What's Blooming Late April

A single prairie crocus

A 2-inch high tiny daffodil:
 

The Forsythias in the front yard are now in full bloom.

Bonus feature: view of the new deck from the lane.

We Built a Deck

Before

 We've been talking about building a deck in our front yard for years.  In spring it would be nice to sit out front in the warm afternoon sun rather than the shady backyard.  On hot summer days it gets smoking hot out front and we'll use the back deck.

We put it off last year because of the price of lumber.  This year lumber is even more expensive but we can't wait forever.  So let the deck building begin.

Day 1:

Leo is jackhammering out the old asphalt.  Deck guru Mark is placing the cement blocks.  Henry is supervising.

Day 2:

Concrete block foundations set in ground and some of the struts are in place.

Day 3:
 

Struts are all in and concrete poured by the garage door

Day 4:

Decking is down and they added an extra triangle over toward the trailer.

Now all that is needed is the railings and some patio furniture!  I see a deckwarming party in our future.

Spring in the Cariboo

 

Forsythia starting to bloom

We were back in the brown old Cariboo.  But the Forsythia was budding out, the April winds were raging and spring freshet was in full flow.

But we're all bundled up in down on our walk in the creek valley

Another sure sign of spring:

Tick season!  

This tick came off my pants that I hung in the shower so the ticks wouldn't get in my clothes.

We had a spectacular sunset one evening so I ran out our front door to take a picture.  It was rainy on me as I snapped this shot.

Last Day in Victoria

 On our last day in Victoria we went paddling with Dorothea's outrigger canoe crew up the Gorge.  There were 6 people in the canoe.  I was a little nervous when we were given the standard instructions on what to do if the outrigger came off the water in the wind or if we capsized.  It's a very narrow canoe!  But it turned out to be very stable and very comfortable to paddle.  

Selfie fail!

Unfotunately, I don't have any pictures of the outrigger, but here are pictures of Dorothea and her crew  paddling under the bridge when we visited in 2019.

In the afternoon, we drove out to the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific. 

 There's a field of daffodils you used to be able to pick,

 but when when we got there we saw a sign that said no picking.

So we took photos instead.

We also saw the first and only trillium of our trip,

and more fawn lilies.

The next morning we were back on the ferry and heading for the frozen north!

Esquimalt Lagoon

 After our lunch with a view, we drove home via Esquimalt Lagoon, one of our old birding haunts from when we lived here in the early 80s.  It was very busy for a weekday, but of course there are now housing subdivisions surrounding it.

Although it doesn't look busy at all in this photo. We were on the less trafficked but more birdy lagoon side of the road.

Where Leo got some good shots:

Hooded Merganser

Brewers Blackbird

The much maligned starling is actually a beautiful creature:

Pintail

Eurasian Widgeon

On the beach side an artist has created lots of driftwood sculptures:

Mount Wells

 Our next hill climb was Mount Wells because it has the best show of satin flowers at the summit.

We reached the satinflower meadow! Photos don't do them justice:

Unless you enhance the colour saturation! 😉 

No enhancement here:

We reached the summit!

(It's not a real mountain, just a half hour to summit.)

At our lunchstop we saw turkey vultures and an Anna's hummingbird.

Maple Buds

 While on the Island We partook in a local foraging specialty, maple buds.  They are the unopened flower buds of big leaf maple.  

We went for a walk along the gorge and the galloping goose trail, 

Stopping to pick the buds along the way.  

Dorothea fried up some maple fritters for breakfast. 

She also made stir-fry with other vegetables.  Yum.

Mill Hill and Thetis Lake

On Sunday Leo ran his first race since fall of 2018, the Westcoast Sooke 10k.  He did well, coming in third in his age class.  Not bad after a long layoff.

Meanwhile Dorothea and I went hiking with her Sunday hiking group up Mill Hill to see spring flowers.  There were lots of fawn lilies in the forest.

At the top 

there were views of all the development in recent years

As well as more wildflowers, including satin flowers.

We hiked back down, then crossed a busy road and walked around Thetis Lake.

After a lunch break we headed back through new subdivisions to the Mill Hill parking.

Nice park area in new subdivision

Including lunch, it was 4-1/2 hours, the longest hike I 've been on in a long time.

Up to Nanaimo

 We drove up to Nanaimo to visit our nephew Stephen and his fiance Heidi.  We checked out a new trail to Ammonite falls.  They've built extensive steps down to the falls.  

Unfortunately, the trail was really muddy and we had to turn back.  I did not want to relive the trauma of the 2020 birdcount, when I had to crawl up a muddy slope on my hands and knees. Instead we took a much shorter route from the other side of the park where we successfully reached the falls.

Heidi was taking a dog showing course all day so we're able to meet up with her for dinner at the the Crow and Gate, a pub nicely situated in the countryside.  

Heidi, Stephen and Dorothea with Sparrow, who also attended dog showing course.