Hello everyone! Well, another week is almost over which is hard to believe. Summer goes by so fast it seems. However, winter does last longer, about 6 months, while summer is only 3 months, more or less. It was quite a nice day yesterday. Cooler today though.

We have 77 forest fires burning right now and although the area has received quite a bit of rain this month, it has only slowed the fires, not stop them. More new fires keep starting up every day it seems. A lot are in the 10 to 20 thousand hectare size, with many going well above that. Some are; 38,033 hectares (92,982 acres), 39,194 hectares (96,850 acres), 48,555 hectares (119,982 acres), 60,394 hectares (149,237 acres).

These are not the only larger ones, I just picked a few. Our western province of BC is really bad right now with over 350 forest fires. One firefighter, a young woman, died yesterday fighting a fire. That province has put out a plea to other countries to help. We were in a similar position 2 years ago. Warning, photo of a wasp below!

I think our hot summer weather is done for this year. It just came a bit earlier than normal.

The first time Coffee took a peanut from me. He stretched as much as he could.

Does not seem to be much happening outside today either. It is another windy day so insects are staying hidden from view. Windy days like this were never good for walking to the river. Things hide when it is windy. Plus it is hard to hear. And I like to hear when I am walking that path. Just in case a bear is walking around.

Like one time when I was out walking, on a different path and it was a windy day. The pines were swaying in the wind singing their beautiful song. Wind through the pines is beautiful, a unique sound, like instruments playing in an orchestra. But I digress. I turned around because I had that “feeling” again that I was being watched.

It did not take Coffee long to come up onto my knee for his peanuts, same day actually.

Sure enough there was a bear on the path behind me. He was about a hundred feet away though, but walking slowly toward me. Then he stopped and sniffed the air. Perhaps he did not like the wind either, it would affect his hearing and ability to smell any scents, like me.

He had stopped and was still sniffing the air. Finally it decided to walk off the path and into the trees. I kept watching and the bear kept walking, away from me. Perhaps he did smell me. Most likely he saw me and was trying to figure out what I was, friend or foe.

Another pic of the Northern Paper Wasp. Their sting is rather nasty, I discovered that the other day.

People often think that a bear’s eyesight is poor, but that is not the case. They have excellent vision up to about 100 feet, or about 30 meters. Oh well. Just some miscellaneous pics for today. The sun is shining for the moment. Have a fabulous Friday and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.