Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch….

The cool, rainy weather persists.  Yesterday’s temperature did not climb above 16C, and the other morning, when the night was clear for a few hours before sunrise, it froze.

Despite the rain, the river has not come up a lot this year.  the riverBefore the flood of 2010, there was a channel on the left of the picture.  The flood carved a new, much deeper route for the river, and the left-hand bars are now growing over.  Stitchwort twinkled among the rocks.

stitchwortand a real surprise was a clump of silky phacelia, a most striking flower.  I have found it way above the treeline at Nuk Tessli.

phacelia sericeaLater, I found a vigorous population on a gravel area beside Highway 20.  It is a most striking flower.

highway 20I was lucky to have a helper for 5 days and he did a few urgent jobs.  It is still very difficult for me to carry things any distance.  He staked my peas…

ginty creek garden(the rows are wiggly as I planted them with crutches – literally: I scraped the trough with the crutch and then tried to put in seeds.  It is the first time I have had a garden at Ginty Creek – there was not time to prepare more: this is by way of an experiment.)

..and he built a much-neede compost bin.

5 compost bin

He also helped me hang a couple of doors.  I made the original ones and they warped so badly I got a neighbour to make these.  They are gorgeous.

front door at Ginty CreekSome mornings we would get a gleam of sun for a brief time before the fog and cloud rolled in.

Middle MountainThe aspens already have a silvery cast as they are riddled with leaf miners.  It is a wonder they ever survive.

aspen leaf minersThe showiest flower in the area right now is a penstemon.  The blossoms are  half a finger in length.

Penstemon

flowers of penstemonAnother species of penstemon is hosting a swallow-tailed butterfly.

swallowtail on few-flowered penstemonThe forecast is promising an improvement in the weather.  This morning, the fog was as thick as ever.

Spider's webs at Ginty Creek.This orb-web spider was unusual – most of the webs were made by other species, like the one in the background, and were a lot more messy.  (Apparently you can induce this among orb-web spiders by giving them LSD….)

But the sun came out and off I went for a hike.  I went further than I have or a long time and climbed up onto the north dunes.  It was so great getting to a good viewpoint at last although the high summer sun is not great for photography.

Finger Peak etc.The sand was soft and slithery to walk on so it gave me an additional workout.  At the edge of the dunes was a bit of dogbane.

creeping dogbaneI am always amazed at this species of horsetail.  Most need damp or wet areas, but this one thrives on the dunes.  Horsetails are the surviving relatives of forest-sized plants that eventually made coal.  They grew when the dinosaurs roamed the earth.  They have this curious jointed structure.  You can easily pull the segments apart.

horsetail on dunesHere is a juniper snake.

snake of juniper wood

 

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3 thoughts on “Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch….”

  1. always enjoy your pictures, love the wat you captured the water droplets on the flowers. So glad to hear you are getting out and about. Planting with a critch is better than not planting. We are having a heatwave since June 30th. Keep well

  2. Just love the new pics of flowers. So beautiful and hardy. Ken is recuperating-mentioned you had had frost the other night. He laughed. Sounds like you are getting around pretty well but always nice to have a helping hand. Ken’s brother from To. is here til end of month-what a bonus. We’re having a hot spell so thunderstorms predicted for later in day. Typical prairie. All crops are looking very good and soon we’ll be eating chard.

  3. Hello Chris, Happy Canada Day!! It is good to hear that you were able to take a short hike. From the photographs it looks as if you had a climb too. This means, I sure do hope, that you knee is improving all the time. Take care of yourself and the knee. The photographs are great, we always enjoy them. Anne and John Silins

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