birds – OldPlaidCamper

Thaw freeze thaw

And so on. It’s winter. It’s spring (sort of!) No, it’s winter again. Thaw-freeze-thaw! Or is it freeze-thaw-freeze?

As I write, it is more springlike, although the forecast is calling for snow by tonight and through Friday. We’ve gone from wearing our warmest coats to beat the -25C last week, to not needing a jacket at all today for +9C! March is about to roar in like a confused polar bear (I think that’s the saying in these climate change challenged times?) and we’ll aim to enjoy it either way.

Minus 25C on the wobbly bridge over the Bow – but where is everyone?!

Much of the warmth has come from repeated chinooks, and, for out this way, that’s not unusual at all, although the frequency is irritating if you like the snow… I took a snap of part of the chinook arch stretching across the sky to the west of the city yesterday. The wind was barreling in along the Bow valley, warming everything up. Slush city!

The birds definitely enjoy the warmer weather – the moment the temperature goes above freezing and the sun beams down, you can hear the little brown birds singing in the shrubbery, flitting from bush to bush and asking is that it for winter?

Geese, chilling out last week – honk if you’re feeling the cold

The resident geese on the river look a bit happier than they did last week, when they sat huddled and shivering in the arctic temperatures. Midweek, we saw a bald eagle fly over the bluff and turn to head west along the Bow. I’m guessing it nests somewhere on the edge of the city? We’ve seen it a few times this winter, and it’s quite the sight with the high rise blocks in the background!

As for beer choices, with the topsy-turvy temperatures, do we go with a darker winter oriented beer, or a more suitably springlike sipper? Decisions, decisions… I know – how about both?! Freeze-thaw-freeze, thaw-freeze-thaw, and so on!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

“Bling, bling, baby!”

“And the same to you, sir!”

We decided to take a wander along the Bow the other day, encouraged by the bright blue skies and warm – for February – temperatures. It certainly felt more like spring than winter, to the point we were in woolly sweaters instead of the more usual coats.

Birds were singing, perhaps as confused as us about the warmth, and squirrels scampered left, right and centre, and who could blame them?

There were far more than the normal number of walkers enjoying the pathways, as well as cyclists and even a scooter or two. As we approached one underpass, a colourful chap emerged from the shadows, and he was clearly having a fine day. Dressed in a leopard print jacket and orange and black trousers, he was absolutely beaming. And gleaming. He had several bright gold chains around his neck, and lots of shiny rings on his fingers.

There’s a colourful character under the next bridge…

I nodded and smiled, not being the chatty sort – you’ll sometimes get a “good morning” or perhaps a “hi, how’s it going?” from me, but I like to keep moving, and a smile and nod does the trick. Anyway, instead of a smile and nod, this dazzling character waved his hands about, did a little dance as he passed and said – you’ve already guessed it – “bling, bling, baby!” then continued on his merry way.

Almost impossible to disagree, so I didn’t – it really was a bling bling sort of a day, not that I’d thought of it that way before…

It might not be proper winter or anywhere close, but if we encounter more sunny natured people along the river banks, then all will be well.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Bling, bling, baby!

Colour/fall

Fall-ty memory? Forget-fall? (This is bad – apologies…) Yes, quite aw-fall. I’d promised to share some more colourful and less misty images from our recent trip to the coast. The main attraction for us was the foggy atmosphere and early hint of autumn, especially as summer here in the city has held on and on, heat wise, even if leaves are finally turning and falling at last. C’mon, summer, you’ve had your go; step aside and let autumn have a turn!

Mrs.PC ordered fall in a glass when we visited the Ucluelet brewery. A lovely Berliner Weisse style pepped up with a dash of fruity colouring – it was delicious, tart and refreshing, and a can or two might have made it into the back of the truck and all the way back home for enjoying this coming weekend…

We spent many a happy hour at our harbour side campground sitting and staring at the boats and birds, the occasional light breeze prompting some early leaf fall. It was almost autumnal.

The log provided a great foot (or beer/coffee) rest, and once or twice a day a gang of feathered friends came a-pecking and strutting for tasty insect morsels hiding in the wood. Entertaining companions.

We caught up with many old friends this trip, and it was hard to tear ourselves away, but we did eventually find ourselves back on the ferry, crossing the Salish Sea and heading to and through the mountains. We stopped a couple of days in Revelstoke, just to soak up the mountain atmosphere and get wet – finally – in a rainstorm or two, rain that had eluded us the entire island trip.

Now we’re back in the hot city, we’re lining up a nearby mountain trip or two to cool off in the next couple of weeks, and perhaps catch the high fall colour there if the leaves have held on…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Going coastal

We’re away for the next little while, living on the edge, getting our feet wet and going coastal.

It looks and feels a lot like fall here, with mists billowing in, shrouding the boats and trees and making for moody beach scenes.

It’s nowhere near as cold as the photos appear – shirtsleeves by lunchtime, and feeling pleasantly mild and humid in between the chillier bouts of fog.

What a blast to log time in the fog – hazy delights!

I’ll share some different scenes another time, with less mist and fog and more sunshine – but we came hoping for that particular PNW atmosphere, and we’re thoroughly enjoying it, as well as the time spent catching up with old friends in one of our favourite places.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

A bigger boat?

It’s doubtful we are gonna need a bigger boat…

We went to see Jaws the other day – it was showing near home on a big screen and with a cleaned up super saturated print. Goodness, what a treat!

If you like the movie and you get the chance, do go and see it on a big screen. It really stands the test of time (50 years? Eek, that’s properly scary…)

What a movie, and an excellent (if unnecessary) reminder that I prefer to be on and not in the water. As for needing a bigger boat, that’s fine when taking a ferry – we caught one just the other day – but I don’t mind those smaller craft if that’s all there is.

Yup, a small craft is great! With all this water, you never know what might be lurking in the deep… or in the shallows:

Hmm, I think I need to work more with the new camera, but at least the heron was so focused on lurking it didn’t realize I was lurking nearby and struggling with my own focus!

Focused – the heron, not the photographer!

Enough for now – I’m off to reflect on boats. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

The little things delight

We’ve enjoyed a few more sprinklings of snow and the temperature has stayed reliably low, so there’s still a white carpet out in the woods. With luck, and if forecasts are accurate, we should have received a sizeable amount more by the time you’re reading this. Please, please, please…

At the start of the week Scout and I had the local woods pretty much to ourselves. Other than the chattering squirrels still at work, and the occasional woodpecker and numerous small brown birds I’m unable to identify, it was mostly quiet. Tracks told us of hares and rabbits, and dogs and walkers out earlier than us, but we didn’t see another person each morning. (Mrs PC remained indoors at the start of the week, under the weather and recovering from flu shots, etc. On the mend now and she’ll soon be back keeping an eye on the children…)

The air was still, with fallen snow balanced precariously on even the most delicate of branches. As morning progressed and a bright sun rose, what heat there was caused snow to tumble, miniature crystal cascades shimmering down. A tiny bird flew across the trail in front of us and into the trees on our left, almost faster than my eye could catch it. Threading through the lattice of tiny branches, wing beats dislodging snow, white puffs betraying the flight path – that was some sight!

With her half curved tail a happy question mark, Scout is most definitely a snow dog, leaping ahead or nosing into snow banks or trying to catch a snowball. I can barely keep up. If there’s a downward slope, she’ll pull hard, trying to get ahead, reach the bottom – and see if I’ll fall? Sometimes I surrender on the steeper ones, putting one foot forward and then sliding down gracefully (you weren’t there, it was graceful) as if riding an escalator, disappointing Scout as I remain upright.

“*There’s a good steep slope just over the rise that’ll get him, hehehe!”*

Goodness, a couple of weeks into the new winter season and Scout is yet to see me tumble. Will my luck hold? Scout isn’t a gambler, more of a gamboller, but if she could place a bet, it would be on me being flat on my face, deposited into a snow bank at some point. There is a lot of winter to come, and many more walks in the winter woods, so she’s probably right…

The little things in an outdoor season of wonder keeping us mostly balanced – thank you, winter! Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Down to the river…

…not to pray, at least not in the conventional sense, but perhaps an unspoken word or two of thanks was offered up, a recognition of a special space and place.

We were very happy to be down by the Etchemin River once again. We were also very happy to enjoy mild temperatures, if not quite as warm as our previous visit. Signs of early fall were all around, from the sharp snap in the air first thing, to the dry leaves shaken loose by sudden brisk breezes and seesaw floating to the ground.

A highlight of the week was the daily flyby of several skeins of geese at dawn and dusk, their honking and wing beats tracing the path of the river. Each time they flew over, sometimes up high, other times almost touching the treetops, I tried and failed to get a clear and closeup photograph. Splendid sights and sounds, and a reminder the current season is moving on and warm weather camping might be almost over for another year.

We have one more longish camping trip to come. By the time this is posted we’ll be somewhere in the Gaspésie, having traced our own journey several hundreds of kilometres east along the southern shore of the mighty St. Lawrence river. We’ll be huddled over a fire beneath the low mountains and amongst the tall pines, hoping the days are warm even if the nights are cool. More on that another time.

I’ll wind up for this week with another religion adjacent observation – we’ve developed quite the fondness for a smoked blue cheese produced at the Saint-Benoit-du-Lac monastery over the river and to the southwest of Quebec City. It’ll be in amongst our picnic items for the coming week. Try it if you can find it – simply delicious! Inspired by a higher power? I don’t know, but the fromage bleu fumé reveals/provokes almost divine levels of devotion…

“No smoked blue for me? Ok, whatever, not sulking…”

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Grains de folie!

Maybe if you spend too long in the woods with nothing but your thoughts, strange things start to occur?

You’re sitting in your chair – finally, you’ve found just the right camping chair, both sturdy and supportive and with a little pocket for your favourite woodsy beverage – and you start to nod off. A day/days of strenuous inactivity can cause pleasant drowsiness, so when you come to with a slight start, you ask, what was that?

Was it the porcupine returning to the scene of his earlier encounter with Mrs. PC and Scout? (A non-spiky encounter – good news on all sides!) Nope, doesn’t seem so.

Maybe the crows have returned, believing they hadn’t done enough previously in their attempts to disturb the peace? Nope, no crows.

Must have been an industrious woodpecker, drilling for something tasty up in the higher reaches? Nope, nothing like that.

So, why am I suddenly on alert? Haven’t seen or heard a raccoon, the chattering squirrels aren’t about, but something has intruded, gotten into my empty head. Good thing Scout would warn us if an unwelcome whatever was approaching. No, scratch that. This is the same Scout that didn’t even blink last time a bear wandered through our backyard. A crow, deer or squirrel, then yeah, she’ll let us know. Scout’s many wonderful things, but being a reliable guard, no, not so much.

There it is, I can hear it now, a distinct rustling in the undergrowth behind me. Did anyone else hear it? No?! I’ll settle down then, must be an overactive imagination. Take another sip of the rather wonderful bottle conditioned saison from the Bercée microbrasserie we visited earlier. Mmm, excellent. Grains de folie!

There! I knew I wasn’t losing it! Look what’s come out of the woods to greet us. No, not him, he’s not real. The second one.

“*Are you calling me an unwelcome whatever*? *Not real?! Sure, have another sip, enjoy it, and maybe I’ll be along later to have a word?”*

“*What ya drinkin’? Looks good! Don’t mind me, don’t be startled, I’m just out on patrol! Watch out for that beardy little fella – come to think of it, he looks a bit like you, doesn’t he?*”

Huh? What’s going on? Maybe I’ll keep the other bottle for when we get home, lock the doors, and drink it inside? I love it up in the Saguenay – wonderful lakes and woods, and a great place to sit and let your thoughts drift – but maybe don’t drift too far? You might end up a touch Kenogamachiche here on Lac Kénogami…

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

“*Gotta go – see if I can track down that other strange little beardy fella* – *see ya next time!”*

This way or that?

Drifting and paddling, splishing and splashing. Being by the water on warm summer days – is that about as good as it gets?! We could ask these guys:

*Both ways work – we’re in the right place!*

By the time this is posted we’ll be off camping, down by a different body of water in the Chaudière-Appalaches. I’ll catch up on all things WordPress next week. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Woodsmoke and coffee

I often wake up early. It isn’t out of a sense of virtue or a need to get to work or to make a fast start on the day. Goodness, no! I’m a light sleeper, and tend to stir once the birds start on their morning songs.

Our new tent has pretty good blackout, but not sound out. That’s fine by me because 6AM camping is one of my absolute favourite times. I like coffee and I like camping. Is there a better cup than the first of the day brewed on the Trangia – slightly blearily so somewhat carefully – when it feels like the rest of the world is still asleep?

The other day it was me and the birds and three deer. The deer stopped to have a staring contest. I won. They blinked first, before moving on almost silently through the trees once they decided I was no threat. Just me and my cup of far too strong (no such thing) dark roast.

All was calm and birdsong quiet if you know what I mean. Not entirely quiet, but in a good way. The forest floor was mostly still. In the tree tops, the rustling of leaves stirring on a gentle breeze. Those leaves! Green on bright green, and brighter still as the sun climbed higher, lighting up the day.

The mosquitoes and biting types didn’t seem too interested. A combination of my eau de bug spray by Muskol – lemony notes and a hint of, hmm, gasoline? – as well as the woodsmoke and charcoal aroma from last night’s campfire seemed to do the trick.

It’s safe to say not all is well in the world. Some understatement, that. However, temporarily disconnected and unplugged, it is safe to say that all was well, under canvas and over caffeinated, in the small corner of the world we found ourselves in.

Woodsmoke and coffee – not too sure it’s always the answer, and not too sure what the question even is, but it’ll do on an early summer morning camping in the woods.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

	Jane Lurie on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	Pepper on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	plaidcamper on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	Pepper on Tall trees and complete quiet…
	plaidcamper on Spring forward!