Don Grant
@muzicmaestro
Retired from business and active in volunteerism, especially healthcare research. I live rurally on a mountainside in BC, Canada. My kitchen window has a “never-old” view of a wide glacial lake and the primitive mountains above the opposite shoreline.
This prolific blackberry plant volunteered after its mother plant was consumed by a big blue spruce.
Our English Setter has the patience of a fisherman waiting for the evening rise.
This morning he was flushing birds from the thickets. This afternoon he’s content to chill in the garden.
This Northern Flicker chick is waiting for it’s Okanagan mamma to bring takeout. Soon the chick will be waking the neighbours tapping on nearby utility poles.
This vineyard is now thriving after sitting dormant for 15 years. A neighbour, new to our’hood approached the land owner and asked if he could work on restoring the land. Voila! This is year five of the resurrection. The potential was always there, it just needed nurturing. #Okanagan #Peachland
My neighbour’s house was a target for this Northern Flicker so she built the bird a home of its own.
On cold spring nights when temperatures dip close to freezing in my neighbour’s orchard, the blades spin to mix the warmer air sitting up high with the colder air at ground level. It can raise the temperature around the trees by a few degrees; just enough to save a whole season’s crop.
The bees 🐝 have done their business with these grateful, Okanagan cherry trees.
The balsamroot is part of what makes Okanagan hikes so special this time of year. It’s more than a beautiful yellow bloom; for the Okanagan people, it was a true staple. Young shoots were eaten fresh or steamed, roots were slow cooked to bring out their sweetness, and the seeds ground into flour.
For years, every time I pass this wild apple tree, I picture a lumberjack stopping here decades ago; coffee finished, tossing an apple core into the brush. Now the tree stands on its own, no irrigation, no care, just quietly thriving. Come fall, it feeds the bears as they load up for winter.
Spring showing off in Peachland. Cherry blossoms lining the rows, mountains standing guard, and a perfect Okanagan sky.
Saturday morning, hike up the Gladstone Trail in the back of Peachland, home of the Okanagan people.
Zoom can take its time. The Okanagan is putting on it its own this morning.
8:45 morning rush hour tones down a notch in the Okanagan valley; Peachland BC Canada
A studious American Cocker Spaniel with an advanced degree in Animal Behaviour.
Transit oriented development is a fabulous tool to liberate us from the tyranny of owning cars. We can see this along Vancouver's extension of what they call the Broadway Corridor.
The bugs like the old trees and the birds like the bugs and I like the birds. A healthy forest includes the dead and dying