blessed rain

 Yesterday we had the first drop of the year. And this morning while I was collecting wild greens for today's lunch, the sky turned dark and sure enough we had a bit of a shower, 5 minutes worth. So it normally is for the Yukon, in my experience,  But i will say the few previous summers we did have a bit of more rain.

Did i say i was planning on more gardening, I know now for me I will need a bit more rain to help me along, I am happy to water a bit, but not extensively.

I am trying to harvest more of the wild, then what  we can eat daily, but that is not happening yet. And today i have friends visiting for lunch  so i want to pick 6 cups of wild green instead of the normal two.

And an update here about the deleting; I  am  still distressed how much i put on the Internet over the years. And am  still slowly chugging away deleting what is not relevant anymore. How many months has it been now?

And about the chewing; Yes i am still chewing away, eating my food more mindfully. Impressed with myself on this front. And in this case not worried that I ate rushed for 60 plus years. Haha luckily i do not have to clean up my computer for what has been collected for 60 years, but just 20. I fear for young people.

One more thing, I am still reading Walden Pond. I can't believe how much i like that Thoreau, what did i read yesterday; About walking in the dark! Something i like too. He was suggesting, let your body walk you do not look with your eyes, when walking home through pitch black. 

And OMG that about that the government trying to protect us,  will hurt us more, he calls it molest :), then if we would just leave it be....

I am not very good as repeating his exact words. I would have to read the whole chapter again, I think it was 'The Village' chapter. And as i most often read in bed I do not underline things, so i would be able to find them and tell you properly.

Love you all, respect you for your ways. Thank you for reading this.

Summer

 After a very long tentative spring we are suddenly blasted into summer.

Monday sitting in the garden I could see the trees getting green

And yes i have been swimming for 3 days now. 

yesterday with my friend Cindy

Cindy managed about 9 strokes in one dip. I dipped in more often but i think i only got to 7 strokes.

 Swimming for now is in the Takhini river. Monday i forded the river to an island, where i know there is a pool, the pool still had floating ice, so i just jumped in and out.

I have an interest in the Wim Hoff method, and Tuesday i managed four strokes while a kept breathing. Don and i drove  up mud road, which still had quite a bit of ice, to go to an island closer to the shore. so the fording was easier, and i did those four strokes in that stretch, and on the island i found a shallow pool where i could actually lay in and be quite comfortable.

Yesterday see photo, spectacular i say. plus Mergansers floating by

.I am following a tree. Are you?

 Thanks to the https://squirrelbasket.wordpress.com/

 Earlier this morning i had breakfast at the tree i am following.

And I am sure through  the tree, squirrelbasket, Hollis and the power of mind, there were 8 crocuses blooming at the foot of the tree. I have never seen so much on that side of the erratic rock, ha, there was none on the east side of the rock, where i usually see more crocuses.

The goose berry bush shows green leaves, and the rose has leave buds. Also in this 2 photo you see how the two trees, were actually one tree, still a twin of sorts, like i wrote before. The one died and this one very much alive.  As you see i measured the tree, to see next year if it actually does grow.

No photo, but a few strong big Poplars in the yard do  have catkins

But here is ours! green buds at at the top of the tree!

wandering the wild places.

 Sunday i realized again how i appreciate living in the wild, to wander endlessly.

Yesterday i went on a long walk-about, into a forest that i actually had not set foot in. When you know me, you might know how i have lived here for almost 30 years, but  I always like  to explore. For me the greatest joy is finding a new 'special ' place, in my old surroundings.

But why i realized this again; Sunday afternoon i climbed up 'my' crocus hill half a kilometer from here. The first 20 years i must have climbed that hill weekly, if not once a month for sure. But as a neighbour moved into the lot in between me and the hill, i had to get there round about, not that they do not want me on their property (lucky i have only one neighbour like that), most people here have lots of wild space and no fences, so wandering the neighbourhood is... kind of ok. But with more and more people living here.. it has changed for me. First i climb up the hill, 2 k from here and sure enough  i run into the neighbour who lives there ( we have 10 to 20 acre parcels.) Nice enough to see him, but he says, don't scare my wife, she is laying in the hammock. So I take a wide berth around that house.  A public path would be nice, i think, at least neighbours will expect people and not just bears. But i do not want public paths, the national parks here are bad enough (haha not as bad as down south). Yes yes i am very egocentric, wish the world for myself. It is a bind I am sure Thoreau talked about it.

And i like to say; fences maybe make good neighbours, but they keep me imprisoned.

Anyways i just have to walk farther for a crocus. Or just wait,  because they will bloom here around the house, eventually.

So yesterday I planned a 4 hour  walk, I forgot my camera and my husband now dreads being left home alone, (I feel he is quite capable) but I did it in 3.

 Tadada,  I explored a  kind of plateau, mainly small poplars grow there, climbing up to it and on the edge it was snow free, and low and behold i do find myself on a kind of path. Yes some of us, me incl. we do make paths here. It is kind of frowned upon close to the parcels, like i do not make a path around the neighbours lot, but have many going from my lot, that I appreciate being used by others. Again a path gives an unspoken ok.

But here today now an hours walk away from any house, I am delighted to find a path ,I think it is Jay's, I will ask him, from way back in the days. And sure enough when in ends I see tiny pieces of tape. 

As the terrain start to go down, I walk a bit in the snow covered forest away from the edge of the plateau, towards the middle  so to speak. And amazingly quite a centre it has, like a navel on a flat belly.

First i don't see it is a navel, I just see through the still bare small poplars a giant Pine, the only one. A pine is always special here, because the forest is Spruce/Poplar with Willows.  So i brave the half a foot deep snow.

And a special place it is, a little moose meadow,  a depression in the ground with well browsed  willows. lined with big Poplar and a giant Pine! As i have my snack there and lay down on a needle strewn bare spot, in bright sunshine. And guess who joins me, with it's loud song? The Yellow-rumped Warbler. A bird that makes me think of city parks, by it is bright colors. a city slicker!

And my husband, i brought him  home some crocuses from along the way, he had been totally fine and even had managed some chores.

Spring

 Spring has sprung

And things are changing fast everyday now, 

birds and flowers that is.

 The whole winter we had bird song, but now many others have joined the orchestra.

And just yesterday, the ducks are not so much resting anymore from their long journey, but in a frenzy of feeding and courtship displays.

The Draba  and the Mossberry i am sure they are blooming today, and crocuses slow to appear, will be there in abundance today

As it  is  Saturday  today and i will walk with friends from town, we meet in the middle as usual, i hope to get a glimpse of  a  feral foal, that has been born in the recent days. And who know what else we will seen.

This is such an exciting time.

I did do a bit of raking in the garden,  taking the mulch of, the stinging nettles  wild  chives and rhubarb is coming up. And! i tapped the birch tree, and we had a small glass of birch elixir with breakfast today.

tiny things these two

and the glory of the crocus, which is actually an Anemone