Tuesday Afternoon - Maybe we Should leave this Field

We made a video with all the gang in it but me. I was the director, camera woman, sound guy and best girl. Might get an Oscar.

After Jo left we each did our own little different thing. Had a very nice lunch of slices of garden fresh tomatoes and bolocheti cheese with basil, olive oil and lemon. Also little cheese or roast beef open face sandwiches with homemade mayo and dijon mustard. After lunch everyone went in different directions again.

Nancy took Aunt Mary for a massage and then She and Uncle Ron went into town to pick up some gelato. Jerry drove me up to the kettle lakes on top of mount Krouger. It was not a long drive. We went up this small and sometimes scary road. It started out paved with small hobby farms on each side, some of which were for sale. It then became much smaller and gravel.

Parts of the trip were a little hair raising for me as I do not care for precipices, but luckily they did not last that long. ( the length of time we were driving along the precipice that is) We did have to shoo some cattle off the road at one point, but we did it from the inside of the VW van.

It is very pretty up there.

We did not see another vehicle, for which I personally was rather happy as the road is quite narrow.

we passed some cattle with long horns, two smaller very picturesque lakes, some more cattle with no horns and went over 3 different cattle guards in the road. I got the impression it was cattle country.

We came to the lake and Jerry commented that it was way down from the last he had seen it but that he usually only came up in the spring and fall. This was the first time he had been there in August. A kettle lake gets all its water from snow melt and rain.

We heard the killdeer before we saw it. It played its wounded tricks on us trying to lure us away from its babies that we spotted in the tall foxtails along the shore. Quite a good show really.

It started to rain a little but I had on my big hat so was not too worried. It is like an umbrella really. There was a plant growing in the lake along the shore and Jerry thought it might be milfoil. Will have to check it out. There was a small group of cattle down at the far end of the lake resting.

Butterflies everywhere. A beautiful bowl of a valley with the lake in the center. A nice variety of trees too.

Some very old poplar and pine, sage and grasses and flowers. there was a house at the entry end of the lake but it didn't look like anyone was home. It must have already been built before the area became a provincial park.

Two cattle came running down the hill towards the lake about 200 yards away so I tried to get them on film. At first we thought they were going for the water but one of them seemed more interested in the other cattle and so we thought maybe it was a bull and maybe we should leave the field.

On our leisurely walk back to the van, with occasional glances over our shoulder to check out the location of the cows/bull?, I spotted some outhouses.

A pair of them and went to check them out, but not too closely. they each had a quarter moon cut into them. One with the moon facing right and the other facing left. So the question is, which would be the guys and which the girls?

Let me know if you find out.

Lots of wild flowers, real native wildflowers not the invasives.

We headed back.

Jerry said we had time to go and see something I had probably never seen before. The spotted lakes. I was game.

We stopped at the middle lake and I got some nice shots of a duck, a wax wing and some damsel flies.

This lake was very different from the top lake. It was more protected with hills and trees coming right to the lake and the water reflected the green of the trees. We past the smallest lake and met our first vehicle, a big red truck but Jerry was calm and said that there was lots of room.

I was not totally disbelieving, just a little skeptical. Luckily I kept my thoughts on the matter to myself as it turned out that Jerry was correct. We continued on and met with the small herd of cattle, two moms and four babies. Well, there were four babies and 2 bigger cows so I was assuming they were the moms.

The narrow gravel road continued and suddenly a woman driving too fast for my liking, came around the corner.

With quick reactions Jerry pulled as far over to the right as was humanely possible, making me a lot more nervous as I am sure we had only two inches of road left before we tumbled over the edge.

The other driver did in fact slow down enough to pass us safely and we continued on, Jerry unruffled, me ruffled. More cows, the crossing guards and onto the pavement. We went up the highway for 5 minutes and pulled onto one of the smallest pullouts I think I have ever seen. Room for one vehicle only.

The sign with the gate locking us out and keeping us from walking down to see the spotted lakes said that in the future there would be a larger pullout ( that would not be difficult ) with a parking lot, wheelchair access and a boardwalk to tour the lake below. I look forward to that very much.

The lake was the coolest thing I have seen in a long time. It seems there are minerals in the water and when the lake dries up, the minerals form large round dots on the surface which reflect the sky or terrain depending on your angle of view. They were so cool. A spiritual place for the native tribe and a natural wonder. (I don't believe the spot with the beer? can in the middle was one of the spiritual spots unless it was an offering)

We headed back to the house where Jerry began the preparations for supper, (a tunisian themed pasta dish which was very nummy) Nancy, Mary and I went into the loom room to check out the looms and threads (Nancy is going to make me a strap for my camera) and Uncle Ron got caught up with the news. I really think he was taking a well deserved nap.

Supper was great followed by sitting on the balcony in the near perfect temperature. We have been very lucky in that it has not been so hot as it usually is at this time of year.

Tuesday - 2 aug - mine, cows and great Mullein

I woke up at 5.

I thought about not going for a walk this morning and then thought, 'we pass this way but once' and was gone by 530.

Jo was still sleeping and as I knew she was heading to Van today I let her sleep. I would just do a short walk and be back in plenty of time to chat with her before she left.

I headed up to the end of the street to check out the southern route. It started out going south but ended up following a fence going northwest.

As I walked along I kept hearing something moving in the sweet clover which grew both along the borders and the middle of the road. When I stopped to see what it was it stopped too. Very odd.

I moved very slowly and realized that it was the small grasshoppers jumping off of the sweet clover as I brushed against it. too funny.

I checked out the construction zone. looks like they are digging for rocks. and the equipment that was up there was all very old. well it was rusty.

I decided to find the mine which Jo and I had missed the day before. I was across the little valley and would make for a complete knowledge of the area. I followed the road around to where I could head up the hill. the whole area is crisscrossed with roads for vehicles and quads.

The sky was beautifully clear as I watched the sun come up. There was no wind . It was very quiet. The only thing on the hill watching the sun come up was me as far as I could tell. the sun pops over the hill very quickly here and casts lovely long shadows.

I climbed the hill that we had climbed the day before. someone has placed large rocks around the top of the hill in a circular kind of pattern. maybe to keep out quads? do not know. but one of the rocks has a hole drilled very neatly right through it. something from the Mine maybe? Jo and I had been here yesterday but I still walked and scouted around the top. No Mine.

I then discovered the very small path that went around the hill going in the right direction so followed that. It led down just past where Brian and a few others were staying. I said good morning to Brian and asked him if this was the trail to the mine. He said yes.

I found the Dividend mine.

It had been an active gold mine for almost one hundred years. It was sealed now with a concrete plug and fencing to keep crazy cavers out of the honeycomb of shafts still inside.

Just past the mine was a few more shafts that had not been sealed but they were fenced off. It was kind of scary as the precipice along the path was quite steep and high.

I followed the little path back to the plateau and as I was coming around the corner I ran right into a small herd of cattle. We startled each other slightly. two of us stood our ground and no hostilities occurred.

I had not seen them as I was wearing my new big hat and as everyone knows when one is walking up a hill on rocky terrain one usually looks down. Well, I was looking at the trail and my field of vision was very reduced due to the size of my hat.

We all survived. I went down to find Brian and Dana. They helped me over some very big rocks and we chatted for a bit. about the cows and the bull. the dogs and more prospecting talk. $25 a year to live for free. Sounds good. Not in the winter though too cold.

continued along and got a couple of shots of a brown butterfly

Your sighting has been accepted, and your regional coordinator has verified your submission as _Cercyonis sthenele_. Your sighting is now represented on the map on the species page: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Cercyonis-sthenele The sighting details page is available here: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/sighting_details/550198

and a yellow butterfly and then I found some Great Mullein and made a small movie. Great mullein makes one feel like a pixie. very tall flowers.

Took a couple of shots of the hills that Jo and I had climbed yesterday. We did way more than 4 plateaus. I saw the herd again across the valley.

I stole some lavender from a yard on the way back to Nancy's and was back by about 730.

Jo had gotten up and was gone for a walk by the time I got back. Nancy and Jerry were up and busy. A wonderful fruit salad including the biggest apricots I have ever seen. everything fresh. Jerry made bread.

Monday Afternoon Osoyoos

Jerry worked in the garden and took the roast beef out of the window ( He was thawing it).

He has tomato plants that are over six feet tall! Amazing.

Cantelope! What a country!

It is 25 in the shade.

On the other side of the wall in the garden is a drop off of about 30' , including the wall, terraced down to the next level of houses. It is pretty and private.

the garden includes Jerry's 6 ft tomato's, beans green and borlotti, zuchinni, black cabbage, chard and cauliflower among other things.

the neighbors have peach trees.

Gerry smoked his beef,

Nancy made a great greek salad and showed me the secrets of a great tomato bocochinni and basil salad.

Jo entertained.

We all chipped in and helped to get the table ready for dinner.

Very nice smoked Roast beef(cheese for me), tomato, bocochinni and basil salad with fresh olive bread and a real nice greek salad without any bite.

Osoyoos - Aug 1

We arrived in Kelowna Yesterday and Jerry was

there to pick us up and bring us to Osoyoos. A nice drive with lots of cars on the road and kids on inner tubes floating down the river in Penticton and Summerland.

Nancy had a lovley supper ready for us and after we all got settled in we mowed down.

Jo called and let us know that whe was coming that night . I was too tired to stay up much past 10 so I hit the sack and went to sleep so soundly that I didn't hear a thing all night.

Up at 330 to use the facilities but way too early to go out, so back to sleep and up at 530 and out the door by 6 with Jo. We went up, up, up.

We saw campers tenting on a nice open grassy plateau where we could follow many different trails in three different directions.

We saw the cattle guard crossing thing and we crossed it.

Sage everywhere. What a lovley, lovely aroma. A small trail brought us to the base of a cliff which we followed around till we could climb up.

I was, at one point, on my hands and knees, up a particularly steep incline, till I got to the top, probably only about 30 feet. but it seemed much longer.

Jo was already there sitting and resting and looking very relaxed when I finally got there. We rested at the top. Realizing that there was another top to go up to, we continued on.

The sun was just coming over the mountain when we met Brian at the crossroads.

He is the prospecting, long bearded window washer of Osoyoos, who filled us in on the ins and outs of being a prospector in BC.

He also told us that if we went two kilometers along this road we would be in the US of A and we could get picked up by the border patrol and taken to jail as trespassers. that the second road would take us to the water treatment plant and the third would take us somewhere we did not want to go.

We opted for the US of A and went up this ridiculously steep road for quads or four wheel drives toward the US of A border hoping for some action.

Some blazing star cactus pulled us off of the trail to investigate. Never have seen those before and they were very pretty.

Sage everywhere smelled great. Another cattle crossing guard and crossed it. Up, up, up. We stopped at the top and there was another mountain top to go up to so we continued on.

We :passed tall, tall ponderosa pine.(three needles in a bundle 5 to 6 inches long),

heard the woodpecker before we saw him, walked across a grassy knoll, admired the lake and stopped at the top and there was another top to go up to.

We did continued on, but, we were beginning to be very suspicious of ever reaching the actual top of this mountain.

A very small goat or a rabbit trail brought us half way up to next plateau, after that we were picking our way carefully up the side of a scree covered slope.

hanging on to dead twigs for balance knowing that if you actually applied any pressure to the twig or dead branch that it would break off your already false sense of security would evaporate with the sound of the snap.

A large fallen tree, well into the final stages of decay provided a safe moment to rest so we sat down and made a movie. I found a prickly pear cactus, right beside where I was sitting.

Well, actually, I kind of sat on it, just a little bit but enough to get a pear stuck to my upper back leg. ouch. We continued on , It was not as bad as the previous leg of the journey. We reached the top and there was another top so we decided not to continue on.

We took a break, admired the numerous patches of prickly pear cactus and tried to figure out how we could get down.

Only one direction seemed to be the way we could go, as on one side was a cliff, the second side was continuing up and the third side was the way we came up and we were not going to go back down the way we had come up.

Needless to say we made a decision and moved out. After pulling another prickly pear out of my shoe( it almost went right through my runner)we wended our way going down through trees and grasses.

It was nice and shady.

Traversing rocky, sandy and pine-coney slopes, finding roads and barbed wire fences, fields with loads of grasshoppers and crickets, we made it back to Nancy and Gerry's by 930 and they had a great breakfast of fresh fruit salad and toasted bagels waiting for us.

Yummmy! A very nice morning, chatting about the state of the world at large, Italy and trips to it and recipes.Jo went and practiced her guitar.

On her way up to lunch I noticed that she was moving a little gingerly and asked if she was a little stiff from our hike. she was and I was glad that i was not alone.

A lovely shower to wash away the salt of my exertions and then to this blog.

Took a break for lunch which was nummy too, Nancy's world famous potato salad, variety of olives, cheese for me , chicken for them, olive bread and green beans, fresh from the garden and so tender.

Aunt Mary and I left Nancy to clean up, we are naughty, and went out to the balcony to sit in the shade and enjoy the view.

A crossword puzzle and then Jo and Uncle Ron came home from putting on the golf course. Jo brought out her guitar to entertain us all.