90 F/ 32 C

There's smoke in the air.
I can see it and smell it.
It's summer's downer!

~carliewired

I left the house at 6 with a red sun already on the horizon. Our valleys are smoky once again with forest fires persisting in several directions from us. I drove across the bridge, then up to the Merritt Highway to make my turn onto Rose Hill Road.

Before the turn, I got a shot of my mountains looking ghostly in the smoky haze. 

I found horses grazing in a field burnt blonde by the sun. The hay has been removed from the fields. Cattle are grazing on the stubble. I'm always happy to see that red barn at the crest of the hill. 

I caught a bluebird with its breakfast, then spied a hawk surveying the grasslands. I watched birds of prey swooping over the grasses looking for their game. As I rounded a corner I found a buck in the road. He bounded up over the fence and into the trees. I only caught one photo of his retreat through my rather dirty front windshield. 

On the way down the north slope of Rose Hill I stopped for a hazy look down to the city and across the valley north to my mountains. Just as I was about the leave the Rose Hill neighbourhood, a lovely doe walked across a lawn, posing just long enough for a portrait. 

I'm home for the day and it should be a very quiet one. My daughter is out with a friend picking fireweed for jelly. I will be inside with my feet up.