The last of the fall colour, with a few leaves just about hanging in there – farewell, the leafy portion of fall!
Shrubbery leaf colour, hanging on…
Now we (I!) will wait, somewhat impatiently, for the arrival of real winter, hopefully a proper one, with decent snow and many opportunities for xc skiing and heading out on snowshoes…
Stop! (the mild winter projections!)
Unfortunately, the early forecasts and predictions are for a mild winter, but I won’t stop hoping! And I’ll be properly provisioned and prepared:
A decent IPA – one to be enjoyed post snowshoeing!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
And fabulous fall! Here are a few pictures taken along the lovely Qu’appelle Valley, SK.
Echo Lake
We enjoyed bright blue skies overhead, some warm and still days that felt like summer, followed by a few days of big gusts and strong breezes – they sent leaves tumbling and skittering, dancing yellow and gold.
Green and gold
We’ve gone from lazy summer into very brisk fall – goodness, it was barely above freezing yesterday morning – in the space of just over a week!
Hanging on
With those temperatures dropping, it is probably time to pack up, head back and store the trailer until next season…
Is that a ghostly Sasquatch figure floating in the trees?! Too soon for Hallowe’en stuff…
But what a way to complete this season – a colourful week in sunny southeast Saskatchewan!
Saskatchewan sunset
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
“Chase leaves? Nope, I’m too regal… is the camera off yet?”
Goodness! The fall colours have started to show – quite far along in some places. We set off yesterday on a short prairie trip, our last blast of camping this season, and we’re looking forward to big skies and perhaps some seasonal sunshine to light up the tree colour.
Here’s one we saw earlier:
A good start!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
…just outside Merritt, BC. After a few rain showers, we took a short hike along the shore of Nicola Lake, following a pretty trail winding through towering ponderosa pines. These are such beautiful trees, so striking with their red trunks and long, long needles. I’ll keep it brief and let the trees and the lake do the talking below!
Texture Tall pinesYoung tree, long needlesLakeshore trail, after the rainFarewell rain, hello sunshine!We like camping here – little chance of flooding…
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’re currently camping among the trees in the coastal fringe behind Miracle Beach. Isn’t that some name, Miracle Beach? One minor miracle so far? Mostly sunny skies and very little rain! That hasn’t always been the case, as expected late summer/early fall in this little corner of the Pacific Northwest. Earlier, before Miracle Beach:
The waters had receded by morning – still, time to move on!
Miracle Beach is located on a shallow bay, so low tide reveals miles of sand, but when it turns, farewell to the sandy beach, and make a quick retreat to the rocks. You can walk out on a high tide quite some distance with the water only knee high.
The view across the strait is wondrous, miraculous even – coastal mountains stretching each way into the distance, north and south, capped by low clouds.
Coastal fringe (small child crawling into frame helpfully adding scale)
We saw a heron patiently stalking in the shallows and the hunting was good. We were too far away to spot the prey – perhaps small scuttling crabs along with a few fish? We’d seen both earlier.
Fuzzy heron, making waves
We enjoyed watching the tide ebb and flow, the scene one of constant change – ripples and waves on the water and on the sand.
Far out
One afternoon the sky was a series of perfect blues, from dark to light, high to low over the distant mountains.
Coastal blues
Miracle Beach? We thought so, with all that space, light, blues, greens, ripples and waves!
Incoming
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’ve been out on the coast for the past little while, enjoying the contrast with what we experienced up in the north. Since then, as time has moved on, it is starting to feel distinctly late summery, even early autumnal-ish as night falls sooner and daytime highs drop.
Our campsite is underneath this long cloud, to the right, and just right!
Being on the west coast, we’ve had sunny days, rainy days, misty and foggy days, and sometimes all of those in the same afternoon! The ghostly grey mists and glowing silver seas and skies have been delightful, and after the relative aridity of earlier in the summer, I can almost feel my leathery (yet rugged and really rather handsome) features beginning to rehydrate.
Silver glow
What a transformation, and I now look barely a day over 95… As for that pesky frizzy oceanic hair, let’s just say that ship sailed many seasons ago, so no worries and the cap/toque stays on. (And what hair up top there is does tone really rather well with those aforementioned silvers and greys…)
West coast rugged
We’ll be enjoying the west coast for another week or two before beginning our trip back to Alberta, and having to come to terms with the end of road trip and camping season. Although, winter camping is an option? If Mrs. PC could be persuaded… (Nope, no chance – Mrs. PC)
Big textured skies
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful long Labour Day weekend!
Lesser? There’s a bigger one?! Yup – maybe we’ll get there in a few weeks…
Lesser, but not
Lesser Slave Lake is about 100km long east to west, and the widest point is about 15km across, north to south. We’ve had a mix of wildfire smoky days and clear blue sky days. On even the clear days, we were unable to see the far shore, so it feels more like being at the sea rather than on a lake.
Shady trails, lake views
Perhaps due to the fairly remote mid Alberta location, the lake and surrounding area is quiet in terms of visitors. The sandy beaches are pleasant, quiet, and the perfect place to sit and spot bird life. I’m not good at identifying birds, but the bald eagle was easy, along with the loons. We’ve seen other ducks – mergansers? – and a hawk or two, as well as terns, crows and those small birds that refuse to slow down so we can identify them! If you’re into bird life, then this is the place!
Beach time! And time to dip in a paw?
Mixed boreal forest kept us well shaded on the hot days, and the mosquitoes knew where to find us. Bug bite count? It’s gone up from two…
Keeping cool
If you’re ever looking for quiet camping in a rugged location, and you don’t mind a bug or two, then Lesser Slave Lake might be perfect for you. We love it here!
North! (photo: Mrs. PC)
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Or did I? Perhaps this is a health and safety advisory? No, all clear here. Goodness, I don’t miss doing the safety assessments for field trips with students. Of course slips, trips and falls – otherwise, why be a child? All part of the fun…
A few photographs this week of our short out and back again hike to Margaret Falls, a lovely spot in Herald Provincial Park, BC.
Reinecker Creek
A narrow trail, criss-crossed with tangled tree roots, follows the Reinecker Creek into a deep canyon as you head up stream. Not too much sunlight gets in, so the tough trees growing in here cling to the steep sides and reach for the light. Tenacious growth! Some have grown too large and heavy to cling on and have tumbled down, falling across the narrow creek, left partially held up by one side of the gorge or other.
Tangled
The conditions are cool, damp and mossy, increasingly so as you approach the falls, and a welcome break, if you’re looking for it, from the warmer temperatures at the nearby lake. When you reach the falls – it is hidden from sight almost all the way by the twists and turns of the stream – it is a noisy and spectacular water force!
Cool
If you’re ever in the Shuswap region, a quick side trip to visit these falls is a pleasant diversion! It’s worth the slight risk of a slip, trip or fall…
Steep
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We mostly had a spring in our step, enjoying the fresh greens as we hiked in the foothills through stands of aspen and spruce.
It’s sunny now, but just you wait…
Most days started sunny and finished cloudy, with temperatures below seasonal. Cooler conditions, fewer bugs! The big show was on our last night, featuring several thunderstorms with heavy rain and some hail, rolling through one after the other. We don’t mind that weather, but Scout isn’t a fan, trembling more than those aspens.
Good for hiking
One morning, at second coffee o’ clock, a bear wandered by, just a few metres from where we were sitting. Scout, who always lets the deer and squirrels know who’s boss (don’t tell her, but they are) didn’t even look up. All that time she spends playing at being a wolf, and she couldn’t be bothered with as little as a token growl.
Bear territory
The bear wasn’t bothered, not by Scout, nor by us, and off it went in search of more wildflowers, perhaps hoping to be a step ahead of the many deer in the area. We finished our coffee and enjoyed a short loop hike above the Sheep River, close to our campsite, where we saw the clouds building up over the mountains nearby. We just made it back before getting a soaking. Phew!
Striking
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
As I wrote previously, we were fortunate to enjoy mostly blue skies on our trip to the western edge of Vancouver Island. But, it being largely a temperate rainforest location in the PNW, it wasn’t always wall to wall sunshine. There were a couple of almost foggy/definitely misty mornings, times that contrasted pleasantly with the overall brightness.
Misty
I’ve included a few photographs this week highlighting those coastal contrasts. What a wonderful spring delight it was to be in the greens and blues of western BC.
Not misty
We’re back in landlocked AB now, where spring is in the ascendant at last, a time of rising (to near normal) seasonal temperatures, with more than a few rain showers to encourage the emerging plant life to get with being green – or what passes for luxuriant greenery in the space between the mountains and the prairies!
We’re hoping to spend a few days out in the foothills next week, see for ourselves the long awaited switch from chilly late winter (friends in Canmore have – they hope – finally put away snow shovels) to proper mountain spring. It’s a fifteen minute season before full summer…
Cool
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
