Hey, it's still August

Heavy rain, clearing late this afternoon to briefly show the mountain peaks to the north and west covered with fresh snow. Not the sparkling dusting of first snow like sugar on a cake against a brilliant blue sky but a solid cap of snow against grey snow-heavy clouds. Word round here is that the first snow on the peaks arrives and stays 6 weeks after the snow melts completely off Mt McKenzie, that has been 15th September for the last 5 years. However the snow hasn’t completely melted off McKenzie this summer and here we are with a good dollop of snow already. The valley stays warmer and snowfree for a lot longer of course but it is already beginning to feel like Fall weatherwise.

I remembered to remove the rosemary and agapanthus from their ornamental pots in time to stop them drowning, and emptied 2 buckets of rain water on the Brussel’s Lace hydrangea under the spruce. After a night and morning of steady rain the bench against the trunk was still bone dry! I think I will give the tomatoes and eggplants some protection. The weather is forecast to stay wet until the weekend and then the overnight temperatures will drop to 5C. Aaaarrrgh, I am really not ready for winter yet. I hope I won’t be planting the Spring bulbs through snow.
Normals for the time of year are 22C/10C min.

DPWR says that because they have a very good huckle berry crop this year they do not have bears around town. My walking, cycling friend says that our high mountain crop is very poor and so to look out for bears, she has seen bear scat along our riverside paths and broken off rowan berry twigs. The alpine meadows on Mt Revelstoke have been closed for safety reasons because there are at least 2 grizzly bears wandering around up there, probably a sow and her cub. There is a road which goes to within 2km of the top, then you can walk or catch a Parks bus, so a lot of people go to the summit.