It was so cold it seemed as though spring would never come. But suddenly, there it was.

But we could not enjoy it for long. It suddenly got very hot and within a week, everything was in full leaf.

After a low-snow year and no spring rain, it was very dry. Spring should be a green time, but the roadsides were as brown as August.

This was the time when the big fires started in northern BC, and immediately we started to get smoke.

An unexpected bonus, however, was the spring flower display. The highway to Nimpo was paved with gold!

But the real show was along the burned area of our road.

Most of these species did not bloom at all along here l last year.

Early purple violets.

Penstemon procerus and wild rose. A bit of Jacob’s ladder and the yellow western senecio.

Two species of pussytoes. Yarrow in the back.

I have never seen so much of the blue penstemon. Here it is again with roses.

Then there was the shrubby penstemon

Then the false dandelion popped up

Dogbane was common last year but abundant this year.

As was the birch-leaved spirea.

And then, in June, it turned cold.

It froze most night: twice it got down to -5C. I had covered sensitive plants. There was frost on the windows of my new patio shelter.

And fresh snow on the mountains.

On one day, we actually had rain.

Despite the cold, spring was advancing. The first of many mothers appeared on the pond with her babies. This is the Barrow’s goldeneye, one of the few I could identify.

The garden was sprouting, too. I planted a row of Red Russian kale from a 1/2 kilogram bag of sprouting seeds. I did not realize that there was a hole in the bottom of the bag…