We had some clear frosty mornings after the water got running in the local ditches so we  enjoyed a couple of hours “ditch-riding*” to see what we could see.   Here, without commentary, are some of the results.   Click on the photo to see some of the delicate structure.  Quite amazing.

• *Ditchrider:  In the first half of the last century the orchards in BC’s Okanagan Valley were irrigated by snowmelt carried very large flumes up along the hillsides.  They fed water from their intake boxes to pipes which took water down to each orchard.  Since water was very valuable in that arid spot it was controlled, each day, by a fellow who walked the flume.   He was called a “ditchrider” a job which lasts to this day.

The ditchrider walked many miles each day, stepping along these crossmembers which were conveniently spaced about 30″ apart.  As kids we used to imitate the ditchriders by walking along the flume to look down on the Valley below.

Surprising what can be seen in roadside ditches, eh?