The Clothesline

I couldn't resist taking a picture of my clothesline yesterday - it was a perfect day for drying clothes, although the long shadows that occur in the Koots at this time of year do not give much opportunity for sun to shine north of our home - the location of my clothesline. We had wind, though, and most things dried partially.

Last night we had our first killing frost and I'm afraid that the pots are gone. The raccoons have been enjoying coming to the bird feeder that is posted on our deck railing so we need to remember to bring it in each night. They spent part of their time last night picking sunflower seeds out of the flowers in one of the deckpots. A late and lingering fall has been most enjoyable.

Lookout to Loki

As the last week of November begins, you can see that we finally got some clear skies in the Koots. This is Mt. Loki across the lake in the Purcells; it is one of the most distinguishing mountain landmarks in the area. Dave managed to climb it this summer but I have enjoyed watching its many moods. This picture was taken Wednesday while on the Wednesday Walk with 15 other keen hikers. We walked above Fletcher Falls along a ridge with lots of open views of Kootenay Lake and the Purcells. We then tramped through woods to an Old Growth Forest - I found that a bit hard to do on a sunny, cloudless day - give me my sunshine!

Interesting to observe the garden as well, during the waning days of this dreary month. My lavendar continues to bloom, 4 deck pots still look pretty good and a couple of my groundcovers have a few flowers on them. I did pull out the sweet peas - not because they were frozen, but simply because they were receiving so little light the blooms wouldn't open. We carried leaves from Mirror Lake to cover the garden beds, but I refuse to cover the last remaining vesitges of summer on one perennial bed: it still just looks too fine!

A Step Back in Time

Municipal elections just took place in B.C. this past weekend. I worked as a scrutineer for the encumbent Regional Director for the Central District of Kootenay. It was refreshingly archaic as all the votes were hand counted and we had to wait around for a couple of hours to find out the final tally. I'm not sure how many polling stations were actually "out there", but I believe it was four, plus the advanced poll. Kaslo poll was by far the largest of the 5 polls. No one could find any results for our area on the CBC radio carrying the results or on their website. We waited until nearly ten o'clock for a phone call (to some this might be considered using technology) from "up the lake" to receive the poll results from Argenta and Meadow Creek. We then added up the total votes en mass - in our heads - just like elementary school! Our encumbent won handily; in B.C. elections like this winning by 150 votes is considered to be a bit of a landslide. Last time he won by 12 votes. Our candidate is pretty "green" and two more people of the green persuasion were elected to the Board of Directors of RDCK. As well, community planning seems to be alive and well in this part of the Koots.

Pot's Getting Better

The purpose of this post is to promote envy in my prairie gardener friends: I was able to pick sweet peas on November 5th and a couple of my deck pots look pretty darn good as I write this. In fact, the yellow mum gets better and better every day.

We're into the low cloud stretch here in the Koots so these bright spots really help. I love the extended fall around here. The rose hips are a brilliant red and most of the rose leaves are just beginning to change colour. Drifts of larch needles cover the Pine Ridge Road and a pileated woodpecker regularly visits the trees around our home.