It was so cold it seemed as though spring would never come. But suddenly, there it was.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/spring-green-727x1024.jpg)
But we could not enjoy it for long. It suddenly got very hot and within a week, everything was in full leaf.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/full-leaf-1024x768.jpg)
After a low-snow year and no spring rain, it was very dry. Spring should be a green time, but the roadsides were as brown as August.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/15-roadside-brown-1024x718.jpg)
This was the time when the big fires started in northern BC, and immediately we started to get smoke.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/full-leaf-smoke-1024x768.jpg)
An unexpected bonus, however, was the spring flower display. The highway to Nimpo was paved with gold!
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/1-dandelions-1024x768.jpg)
But the real show was along the burned area of our road.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/IMG_0347-1024x768.jpg)
Most of these species did not bloom at all along here l last year.
Early purple violets.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/3-violets-1024x658.jpg)
Penstemon procerus and wild rose. A bit of Jacob’s ladder and the yellow western senecio.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/6-rose-and-penstemon-1024x695.jpg)
Two species of pussytoes. Yarrow in the back.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/7-2-sp-pussytoes-etc-1024x768.jpg)
I have never seen so much of the blue penstemon. Here it is again with roses.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/8-rose-and-penstemon-1024x846.jpg)
Then there was the shrubby penstemon
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/9-purple-penstemon-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/10-rich-penst-1024x768.jpg)
Then the false dandelion popped up
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/12-agoseris-1024x768.jpg)
Dogbane was common last year but abundant this year.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/13-dogbane-1024x768.jpg)
As was the birch-leaved spirea.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/14-birchleaved-spirea-1024x768.jpg)
And then, in June, it turned cold.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/16-turned-cold-1024x768.jpg)
It froze most night: twice it got down to -5C. I had covered sensitive plants. There was frost on the windows of my new patio shelter.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/17-frost-on-new-windows-854x1024.jpg)
And fresh snow on the mountains.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/17-fresh-snow-on-mountain-1024x702.jpg)
On one day, we actually had rain.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/17a-raindrops-1024x768.jpg)
Despite the cold, spring was advancing. The first of many mothers appeared on the pond with her babies. This is the Barrow’s goldeneye, one of the few I could identify.
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/18-Mrs-BG.jpg)
The garden was sprouting, too. I planted a row of Red Russian kale from a 1/2 kilogram bag of sprouting seeds. I did not realize that there was a hole in the bottom of the bag…
![](https://www.wildernessdweller.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/19kale-1024x768.jpg)