Flying High

In the summer when we had family visiting my sister & I had a day out together, one of the highlights of which was a sea plane flight home.

Here is a video montage of our flight together.

Thompson Falls Video

At Thompson Falls

We will post some movie footage of the falls shortly....so in the meantime here are a few photos of us around the falls and the beautifully glacial blue & clear Blaeberry River.

Driving to Thompson Falls

Having read some local guides and been into the local visitor centre we were recommended to visit Thompson Falls.

The falls were located only a few kms from the house we were renting and whilst they were considered to be quite good falls, we figured we wouldn't be likely to get back to see them unless we came back to this location again in the future.

The tour guides didn't actually mention that the paved roads ended a couple kms from the house and the remaining 7kms were on partially paved/partially gravel backcountry roads. Whilst these were easy enough to drive upon, there were more than enough potholes and in several sections, particularly the rickerty wooden bridges, the road went down to single lane - now Karen you're probably used to this but we've not seen a single lane road for 16 months - this was quite a surprise.

Anyway, it turned out to be great.....with excellent views on the way there and the excitement of wondering what people, views or wildlife were going to be lurking around the next corner.

This post shows a few views from the drive to the falls.

Eating Well

Despite being generally very well equipped, this was still a vacation rental so the kitchen is unfamiliar and there are always a few utensils or items of cutlery you feel are missing.

Nonetheless David still managed to rustle up a great gourmet meal each night !

Golden

The nearest town to the house we rented was Golden.

Established initially as a basecamp for construction workers of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 1880's a neighbouring basecamp staged a hoax 'find' of some silver, and named themselves Silver City. Not wanting to be outdone this basecamp a few years later in 1883 renamed themselved Golden City. They renamed themselves once again this time 'Golden' in the 1950's when they realised 'City' was probably a bit optimistic. Nonetheless, Golden now survives as a relatively bustling mountain town and there's nothing left to be found of the original Silver City.

These days Golden serves as a useful tourist stop, mammouth railway depot, river crossing and junction of the East-West TransCanada Hwy and the North-South Hwy 95.

At the bottom of the photo you can see some CPR Railway sidings and just beyond the glacial blue of Columbia River.

A brief glimpse of Heaven ?

Whilst driving back from Thompson Falls, we photographed these views of the mountains to the back of the house we rented. A brief glimpse of them sandwiched between low-lying fog & clouds and a much higher level.

Urgent News Update

Poll: Bullshit Is Most Important Issue For 2008 Voters

Blaeberry Valley Video

Trying out the new video feature here on the blog. This is a quick pan round of Blaeberry Valley where we stayed on our trip to The Rockies.

Blaeberry Valley

All of these images were taken from either inside (the first photo - view from living room) the house we rented, or from the front garden. The location really was spectacular. There was also a similar mountain range behind the house, but the close proximity of the woodland meant it wasn't actually visible from the gardens, only when you drove away from the property.

Greetings from Regina

Hello to all from Regina, Saskatchewan. Where I hear you cry! Yes this week have been in Regina in the Province of Saskatchewan attending a two day meeting of the Canadian ICU Collaborative. That is a nation wide healthcare improvment initiative of which I have somehow become involved as a lead in the treatment of Children with Sepsis.

I haven't posted much about my work as yet so I will have to remedy that, but for now here are a few pics of this rather Hokie town.

Yep, this is praire country. Entire population is only 100,000 and is the second largest town in the province. Saskatoon is only slightly larger.

It would seem that it has only a handful of bars (we have been to a few) but it does have this Casino (picture taken from my hotel room). I of course visited this cultural phenomenon and discovered that it bares little resemblance to Vegas!!! Many first Nations and old ladies.

Home tomorrow and I will write more then; including my trip to the home of the Canadian Mountie!

D.

Filthy Car

The combination of a lot of rain on the day we drove to Golden, plus the fact that the roads off the TransCanada Hwy to the house were not much more than gravel roads meant that the car got absolutely filthy. These photos were taken the day we arrived.......and it didn't get any cleaner !!

When we got back to Vancouver I met with a client the same afternoon and she wondered whether we had driven back from Golden the direct route.....over the mountains....rather than around them using roads like normal people !

However, the journey reminded us how much we like the Murano - it made light work of a long drive in adverse weather and on poor road terrain.

Willowbank Mountain Ranch

Here are just a couple of photos of the house we rented in the Blaeberry Valley, about 15mins North of Golden, BC. Thanks to the fact we are now the proud owners of a video camera, we don't have any 'stills' of the inside........movie footage will of course follow !

The house was a beautifully appointed modern home on it's own flat 9.5 acres, a mix of open grassy fields and some woodland. Absolutely perfect for all things four-legged including Charlie, and numerous deer who also frequented the gardens throughout the day.

Willowbank Mountain Ranch was the name of the house and it was situated on a quiet country lane, approximately 5mins drive off the Trans Canada Highway......so it was easy to get where we wanted yet peaceful & quiet. At night you could stand in the garden and not only hear absolutely nothing, but you could see a massive array of stars including the Milky Way.....something I (and I think David) have not seen before....definately not with this clarity.


The photo above shows the rear of the house, and you can see there weren't many neighbours nearby. There was one house some way off to the right of this photo, but was a good distance away and there didn't really appear to be anybody living there anyway.

We hadn't in all honesty appreciated how scenic the locality was going to be until we arrived. We had decided to book a property in Golden because we felt the Rockies were just too far to drive in one day, but should still be accessible as a 'day-trip' from Golden. However, we discovered that Golden is actually right on the edge of the Rocky Mountains and only about 45 mins from Lake Louise. Still it was only 3/4 days drive to get there and coming back with the time difference advantage, we left at 7am and arrived home at 1.30pm - just in time for another half days work !

Because the location was just so stunning I will dedicate a separate whole post to the views from the house itself.

The obligatory 'dog-photo' - this is Charlie posing on demand in the front garden, which incidently didn't actually slope as much as it appears to - perhaps we had already had a yard-arm........or maybe the camera's faulty ?!

We're Back!

OK so for anyone that has still been checking this Blog (Anne & Ian you may be the only ones??) we apologise for the distinct lack of post over the summer.

We could put it down to the hectic life we lead having no spare time or it could just be we lead such an uninteresting life that there has been nothing to share. Well neither is exactly true. We have had a reasonable busy summer with several visitors to which we owe some post space.

We have been working hard to fully establish ourselves at work, which I guess we could devote some time to on here also if anyone is interested (besides the afore-mentioned). We've added a link to Adrian's website on the right.

It is true that we are settled enough now not to be finding everything new and quite as exciting as it once was when we were new arrivals to Vancouver but it is still an amazing place to live and we should celebrate that here at least.

In fact a recent trip to the Rockies has reminded us of the beauty we now take for granted in the place we live, so maybe we can re-start with that & work back to reflect on the summer we've had (not one of great weather that is for sure!!!!).

Oh, yes! Almost forgot. We have added a visitor monitor (in addition to a general re-vamp) so we will be able to see if anyone does look in and so if we should continue. Also please feel free to comment or email us.

Love


D & A

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