Wednesday, May 14, 2008

May Showers

It rains all morning
and into the afternoon.
A steady drip, drip, dripping,
The rain barrels fill up and overflow.

Later in the day
the showers end,
and clouds give way to blue sky

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"O the green things growing, the green things growing,
The faint sweet smell of the green things growing!
I should like to live whether I smile or grieve,
Just to watch the happy life of my green things growing.
"

~Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826-1887)


Wild Strawberry with rain droplet
almost ready to bloom


Our poplars are finally leafing out - I can't wait to hear their rustling leaves in the summer breeze.

Trembling Aspen
Populus tremuloides
very widespread here

Brand new poplar leaves
freshly opened

A few posts ago, I wrote about how the Lodgepole Pine forests in British Columbia have been invaded by the mountain pine beetle. These very young trees tell me that all is not lost though, and one day these forests will recover.

This healthy pine, I'm guessing, is
a strapping 1.5 metres (5ft.)

Already this pine is 61 - 91cm (2 - 3ft.) tall

Tiny green bird
Calliope Hummingbird, male
Smaller than the Rufous by half an inch

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