The Mummy Cometh

Our current esteemed visitor is Mummy Waller. She had planned to come out to see us for her 60th birthday since we announced our emigration to Vancouver. So here she is.



Mum's arrival was heralded by severe storms which downed many trees, caused power outages (Canadian for power cut) and water turbidity. The last effect refers to the disturdance of water in local resevoirs due to heavy rainfall and land slippage making it muddy. Normal turbidity as it is called should be less than 1 NTU (Don't ask?) and ours went up to 90!! The basic result was a drink bottled or boiled water order city wide. What a welcome!

So the weather was less than delightful, mostly raining, but this changed to the snow for the second week and mum was able to see some of the beauty of where we live.

Mr C loves snow

Australian Shepherd dogs we have been told, were bred for herding cattle in the desert states of the US. However, Charlie is much more at home in a cold climate than warm.

Charlie is particularly enjoying the snowy weather we have had. He has never seen snow this deep and in the back garden his legs disappear completely and it's up above his belly. It has a similar effect on him to being wet, making him race around 'tucking his bum in' (those of you who know him will know what we mean) and barking wildly. Once the snow got deep enough he stopped being able to run and he has to leap from one place to another. He hasn't yet learnt not to try and catch snowballs and he has trouble carrying frozen sticks.

A & D

A bit of Snow!

OK, so we moved to Canada and everyone told us we would freeze but we said that Vancouver was a mild area and not any worse than the UK. After a record long hot summer winter has definately arrived. It is however better than any snow we can remember in the UK. It is simply stunning.

Check out some of the views around our winter wonderland.

Webcam

A fantastic webcam is set up in downtown Vancouver, looking across the water to us in North Vancouver. We live approximately three quarters of the way along, about halfway up the hill.

Log on and see what our weather is like, or see if we're shrouded in cloud !

www.vancouver.com/webcam

A bright November afternoon

My job with Homes & Land Magazine involves plenty of driving around the Lower Mainland meeting clients. Whilst on a rainy miserable day it feels like you could be driving anywhere, there are enough good days to remind me what a beautiful part of the country we live in.

These next few images were taken when I was on my way back from Harrison Mills - about an hour and a half south east of Vancouver. Although this is some distance from the city, the great thing is that lovely views like these can be enjoyed the whole way.

Above and below are views taken from Hwy 7 looking towards the town of Agassiz where the Trans-Canada Highway runs along the opposite side of the valley. The river is Harrison River which flows out of nearby Harrison Lake (source of Harrison Hot Springs we visited when we first arrived).

Below is an image taken again from Hwy 7 but from the otherside of Agassiz, almost at the junction with the Trans-Canada Highway. It is a closer view of the hills that ring the Fraser Valley and you can see that the first snowfalls have arrived on the higher peaks.

Mountain Rescue

On the morning of Hallowe'en I was taking Charlie for a walk and noticed a Mountain Rescue taking place on the hill at the end of our street. I could see a stretcher being lowered into the trees but I don't know what the outcome of it was. Although, as you can see from the picture, the weather was lovely, it had got down to about -4 overnight so the ground was very icy. There are many reasons why Mountain Rescue may have been called but that might have been a contributing factor.

A & D