Good morning everyone! It is a beautiful, sunny morning once again. With smoke. Lots of smoke. It is from the forest fires. It was terribly thick with smoke yesterday, like fog. By late afternoon it was hurting my eyes, really burning them. It was hard to keep them open for any length of time.

And my throat was sore, and it was actually getting hard to breathe. First time it has bothered me so much, I was kind of surprised. It will be very heavy smoke again this afternoon. Oh well. I went to see my new apartment yesterday afternoon. It is very nice and a little bigger than this one.

Above is my little friend Scramble the Red Squirrel.

It is on the sixth floor, which is the top floor in that building. And it faces south, which is perfect for me. I like having the sun, especially in the winter. That apartment was actually cooler than this one and there is no air conditioning in there. I might need to get a window A/C unit for summer use, but I will wait until next summer to consider that.

Above are Clintonia wildflowers.

There is a bit of a safety issue in that area, so I doubt that I will walk around carrying my camera with me. But there is a nice area out behind the building to sit, quite a large lawn area, some nice trees too, and benches to sit on. But, there are things I will miss for sure. Walking to the river and watching the ducks and pelicans.

That was always so enjoyable. Plus all the wildflowers along the path to the river. There are so many different species of wildflowers. Then there are the many species of mushrooms too. Some which are very plain, others that are very different. Some are quite colorful and some are not.

Above is a female Common Merganser napping on the river. I woke her up when I arrived, but she went back to sleep.

And all the amazing variety of insects I would find along that path, and even right here in the yard. There might be insects over at the new place too. There were certainly lots of grasshoppers. Everywhere. All over the place. Even worse than around here, and that is amazing.

Some unusual, but interesting, mushrooms.

I will miss all my chipmunks, and squirrels, and all the birds which have become so friendly over the years. I am so glad that I was able to get pics of birds that normally I would not even see around here without the aid of a bird feeder.

Like the Boreal Chickadees this past winter. What a nice treat that was! However, I am sure that new opportunities will exist in my new location. I will certainly be looking for them. It is always nice to explore new areas. And find new things. Well, time to go out and try for some pics again. Have a great day everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.