Prairie Valley
We’ve all become accustomed to having a phone within easy reach. We snap a picture of anything (and everything) with the camera attached to the mobile phone in our pockets, relying on the computational photography computers in our hands. I shot this set on an old-school DSLR camera with a fixed lens and in black and white to challenge my skills with composition, framing, and technique while exploring the beautiful and quaint downtown Summerland, BC.
Read MoreI remember the first time my wife found a black widow spider nest on our upstairs deck, the summer after moving to this area. I was ready to purge the area with fire. Napalm, propane torches, gasoline fires; I was considering all options. But, as the deck is attached to the house, I knew this probably wasn’t a good idea as I didn’t think the insurance claim would go in my favour.
Read MoreOur town has a wonderful tradition of Christmas Light Ups. All of the town holiday lights come on at the same time on the last weekend in November/first weekend in December, depending on the calendar. It transforms our quaint Main Street into something out of a romantic Christmas Movie. This year was slightly marred by the fact that the snow-line was above the downtown area - but as our home is higher than the town centre, the snow at home made our own light up much more festive.
Our local vineyards also reopen for a couple of evenings in early December for a tradition called Light Up The Vines - which is hugely popular, and very, very busy.
We stopped by three of our local wineries on Saturday night, for a combination of wine tasting and dinner. At the first, Lightning Rock, I tried out my new camera. The other stops were just full of people having fun and, I suspect, not wanting to be on a camera. We also drove past some of the crazy community lights - everyone gets into the season. Enjoy the short video.
Lighting Up The Vines
Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license.<https: data-preserve-html-node="true"//creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/>
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I've been busy around my house this summer, and I didn't realize until today how much I've missed nature. Ironic, as I live in a fairly rural space, with orchards and vineyards just the other side of my neighbours house. But I had a longling for solitude and quietness - the type that only remote nature can provide.
Today was September 30 - the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. And what better way to honour the elders of the land than to visit nature. I took a jaunt to a local provincial park - a place always favoured by boom-box toting, pot-smoking tent campers during the summer. Come autumn, and the vibe is different, and much more to my taste. In fact, we were the only people at the lake today. Well, us and the eagles. Which is exactly my type of solitude.
The lake, at the end of our dry summer season was surprisingly low. But, even the low tide didn't dull the views from the south end of the lake.
I needed some quiet time in nature, and this park - only 30 minutes outside of Summerland, provided that. The beginning of the changing fall colours of the trees really brought this home.
Feeling stuck? Find your own version of this lake. It maybe closer than you think.
It was supposed to be beer and pizza. Hang out in my bar. Talk some BS and generally destress. It’s just a few guys getting together for a few hours on a weeknight to chill and hang out. With family and work commitments, it’s something that gets put off far too often.
My friends are musicians, and fortunately, I have a relatively decent musical setup at home. As the night went on, we listened to different types of music, discussed the music of our youth (yes, this is something that aging men do!), and finally had to try out the various instruments I had lying around.
We played some great tunes, but it wasn't until Mrs. T subbed for me on my synthesizers that I thought to record a snippet of what we were playing.
Have a listen:
It came out brilliantly. What a fantastic way to spend a Tuesday evening!
How was your evening? If it wasn’t quite as fulfilling, I recommend setting up an evening with the most talented people you know. You may be amazed at what happens. I certainly was!
Somedays, it's hard to believe the beauty in my local area. I live in a valley surrounded by mountains and trails. For a fun hike on a Sunday morning, I ventured out onto a trail on my local mountain, and took my new drone for company.
The scenery was stunning, so here is the video I shot. Winter hikes: Amazing!
I grew up during the theatrical release of The Jungle Book (a long time ago!), and one of my first ideas of bears was Baloo scratching his back and singing "The Bear Necessities." Lovely fellow! This association with friendly, cuddly bears likely contributes to my lack of fear about these sharp-clawed animals in the wild—and having been a city dweller for so many years, bears weren't something I've ever given much thought to.
I now live in a more rural area, with a couple of bears regularly patrolling my neighbourhood - evidenced by the large, triangular deposits left behind or the occasional raid of a neighbour's garbage can if left outside. Luckily, these are black bears and not their aggressive relatives, though one is still pretty big. They walk through my street mostly at night to get from the hills where they live to the orchards on the other side of my house.
Mrs. T is much more prudent about bear safety and insists on carrying bear spray when we venture into the trails. She carries a bear bell when hiking or will set up her phone to play music and make noise to avoid creeping up on a bear. I go along with such measures largely for marital harmony. However, if I'm hiking deep in the back woods, I'm likely to strap on a can of bear spray. I've had bears walk through my camps, but they haven't woken me up, and I tend to be bear-aware with food to avoid potential problems.
Last weekend, I had my first close-up bear encounter. We were camping on a property some miles to the West of us in a beautiful wooded valley. I was taking Coco, our Lhasa Apso Princess Puppy, out for a walk when I noted a big black bear in the meadow a couple of hundred feet from us. Mr. Bear was doing beary things and foraging around the meadow, paying us no mind. Coco was likewise entertained by the sniffs of white-tail deer that had passed through the campground the night before. Indeed, it was The Peaceable Kingdom, with nobody paying any mind to anyone else.
So, I did what any self-respecting iPhone-carrying moron would do and broke out the camera to get a couple of pictures of the bear. I'm not suggesting I walked closer to get a selfie or anything that daft, but seeing a bear in the wild doing bear things was interesting. Very cool.
That was until Mr. Bear noticed us and started walking towards us. I didn't think much of it at first, as I was trying to keep an eye on the dog doing that circular walk that we all know means relief is coming soon. I looked up and saw that the bear had suddenly gotten much closer. Even at a walk, a bear moves quickly, and when it's looking straight at you and walking in your direction, it moves like the wind.
At about 100 feet away, I was tempted to pick up Coco, throw my phone at the bear, and shriek like a little girl while running away as quickly as my plump little legs would carry me, but this meant I'd be an appetizer for Mr. Bear. I could say I fought him off with my pocket knife and wrestled him into submission, but the truth is a lot less scary.
I said louder than usual, but not a shout - "Hey, bear!" And Mr. Bear turned tail and ran off through the back of the meadow. I felt bad for scaring the big loaf. And the experience has not taught me to be afraid of bears any more than before. Cute buggers when you see them up close. At least the black ones.
Summer is an exciting time to live in the Okanagan Valley. It's hot. Very hot. And fire season is upon us.
Read MoreOne of the better things to come out of Covid-19 is the ability to work from home. And home moved for me during the pandemic.
No longer in the hustle and bustle of the city, I live near orchards, mountains, and a steam train. Horses walk down my street, and the biggest pests in my neighbourhood are deer.
I still have to make the drive to work sometimes. Face-to-face meetings are important. This was my drive down the dreaded Highway Through Hell - the Coquihalla Highway on my way to work last week. Beautiful when the weather is nice. Deadly when it isn’t. This is the section from Merritt to Abbotsford, BC.
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We’ve all seen the stereotypical Hollywood Christmas movie where disaster threatens Christmas for the protagonists. These movies always seem to resolve in the middle of a small town with Holiday lights, snow, rousing music, and hugs all around. I live in a town that is straight out of a made-for-tv movie!
Read MoreSometimes people surprise you. And sometimes, that surprise is just incredible.
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I hope that we, as a society, have learned positive lessons from the Covid 19 pandemic - even if the narrative we see in the news can be divisive. I remember the early days of the pandemic, where people were trying to get used to living with new social rules. People were polite, kind, and respectful. At least, until you got to the toilet paper aisle in a grocery store. Then all bets were off.
Read MoreIn 2005 I spent some time working in Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut in Northern Canada. With its arctic location and remoteness from traditional freight channels, people were different. People help people. A handshake means something, and your word is your bond. Perhaps helping your neighbour was about survival rather than just getting more toys. Still, I've never worked in such a collaborative fashion.
The people of Summerland have much of the same positive attitude, despite the threat of nature. The local Shopkeepers are friendly. Unknown people who are walking in town wave as you drive past. And I find that my new neighbours are extremely friendly.
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Summerland. With vineyards and orchards. A beautiful lake. And warm, pleasant temperatures ideal for drinking wine in. In my past visits, getting into air conditioning was the main environmental concern. I mean, it says it on the tin, right. Summer-land….Tl;dr: Never believe the label on the tin.
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When one has lived in a metropolitan sprawl for many years, one gets used to certain conveniences. A Starbucks close to one’s house. 24-hour grocery stores (or at least a Wal-Mart with a grocery section). And a choice of restaurants for any civilized hour. In the last year, like many in the world, I've come to rely on fast deliveries of both essentials and random Amazon purchases that I've only bought because of late-night shopping.
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I made my recent home move backwards. I sold my house and then had to decide where to move and find a place. Which wasn’t easy in the hot seller’s market of 2021!
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Moving is hard. And not something I like to do. I lived at my last house for 22 years. And, if you stay in a place for that long, you begin to accumulate things. In my case, a lot of stuff! And those things have to be moved.
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2020 brought a lot of things, arguably many of them harmful. Working (primarily) from home certainly affected how I felt about where I was living in the suburb of a large metropolitan city. And so, I joined the great migration of 2020/2021 and decided to leave town.
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