Martin Mars water bomber

The Martin Mars water bomber was stationed at Sproat Lake on Vancouver Island, but now is destined for the Aeronautical Museum near the Victoria airport. This is it’s last flight, down the east coast of Vancouver Island, over Salt Spring and other islands and over the city of Victoria.

Hawaii Martin Mars water bomber

Click on the picture to see the flyover.

Canada has a lot of forests. This is the largest water bomber in Canada, used to fight forest fires through the years. The Snowbirds escorted it along the way. We waited with thousands of other people on the hills below the airport to watch it pass. When they all flew over our heads, the roar was deafening and exhilarating.

Colour of Spring

I’ve been trying to decide what is the colour of spring. Around here, I have to say it is ‘yellow’. All kinds of flowering plants are showing up in yellow.

This is Mahonia, or Oregon Grape from my garden.

Daffodils, of course.

Dandelions popping up everywhere.

This is forsythia. There are other colours showing up now, but yellow is predominant so far.

What do you see where you live? Drop me a comment and let me know.

Slow recovery

I came down with a cold a week ago, and it became one of the worst colds I can remember. No fever, or chills. But a total wipeout in terms of energy, and a cough that won’t quit, no matter what I use to treat it with.

Meanwhile, my job is to keep writing my new novel. πŸ™‚

Don’t you love it? This new book is about some of the creeks up the coast of Vancouver Island. They have names like — Cat’s Ear, Sir Donald, Dead Man, Perseverance. I’m not sure who came up with these names, but they have really drawn me in. Now I have to come up with a story about them.

Fun, eh?

First Skiff of Snow

I can’t believe it but we’ve already had our first skiff of snow. It started yesterday, snowing, then raining (melting the snow), then sunny, and back again. We have the strangest weather that blows through. Then it snowed again, then stopped. Here is what I found this morning

The amazing thing is it didn’t melt overnight, because the ground is not frozen yet.

We have some micro-climates around us. Today it was pelting rain on the uphill side of the house. But when I looked out the window of the same room, toward the downhill side, it was sunny and clear. Rained like that for about an hour, but clear out the other window.

How do you explain that? I can’t. πŸ™‚