First of all, I got my eyes tested. First time in about....um......35 years. Good news. My eyes are healthy, with a tiny indication of a cataract forming in one. I don't really need prescription glasses. One strength of reading glasses (1.25) for driving and watching tv. A much stronger one for reading...but hey! No "real glasses" as the optician said.
I was worried about my eye health mostly. Veins are fine etc. etc.

Started out as clear but cold today. Around freezing. Now it is still brightly sunny (Chancellor Peak looks gorgeous with it's snow cover) and around 70F. I can lean back in my computer chair and see some the peak from the upstairs windows which are huge and plate glass.

As I've been educated, I now know that the property is situated between the Purcell Mountains (sub range of the Columbia Mountains) and the Selkirks (spanning the northern portion of the Idaho Panhandle, eastern Washington) and southeastern British Columbia. Chancellor Peak is the very first peak of the Rockies one can see when driving east from the west of us and we have a great view.

The mountains around here are vast and I am trying to learn about the topography of this region. It's complicated and fascinating.

thanks! Too bad I didn't have the new glasses yesterday. We drove to Cranbrook, which is near the US border, to do some shopping. Mostly for the property. I had forgotten that we made that same trip about 6 years ago when we spent a few nights in Fernie, BC and decided to take the long way back to Calgary. Stopped to tour an old fort, Ft. Steele on the way. The drive is really pretty. A gorgeous lake with a rest area along the highway from where you have great views of the lakes and mountains.

The best part.........yesterday I SAW ELK! Woohoo. Well, I saw blurry Elk. lmao

You can see Golden,Fernie and Cranbrook on this map. Golden in the top left, the others in the south.

Got to see a few elk clearly with my glasses today on the same route. No antlers since they shed them this time of year, as I've come to learn. Still very pretty.

The best part of this trip was the view coming home. The Columbia river valley to our left with the highway rising high over the valley in many spots. Seeing the river, with the Selkirk Mountain Range (part of the Rockies) across the river and their snow-covered peaks towering over the mountainside with the dark green of the evergreens interspersed with the bright green of newly leafed deciduous trees was breathtaking. The lighting was perfect. Along the way to our right were fields and fields full of newly bloomed dandelions. Carpets of bright yellow, some of which were people's "lawn". Good to see they were letting them grow unfettered. Nice change after making the trip many times with either snow-covered landscape or the dull brown left after the melt. Saw a couple of HUGE mule deer too.

I am slowly learning the topography for this area, but it is so varied that it will take a while.

It's so cool that even a simple trip gives you so many pretty things to see.