No one can remember such a mild winter.  The weather is more like late April than early February.  The river has large chunks of open water.

And there is bare ground on all the sunny slopes.

So it was quite a surprise when I ran into wintry driving conditions going to Williams lake on the 14th February for the first shopping trip of the year.

it wasn’t so bad when I left home in the dark, minus 3 C with an occasional flake, but soon I ran into 3″ snow on the road and -8C temps.  Snowflakes whirled thickly in the headlights but at the same time it must have been raining because ice was building up on the windshield.  We’ve had such a soft winter I was not prepared for those conditions!

Towards Williams Lake, the weather cleared a bit.  The road is full of logging trucks at this time of year.  What matchsticks the Chilcotin produces!  When I first came to the area 30 years ago, Chilcotin timber was considered worthless.  Now they cannot cut it down fast enough.

I spent the night at 108 Mile but did not have time to visit Walker Valley as I needed to be back in Williams Lake by 8.00am for a van service.  While there, the temperature rose and the sun came out.  Another coatless day.

I took this picture because of the bird on top of the pickup.  Isn’t he a fine fellow.

I was able to leave town by early afternoon.  To avoid falling asleep on these long, driving/shopping trips, I often pick up a coffee at Lee’s corner, the first stop along the Chilcotin.  (I never drink coffee at any other time.)  I enjoyed their notice board.

Lee was a man who thought he could make money out of the Yukon gold rush.  He decided he would make his fortune, not by grubbing for gold, but by driving cows from the southern ranchlands to the goldfields.  The lack of feed and rough terrain defeated him.  The last cow died here.

It was cloudy again when I left Williams Lake but all along I could see a strip of blue sky in the west. (This large burn happened in 2003.)

The edge of the cloud was quite dramatic.  I got sunshine all the rest of the way home.

On the Tuesday before I left, Bill the plumber came to finally fit my reverse osmosis filter.  I bought the thing last November, and Bill has been promising to fit it since the New Year.

Of course, he found he was missing an adapter.  The under-sink pipes that he put in were the wrong size.  He was on his way to Williams Lake: he would be returning the day I left.  I looked forward to having drinking water when I got home.  I have been hauling water ever since I bought Ginty Creek nearly 7 years ago.

There was a nice new tap in my sink.  But nothing came out of it.  Bill could not find the right adapter in Williams Lake.  He should get it within a day or two.  He might be by to fix it in two or three weeks.  (It is not covered by warrenty unless it is fitted by a plumber.)

Such is life in the Chilcotin.

The fall colours are developing rapidly.  The grass has bleached almost white.

The leaves are developing a tapestry look

A heron has been visiting the pond most afternoons

The evening light is rich along the wetlands

The aspen leaves are full of texture

The morning before it rained, we had a brief spear of sunlight

When I took the volunteers to town, it was the second rainy morning.  But only in small patches: I left home in the dark and as the sun rose, there were some fantastic fog effects.

Coming home in the afternoon the Chilcotin was ablaze

The graveyard on the Redstone reserve made interesting caligraphy with the yellow leaves

This was near Tatla Lake

As well as taking the volunteers to town, and the wobbly van to the garage, I also took Badger to the vet.  He had a stick wedged in his mouth: he had been biting at the woodpile where the packrats lived.  When he pawed at his mouth afterwards, I could not see anything.  That evening he was back to normal, eating crunchy food etc, and I thought that maybe he had bitten a wasp.  But one day I saw an infection in a line right across the top of his mouth.  Apparently this is not uncommon with dogs who bite at sticks.

Badger had to be sedated and even after we got home, he was totally spaced out.

I am pleased to say he is feeling fine this morning, though!

The weather for the most part has been amazingly hot and sunny.  However, it is usually a few degrees below freezing by the time the sun rises, and there is a definite hint of fall in the air.  The sunrises are endlessly pink

The van saga is still not resolved.  Having spent several thousand dollars with one guy, who pronounced it drivable, but I still was not happy with it, I took it to another who told me his mechanic was scared to drive it and contradicted almost everything the first guy said.  He told me repairs would cost 2,000 more and the parts would take 2 weeks to arrive.  So I drove the shaky van home with a load of stuff, but first spent the night at 108 where I took my usual early morning stroll around the Walker Valley.  The leaves there had a definite yellow cast.

As the sun rose, ducks floated on the misty pond.

Coming home, the Chilcotin was brilliant.

Further west a cattail swamp was turning yellow.

Because of the long hot summer (way more heat and sun than usual), the range feed is eaten down and a lot of the cows are wandering home, mostly on the highway.  One has to drive extremely carefully at night.  Some cows are more goofy-looking than others.

Then the weather suddenly turned cold and rainy, just as I took the volunteers down to Bella Coola to see the bears (except there weren’t any – they come for the rotting salmon and there are hardly any fish in the river this year as the spawn got washed out to sea in the big flood 2 years ago.)

Now it’s back to +27C temps in the day and -2 or -3C at night with endless sunshine forecast.  One morning, there was an acrid smell of smoke.

The fire was north of Anahim, above Moose Lake.  There was no natural reason for the fire – not a hint of lightning – and it was close to some cabins so there was either extreme carelessness or something fishy going on.  (This photo was by Johnny Blackwell.)

I snatched an hour to walk around the wetlands.  What luxury it will be next year to enjoy this kind of activity without feeling guilty.

It has been very cold and rainy again so the spring has slowed down a bit.  The textures in the wetlands are beautiful.

I have called this next picture “So Chilcotin.”  Those of you who are familiar with  the area will know exactly what I mean.

In one part of the wetland are small dead trees covered with red lichen.

I don’t know of anywhere else where this particular lichen grows.  Here is a closeup

In another part of the wetland I found a gorgeous insect.  It is quite large – the body is as long as a finger joint.  It is obviously some kind of grasshopper relative.  I have found them occasionally before, even above the treeline, but usually in a hole under a rock.  I have never seen one with wings before.  They always seem very sluggish.

On a more prosaic front, I have been drying organic kale.  It dries very easily and makes great healthy food for camping or for areas far from stores.  I can buy this at Anahim Lake – but only if I buy a whole case as no one else in the area would want to eat it.  This makes a lot of kale to deal with!

I thought it looked quite pretty on the screen.