Towards the end of June I went to Williams Lake to pick up another volunteer.  Gloomy, humid weather made for interesting light effects.Caitlin is from New Zealand.  She had no experience with firewood, but learned very quickly and was a very hard worker so we made a huge dent in the firewood pile.But now it really started to rain.It deluged!  And it was accompanied by thunderstorms that went on for hours.  Huge potholes were washed into my road.I had hoped to make various trips into the mountains but the weather was too uncertain.  Rain would have been bad enough, but we didn’t want to be above the treelike in a thunderstorm.  So when a halfway decent day was forecast, we stayed low down and went to Tatlayoko Lake.

The morning dawned foggy.  Would we be able to see the mountains around the lake?  But as we got there, the fog broke up in front of our eyes.Tatlayoko Lake shore has great skimming stones.  But it’s a wonder there are any left as everyone flings them.  Caitlin was good at it.The young Douglas firs along the shore still had their spring green shoots.An old root with lichen on it.Water in the cracks made some interesting calligraphy on this stone.And finally, the mountains at the head of the lake are revealed.Along the shore was a pool.  A clump of grass is suspended in the thundery cloud reflections.Nearby, Pyrola asarifolia is blooming.And of course, there are endless wild roses.We left Tatlayoko Lake in the fog early afternoon – just as the wind got up and a group of motorcyclists arrived.  We definitely had the best part of the day there.  We called in to Martin Lake on the way home.  It is near the Gymkhana grounds.  It has a very different ecosystem to that of Tatlayoko Lake.Giant freshwater snails live there.  The shore is littered with their fragile shells.Nearby is the Tatla Lake cemetery – it affords a great view towards the mountains.  The thunder clouds were piling up.Once more we dodged rain, some of it heavy.  Caitlin would have worked through it, but I really can’t handle WET!  On the one other fine afternoon of her three-week stay we drove the rough road to Big Stick Lake, which is close to home.  En route, we found columbines…and pond lilies.The weeds along the roadsides are now blooming, but this carpet of yellow belongs to a native plant.  Potentilla diversifolia.The fire blasted through here in 2017.Big Stick Lake has something that is unusual in this country – a sandy beach.  Most apparent sand is silty sludge into which you can sink unpleasantly.  Black admiral butterflies found something very interesting in the sand.And thousands of tiny fish scooted about in the shallows.