Tag Archives: blogging

nature, Photography

More Rain

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We have been experiencing a rainier, cooler than usual summer punctuated by hot days where the temperature reaches 37 or 38 (98.6-100.4 F). A rainy night makes for comfortable morning constitutionals, however.

These clouds were moving into the north after being pushed out by …

… quite strong and gusty winds from the east. Surface easterly winds are unusual here since they have to make it past a number of mountain ranges in order to arrive, but I noticed that this one seemed to have quite a lot of altitude, too, probably about 3000 metres (approx 10,000 ft).

As the day wore on – and more clouds moved back in – our resident bald eagles weren’t too concerned as they perched in their favourite lookout tree to survey their territory. Some jostling from the winds didn’t stop them from having one of their regular, affectionate chats.

Happy Saturday.

nature, Photography

Rain Storm

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We recently had a series of showers that lasted all afternoon and night, too. In the end, we collected 10 mm (about 0.5 inch) of water which is happily going toward keeping any potential fires down, but the next morning, we saw lots of lovely clearing skies.

The carp in the fish pond didn’t seem to be much bothered, though. They continued swimming, rain or not …

… enjoying the leaves, clouds, and blue skies …

… and their attractive sky fish lives!

Happy Thursday.

nature, Photography

Mystery Bird

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(The answer will be at the end of the post.) I saw this cute little robin-like bird while out walking.

Very unafraid, he or she let me get within about a metre (3 ft) which I needed to do since I only had my cell for photos.

The size, wing-configuration and body shape all shouted that this bird is a type of thrush – so are North American robins – but when I saw it walking, the gait was definitely different. Robins will do a combination of hopping and walking, while this bird was a very confident walker with rather largish feet for its size, I thought.

I also had the sense that given the colouration, this little one might be a female or a juvenile from this summer.

Once I got back home and was able to do an online search, I learned that this is either a female or juvenile yellow-headed blackbird which means that it’s a passerine, not a thrush. They live among the bulrushes – which explains the feet as they need strong ones to grab those grasses as they perch, especially if it’s windy – near water and I discovered this little one on a railing above Okanagan Lake.

Photo courtesy of All About Birds

As you can see, in addition to the yellow heads, the males also have white wing flashes. These birds like to migrate to Mexico for the winter, but in some places they remain all year. The Okanagan Valley is apparently one of those places.

Happy Wednesday.

Reblogs

Reblog: Akaroa

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Akaroa is a charming small town located on the Banks Peninsula on the east coast of New Zealand’s South Island that was formed by two ancient shield …

Akaroa

Beautiful photos of and information about New Zealand from Linda at Wandering Canadians. Please click the link above to read about the rest of her visit to Akaroa and to see more of Linda’s posts about her and her family’s wanderings.

nature, Photography

Grape Scenes

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The Okanagan Valley is famous for its wine production.

A wide variety of grapes are grown here and in some cases, types that don’t produce particularly good wine results in Europe tend to do much better here, occasionally very much better which often leads to some interesting bottles that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

The various types are affected by humidity, proximity to the lake, dryness, and other soil, moisture and weather conditions.

Not sure what kind of grapes are growing here as they’re not labelled, but they’re near a favourite winery. They look luscious but don’t taste like table grapes at all! These are specifically wine grapes.

A bit further to the south and west of us is the Similkameen Valley, very hot and dry, which grows some excellent reds.

Although the Okanagan Valley is known for wine, this area is incredibly produce-rich and grows a very wide variety of other fruits and vegetables, including cherries, peaches, apricots, pears and apples.

No matter where you go, the life of a farmer can be incredibly tough; they’re always at the mercy of whatever the weather throws their way, but when it works it is so tasty, delicious and wonderful!

Reblogs

Peace and quiet

The heat drifted through the cloud cover, but the temperature was indeed perfect. The smell of summer prairie grasses and saskatoon berries …

Peace and quiet

I’m in turn forwarding this piece from Bernie at Equipoise Life who’s passing on a piece from her friend Dr. D who is presently working with Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) in Gaza. I was very moved.