Summer is coming!

So far November continues to be wet, but every day the sunshine (or lack of rain) increases. One sure sign that summer is around the corner is seeing the catalinas dot the landscape. These beautiful flowers bloom seemingly overnight. They come in different colours and we're lucky to have the white and purple variety on our property. Another sign summer is upon us is the wind. We can feel a shift in the air and a steady wind blowing all the clouds away.

I took the above pictures while walking along the riverbank while my trusty friend, Bobbie McGee kept me company. She loves to hop from rock to rock and then splash in the water.

Birds are still around. We haven't seen the ospreys in several days, but the herons make an appearance almost daily still -- no evidence of much success in killing our trout though.

Birds that we often see in the river, scavenging for dead animals, are vultures. When we gut and clean the trout, we throw the guts into the river and the vultures enjoy a feast. This week we noticed a dead fish in the big pond. This doesn't happen often, but on occasion it does. It was floating in the middle of the pond so we had to wait until it was closer to the edge to scoop it out with a net. It took its sweet time and as I was sitting in the house with the door propped open and suddenly saw a vulture land on the terrace wall. It made me jump. I was caught off guard (yet again) so didn't have my camera ready. By the time I was set to take a picture, he had flown off. Minutes later, he came back and landed on the bank of the pond. He was eyeing the dead fish, but the wire got in the way so he abandoned his mission and flew away. We've never seen vultures so close to our ponds before.

A few days later, we saw a kingfisher, which is a rare sight on our property, so it was exciting to spot one. Kingfishers do like trout, but our trout are to big for them, so there is no real danger.

B&B bookings are steadily coming in. We confirmed a reservation for seven nights in late January. Guests who stayed with us during our first season recommended our place to their friends. We're always so grateful for word-of-mouth referrals. (Thank you so much Ingrid and Allan! We hope to see you back here again soon, too!)