The buds come out in April, if they’re smart.

Sometimes March can tempt and tease buds out, and it is rarely good for them as frosts and freezes still slice through in the higher elevations of the East Kootenay.

But April… that’s when things finally start to appear as if spring might actually be underway. And we get a few days each April that give sniffs and tastes of warmer days still. It’s when the buds come out, with each location in the region seeing them arrive at different times, depending on elevation and weather.

April is a tan, muted blue and soft green month in this region, as the bench country of the Rockies and Purcell Mountains begin to yearn for greater doses of moisture. Any bright colour seems fake in the early going of the month, but then as May starts stretching in advance of its shift, colours begin to expand all around us – shoving their way past the plugs of idle winter.

(Click on images to enlarge and to begin slide show…)

Snows come in the high country – and rains pound down into the Columbia, Kootenay and Elk Valleys, bringing that much-needed nourishment, the secret to the pizzazz yet to come.

There is a shift change in the wildlife world, in terms of what species is where and when. The elk and deer feast on the rain-charged lowland grasses, bears are out of hibernation and there is a sense all-around of more bountiful days ahead. The same goes for the human population, which also begins to unpack itself from the heavy garbs of winter and ventures out into each delightfully slightly longer day.

The longer days mean more social occasions and the sage East Kootenayite pauses to reflect on the Rockwellian beauty of our tight-knit communities, before our highways and sidewalks once again fill up with those who wish for a taste of what we dine upon regularly.

Each month we try to capture the region as it has happened, in a community news sense, but also in a visual one with this feature. The images are taken in our travels throughout the East Kootenay as we cover the region.

Areas shot this month include: Canal Flats/Columbia Lake, Cranbrook, Fairmont Hot Springs, Edgewater, Fernie, Invermere/Panorama, Kimberley, Sparwood, Elkford and Wasa.

Ian Cobb/e-KNOW

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