The Virus Yard, Barn and House Clean-up

One-and-a-half hour lineups at the garbage dump, I've heard.

Pick-up trucks, loaded with all manner of stuff, everywhere in town.
Not just shopping to resupply the kitchen pantry, either.
Big cardboard boxes were carried...fridge?  stove?  lumber, wire rolls.

I was amazed at all the traffic through town.
So...why was I adding to the traffic in town?
Took grandson for a drive to Armstrong yesterday to kill two hours while his parents were busy.
I had packed a sandwich and water so he wouldn't ask to go into a restaurant (kids are always hungry when they see the McDonald's arches.)

En route, I pulled into a parking lot to take a couple of photos.

Hardly any parking left at the RONA lot

Few parking spaces at WalMart

The drive through downtown Armstrong (no photos, though!) was very nice.  Hadn't been there in many years and, as expected, the parking lot at Askew's food store was very busy.  Lovely old buildings and my grandson especially liked driving past Armstrong's huge red brick school...where he exclaimed, sadly, "they're closed too!!!"

People were out in their yards, pruning trees, sweeping driveways of winter's dust, sitting in a lawnchair.  It occurred to me that some of these older folks may be lonely without the "drop in" visitors they were likely used to seeing.  We drove quietly through town and headed back to drop the little man off at home.

As we entered Vernon, grandson talked me into pulling into the boat launch at Swan Lake where a pick-up truck's three occupants were launching a boat...a small boat with a "tiny" (according to the grandson) motor into the choppy water.  "Look, whitecaps!" the grandson exclaimed, admiring the effects of wind on the water.  The little boat heaved to and fro in the choppy waters and was soon out on the middle of the lake, with two of its occupants' fishing rods trailing.  The third person, a woman, had a quilt/blanket draped over her shoulders, clutched with an exposed fist.  She knew it would be a cold wind, obviously.

After dropping off the grandson, I headed home to see that husband and friend Hughie had added so many more prunings onto the burning pile.  That's the result of not doing much pruning in recent years.  But now, local government has ruled there will be no burning, perhaps until Fall.
So we're providing a home for all manner of rodents in that pile...hopefully the advent of rats in the Okanagan will prove to be false.  Mice are bad enough.

Gravel pit is commencing its reclamation.

Will finish off with something pretty...the beginning of Star Magnolia blossoms in my front yard.

Oooops...seems Blogger website isn't allowing additional photos to be added to this post?  Maybe a bug they haven't fixed yet.

Will close and try again.
That pic of Star Magnolia blossoms starting is too pretty to omit!

Star Magnolia

There!  Got it to post!
Love the Star Magnolia.

And the songbirds have returned...a wonderful time of year, despite COVID-19.

Be well, be safe folks.