The flood plain of the North Saskatchewan River (Kootenay Plains) before it becomes Abraham Lake was a sea of spring green in early May.
Spring green on Kootenay Plains just off the David Thompson Highway.
Spring green on Kootenay Plains just off the David Thompson Highway.
But there were also signs of spring on the edges of the canyon below Siffleur Falls.
Geology and Geomorphology in the canyon below Siffleur Falls.
And orchids again!
A hurried shot of orchids on the trail to Siffleur Falls.
"I do wander everywhere" 
Those trees are such a pretty colour!
The colour of spring! I didn’t get close enough to figure out what they were.
So beautiful and oh… how I long for spring green… 🙂
Well, you have less time to wait than I do, so enjoy it when it comes!
wild orchids 🙂
Wild Alberta orchids. Not the same as the ones where I live which are showy lady slippers.
This looks like a fab place to visit! Super pics 😃
It was a complete surprise. The best kind of vacation scenery.
spring time will be coming…i love the colours too….smiles for a happy day ~ smiles hedy
Now I know that Spring will come again,
Perhaps to-morrow: however late I’ve patience
After this night following on such a day.
While still my temples ached from the cold burning
Of hail and wind, and still the primroses
Torn by the hail were covered up in it,
The sun filled earth and heaven with a great light
And a tenderness, almost warmth, where the hail dripped,
As if the mighty sun wept tears of joy.
But ’twas too late for warmth. The sunset piled
Mountains on mountains of snow and ice in the west:
Somewhere among their folds the wind was lost,
And yet ’twas cold, and though I knew that Spring
Would come again, I knew it had not come,
That it was lost too in those mountains chill.
What did the thrushes know? Rain, snow, sleet, hail,
Had kept them quiet as the primroses.
They had but an hour to sing. On boughs they sang,
On gates, on ground; they sang while they changed perches
And while they fought, if they remembered to fight:
So earnest were they to pack into that hour
Their unwilling hoard of song before the moon
Grew brighter than the clouds. Then ’twas no time
For singing merely. So they could keep off silence
And night, they cared not what they sang or screamed;
Whether ’twas hoarse or sweet or fierce or soft;
And to me all was sweet: they could do no wrong.
Something they knew–I also, while they sang
And after. Not till night had half its stars
And never a cloud, was I aware of silence
Stained with all that hour’s songs, a silence
Saying that Spring returns, perhaps to-morrow.
Edward Thomas, c 1913
Somewhere among their folds the wind was lost….lovely words…i will look for more of Edward Thomas…have a beautiful day Bunty 🙂
Amazing orchids. I have never seen anything like that.
They’re about 10 inches high. And I had posted some from another walk in the same area here: https://buntymcc.wordpress.com/2016/11/07/orchids-and-reflections/
High indeed, and look so beautiful in a group.
They are Calypso Fairy Slipper orchids, according to an Alberta orchid page.
Beautiful, I love all Slipper Orchids, they are so unusual, alien 🙂
Do the Siffleur Falls really whistle? (Siffleur is the French word for whistler.)