Shiny Badger Trail

 

This Wednesday we hiked an hour up the Shiney Badger trail.  It's off English Road, just before the Sheep Creek Bridge crosses the Fraser River.  

There's great views over the Fraser as the trail switches back up the hillside.

View of Highway 20 climbing up to the Chilcotin Plateau on the other side of the Fraser River.

There was just a small crew of 5 people today.  A disadvantage to me as everyone is much fitter than I so I was always having to catch up. No fair, I get the least rest!

The gang waits at a switchback for me to catch up.

We made it up to the boardwalk that juts over the side of the hill.

More views.  Also, nice socks, Leo.

Here's a photo in the opposite direction that Pat took:

With bonus cute dog!

The flower of the day was wild violets:

On the way down, Pat saw the first balsamroot starting to bloom.  I didn't see any, too busy managing my acrophobia.  Have to watch my feet so I don't fall off the trail and down the slope!

This is a good hike in early spring, later in the year it gets very hot on the bare slope.  We had a cool, cloudy morning, perfect for this hike.

Some Birds at Scout Island

 Most of the ducks at Scout Island have moved on, leaving the Canada geese and the costs behind, but here's what we saw on our Friday walk:

This meadowlark was singing on the Cotton property.

This chipmunk was at the Nature House feeders.

We saw this male wood duck swimming with its partner.

A pair of ring-necked ducks.

A ruby-crowned kinglet well camouflaged in the willows.

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: