THE MOSQUITOES ARE HERE AND WE GET OUR CRACK AT WINTER

Balsam Root on a hillside east of Vernon

What a day for a picnic

Rick, Aileen, Jacquie and Jim

And then the sun came out

Jim panning

Got any gold?

Jim and friend Rick; see the hail coming down? ..................................................................................

The mosquitoes are beginning to welcome us as we step outdoors. The temperatures are supposed to get above 20C every day for the next six days. Perhaps Spring really is going to arrive. We took a big step back into winter on Thursday the 14th when we went to Jim’s mining claim in Monashee Pass at around 4,000 feet elevation. It was +1C when we arrived with several inches of fresh snow on the road. We had several snow and hail squalls during our visit. It was pleasant when the sun came out but pretty soon along would come another dose of winter. All the new snow melted during the day though. We had a nice campfire on the road to roast wieners for lunch and a good time was had regardless. The snow was much deeper in the bush than anticipated and not hard enough to stay on top of all the time. It was fairly unpleasant falling through more than knee deep snow. I sure wished I had taken my snowshoes; I’d had them in my hand at the storage locker a couple days earlier but didn’t expect there would be enough snow to use them. Boy was I wrong! I had one particularly bad experience where I went through and crashed my right knee into a buried stump. At least there was no lack of ice for applying to it. I left a blood trail each time that leg broke through the snow. Since Jim hadn’t been to the claim before, the object was to determine just where it was. We were finally able to match some of the roads and terrain to the aerial photo which he had drawn his boundaries on, so that part was a success. He now has a starting point to find the other 3 corners as we were able to decide pretty close where the one corner is. It was +4C when we headed down and +17C in Vernon when we drove through.
Aileen met her friend Barb Peterson for lunch yesterday and had a tour of the apartment she has purchased, but not yet moved into. I had lunch on my own then visited the chiropractor. I walked to the library later where Aileen picked me up. We played Mexican Train again last night and Aileen was the big winner. The other big news though is that I wasn’t last, but second. That was our second game this week.
I’ve been frustrated in my macro photography because the wind keeps blowing every time I take the camera out. It takes so little wind to prevent you from getting a sharp image and I don’t have the endless patience required to stand and wait.