My Coronavirus mood

The great thing about napping is you don't need much in an initial outlay to get started.

What's Blooming this Week

We are in the peak of spring this week. Everything is lush green, our resident lazuli bunting is singing in the treetops across the street, hummingbirds are zooming around the backyard.

I walked out at Mission Road this week and saw 5 bobolinks.  This is a bird I had been searching for 7 years before seeing my first 2 years ago.  No photos as Leo was off kayaking on Quesnel Lake this week.

Here's what's blooming:

I love these little unknown flowers Leo planted from seed years ago.  Lost the seed package and have never been able to figure out what they are called.  Gartezwerg also approves.

Our early irises are blooming, as are the lilacs

And the lily of the valley,

And columbines.

The euphorbia is also in full color.

The vegetable garden is all in and the lettuce and kale have sprouted.

What's Blooming

I planted these tiny daffodils from a pot I got as a gift and was surprised when came up this spring.

We got home from California in time to cover these up so the deer couldn't eat them.

Yellow

And purple primroses.

Leo near a chokecherry on Scout Island:

They smelled heavenly!

My own sour cherries are just starting to bloom.

No scent though 😥

I pruned my currants way back last fall and it looks like there will be lots of  fruit this year.

200 Year Flood

Access to lower creek valley cut off

Unbeknownst to us since all the snow in our yard had melted before we headed off snowbirding in February, there was a high snowpack in the Cariboo this winter.  Then with a late spring and a sudden warming to 20 degrees, all hell broke loose.

Culverts were blowing out all through the area and rural properties were cut off.

The bridges blew out on our regular walking route in the Williams Lake Creek valley.  They closed the road so we walked to Scout Island instead.  They'd closed the Island to traffic to protect the causeway but you could still walk in.  The new bridge was almost cut off by flooding but we were able to jump across to dry land.  Later that day they closed the park to pedestrians.

So we hiked up to Fox Mountain to survey the damage from above.

Access to left side of bridge in centre of photo surrounded by water. Marsh is flooded.

The bridge by the beaver dam floated off its supports and volunteers had to wade out and put weights on to secure it.

Note flooded bridge in centre photo.

Another day we drove out to Mission Road for a bike ride.  We knew that the road was closed through the Sugar Cane Reserve due to a washout but were surprised to see that the culvert on Jones Creek had washed out and was replaced with a portable bridge.

We rode down to the reserve to check out the damage.

The Borland Creek bridge was damaged but intact but you can see in the distance that the road is washed out just beyond the bridge.  This is the watershed that that was burnt out in our big fire of 2017.

Leo snuck down to the lower creek valley and took some photos of the flooding near the sewage lagoons.

The creek has washed out the road and covers most of the valley.

They were almost washed out but the city protected them before they broke.  Meanwhile a sewage pipe with partially treated sewage is still leaking and waiting for water levels to drop to be repaired.

Out and About - Physically Distancing, of Course

We've been meeting up with friends and going for hikes, careful to maintain our 2 meter distance.  We've been searching out new places to hike given that parks and rec sites are closed.

One day we drove up the Soda Creek Road and walked south along the Fraser River to look over the outlet of the Williams Lake River.

We also drove out to the Junction Sheep reserve at Farwell Canyon and parked at the kiosk and hiked to overlook the Chilcotin River. 

Note physical distancing

We thought this was safe as it's actually located on Private Land, the park is another hour drive off the main road, but it turns out they don't want you parking there, one of our friends got a warning ticket.

We've walked along Mission Road south of 150 Mile House a few times:

Bluebirds are back

And we've been walking in the creek valley.

This goose was playing dead when we passed by:

How we spent our Coronavirus Self-Isolation

Drinking cappuccinos,

Watching the birds at our feeder,

Steller's Jay

Varied Thrush

This is a hybrid northern flicker.   It has the red malar (moustache) of a red shafted flicker  and also you can barely see the red v of the yellow-shafted  flicker on the back of its neck 

These photos are all a little blurry since they were taken through the kitchen window.

The dreary days of confinement were brightened somewhat by this carton of mangos on sale at SaveOn

Half eaten

And a few hours were killed sewing up some facemasks

In preparation for the end of our  2 week period of self isolation on Sunday.

Let the social distancing begin.

Millerton Lake

I seem to have lost the post where we drive from Saddleback Butte to Millerton Lake State Recreation Area in the Central Valley near Fresno.  To get there we drove past the Lancaster Air Force base where they first broke the speed of sound, then through Antelope Valley famous for its spring wildflowers (the California poppies were just getting started), onto the I5 and across the snowy summit of the Tehachapi Range in search of warmer weather.

We stayed at Millerton Lake on our way home from Florida in 2013.  We hoped to camp again under the same oak tree where we'd seen 41 species of birds in one day, most of them in the oak tree. But we couldn't remember which site it was.  As it was, we walked around the campground and got great pictures of a red-taled hawk feasting on a squirrel.  Which I would have published here if I hadn't lost the post.

The next morning we hiked up to the Buzzard's Roost. The trail follows the road along the lakeshore from our campsite and then up to the summit through meadows and oak covered hills.  

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Where there's oaks, there's Acorn woodpeckers.

We found this interesting skull in the middle of the trail:

See the whiskers?  It must be a bobcat.

From the summit we got a great views of the lake and even to the Sierra Nevada in the distance.

Look at at us enjoying ourselves, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen to the world.  That afternoon we informed that we had to leave the state park, and the next day we were on our way home.