The Short View 2

A red sun glowing
over a smoky landscape
does not inspire me

~ carliewired

I was out the door at 6 AM. One look out my windows this morning convinced me that there would be no landscape photos today. The air quality is off the scale this morning. I thought I might find some floral shots at McArthur Island. 

Driving into the park I could see right away that there had been some vandalism overnight. Some planters had been pulled apart with the vegetation strewn about. Safety cones were in unusual places and left in odd positions or broken. 

I parked near the Butterfly Garden to walk onto the pedestrian bridge for a shot of the red sun over the slough. I found someone sleeping on the bridge with a grocery cart as a headboard. I tiptoed around them quietly. She spoke to me and I said "Good morning" and moved on quickly. 

I was delighted to find a mama wood duck escorting her brood around the slough. There must be lots of places for wood ducks to nest around the island. They like to nest in wood cavities and prefer trees that overhang slow-moving water. Wood ducks are very private birds so to catch one out and about was wonderful!

I wandered over to the Butterfly Garden. It was still wet with the watering. The lilies are fabulous at the moment. I had to move quickly as the mosquitoes kept finding me. 

Back on the Rivers Trail, I encountered a local resident and walker that I've met before. She gave me the list of all the destruction she'd noted this morning and was quite riled up about the person sleeping on the bridge. She said there was a large candle in the shopping cart. I told her to call the police to state her concerns. 

I was off to the drive-thru to treat myself to breakfast. I found the helicopter crews and Canadian armed forces personnel were there to do the same this morning. This drive-thru is the closest one to the airport. 

I'm in for the day again. It's already 17 C at 8 AM. We're going for a high of 33 C today. I don't expect the wildfire smoke to disappear.