Saturday, October 22, 2011

Celebration

Digital Painting, October.

Red Car with Red Tree, Penticton. Photograph.

Digital Painting

Photograph

Digital Painting on Photograph. Ornament, God's Mountain. 22 Oct 2011.
Today the Libyans celebrate their freedom from bondage and tyranny, today we celebrate our ties of matrimony for the eighteenth year. We shall be going to a secret hideaway on "God's Mountain" More photos later! Today's images are a mixture of photography and digital art. Enjoy!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Important Events

Mallard

Firethorn Berries

Japanese Garden, Penticton.

Winter Clouds Keremeos
Two events of cataclysmic world significance: firstly, the demise yesterday of the Colonel at the age of 69, a man born in a Bedouin tent at the height of the Second World War. Secondly, the final of the World Rugby in Auckland on Sunday next, between France and the All Blacks of New Zealand. An estimated 2.2 million Kiwis will be watching. It is so important, that one parish vicar in the capital Wellington has requested all his parishioners to come to church wearing black, and has had a giant screen erected to allow them to watch the progress of the national team! It is interesting to speculate how he combines two religions....Meanwhile, we continue to enjoy the Fall and its rainbow of colors under a partly cloudy to sunny sky..

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Group Activity

Selecting a Pumpkin

Smiling and Posing for the Camera

Playing a Game on the Grass

Sockeye Salmon Migrating to their Spawning Gravel Beds
Group activity usually means playing games at camp, but these days it is expanding beyond anyone's expectations. "Occupy Wall Street" is a recent example, fired up by Facebook Group Activity. Another interesting one is at UKEdChat on Twitter. Every Thursday evening between 8 and 9 pm teachers from around UK meet on-line to discuss subjects of interest in their profession, for example, whether homework has any value, whether to allow mobiles in the classroom etc. What is your group doing today? Sometimes I find doing things alone is preferable to doing them in a group, like bird-watching or taking photos, but it is just my opinion.
Well, finally Gaddafi has left us, courtesy of some group activity in Libya. It was a long time coming! I remember an expert commenter six months ago saying it would all be over in two weeks. How wrong he was!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Skaha Fall Day

Our high pressure zone is about to be pushed away by rains from the West (Japan is always blamed for our bad weather), so here are a few of our photos from under the dome. Of course it never really rains here, it merely sprinkles. We are all now decorated for Halloween here at Athens Creek. Then in November we will have to put the Christmas Tree up. In the USA I believe they have their trees up the day after Thanksgiving (25th Nov) and rush out on that day for the Christmas Shopping Sales. I remember in England my parents went shopping on Christmas Eve...
In Canada, this is a big day. Shipping contracts for new naval and coastguard ships are to be awarded, giving work for the next 30 years. Will it be BC, Quebec, or Nova Scotia?
What a farce of a soccer game yesterday ( Man United: 2;  A Romanian team (Galati): 0) Two stupid red cards, two silly penalties, and six or so yellow cards. Some soccer players never grow up.
Talking about keeping to the rules, did you ever hear of the two-second rule in driving? In Ohio it is the three-second rule. In slippery conditions it is the four-second rule. If only drivers would use it, there would be fewer accidents by far. You can google it....
Enjoying the afternoon sun

And the view over Skaha Lake

Calm and Serene

Mcintyre Bluffs and Vaseux Lake. You can see the memorial on the right for a poor lady who failed to make it round this corner and ended up in the lake drowned a couple of weeks ago.

Virginia Creeper. This commonly invades trees along Okanagan River.
As they say in Canada, "Have a Nice Day".....Did you try clicking on a photo? Try it!
Google's new slide show system appears.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Noble Ridge

We visited one of our favorite wineries in the hazy fall sun, late afternoon. There were lots of grapes, but nobody home, except for a few birds, and the fruit flies. It was fun to be all alone amongst all those grapes!
We had the whole Winery to ourselves!

View from the patio, Vaseux Lake to the right

Grapes in the setting sun

Peach Bluff overlooking OK Falls can be seen from NR Winery
Nets cover the vines most liable to attack by birds.
They hang there, awaiting sugar content measurements, and soon they will be banished to the vats. Here is an article with further information about grape-picking in our region....incidentally the photo at the top right on this article seems to be taken from Noble ridge!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Fall Activities in the Okanagan

Strolling

Sitting Down (Park Bench or Bicycle Saddle ?)

Getting Married?

Sailing

Painting? or is it Ballroom Dancing Filip?
There are many more activities going on, of course. We saw a group of teenagers lying on the grass playing cards. People going to wine festivals, some by bicycle. We didn't see anyone swimming. It was about eight degrees Celsius yesterday. Mostly however these days it seems to be protesting with placards and megaphones. And then of course the most popular activity-: driving.
I read an interesting article about driving. Here in Canada one gets a driving test at 16, then no further test until 80. The worst drivers are between 16 and 30, when one would think they would be the best. An instructor took his students to an intersection. They had to wait until 43 cars had passed before one stopped at the stop sign. If I drive according to the rules of the road; and if I were a traffic cop in an unmarked car, I would be passed by over 90% of drivers speeding; and I would be writing speeding tickets all day long. The answer is to spend less on building roads, and more on traffic rule enforcement, and more lives would be saved and fewer injuries sustained. It has been proven already with better enforcement in the area of drunk driving.....there! I feel better with that off my chest!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Lucio's Orchard

Macintosh

Kurt amongst the apple trees he planted over twenty years ago!

Lucio's Orchard, Skaha Lake in the distance.

Lucio demonstrates the twist of the wrist used when apple-picking

Lucio and Else ready for picking!

Golden Delicious Apples. Kurt's old tractor still in use....
Almost time to pick the last remaining apples. Our friends Kurt and Else used to own and manage an orchard just up from the marina on Skaha Lake. They were kind enough to take us up there and introduce us to the present owners, Lucio and Irene with their son Bryan, who took over twenty or so years ago. Since then a lot of the orchard has disappeared into houses, like everywhere else in the world; the march of "progress" continues here too. Lucio gave us a demonstration of how to pick apples, put them in the bag, then release them gently into the big wooden boxes without bruising. Bryan gave us a walking tour of the orchard, and capably answered all our questions. There were some huge apples on the trees still, and we came away with a bag of samples. We had cooked Macintosh apples on our pancakes for breakfast this morning. They were sweet and delicious, straight from the tree...