Coffee Time! #21

Hi everyone! Nice to be here with you all again! Time for a cup of coffee, or whatever you prefer right now. It is a bit cooler here today with a mix of sun and cloud. We actually had a few light, actually very light, showers yesterday afternoon, barely enough to wet the surface of the street.

We need rain and lots of it in order to stop those raging forest fires. The smoke is not bad today, but yesterday it was thick and at times it was hard to see much more than just across the street. I was coughing all day long and still coughing today. And my eyes were so sore yesterday as well.

The smoke wasn’t so bad as we headed east along the highway.

Our neighboring province has lost more than a million acres (about 450,000 hectares) to forest fires already this year and nearly 25,000 people evacuated. We’re doing quite well here so far, our largest fire being about 87,000 acres (about 35,000 hectares). There is a much larger fire from our neighboring province that has moved into our province now and it is about 465,000 acres (about 188,000 hectares).

Hmm, more smoke seems to be moving into our area I see. The deer in town are busy with fawns being born all over town. Right here one was born in front of our building and another doe had twins out back of our building just a couple days later. Other fawns are being born all over town. Unfortunately I always seem to miss these events.

The smoke was mostly staying higher.

I would love to photograph a fawn being born, that would be just amazing! But I guess it won’t be this year now. Oh well. One of those things. As mentioned before, my friend and I went for a drive down the highway last Thursday and stopped at a few lakes along the way. I was hoping, among other things, to see some of our early dragonflies to get some photos.

There are some early ones that I don’t yet have in my collection of photos. We never saw even one dragonfly. That was very odd indeed. When I got home I was talking with the lady that cleans this apartment building (hallways and common areas), and she mentioned that they have had dragonflies in their backyard for quite a while already. (Steve bangs his head against the wall)

Even with a smoky look, the lakes were still nice.

I go and sit out behind our building for a couple of hours and see nothing, not even a robin. I hear birds singing, but I don’t see anything. So I come inside. Half an hour later I’m talking with another tenant and he asks if I saw the bear. When was that? He says just 10 minutes ago. (Steve bangs his head against the wall)

Someone tells me there are a lot of butterflies outside right now so I grab my camera and go out and sit…and sit…and sit. An hour later I still haven’t seen one butterfly. (Steve bangs his head against a tree)

A bit more smoke showing up in this photo.

Anyway, it’s a beautiful day and I am showing more photos from our road trip last Thursday. Enjoy! Have a great day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.