On the weekend, the wind came up, the sky began to darken and the rain started.
A very welcome arrival.
Happy Monday.
Rain
#ScenicSaturday 23rd September 2023
My photos in this continuing series show our beautiful world. Maybe I can encourage viewers to help save it from human carelessness. Today’s …
#ScenicSaturday 23rd September 2023
A beautiful scene on the Isle of Wight courtesy of Stuart.
It’s Wine Time
With the many harvest and wine festivals at this time of year, we have been visiting some of the more obscure and smaller wineries in the southern Okanagan Valley between Oliver and Osoyoos. This area is only 35 km (22 miles) to the south of us from Penticton.
The area is classified as semi-arid desert and the summer temperatures regularly climb into the low 40s (105-107F). Much of the valley is irrigated with water from nearby valley and mountain lakes and this allows a rich diversity of fruit and vegetables to grow, especially wine grapes.
This combination of dry heat and soil moisture causes the flavours of the wine grapes to be very concentrated which can produce some excellent reds.
It’s also good rosé country. Rosé results from some contact with the red grape skins to give it the distinctive hues that range all the way from light pink to orange to a light red.
This is not only good wine country. Opportunities for outdoor activities such as cycling, camping, swimming, boating, rock climbing and hiking are plentiful and varied. There are lots of good restaurants, and if you love fresh fruit and veggies, this might be your nirvana.
Happy Sunday.
September Sun
A beautiful autumn day.
Blue sky, clear water, wonderful.
September is gorgeous.
Have a good weekend.
Happy Finds
Our resident ducks were settled on a sandbar in their favourite creek.
They need to enjoy that bit of real estate as the creek is beginning to rise a bit from a recent rain (and hopefully, more rainy days will happen soon). This is important as, if you look about a quarter of the way up from the photo’s bottom frame and in the centre, you will see a pink spot. That’s a kokanee salmon attempting to swim upstream, and it’s very necessary that she get there in order to spawn.
A little further along the path, I saw a heron.
I wanted to capture the reflections, but got a bonus.
Happy finds are such lovely additions to a great walk.
Happy Friday.
a flower for your friday
~ a flower for your friday ~ I hope the next day or two brings you some opportunities to savor these last hours of summer. Looking back, I feel a bit…
a flower for your friday
Beautiful butterfly pictures from Clover and Ivy. I hope you stop for a visit as there are many more lovely photos to be enjoyed.
Okanagan Lake Moods
Happy Wednesday.
Visiting the City
I saw this deer across the street as I was leaving home.
He seemed to have found some yummy leaves and was intent on chowing down. Normally I cross the road to where the deer is standing, but I didn’t want to bother him.
With the drought and fires this season, the animals have had a tough time of it and more and more are entering urban areas to find food. This includes an uptick in the number of bears coming into people’s yards, as shown in the recent photos below from Quesnel, British Columbia; the entire article is here.
This is a grizzly bear. Black bears are more commonly found in urban areas but grizzlies are different. They dislike and avoid humans, so this tells me that they are being driven by hunger.
This underweight grizzly is pulling crabapples from a tree in a residential yard. Given the difficult summer they’ve had, we will likely begin to see more of them trying to fatten up for hibernation and will need to be cautious.
Happy Wednesday.
SPAWNING TIME
It’s that time of year again,spawning time. This year we’ve had poor rain levels and so that in turn makes the streams low. When the streams are low,…
SPAWNING TIME
An amazing picture of a bear capturing some dinner from Wayne at Tofino Photography. Wayne is concerned about our low water levels and the effect this will have on the salmons’ ability to swim upstream to spawn. Please click on the link above to read more.
Urban Walk
There are lovely walking paths throughout Penticton. A favourite, nearby path is next to the creek which is undergoing restoration at the moment, but for the most part this doesn’t detract from its allurements.
It has a great night ambiance …
… and during the day as well. Some sections have lots of foliage and other parts are a bit denuded because of the revitalization project, but there will be new growth.
The holly bushes that frequently border the creek are starting to to turn red as the picture above shows. They will be completely red in time for December, but in the meantime it’s great to enjoy the comfortable temperatures and sunny days that we’re still experiencing.
Happy Tuesday.
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 