All winter long one waits and waits, and suddenly the world turns green. kinnikinnick is one of the earliest flowers.

The colour enriches every day.

The aspen beside the pond leafs out much later. Behind are a pair of buffleheads.

I moved the feeder trays from in front of the bay window so I could plant the garden underneath. I put seed in a little hanging feeder. Now the squirrels had to figure out how to get to the seeds.

They almost always fell off!

The weather turned thundery.

And we had 2 days of hailstorms followed by a serious rain, which was very welcome as it has been so dry. The hailstones were the size of peas.

A lot of fresh snow was plastered onto the mountains.

The pond turned green.

Suddenly there were babies everywhere. Blue-winged teal.

Barrows goldeneye.

And ruffed grouse. Her babies were hidden in the grass and I could not photograph them.

The river reached its peak without much fuss and began to drop.

And once again I am setting up pumps and hauling water to irrigate the garden.

And of course, once I did that, we had another day of rain. The world shone in the morning light.

We have now reached the longest day. The days are getting shorter, and winter is on its way. But first we must go through a heat wave. Only 29C today, but the forecast is for the mid 30s (which is in the 90 degrees US) and that is pretty hot for us cold-hearted Canadians!