Record highs

Along with much of the rest of the world, the province of British Columbia is experiencing a major heat wave right now. Temps in the high 30's and low 40's. 40 celsius is 104 Fahrenheit. In our area it's haying time. That means our ranchers and farmers are out working in the scorching heat right now haying their fields. That's if they are lucky enough to have a crop this year. Our 25 acres of hay fields are also ready. Haying will begin here in a few days. *oh yeah* Here is a pic of our fields being hayed the old fashioned way ~ with horses.

The hay - almost as high as an elephant's eye

Our creek and the hay fields ~ these fields have been hayed since the late 1800's. They are also home and refuge to an everchanging cast of characters. Does and their fawns, coyotes hunting field mice, moose in the wintertime, shorebirds and sandhill cranes ~ our binoculars are always handy on the kitchen counter and our camera often not as handy as it should be :)

Frog and rainbow

We've had some rain. Some great glorious downpours. It's a 'Thank you God and all our angels" kind of situation. We appreciate everyones prayers and those who have sent visions of rain clouds in our direction. Cindi (of Cindi and Jim; a couple who are currently designing wood rings) wrote from New Mexico today to tell us she had been to the Zuni Pueblo and shopped for Fetishes. She specifically bought a frog (rain image) with us in mind. Many thanks Cindi! Speaking of frogs, this little fellow David and I met on our wander this afternoon. We told him he was going to appear on our blog and he didn't seem to mind a bit. It's a cool Sunday evening. The hummingbirds are still consuming great quantities of sugar water. About a quart a day on average. There are wild flowers everywhere right now - thanks to the rain the last few days. Our little flock of sheep are looking so fine! Must update some pics of them tomorrow.

Swallows and visitors

These are dangerous times. It's wildfire season here in British Columbia. We live in the Cariboo Chilcotin where the forests are tinder box dry. Bug killed pine is everywhere and this means fuel for fires. There were fires raging about 10 days ago... since then the rains have come. It's a wonderous thing and we need lots of it. It's been a little cooler too the last couple of days which is a big help. Information on wild fires in the remote areas of BC is scant at best. It's hard to know exactly where the fires are and in what direction they are headed. Thick smoke settles in for days at a time. Ahhh, the sound of rain on the roof. The comforting darkness of rain clouds overhead. David and I recently had a visit from our daughter and son-in-law. A wonderful visit ~ we hadn't seen each other since last year at this time. There was a magical moment just as we were all saying goodbye. For the last few days of our visit we had all been keeping an eye on a baby swallow who left his nest a little too soon and was grounded on the lawn at the corner of the house. He'd been there for a few days and nights with his parents swooping in to feed him and dive bombing us if we came near the little guy - this was reassuring in that we were pretty certain he would make it alright. Then on the morning of CA and Cam's departure, as the four of us walked out of the house and went to check on the grounded swallow - we took a few steps towards him and the little one took flight. A strong unfaltering flight. A wonderful sight.