From Photo of the day (2009)

Drove out to Maple Ridge to drop off some hoods and falconry equipment I made to Karen Kamstra of Raptors Ridge and see some of her birds and what not. Had a good day trying on hoods, clipping beaks, installing anklets and other such occasional jobs. On the way home I had planned to stop at the Stave Falls Powerhouse National Historic site, but I was running out of time and there was masses of construction so I'm not sure it was even open. I stopped further up from the dam and walked the dog on a trail called the "Railway Trail". There were lots of old trestles so I assume there used to be a railway there. They were working on the dam so the water levels were really low, the shores really muddy. I got this one of the dog's footprints on the beach when I spotted the colour difference in the sand/mud.

Some other shots I got of the "dead forest" of drowned tree stumps that would normally be underwater, and a foxglove on the side of the path.

From Photo of the day (2009)

From Photo of the day (2009)

Cats

From Photo of the day (2009)

I came out of the goat barn at work after milking in the morning yesterday to see Fuzzy the cat play-mauling her long haired orange kitten. He had her paws round her head, and she was chewing on his neck and underside. My truck with camera was right there but on getting out my camera they spooked and so I missed the better shot. I got this one instead, where momma's heart just isn't quite in it anymore and baby is suspiciously eyeing me.

Beaver

From Photo of the day (2009)

I went camping - for the first time since 2007 - at Deer lake with the dog and the young adults from the Chilliwack Alliance Church on Saturday night. Sunday a few of us tried a trail that was supposed to take us up to another small lake called Moss Lake. We lost Matt part way up as he couldn't keep up and we couldn't wait as there were too many bugs. We got up and found.. a smallish lake. The bugs were horrible so we crawled up on top of a cleared area in the breeze. On going down we came across an arrow and a bottle that Matt had left us and we figured we must have left him behind, at the top. So we went back looking for him incase he had gone too far and was still looking for us. While Steve and I were waiting for the girls to check around another path we spotted this beaver in the lake, so I took a few shots. And yes, we did find Matt in the end, he'd made it back to camp.

Float plane

From Photo of the day (2009)

Last Friday I went into Chilliwack for some groceries and other things that are just too expensive or not available in Agassiz (which means I probably won't go back into Chilliwack for at least another 2 weeks). I took the dog out to Island 22 before doing the shopping so she could run and we met some model float plane pilots. I didn't even know they made model float planes. We walked around a bit before they started flying them and then made our way back (dog on leash) once they had the planes out. Meg seemed to think they were ducks and wanted to chase. I thought this shot was kind of cool because there is no scale, and really, it could have been a big plane.

Kamloops

Ok I know this is really bad. Almost July and not a singe June post. I have been busy with lots of things - falconry hoodmaking, ordering things, teaching, work, camping... anyways. These photos from my trip to Kamloops the first of the month have been on my camera until a few days ago.

From Photo of the day (2009)

A yellow-headed blackbird - one of hundreds - at a marsh I went to with Jay down the road from the house he lived in growing up. I hadn't seen one of these guys before so I was pretty enthused. Now I even know what they sound like!

From Photo of the day (2009)

From Photo of the day (2009)

And a couple Red-winged blackbirds at the same marsh. I liked the reed look.