It's Hiking Season!

I've actually been out on 3 really good hikes this week. Wednesday, the women of the Wednesday walkers hiked the Galena Trail from Sandon to New Denver. We had 14 hikers and two dogs. The picture I've included is the first two women crossing Carpenter Creek on the cable car.

Saturday p.m., Andrea, Dave, Carroll (Dave's brother) and I drove up to the one clearcut that we can see from our place. From there, we hiked through the trees and REALLY bad mosquitoes upto a ridge. I gave up before the ridge, but I did get a view of Fletcher Lake.

Sunday, the Sunday Strutters went up Whitewater Canyon - very, very nice. Pictured in today's blog is Whitewater Mountain. The trail was very good - 450m of elevation gain over 5.5 km and we had some snowfields to cross. The campground was completely snowed in and there won't be any scrambles up Mt. Whitewater any time soon. We did have an opportunity to see one large, male grizzly in the valley opposite to us - another group of 13 hikers!

School's Out for Summer!

I worked yesterday at the local school, certainly not expecting to have any work this week. However, it was the local "field day" and I got to spend the day outside and earn money. I have to say that I noticed the lack of wind, and not needing to pick dirt and sand out of my teeth following the day at the track. This particular meet was more of an old-fashioned play day - we had egg/spoon races and 3-legged races, along with regular runnning and jumping and throwing activities.

The school at the right is the high school in Nelson. I worked there in early June for a day and had the most spectacular view from the top floor classroom - looking out towards Pulpit Rock, the BOB (the Big Orange Bridge), over Kootenay Lake and the bend in the water, where the Kootenay River really commences. I don't think I'd be able to work too hard in a classroom like that - the view is too much of a distraction. I supervised two French exams and had a wonderful day at that school too. I think I managed 21 days of work this year which pretty much doubles the previous year.

Sunday Strutters

I know that I've written about Wednesday Walkers. I had heard about the "Sunday group" who would hike but had never really connected with anyone to discover who, where and when. This winter, I did find a good contact and today we did our first hike with the group. This was a hike up Davis Creek to Fishhook Lake, pictured to the right. The climb is very steep for about an hour and then pretty much levels out. We had a mix of sun and cloud, a few drops of rain, but the group moves well and it was a pleasant excursion - we learned about hundreds of hikes we've never heard of prior to today. I've called the group "Sunday Strutters" but I'm not too sure how that name will fly with this hiking group. I hope we can do more as the summer progresses.

First Bouquet, 2008

On June 4th I finally picked my first garden bouquet - here is a combination of Siberian iris, catmint (Walker's Low which I love and seems to be deer-proof), and lupines. I had gathered seed from the roadside to get the lupines and planted them last fall - now we have a few although I expect they will all be blue. It's been a very slow start to the garden and we have had several plants blooming, but it was a thrill to actually pick the first garden bouquet and soon the wildflowers should really start to show their stuff! Today, June 8th, the first daylily opened with two blooms, aptly names 'June'!

My Very First Rhodo!

After all the deer damage we seemed to have this winter on our shrubbery, I have one rhodo bud that they all missed! Here is my very first rhodo - ever! It seemed to take quite a long time to come out but today it is showing itself very nicely.

The garden has been planted and is mostly a picture of small black stakes. I'm singing that old prairie tune again - we need rain!! It only rained twice in the month of May, and not really very hard. This past week I've been watering and have succeeded in having a few plants germinate. The perennials are looking fairly nice, although we must wait for later blooms. Last Sunday, I planted an entire new bed with my SK Siberian irises, daylilies and some ornamental grasses, both new and old.

Happy gardening, readers.

Singing To the Best of Them

Many of you readers probably don't know who this is - Arlo Guthrie of Alice's Restaurant fame. Last Saturday I went to a good old-fashioned sing-a-long with 30 other people. What a good time we had! A group of Kaslovians gets together once a month with one top-notch pianist, a couple of guitars and a couple of harmonicas. I know that it helped that the woman who hosted us had a baby grand piano and an even grander view of the Purcells and Kootenay Lake. We sat in a big circle; there's a super songbook and everyone picked a song. It was when the woman next to me picked "City of New Orleans" by Arlo Guthrie, that I knew that I was in the right place. I, of course, selected Connie Kaldor's "Saskatoon Moon", but we sang from Gilbert and Sullivan, Flanders and Swann, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and another of my favourites, Stan Rogers. I know that next time I'm aiming to pick "Rise Again". The other neat thing about this event is that it was totally alcohol-free. I haven't had such a good time in ages.

Wednesday Walkers

I've been raving to my SK friends about the wonderful women I've met who gather every Wednesday for lunch and a walk. Yesterday, we crossed Kootenay Lake and walked to a place called Fry Creek Canyon. Here we are on the bridge which crosses the chasm, hardly able to hear one another because of the roar of the water. Yes, the B.C. snow melt is coming down the mountains! For this special day we did invite a few others to join us (notice the men) and I was happy to be able to include Andrea and Demitri who were visiting at the time. We also had a wonderful tour of a small community where people are pretty much living off the grid and have lived close to the land for several decades. Wednesday Walkers is one of my weekly highlights!