Very often, we get spring green for a week, it happens so fast. But this year, because the weather had reverted to winter, this fabulous colour lasted longer.

The cottonwood catkins have formed their oily seeds.  Bears love these (they are about but I haven’t seen one yet.)One year, near Prince George, friends and I passed an isolated, full-sized cottonwood with mature catkins but no leaves.  In it were 4 bears – a mum and 3 grown cubs.  They looked like big black fruit and wondered around the high, spindly branches with ease.

Pine siskins visited for a day.  These winter in the area, sometimes in great flocks, but they don’t often come to the feeder. I have been busy all week in the garden.  I eat salad every day out of the greenhouse, And am starting to get nibbles out of the outdoor cold frames.Last year was the first time I attempted a serious garden, and, because I have a limited water supply, bought soaker hoses.  They were put in after the garden was planted and did not cover all the areas.  This year I have laid the hoses in the ground first for the most part – took several days to figure out all the right switches to make the irrigation system run smoothly.  Unknowingly, I had bought two types of hoses whose ends were not compatible so I had a lot of juggling to do. Also, some of the hoses did not work well and all had to be tested.  The green bits in the back are kale that wintered.  It is only the third time I have planted it, and it did not winter before.  I was talking to a neighbour (over an hour away and quite a bit lower, wetter, and warmer) who said she had kale that overwintered also – but it was the first time it happened to her, too, and she has gardened there for over 30 years.

We were promised a hot day this morning,So I went up onto the dunes again.

Jacob’s ladder still blooming everywhere; here it is with the other plants that do well in this shifting environment, the silvery-leaved wormwood, and that constant puzzle the horsetail (which normally prefer damp areas.)The river is rising a bitA gaggle of Clarke’s nutcrackers has been hanging about the area all year.Dandelions are in full swing,And the sun sets far enough in the northwest to light the trees along the river.