Last chance

Well. It's raining again, will be for the next couple of weeks, it looks like. Temperatures, even to the north, even as far as Bella Coola, where I used to expect -20°C temperatures at this time of year, are warm, spring-like. Today, it's 9º here in Campbell River, 10° in Port Hardy, near the northern tip of the island (and raining, of course). So our too-short winter is over; these will be the last views of ice for this year. I never even got to dig out my winter boots!

(On the plus side, my crocuses and snowdrops are up, almost ready to bloom, the bleeding hearts are pushing up new sprouts, in the forests, the huckleberries have fresh red buds.)

Various shots along the highway across the island last week, before the rain returned and closed the highway with a washed-out bridge; mist and frost and muted colours.

Highway 28. Frost highlights the tips of evergreen branches and roadside plants here. Mist hides the mountains beyond.

Under frost and mist, even logged-off, scraped hillsides can be beautiful.

Live evergreens, massed, create their own slightly warmer microclimate; exposed at the side of the road, isolated small plants and dead branches freeze.

An alder collects ice crystals while the evergreens shrug them off.

Viewpoint over Upper Campbell Lake. I have taken photos from this spot many times before, always in the winter months. The light is different every time. No frost here.

A Skywatch post.

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Y vuelve a llover. Parece que va a seguir lloviendo, por lo menos, por varias semanas. Las temperaturas, hasta bien al norte en Bella Coola, donde acostumbraba ver temperaturas de 20° bajo cero en esta temporada, son las de las primaveras. Hoy aquí en Campbell River están a 9°, y en Port Hardy cerca del extremo más al norte de la isla, a 10° (lloviendo, claro). Nuestro invierno, demasiado corto, ha terminado; estas serán las últimas vistas con hielo de este año. ¡Ni siquiera tuve que desempacar mis botas acolchadas! 

—Viéndolo desde el lado positivo, mis crocus y campanillas están a punto de producir sus flores, los Lamprocapnos (Corazon sangrante) ya han brotado; en los bosques, los huckleberry (Vaccinium parviflolium) tienen botoncitos rojos. —

Saqué estas fotos al lado de la carretera que cruza la isla hacia el oeste la semana pasada, antes de que  volvió a llover y el agua cerró la carretera, destruyendo un puente. Neblinas, escarcha, colores apagados.

1. La carretera #28. Escarcha en las ramas expuestas al aire. Neblinas esconden las montañas.
2. Cubiertos de escarcha, hasta los sitios que han sido destruidos por las máquinas de construcción de carreteras y por los madereros pueden ser hermosos.
3. Donde los árboles coníferos crecen juntos, forman su microclima, un tantito menos helado; plantas expuestas por la carretera, especialmente árboles muertos, atraen la escarcha.
4. Un aliso rojo se ha cubierto de hielo; las coníferas se mantienen libres.
5. Vista sobre el lago Upper Campbell. He sacado fotos desde este punto muchas veces, siempre en invierno; la luz es distinta en cada foto.

Un post de Skywatch.

As the year turns

The nights are crisp, the days bright. A chill wind blows, tossing branches, bending dried grasses. Leaves, yellow, brown, orange, red, sail across our paths, blanket the trails, rustling as we walk through the heaps. The wind smells of spice, of warm wood, of ripe brown leaves. Eagles pipe overhead, riding the breeze. Late October on the island!

Along the Myrt Thompson trail. Fallen leaves blow across the old pavement.

Trail-side shrub.

Frozen leaves on the Ripple Rock trail.

Big-leaf maple leaves, Baikie Island.

Sit and rest a while. Trail-side log, Baikie Island.

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Finales de octubre en la isla: las noches son frías, los días llenos de luz. Un viento fresco agita los árboles, inclina la hierba en el suelo. Hojas amarillas, rojas, anaranjadas, cafés, vuelan, cruzando nuestros senderos, apilándose contra la hierba, acobijando los caminos, haciendo un sonido crujiente mientras caminamos. El aire huele a especias, a madera recalentada, a hojas maduras. Las águilas chillan allá arriba, haciendo círculos, como flotando sobre la brisa. 

Las fotos son de hojas en tres senderos: el camino Myrt Thompson, el sendero que va a Ripple Rock, y la isla Baikie.

First frost

On a chilly afternoon, on Oyster Bay shores:

Even the ocean is becalmed.

Barnacles and frost on a log

Frost and stonecrop

Zooming in.

Zooming out.

I think this is spreading stonecrop, Sedum divergens. In warmer weather, the leaves and stems are green to red; there's still a hint of green in more sheltered bits.

The towhees are back, and ...

... Saturday morning the water in the birdbath was frozen. My begonias have finally wilted, the honeysuckle leaves have turned yellow, and I've brought the Christmas cactus indoors, almost ready to burst into bloom. Winter is upon us.

But now, with the rain a grey memory, the skies are deep blue and the sunshine warm. In the shade, it's a different matter.

We were running errands in New Westminster; mid-afternoon, along the old "Antique Row", I dawdled in the wasteland beside the railroad tracks, waiting for Laurie to make his purchases. Here, parking garages and blackberry-tangled fences filtered the sun, and the morning frost persisted:

Old railroad ties.

Iron bars. Rails, maybe?

Rotting plywood.

Nothing stops hawkweed!

Unidentified weedlet.

And, along the edge where the sun shines, it's still summer:

Common stork's bill, I think.

I poured hot water into the birds' bath to thaw it out. I forgot to empty it in the afternoon. It's now frozen into a 1 inch thick slab. My poor birds! (They do love their baths, even in icy weather.)