Move along folks, nothing to see here , move along.

Taken from inside the car at 120km/hr just outside Hope BC

A picture of Diane and I taken by her son Seth on the beach at Spanish Banks in Vancouver.

Diane and her son Seth along with his two dogs which have hitch-hiked across Canada with him several times now.

A shot of sailboats in Burrard Inlet. The small dark green smudge on the extreme right at the waterline is one tip of the world famous Stanley Park

Taken from inside the car at about 130KM/hr on the Coquihalla highway on the way up to Kelowna from Hope.

As I’ve mentioned many times in the past Rossland is a former mining community and the mountains around here, particularly Red Mountain, are riddled with abandoned mine shafts. Occassionally these shafts collapse. Now that’s not a big deal except that Red Mountain is where the best hiking and mountain bike trails are around here and one of two main venues for my hikes.

All the property is owned by Cominco who graciously allows people to hike on it, albeit after warning them thoroughly that they do so at their own risk.

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One cave in was right where I have walked across a few times taking a shortcut between several trails.

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It looks like a vertical stope caved in

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The whole trail that I was hiking when I took these pictures is blocked off but I’ve always lived a bit on the dangerous side

For most of us the world is polychromatic, filled with wonderous colour. Colour, however, often gets in the way of really seeing what you are looking at. It’s Circe luring you away from your quest with a glamour. That’s why I love black and white photography. It cuts away the distraction of colour and takes you into another realm. I discovered Shaun O’Boyle’s work tonight and was particularly impressed with his The Boatyard (the elephants graveyard) series. Sad, beautiful, proud, majestic in their decay, these boats bring back a lot of memories for me as someone who gew up on the banks of the mighty Fraser River.

For dinner Saturday night we had fresh steamed green beans, carrots and beets from the garden. You just can’t beat veggies that fresh. The beets were just so sweet.

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Here’s a damselfly on a Lamb’s Ear flower in the herb garden this morning

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I took Diane some flowers for our anniversary only to find she had gone out and picked a bunch of flowers from the garden for me We did the obvious thing and combined them into one.

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One interesting thing that happened this weekend was the discovery of a Northern Bumblebee nest in and old carpet that was tossed into the garden shed.

I dragged the carpet outside and then when it got colder at night (which slows the bees down) I moved it into the back yard near the compost bin under some plum trees. With these bees only the Queen overwinters, the others all die off . When the other bees die off I’ll build a real nest for the queen and the hive underground where bumble bees normally build their nests. I want thejm pollinating the plum trees next year

This one is for Shelley

A friend sent me these today:

1. First, spy a baby .

2. Second, be sure that the object you spied was indeed a baby by employing classic sniffing techniques. If you sniff the stink of baby powder and the wonderful aroma of number two, this is indeed a baby.

3. Next you will need to flatten the baby before actually beginning the hugging process. **Note: The added slobber should help in future steps by making the “paw slide” easier .

4. The “paw slide” - Simply slide paws around baby and prepare for possible close-up.

5. Finally, if a camera is present, you will need to execute the difficult and patented “hug, smile, and lean” so as to achieve the best photo quality .

Dogs, if this is properly done, it will secure you a warm, dry, climate-controlled environment for the rest of your days. Not to mention the yummy food and picture frame space!

Good Wags and Good Luck!!!

If you’re into digital photography these Digital Photography Tutorials will be immensely helpful, especially if you are using Photoshop but also if you are using Paint Shop Pro or some other digital image processing software.

The photography of James Nachtwey, stunning and unforgettable.

“I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated.”

A friend of Diane’s that lives about 3 miles from her house has a home (13 acres) right on a beaver pond. Behind the house is another building (old house I think) with a big covered porch that faces the pond

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He’s been busy building a walkway way out into the pond. Eventually it will get out to the stream (by the big stand of trees) that fills the pond and a bit past so that he can get to the good snowshoeing trails on the other side. Besides its just plain cool to go through the magic door and walk out into the pond

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He has a large garden where I found this flower - no idea what it is though.

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June’s seem to be really wet around here lately. Yesterday we caught a great rainbow from Diane’s front porch.

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Yum strawberry custard tarts

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If you like astronomy and you like photography you will absolutely love this site - Time Lapse Photo Animations of the Cosmos Where I live we have quite dark skie, very little light pollution evehn in town and a few minutes drive gets away from even that bit. I love to go out and gaze at the constellations when I can.