Tag: environment

Skating

Look out! Scarlett skates with her hockey stick in one hand and a snowball in the other.

There is nothing like a fine day of skating. And to enjoy it with grandchildren makes the day even more satisfying.

Cooper rests in a snow drift.
A game of keep away. The old man succumbs to the energy of youth.
Enjoying the wind and ice.
Under Swansea on the ice of Lake Windermere. Showing off our gap toothed hockey smiles!

Chilly

The Columbia River.

It has been a mild winter, excluding this past week of -30 Celsius temperatures.

Lola after falling through some thin ice on the rivers edge.

The cooler temperatures have been welcomed by Lisa and I, as they have been accompanied by clear skies.

A friend with a solar panel system that keeps track of sun light recorded only 4 hours of sunshine in December. The rest of the time was overcast. That is not unusual here in the winter.

The mountain looks to the clear, cold sky.

To see the sunshine and stars, that have moved considerably since the last time seen, has been a relief regardless of the chilly air.

Cold Moon

December’s full moon shining through the clouds.

Merry Christmas

Beside the river. The sun casting long shadows. Lola and Willow can be spotted, by a keen eye, at river’s edge.

Bright sunshine. I watched the sun come up from the river bottom at 9:28, and watched the sun go down at 3:39 from the woodpile. Very fine day when you get to stop and watch both.

A Very Merry Christmas to everyone.

Lola and I waving. Willow refused to get in the picture, choosing instead to dig for mice. Wishing everyone the best from the headwaters of the Columbia River.

Snow and Cloud

There has been some snow the last five days. It is good to see. Most of my time has been spent on the end of the shovel or plowing the roads in a skid steer. 

There are very few people under the age of 35 who like shovelling. Good neighbour Larry says, if there isn’t an app for it they don’t want to do it.

I’ve never minded it, like chopping wood it is good exercise. 

***

The District of Invermere (DOI) is off to a bad start with the roads downtown again. We had a wet snow that they neglected to plow so the streets are now rutted. You think they would have learned from last year as they were criticized in the local media and by citizens and tourists for the same situation. 

I could care less if the streets are rutted. You would think, however, with the tax money they collect, the fleet of equipment and manpower DOI have at their disposal, that keeping the downtown streets plowed wouldn’t be that hard. 

PS The last time I criticized DOI. A few Councillors and the Director of Planning accused me of writing rude anonymous Facebook posts critical of DOI council. 

Writing anonymously is not my style. I wrote about the incident in this post:  https://palliserpass.ca/2023/06/17/mid-june-2/

***

The world is in a terrible time with two wars. It breaks my heart seeing what is going on in the Middle East. Canada and the US’s support of Israel’s profound disproportionate response to the October 7th Hamas attacks which were barbaric. And now, Palestinian women and children being killed by the thousands. It is sickening. I don’t understand how our government supports this. Are we watching a race of people being wiped out? 

Late November

Young Cooper who I will not be able to keep up with much longer.

It was good to put the skates on, doubley great to be joined by Cooper and Kelsie even if they didn’t have their skates. Kelsie still thinks it is unsafe. Considering there is still open water not far from shore she is probably right. Still I insist that Lake Windermere has to be skated in November.

Getting in a few strides.

It seems, every year, the skates are further down to lace up and don’t seem to go as fast as the year before, regardless the ice still feels good.

A Few Pictures

It was Willow’s birthday a few days ago. She is now 9 years old.
A cow elk at dusk.
A small spike bull elk in the morning.
The last of the evening light on the mountains reflected on Lake Windermere.
Frosted tracks leading to an old haunt.

Mid November

The sun, low in the sky at the start of winter, shines through the left over of a wild fire.

November can be grey, typically not a lot of snow, however it is calm. A welcome relief. It hasn’t been cold, but a thin layer of ice is forming around the shore of Lake Windermere. The lakes in the mountains are frozen over. Not enough that the ice can be trusted. Soon we will be donning skates for a trip on the inner edges. Spectacular if the snow holds off.

The fire started at the bottom and continued onto the ridges.

Lisa and I were out scouting around. We picked out a Christmas tree. It is still too early to cut. I will come back in December. The walk will be much longer and tougher as there should be at least a foot or two of snow by then. The small tree will be harder to find covered in snow. Lisa said we should have brought a bright ribbon to tie around it. Since we didn’t have a ribbon I suggested she hang her panties off of it. She didn’t like that idea.

Easy walking where there would normally be at least three foot high tangled underbrush. Lola runs toward the camera.

The next day we walked around an area of bush that had burned during summer. The underbrush having burned away made walking easy. Willow and Lola ran chasing rabbits and rodents. The dogs were out of luck with so many hiding places on the scorched earth. The roots of the trees catch fire and can burn for months leaving tunnels where the roots once ran. The trees blackened, but still sturdy will start falling in the brisk winds of spring. Many people have died from burnt trees falling on them. 

The edge of the fire. The orange colour is scorched fir needles yet to fall. It wouldn’t be hard finding ghosts roaming these woods.

The burnt mountain is eery but beautiful in its own way. 

Our grandkids slept over Saturday night. We had a nice dinner and watched a movie. They were up early Sunday with energy I can only dream of. A very fine weekend. 

Low sun, long shadows.

Conjunction

The moon and Venus looked great today next to each other in the morning sky. I have read the moon occulted Venus in the Southern Hemisphere. That would have been something to see. I was off to work before it got lighter which may have made for a better photo. Regardless, the clouds rolled in as dawn advanced.

Lisa popped out this morning when she saw a few Bohemian Waxwings feasting on the frozen berries. These birds will gather in large flocks and strip the trees of berries in no time, even getting drunk on the fermented fruit. It’s something to see!