Lazy day photos

I've been down with the annual winter sniffles, but managed to make a quick trip to Tsawwassen to collect eelgrass and Turkish towel for my tank critters. I took the slow road home across the lower delta, staying off busy highways where unexpected sneezes can be dangerous.

So I got to count birds; 5 hawks, on trees and light poles; half a dozen eagles, and as many nests; hundreds and hundreds of ducks and Canada geese in soggy, muddy fields; small flocks of starlings and pigeons roosting on trees and wires; and a constant stream of gulls overhead, heading southwest to wherever they go at dusk. I miss that, now that the new highway system is open and I have to keep my eyes on the road.

I pulled off, twice, to take quick photos with the little point-and-shoot.

Gazebo and branches. A bare hint of sunset, which quickly faded to grey.

Mount Baker and blueberry field. The plants turn red for the winter.

I've got the tank cleaned and refurbished. My critters are happy with their new climbing equipment/nibbles. And I'm tuckered out. Goodnight!

The longest way home

I went to Chilliwack yesterday, driving there as usual, on the freeway; a good hour of stressful driving and another half hour of puttering along city streets first. On the way back, as usual again, I moseyed south and west across Fraser Valley farmland, taking my time, relaxing after a noisy party.

Except that this time I lost my bearings in the pouring rain, and ended up going east instead of west. I didn't realize my error until I ended up at a dead end against the mountains south-east of Chilliwack. It probably would have been a pretty drive along the Vedder River, if the clouds hadn't been practically parked on the road.

Several times, the clouds lifted long enough for me to squint at the sky, looking for the light in the west to guide me home. Of course, since I was looking east, I didn't see it. I did manage to take a few photos out the car window; mostly dark fields and blue mountains.

Farms and the southern slopes.

This hill is just across the border, in Washington State.

Heron in a muddy ditch.

I got home ok. Just late.

A Skywatch post.

September fields

Driving home from Chilliwack, I usually dodge the freeway and zigzag back to Delta, jogging south and west on almost empty farm roads. It's harvest time; yesterday afternoon, I passed field after field of bare soil or stubble, acres of vines dying back to expose the pumpkins underneath, barns surrounded by machinery and those huge silage "marshmallows". Farm markets and roadside stands feature tables and wagons of squash; I stopped at one and bought some end of the season black- and blueberries.

Corn stubble and boiling clouds.

Pumpkins, orange, green and white. At the back of the field, a crew was loading them into pickup trucks.

Old barn and trees turning colour under the shadow of more rain clouds.

Moo!

I drove out to Chilliwack for a first birthday party; a noisy, turbulent affair, with a half-dozen excited kids under 4, plus three babies, and their parents and grand-parents all talking at once. Such fun!

So on the way home, I was too tired to brave the freeway in the rain without someone along to keep me awake, and I cut across the farmland, turning south and east, as the roads permitted. I passed fields green (new grass), brown (very wet mud, plowed for planting) and yellow (daffodil farms), crossed canals and irrigation ditches, full of swirling brown water. The rain eased off, and it was barely sprinkling when I passed a harrier criss-crossing a field, so I stopped to take a photo out the window.

Cow barn, half-green hillside, and harrier.

The weather held for a few minutes: I managed to shoot a couple more barns before the bottom dropped out of the clouds.

Red barns and fresh snow on the mountain.

Mossy old barn

Trapped cows

I hadn't noticed the window at the back of the barn until I was looking over my photos.

When Laurie first came to Canada from the UK, long, long ago, he worked his way west across the country as a hired man on dairy farms. He tells me, from time to time, about one farm where the cows were fed in the barn all year, and never released into the field. When the early spring grass sprouted outside, they would smell it and stand at the door, lowing and lowing, wanting so badly to get out there. But that was next winter's hay; they were doomed to eat the remains of last year's.

Sad.

Warm colours on a grey day

As I usually do when I go up the Fraser valley alone, I took the freeway. There's always a deadline to meet. But coming home, my time is my own, so I cut across farm country, following empty roads alternately south and west, never the same route twice, arriving finally at home sleepy but refreshed.

This afternoon, coming back from Chilliwack, I meandered down to the skirts of Vedder Mountain, then across Sumas Prairie. The sun was hidden behind thick clouds and there was an occasional spatter of rain; colours were muted and the hills hidden in the mists.

Last year's corn stubble and a hay field to the east. Taken through the car window, since it was raining at the moment.

Red paint peeling off an old barn, exposing older yellow underneath.

In Sumas Prairie, I found a field of tulips; a spot of colour in a grey and brown landscape.

Long rows and a full ditch.

The rain more or less held off until I got home. Now, in the middle of the night, it's pouring cats and dogs. And slugs. I just found one getting a drink in the bird bath.

The weather forecast said, "Heavy rain".

It was raining enthusiastically yesterday morning. We went out to vote for our local councillors, and came home soaked. I dug out my umbrella. It didn't look good for the drive out to Chilliwack, on a highway subject to cross winds and in the throes of lane additions. My granddaughter arrived, bundled up in jacket and scarf and tuque; we had a bite of lunch and set out for the baby shower.

The sun was shining! I left the umbrella behind and put on sunglasses instead.

Chilliwack basked under a blue, blue sky. It was hot, even. The hooks at the door were heavy with discarded sweaters.

And the baby shower was fun, as all baby showers are.

A bag big enough (almost) for a rambunctious two-year-old.

Afterwards, I took the long way home, meandering through the rich farmland of the Fraser Valley. It's flood country; barely above the usual water level of the Vedder Canal, which tends to jump its dikes in the spring and fall. The Fraser, Sumas, and Chilliwack rivers, the outfall from Cultus Lake, up in the hills, and a maze of creeks and irrigation ditches help to keep everything green.

Pasture land, hazelnut trees, and Vedder Mountain in the background.

I lived out in this area for a while when I was a kid; we used to invent silly reasons for the name, Chilliwack. (A spanking in the winter?) I just found the root of it on Wikipedia;

The name Chilliwack comes from the Halkomelem word Tcil'Qe'uk, meaning "valley of many streams".

Contented cows.

I drove past fields of large cabbages, groves of hazelnut trees, a brilliant yellow square of rapeseed, grape vines, apple trees heavy with fruit. And corn; field after field of corn tall enough to block the view. I stopped to see how big the cobs were.

High mountains to the east, upstaged by corn well above my head.

Ears and tassels in the slanting afternoon sun.

A spider enjoys a taco at the edge of the field.

Looking west to Sumas Mountain. 5 o'clock shadows.

And not a cloud in that sky!  But it started to rain again, shortly after I got home. It's still pouring down, 6 hours later.

They say it's going to rain today, too. And maybe Monday. Our weather people have it easy.