Kootenay Flower Power

It is simply amazing how the flora around me explodes in spring and early summer...as if all the plants were locked into a small box and then all of the sudden are being released.

The first show of color in spring goes to the Pulsatilla

quickly followed by the Shooting Star

and by the time Arrowleaf Balsamroot colors the hillsides, spring is here to stay.

The following images have all bee taken within the last three weeks, I tell you fair and square, pun intended, that I still haven't managed to learn all my wildflowers. Should I misname a flower here, or if you know the name of one of my "unknown flower" please feel free to leave a comment or catch me on facebook.

Enjoy!

 Three-Spot Mariposa Lily

Little gem, unknown flower #1

Not quite sure on this one, Butter-and-Eggs?

Yellow Salsify...

 ...with it's enormous seed pod

beautiful unknown flower #2

Wild Rose

Pretty in purple, Penstemon?...unknown flower #3

American Vetch

Lupine

Harebell

Boisduval Blue

Not really a wildflower...

Just matched the color scheme so well

And last but not least, 

Blue Flax in all it's beauty

June Conservation Tip

TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE

Bees are in peril...we all have heard it.

Three quarters of all flowering plants and 1/3 of all food plants need pollinators. Although bees being helped with this job by butterflies, bats, birds and more, they are responsible for 80% -90% of all animal depended pollination. With this in mind, being short of honey seems to be the smaller problem.

Why are they dying so rapidly is still under investigation. The so aptly named Colony Collapse Disorder, which describes the faltering of bee hives worldwide, seems to be a caused by multiple factors.

1. To increase crop yield per acre, more and more chemicals have to be used. A few years ago the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency (...really??)) approved the use of  neonicotinoids, or short neonics, which meanwhile have found to be toxic to bees. Just to get an idea of the amount of neonics that are being used, here an excerpt from eXtension: "At some 95 million acres planted this year, corn alone accounts for almost a quarter of the harvested acres in the United States.  It is the largest use of US agricultural land and virtually every seed is coated with neonicotinoid insecticides." (3)
These neonics might not kill the bee directly, but weaken them over time. Eventually they might not be able to feed the colony, will be more susceptible to diseases or can even get lost on the way back to the hive. Earth Justice has a great infograph to this topic: Bees' Toxic Problem 
All of the studies have been done on "domesticated" honey bee colonies, that makes me wonder how contaminated the honey might be AND how the wild bees are faring, as they collect most likely from the same areas....

2. Hand in hand with the use of pesticides goes the loss of habitat due to monoculture crop growing, urbanization and modern "lawn-care". The dwindling variation of food options has impacted the bees' diet and led to malnutrition.

3. Domesticated bees have been bred for a maximum of honey production, efficiency in pollination and non-aggressiveness. A plausible theory suggests that this caused some inbreeding, which resulted in a decline of diversity and resilience to natural enemies.

4. Varroa destructor...the name says it all. The mite that drives bee-keepers insane since the 80s is still around. There are methods to deal with the mites, but with bees weakened by chemical overload, loss of habitat and inbreeding the Varroa mite is still a big threat to the honey bees.

This seems overwhelming, but every one of us can help!

Gardening?
Plant bee friendly plants, BuzzAboutBees has a great collection of suggestions, as has the David Suzuki Foundation.
Please let weeds be(e), at least dandelions and clover!
Don't use herbicides or pesticides in your garden.
Instead of a perfectly "mowicured" lawn, try a wild flower meadow.
Bees are thirsty! Provide them with a "watering hole". Any shallow bowl will do, put a few rocks in it and fill it with fresh water but leave some of the rock surface exposed. Place it strategically near the plants that can profit from pollination. Change the water often.

Buy local honey to encourage local bee-keepers to stay in business.

Buy local and ORGANIC food. Among all other advantages, organic food has not been treated with neonics!!

Spread the word! Share bee related information as this blog and help inform others.

Add your name...there are multiple organizations that are fighting for the bees and hence for us, give them your support:

Greenpeace
Sierra Club
Xeres Pollinator Protection Pledge
Earth Justice
Bee lovely and help save the bees via Care2

Sources:

Earth Justice: Down to Earth
Earth Justice: Infographic: Bees' Toxic Problem
eXtension (3)
Rabobank: The plight of the Honey Bee
rcinet: Canadian conference on the worrisome decline of bees
Greenpeace blog
The Xeres Society: Bring back the pollinators
Care2: Our bees are dying

BTW, I was desperately looking for bees to photograph this spring for this blog...I saw one! and of course I didn't have a camera at hand...All the above images are from my archive. We had a hard winter and I sure hope I will see more bees this summer.

Exploring The Kootenays

Part VI

Sunflower Hill and Vicinity

Every year, usually around mid May, a part of the Kimberley Nature Park shows off in a spectacular display of sunflowers, hence the name Sunflower Hill. As I first heard about it, I wondered, sunflowers in spring?

Arrowleaf Balsamroot, Balsamorhiza sagittata, belongs indeed to the sunflower family. Distributed all over western North America, preferably on hillsides, the Balsamroot delights the winter weary beholder with it's colorful display.

Although you see smaller patches of  Balsamroot all through the Kootenays, Sunflower Hill and the adjacent riverbank of the St. Mary River seem to be one it's favorite spots.

Taking the well marked short hike up to Sunflower Hill will not only offer Balsamroot and other wildflowers, but also an incredible panoramic view of the Rocky Mountains including Fisher Peak.

Best seen from a plateau below the actual summit

Please click on the image for a full view

On a recent evening walk here, I saw for the first time a sun dog made by the already set sun...

In the quest of finding even more Balsamroot I followed a tip of a friend and explored the area around St. Eugene. And stumbled upon this neat little church. 

Pre-built in Italy the original St. Eugene church is one of the very few remaining Victorian wooden churches in BC.

 

But back to the Balsamroot....it is not only nice to look at, it also plays an important ecological role.

With it's fleshy taproots running deep into the rocky soil it helps preventing erosion, 

grazing wildlife likes to eat this sunflower, possibly because of the high protein content of the plant. The blossoms are attractive to native pollinators and the seeds provide food for small mammals and birds.

Not only animals take advantage of Balsamroot, humans have long since used the plant as an herbal medicine. It contains antibacterial compounds and an extract of the resinous root finds an application as expectorant.

Dogs seem to like it, too...;-)

If you live around here and haven't taken a hike at Sunflower Hill yet, hurry up and go, by mid June the wildflower show will have faded and resigned to the summer heat.

May Conservation Tip

LONG LIVE THE DANDELION

There is hardly a plant out there that gets more viciously attacked by humans every spring than the dandelion. Most call it the "worst weed ever"....
Not too long ago I got offered round-up by a neighbor who took pity that we had so many dandelions in our backyard...considering that "close to 70 million pounds of pesticides (including herbicides) are applied to US lawns each year which is approximately ten times the amount applied to American farmland, acre for acre." (1), I politely declined.
For me it's one of the most beautiful wild flowers and it tells me that finally spring has sprung.

Our ancestors, knowing about the dandelions' benefits, were smarter, hence the official name: Taraxacum officinale - The official remedy.
But somewhere in the social quest for the perfect lawn the poor dandelion fell into disgrace.

Along with the ungodly amount of pesticides and herbicides that are used for "proper" lawn care, the disappearance of the dandelion proofs to be devastating to the already dwindling bee population.
The dandelion is probably one of the most important early spring wildflower for the bees after the winter. Followed by clover who comes into bloom a little later. The dandelion does not provide enough pollen and nectar for the bees to produce honey but it is vital for the survival of a hive until more flowers start to bloom.

It is kind of ironic that people fight the dandelion so hard to "protect" their lawn since the dandelion is actually good for the soil and in no competition with the grass. Their up to three-foot deep roots loosen and aerate the soil and bring up minerals, which makes them more readily available to other plants once the dandelion dies. Earthworms also like to be around dandelion roots, helping with soil aeration and producing humus at the same time. The long root also helps against erosion.

And what's good for the soil and the bee is also good for us!
Googling "health benefits of dandelion" brings up 970,000 results....., googling "dandelion recipes" results in 3,210,000 hits.
No, I didn't read all of them for this blog, but picked a few highlights to try and share.

Dandelion Tea:
You can use just the flower or the whole dried plant for this tea. I use only the flowers right now by just going outside, pick a handful of blossoms, wash them, let them sit in hot but not quite boiling water for about 8 min and then straining the tea. It has a wonderful herb aroma, in fact I'm sipping on a cup of dandelion tea as I write this. Dandelion tea is said to have a lot of benefits, detoxing through its diuretic effect being the most important.
For more information on dandelion tea, please check out the "Dandelion Tea Benefits" link in the Sources below.

How about some Dandelion Muffins to go with the tea?
Collect about 1 1/2 to 2 cups of dandelion petals, no greens. The easiest way to do this, I found, is harvesting the petals in the morning and pinching out the petals from the middle of the flower.

Choose your flowers wisely and make sure to only get the petals and not some extra critters, since washing the petals would clump them and make them unusable.
For the muffins you will need:

2 cups organic flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1-1 1/2 cup dandelion petals
1/4 cup organic butter, softened
4 tbsp honey
1 organic free-range egg
1 1/2 cups buttermilk

icing:
1 cup organic powdered sugar
1/2 cup dandelion petals
juice of one organic lemon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
Mix all the ingredients, except the ones for the icing, to a smooth batter. When adding the petals, make sure to avoid clumping.
Pour batter in a prepared muffin tin and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 20-25 minutes.
Let cool down and take out of the muffin tin.
For the icing mix the powdered sugar with the petals and use so much of the lemon juice to get the consistency of a liquidy paste. Coat the top of the muffins with the icing and let it dry for about an hour.

Adapted from Fat of the Land. The original recipe had oil and milk instead of butter and buttermilk. It had a great texture but the taste just wasn't what I expected, so I tried the above version and liked it much better.

Here another recipe I just got emailed this morning from a German Magazine I'm subscribed to. Since I just got this, I didn't have a chance to try it, but it sure sounds yummy:

Dandelion butter:
You will need:
1/2 cup cream cheese
1/2 cup soft butter
1/4 cup washed and finely chopped dandelion leaves
4-5 whole washed dandelion leaves
1 organic lemon
1 tsp honey
sea salt

Mix the butter with the cream cheese and the chopped dandelion leaves, season with the zest of half of the lemon, honey and salt. Add lemon juice to taste. Put in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Then form a roll, wrap it with the whole dandelion leaves and store in the fridge.
Recommended to fresh asparagus!
For my German friends and for everyone who wants to see the photo to it, please click on the "Brigitte Rezept Löwenzahnbutter" link in the sources down below.

Dandelion Oil and Ointment: 
Dandelion flowers are slightly analgesic. Dandelion infused oil is said to relief rheumatoid arthritis  The ointment soothes joint pain or sore muscles after a long day in the garden or a strenuous workout.
To make the oil collect enough dandelion heads to fill a one quart mason jar

have them closly inspected by your cat for quality control...;-)

wash the blossoms and fill them loosely in a 1 quart mason jar. Then cover them with your favorite oil. Suggested oils are olive, almond and sesame oil. I used sesame oil because I like it's silkiness and quick absorption. Stir the mix to release any air bubbles, then cover it with a cheese cloth and fix the cloth with the mason jar ring.

Let it stand on a sunny windowsill for about two to three weeks, until the flowers getting a brownish tint and the oil kind of seperates:

Strain the oil and you have a great massage oil.
To make the ointment, melt beeswax in a double boiler and add the oil in the ratio of 1 part beeswax to 7 parts oil. For 80 gram ointment for example you would use 10 gram beeswax and 70 gram oil. Stir well, pour the mixture into a jar and let cool down.


NOW, just imagine what you can do with all the time that you were planning to spend with pulling out dandelions this weekend...you could sit down with a good book, while nibbling on a delicious dandelion muffin, sipping a cup of aromatic dandelion tea and getting a relieving massage with dandelion oil. And while doing all this you save bees and enhance your soil without even lifting a finger....


Sources and more information:

Dandelion Tea Benefits

40 Things to do with Dandelion

Brigitte Rezept Löwenzahnbutter 

The Ultimate Dandelion Cookbook  

The Dandelion Celebration 

Ten Things You Might Not Know About Dandelions 

(1) Pesticide use on lawns

Exploring The Kootenays

Part V

The Hoodoos

Often did we drive by the Hoodoos on our way north to Invermere this last year. I always marvel at their extraordinary formations and unique look. But not until I read an article in the Brithish Columbia Magazine this spring did it occur to me that one can actually hike the Hoodoos.

A few days after I read the article, I grabbed the boys and dogs and off we went to explore them.

The Hoodoos are just a bit south of Fairmont Hotsprings and easily accessible from the back via Westside Road.

From there a short trail leads up the very top of the Hoodoos. And up there you have a spectecular view over the Columbia Lake and the Purcell Mountains...

 

...and of course down the crevasses and stone sculptures of the Hoodoos themselves.

There are two explanation as to how the Hoodoos came to existence....

Geology explains the formation as deposited sediment from a glacial river at the end of the last ice age, which after a closer look sounds absolutely plausible.

As always, you can enlarge the images by clicking on them.

This sediment deposit is rather vulnerable to wind and rain. As explained in the magazine article, the rain washes the sediment down and wind blows sand up, this forms the unique appearance of the Hoodoos and explains the almost beach-like trail and area behind the top of the Hoodoos. 

Luckily the hoodoos are covered by a more weather resistant capstone layer, which is clear in the following image:

The local Ktunaxa people though have a different explanation in their creation story:

In the beginning of time when only animals lived on earth, a huge sea monster was eating many animals. The other animals decided that the monster, Yawu?nik, would have to be destroyed. As they finally succeeded in conquering Yawu?nik, his meat was given to the other animals, leaving only the inner organs and the bones.

The inner organs gave life to mankind and the scattered ribs form today's hoodoos. 

Easy to understand how this legend came to be.

At a certain time on a sunny day, in spring it is around noon, the sun bounces off the south facing cliffs and illuminates the north facing cliffs, which gives the Hoodoos an almost eerie glow.

Walking along the ridge for a kilometer or two will then reward you with a stunning view back to the Hoodoos with the Rocky Mountains as background

A magical place I sure will go back to many more times!

Sources:

British Columbia Magazine, Spring 2014 Edition, pg. 30

Ktunaxa Nation - Who We Are

April Conservation Tip

Spring Cleaning

It's that time of the year, the days get longer, the sun shines through the ever so dirty windows and everybody wants to get the "winter" dust out of the house.
Perfect time to share some DIY natural cleaners and housekeeping tricks with you!
I think I have never been a friend of that harsh chemical odor that one used to associate with house cleaning. But since we are living in a house with a private sewage system, I got really sensitive as to what is going down the drain.

My absolute favorite cleaner right now is a orange vanilla vinegar concoction. I actually found that recipe, believe it or not, in a book by Lisa Steele,  Fresh Eggs Daily, as a chicken coop disinfectant. 
As I did the spring cleaning in the chicken coop, I had made a batch and was so pleased by the cleaning power and smell that I wondered, if I could use it also as a shower cleaner. We have rather hard water and I usually attack the water stains with pure vinegar, but that just smells horrible.
And yes, the orange vinegar works wonderfully and the shower smells so good afterwards!

Orange Vinegar Cleaner

You need:

Peel of about 3 oranges

1 cinnamon stick, broken in half

1 vanilla beans, slit in half

white vinegar

1 one quart canning jar, or any other jar that holds about 1 liter

Spray bottle

Put the orange peel, vanilla bean and cinnamon stick in the jar and fill  up with vinegar. Screw on the lid and leave on your kitchen counter and shake every other day or so. In about two weeks, or earlier, the vinegar mix will turn orangy. Strain through a fine mesh and fill in a spray bottle.

Another great (smelling) bathroom cleaner, especially for bathtubs is even simpler:

Salt and Lemon Juice Bathtub Scrub

You need:

the juice of one or two lemons

salt

a stiff sponge

Sprinkle the salt  generously in the bathtub, soak the sponge with the lemon juice and scrub your bathtub. This will get rid of all the residues of a long cream bath and the rings around the drain. If you don't have a stiff sponge, just use the lemon halves. Instead of juicing the lemon gently squeeze the half while you are scrubbing with the salt.

Clogged drains...how I hate them. Vinegar to the rescue again!

Baking Soda Vinegar Drain "Unclogger"

You need:

1/2 cup baking soda

1/2 cup vinegar

hot or boiling water

Funnel the baking soda into your drain and carefully pour the vinegar down the drain right after the baking soda. Put on the drain plug to keep the action down below. After about 15 min follow up with a quart of boiling water (if you have metal pipes) or with water as hot as it comes out of your faucet (if you have plastic pipes). We had a very stubborn clogged drain, so I had to repeat this a couple of times, but eventually we won...;-)

Baking soda is also a great help if you accidentally burnt some food and have trouble to get the burnt stuff from the bottom of your pan. Sprinkle ample baking soda on the bottom of the pot or pan and fill with about 1 inch of water. Put it on the stove and let it gently cook. After a few minutes you will notice flakes of the burnt material floating in the cooking water. Let the pan cool down, wash it out and you have a clean pan again.

Finally the proud owner of a dishwasher I did quite some experimenting with dishwasher detergent. The mainstream stuff works great but I wasn't quite as happy about their environmental impact. I did not come up with a satisfying DIY detergent but settled with the ECOVER detergent and rinse, both work really well with our dishwasher. After a couple of washes though, probably due to our hard water, the glassware gets that whitish film. A cup with vinegar in the upper rack during a normal cycle took care of that.

Not really in the cleaning section but a good smelling tip against moths in your clothes....

...just put some dried lavender in your closet and they will stay away (and your clothes will smell lovely).

And to this effect

HAPPY SPRING!