We’re back from our June vacation to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies. This is just a quick pic post to say hello after the longish lack of posting. I missed the knit-out today (and it is a gorgeous day) in order to stay home and work on my current freelance project, so I really should get back to that before I write more about the trip (and, of course, post more of our photos). We have a busy month coming up, with lots of guests coming and a whirlwind trip to Toronto in the offing, so there will be lots of shoehorning work into the chinks between other commitments! At least we are well-rested, except perhaps for Sam, who is busy catching up on all that sleep he lost while watching campsite squirrels, guarding the trailer, and hiking up mountain trails. Vacation for us, work for him!

Here he is in the car, snout pointing south.

When I got off my bus in Colwood today, on the way home from work, the wind was swirling around and the rain was coming in sideways. There was just enough sun for a rainbow as I drove home via Esquimalt Lagoon. For those who might be studying lighthouses, like a certain nephew of mine, this is Fisgard Light framed by the rainbow. While I’m catering to the lighthouse crowd, I should also mention that we can see Race Rocks from our dining room. They have webcams set up out there for observing the marine life. You can even control them remotely. So, I’m just saying, we’ve got us some pretty cool lighthouses out here. Not that I’m bragging.

April, you are one crazy month. How these delicate little petals survive the hail and late-winter snow is a wonder. The first spring baby birds and squirrels arrived this week at Wild ARC too. The squirrels are tiny, though not so tiny as the little newly hatched birds. Most amazing of all is my tiny nephew, less than two weeks old now, and born very early. Small and fragile as he his, the baby squirrels are smaller. And I know they will grow. Sleepy and slack-limbed now, they will get squirmy soon, and they will grow to be fast and agile and cheeky. And then they will want to bite me. So I keep thinking about all the things that grow and thrive, and how all these beautiful April babies are going to get stronger and stronger. Because that’s what they are born to do.