More Smoke and Flowers

"Spritz, spritz, spritz, spritz, spritz, spritz, [pause for painful inhalation] cough-cough, hack-hack, gagggg". That's the sound of this gardener preparing to head outdoors -- the outdoors where DEET protects the thin pink human skin barrier from the wildlife who would suck away our bodily juices. Actually, the bugs aren't so bad today but that's probably because it is so dry that the fire people refer to the fire conditions as "explosive".

Here's my photo of the "Zbar" fire northwest of La Ronge, taken this afternoon. It is currently 13, 253 hectares, making it the largest wildfire in the province. The prevailing winds seem to be moving all the smoke due west, which at least spares our town the smell of roasting trees. The fire is in the center of the horizon with all the smoke blowing leftwards.


The crabapple is in bloom. That poor tree. I pruned it last year into a lopsided tree of ugliness. In my defence, the lopped off branches were diseased, broken, or crossing other branches. Ideally, I'd like to rip out the tree and replace it. The previous owners never pruned the tree, so it's really beyond fixing at this point.


Progress is being made on my new alpine garden. Thanks go to resident-lawnmower-man for doing all the sweaty work here. I just wander out in the evenings and mention things about "fulfilling my vision" and "making it look like the Swiss alps landed on my lawn".


The Medusa-like seed head of Pulsatilla vulgaris:

The Skies of La Ronge This Week

Altogether, it has been a hot and humid week. Temperatures have been 26-30 C (79-86 F) with humidity of 75% to 99%, which makes it feel much warmer, of course. Today there are a few clouds, but because it didn't cool off much last night, the house feels terribly warm. We have no air conditioning and no duct system in the house, so no way of putting in central air conditioning either! Ahhhh! I suppose if we did have air conditioning, the orchids might wonder where their tropical conditions went!

Also this week we've had quite a few days with smoke in the air from forest fires. There are 16 forest fires (according to the SK Environment website) burning in the province right now, and I hear that fires in Manitoba are sending smoke our way as well. This is a far better situation than last year at this time, when large numbers of people were evacuated because of the fire and smoke situation.

Finally, I was suprised to hear the awesome roar of jets 2 days ago but couldn't get outside fast enough to hear what was making the noise. It sounded like the fighter jets that would occasionally fly over my hometown at airshows. Resident-lawnmower-man came home that day and said he saw the Snowbirds (Canadian Forces Air Demonstration Squadron based out of Moosejaw, Saskatchewan) at the airport just as his plane was taking off. I checked their schedule online and it seems that they were at an airshow in The Pas, Manitoba (east of us) the day before and are in Fort McMurray, Alberta (west of us) today. I guess they were just stopping halfway for gas, a bathroom break, and sandwiches...

Smoke on the Water

The sky has not been clear for days, with thick smoke hanging over the town over the past 2 days. The nearest fire is about 15 km away and the smoke changes with the wind direction. I'm trying to conserve water, so the plants are getting watered less this week.

Pictured at left: One of the neighbour's floatplanes on Lac La Ronge (across the street from our house). This picture was taken around 6 pm July 6, with smoke making the sky rather dark and visibility poor.

Pictured: Cream colored Longiform x Asiatic Hybrid Lily "Courier", one of the first liles in the stone-wall raised bed.

I did plant a few more lilies 2 weeks ago and I just saw some little shoots are already poking through the soil.

Pictured: Pink flowers of Fireweed, a common plant almost everywhere! It is more common in disturbed landscapes, including those where fires have burned the landscape. This one was growing near the docks across the street.

Smokey the Garden Bear

dThe before and after pictures: We got crushed rock and spread it over the driveway last weekend. Much improved I say, because it makes my plants along the driveway look even better!

The Sask Environment website lists 26 new fires in the La Ronge Fire Center area today and the smoke is quite heavy. It has caused the moon to be an eerie shade of orange.
It sounds like the fires are just north of town but not threatening the town of La Ronge directly. Regardless, the resident-lawnmower-man decided not to go plant shopping with me at the nearest garden center (2hrs 20 min away) in Prince Albert.
[Incidentally, would you believe Superstore is selling apricots for $2.48 per lb!! Another excellent reason to move to B.C.]
I'm believing that lawnmower-man planned to heroically guard the garden with a hose in case of disaster (or maybe he just wanted to be home with the ice cream).