Driving to and from town on the gravel road for the past while, I have been noticing quite a lot of garter snakes trying to cross the road. Avoiding them has become a challenge. Is that a stick on the road? Nope, it moved! swerve
Sadly, I’m also seeing quite a few that have been run over, too.
I had been wondering why the sudden uptick in snakes, until I remembered what time of year it is. They are starting to make their way back to their winter dens, to the north of us. We will likely be seeing increased numbers for a few more weeks.
It was a beautiful morning to drive my daughter to work, then swing by the lake, after.
Usually, I walk past the wave line, but not today.
Today, I got soaked to my knees from the waves. :-D
It was almost disorienting, getting up to drive my daughter to work this morning. Instead of the usual brightness for this time of year, it was dark. Instead of sunshine, everything had an orange overcast to it.
The cloud of smoke from the fires on the West coast that had engulfed our former home for the past few days has finally reached us.
And yet, we weren’t getting any air quality warnings on our weather apps at all – that didn’t come in until several hours later – and it didn’t smell like smoke.
I had planned to bring my older daughter’s camera along, to take photos at the beach after dropping her sister off at work. I decided to bring it anyhow, leaving the telephoto lens on it. I honestly didn’t expect to get any good photos, but I did manage a few.
(click on the photos to see larger versions)
Everything was just this greyish orange colour. There was no sun. We couldn’t even see any sign of where the sun should have been.
I wanted to stay in town long enough to be able to pick up some prescription refills, so along with my usual playing of Pokemon Go, I decided to walk along the wharf and the breakwater. The wharf ends abruptly, and then there is a gravel path along the stones of the breakwater. While walking to the end of this section (there is a gap for the larger boats, then it continues into a cove), I had my game up. I couldn’t help but laugh.
I can walk on water! :-D
The wharf is on the game’s map, but not the breakwater.
Interestingly, the line of buoys in the lake, marking the closest boats can come to the shore, and the farthest swimmers can go out, is on the map, looking for all the world like a sidewalk, running through the lake.
The stones are naturally more of a pale yellow in colour, but not today!
After while, I headed to a park that’s part of my gaming routine and stayed a while. I was just getting ready to leave, when the sun made an appearance, at almost 9:30!
It was so hazy, I could look directly at it, comfortably. I tried playing with the settings on the camera to try and get how orange it was, but this is the closest I could get. The orange that you can see around the circumference is what the entire orb looked like in real life.
Though I couldn’t smell the smoke much at all – it was more than lost in the smell of yeast from the distillery – by the time I was done walking around and returned to my van, I could feel my throat and lungs starting to get irritated. These conditions would be awful for anyone with respiratory conditions!
I pray that the rains will come and help the firefighters put out these devastating blazes.
After the heat we’ve been having lately, this morning was downright chilly!
No, that’s not a complaint! :-D
I actually wore a light jacket when I drove my daughter to work. :-D After dropping her off, I stopped at the lake and walked on the beach for a while (which just happens to help me get some kilometers in on Pokemon Go… ;-) ). By the time I got back to the van, it was starting to be too warm for that jacket! We’re supposed to hit over 30C today, so we’ll really be appreciating how cool the house got overnight, because it’ll stay that way for most of the day, once we close up the windows.
Life is so much slower and calmer out here. For all the inconveniences of the move, and the various challenges we’ve had since then, life is good!
Speaking of good…
My husband’s CPAP came in yesterday!! He was lying down when we got back, but for this, I disturbed him. :-D We got it set up, and he immediately lay down to sleep again – this time, with his hospital bed flat. He’s been without for so long, he has to get used to it all over again! Much to our surprise, he even had to reduce the pressure on the machine. It’s an adjustable pressure machine, which means it is set at a range, rather than just one pressure. It’s rather a big deal for him to be able to reduce that range, considering how high he normally needs to keep it.
Someone’s sand castle looks like part of its wall has already been claimed by the waves.
I played around with the settings on my phone’s camera and was happy to get more true-to-life photos.
The closer to the marina, the rockier the beach. I find the beach much more interesting, the rockier it gets.
These boulders are right at the wharf. It’s not unusual to see someone sitting on them, reading a book or something, and just enjoying this quiet little spot.
There is a little cove on the other side of the marina. The lake shore here is lined with boulders to protect from erosion. The entry/exit through the breakwater into the marina is near here, and the yacht club is nearby as well.
A beautiful day for a sail.
Near the frog fountain are a couple of mountain-ash trees, aka rowan. They are gorgeous trees. We had a couple, around where our plum trees are, when I was a kid, but I have no idea what happened to them. These trees are of similar size. When we first moved to the city we were in for the past 14 years, one of the things that amazed me was how many mountain-ash trees there were, and how HUGE they were, compared to here. When we first moved into the housing co-op, we were in a townhouse on the second and third floors at the end of the row, and there was a mountain-ash right outside the third floor bedroom windows. Every spring, it would fill with waxwings, eating the remaining berries. Gorgeous birds, though it didn’t take long for their incessant fee-fee-fee! noise, that would start at about 3 a.m. and continue for hours, to get very annoying. :-D
While in the area, I saw some gazebo tents set up and remembered that it was Saturday – Farmer’s Market day. This was the first time I was able to take it in, since our move. It was still early, to I walked for a while before coming back to the market and seeing what was there. I even had a bit of cash on hand, for a change. I normally never have cash and use my debit card for everything, but I had decided to take some money out this morning, just in case.
Then I found my cousin’s honey booth.
I no longer have any cash on hand, but I now have a big bucket of creamed honey!
My daughter had a slightly later shift today, so the sun was well up by the time I got to the beach.
During the drive in, we could see the haze of smoke, everywhere. The lake was no exception.
Normally, I’d be able to see at least a bit of the other side of the lake from here. Especially when the water is so calm.
(I believe there is an advisory against going into the water right now. The birds are pretty, but their fecal matter can result in E. coli problems.)
The camera on my phone automatically “clears up” images taken in fog or haze. The trees in the distance were not actually as visible in real life as in the photo!
While walking along the beach, a splash of colour caught my attention.
Someone left a bit of cheer for others to enjoy. :-)
I hung around town long enough for the post office to open, and for the postmaster to put out the mail, so I wandered over to the marina and sat by a fountain (and added a Pokemon into the gym that is there, which was controlled by my team at the time. :-D ).
It still feels weird to see the bright green frogs. They used to be just the brass, which developed a natural patina.
I still like them. Because they’re frogs. :-D
I headed home shortly after this and was able to stop at the post office. Sadly, my husband’s CPAP has not come in yet. The company could only guarantee speed of delivery within the US. Once in Canada, they have no control over how quickly something gets delivered. Usually, packages get processed quickly. Much faster than envelopes, anyhow.
I had the beach to myself, except for the seagulls and a woman doing yoga in the sand, while oriented to the sun. The sand looked like it had just been groomed, too.
I found some pretty rocks while I was walking, including one larger one I might try painting on. :-)
Today turned out to be a nice and productive day, despite the rain this morning.
After driving my younger daughter to work, my older daughter and I went to the city to do the rest of our monthly shopping. An unplanned stop at Walmart, where I got some canning supplies I hope to use to preserve chokecherries, though I have yet to decide what I will be doing with them; a quick trip to Costco – or at least as quick as any trip to Costco can be! – and then to the grocery store we discovered after our last trip. We had lunch before we started that last bit of shopping, going through their kitchen area, for some Chinese food. To be completely honest, it was hardly the best Chinese food we’d ever had, but it’s been so long, it was absolutely amazing! Talk about hitting the spot!
Of all the things to miss about city living. The dizzying variety of ethnic fast food! :-D
We took advantage of the incredible international sections of the store to get a few things we normally wouldn’t – including a couple of ingredients for something I want to try that I will save for its own post. We haven’t been doing a lot of cooking in the heat we’ve been having, and pretty much no baking at all. Our sourdough starters, sadly, did not survive. The Rye of SourOn was the first to go, and even though my daughters were using Sir Sour Alot almost every morning to make hotcakes, in double batches, it basically went black over one hot and muggy night.
When things start to cool down later in the year, and we’re not doing so much yard work, we’ll get another Alaskan sourdough going and start baking again. Until then, we stock up on bread at Costco and freeze most of it. We’ve been going through bread rather quickly, since no one wants to cook in the heat, so we’ve been having lots of sandwiches! :-D
For now, the less time in the kitchen, the better, which means our grocery shopping trips are filled with more things that can be eaten cold, or with minimal cooking.
We finished early enough that we went straight home to unload before heading back into town to pick up my daughter from work. We were able to make a stop at the beach in the process.
It was much windier at the lake, and the water was so choppy!
Some people even braved the waves!
I’m not sure I would have been willing to do that, but then, I’m not a very strong swimmer.
The water gets so murky when it’s like this! Not that it’s ever clear, given how shallow it is, but on days like this, it’s pretty opaque!
The weather had cleared up around our area by then, so after we got home, I went straight to mowing the outer yard. I’m still mowing a drive-able path to the second gate. We have yet to fix the barbed wire gate. I’ve decided not to make another barbed wire gate, and will instead pick up some fencing wire to use instead.
Now that we have power to the barn, and my brother fixed the melted plug end of the line to the storage shed, I should make a point of going around the areas I mow with the weed trimmer. Though I will not be focusing on the outer yard for clean up, other than what’s essential, I also don’t want to give things a chance to get overgrown where we need to access them. Tall grass is one thing. Nettles, burdock, thistles and self-sown trees are something else entirely!
After I finished with the mowing and was coming back to the house, I noticed Butterscotch’s kittens were out. I got some cat kibble for the kittens and refilled the water bowl by where Beep Beep has her babies. Beep Beep’s kittens were out, too, but only the tuxedo stayed out while I was around, and did not like me being there. So I went back to Butterscotch and her babies as they ate. I actually got to pet the teeny tabby! That itty bitty kitty is turning out to be the braver of the lot. Unfortunately, none of my attempts to get photos turned out. Ah, well.
The fridge and cupboards are stocked up, the freezer is full, the outer lawn is mowed, and I got to pet a kitten.
A couple of photos of the lake, taken this morning.
The water was so still this morning!
While it’s usually quiet in the mornings, there isn’t going to be any swimming for beach goers for a while. Several beaches at this area of the lake are now closed. It seems some pipe got damaged, resulting in untreated sewage draining into the lake. From what I’ve read, the water tests were still testing safe, but the province closed some beaches to be on the safe side.
This is unusual only in regards to the cause. The usual reason for beach closures are high algae levels, which has been an ongoing problem on the lake for decades, or high e. coli levels from bird poop.
And that, kids, is why we use chlorine in pools! ;-)
I was able to stop at the beach again, after dropping my daughter off.
One of these days, we should there and actually swim or something. :-D
When I’m just there for a quick visit, I like to walk away from the sandy part of the beach and head for the rocky part.
I like to keep a look out for unusual colours, shapes, fossils and fairy stones.
It’s mostly sand and lime stone. I like ones like this, with the interesting colours and textures. Sandstone is remarkably light.
It’s common to find pieces of shell as well, but today, I found what looked like teeth.
Which turned out to be exactly what it was! On the jawbone of a fish.
No. I didn’t keep it.
It’s a really nice and relaxing way to spend a bit of time in the morning. Especially when it’s early enough that there’s hardly anyone else out, yet! :-D
It was almost disorienting, getting up to drive my daughter to work this morning. Instead of the usual brightness for this time of year, it was dark. Instead of sunshine, everything had an orange overcast to it.
The Re-Farmer 