Under a maple tree

The maples are glorious this year. Even the bare trunks. And the winged seeds.

I'm tempted to try climbing this.

Like little birdies almost ready to leave the nest.

It's cooler under the trees, but the bush is parched and crackly. There's a wildfire burning south of here, at Nanaimo; we need rain!

Mature bigleaf maple trees range from 50 to 100 ft in height (160 ft maximum) and 12 to 36 in. in DBH (133 in. maximum). Bigleaf maple is moderately long-lived; some individuals may reach 300 years of age. ...The root system of bigleaf maple is shallow and spreading on wet or shallow soils. (Oregon State University)

The field beside this tree is dry, but a small creek runs on the shady side of the tree. Maples lose their leaves when they lack water; this one seems to be doing well.

Blue again!

We had rain yesterday. A few minutes, is all, but a hint of a possible return to normalcy. And here in Campbell River, the sky was blue again, with white clouds. The brown smoke that hid everything farther away than the shore of Quadra Island, less than a mile away, has gone. I can see the white caps of the mainland mountains for the first time in weeks.

Good news, for us. And more rain is promised; good news for the rest of BC, still battling the Plateau fire, the largest wildfire in BC's history. But some people, in other areas, are being allowed to return home. September, with its rainclouds, is in sight.

And I was so glad to see a sunset against a blue sky, that I took its photo with the pocket camera propped on the roof of the car for stability.

So the roof is curved. But the sky is blue again.

Yay!

A Skywatch post.