Saturday, December 17, 2011

Kraze Legz

Christmas Rocking Horse at the Winery

Maggie in trouble for knocking the candle over

Christmas Mint growing in the snow

Henry? and Maggie

Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, but where's Vixen? ( Outside our back door this morning...)
A delightful morning walking in the snow at Kaleden and afterwards visiting a new winery nearby called Kraze Legz and meeting the owners Susan and Gerry. The name originates from the crazy way "legs" appear on the side of a wine glass, not from the way people walk when they drink too much. We bought some of their prize-winning wines then drove home for lunch. Met Maggie the dog and Henry the cat. I think it was Henry. He amused us by scuttering about real fast. Maggie got into trouble for knocking a candle down on the window-ledge. She is only eleven months old......

Friday, December 16, 2011

More

Reflections from Summerland in Winterland

Playtime

Christmas Elf Granddaughter Jenessa

Local Winter Splendour
More Christmassy photos. No philosophy today. Too busy partying....

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Christmas Snow

Winter Snow

Our Christmas Tree

Down on the Farm (Digital Painting)

Tracks in the Snow
It snowed again last night. Just in time for our Christmas Concert with the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra. This year there will be hand bells and a marimba player. There are numerous charity events occurring in our Province, including a "throw the teddy bears onto the ice" event at some Western Hockey League games; a CNR train all bedecked in Christmas Lights and decorations carrying food parcels and toys through BC, stopping at Salmon Arm, Kamloops and other places West of here; and numerous other events to raise money for the disadvantaged in our society. Here are a few images to put you in the Christmas mood.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Driving Around

Photos today from driving around the South Okanagan. Driving around the internet news pages, I found that Norway is short of butter, and some wonderful news from Brazil; now one can get a free ticket to watch the World Cup (soccer) if one hands in one's gun. They will then make all the guns into goal-posts....
Oh by the way, the Brown Bear that surprised downtown office workers in Vancouver yesterday perching on top of a garbage truck has now been released into the forest at Squamish. I think he even made it onto BBC news!
Coast Hotel Rooms, Osoyoos, with blue sky.

House with a view, Osoyoos

Elk decorating the entrance to a subdivision, near Osoyoos

House in Mt Baldy Village

Farm near Oliver BC. Note the outside toilet has no door!
Lastly, somebody calculated that English folk ride 36 miles a year each on their bicycles; Danish folk 600 miles.....No comment!

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Mount Baldy

View South from Mt Baldy

View North at Mt Baldy

McIntyre Bluff at Vaseux Lake Early Morning

Vaseux Lake looking North
It is cloudy again today but yesterday was one of those "blue-sky-sunny-all-day" type of days, so off we went exploring. This time we drove climbing up the twisting road from Oliver to the ski mountain called Mount Baldy. It is only open at the week-ends just now so we didn't see any skiing. The summit is 8600 Ft or 2600 Metres. It makes a change when you leave the lowlands to meet gradually deeper and deeper snow in the highlands, with ever-improving views all the while. We descended by a different road to Osoyoos for lunch, then home the regular route back through Oliver for afternoon Christmas cake and tea in Penticton.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Yule

Christmas is nearly upon us. Tonight we are going on a tour of the Christmas Lights in Penticton. There is a suitably seasonal skiff of snow around. ( pardon the alliteration )
Model of the Crib ( at my son Tim and daughter-in-law Jayne's house )

Our Julenisser out in the snow!

Christmas Apples still on the tree.
The air is still with expectation. The chimney has been swept in anticipation of Santa's visit. Yule Logs are burning on the TV fireplace. The shortbread is baked and waiting.
So here are a few photos in keeping with the Season.

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Taking a Photo


Photo One Unedited
Photo Two Edited
Some folk want photos to be a true representation of reality: no fiddling please with Photoshop or any other program please. I took a photo of the entrance to the church yesterday in raw format, then saved it to jpg format, so here it is in photo one. The camera is pretty good, but the photographer doesn't always use it properly, so we have lens distortion. The second photo is my interpretation more of the reality I saw. I corrected some distortion, lowered the color a bit, removed some distraction in the top right corner, added a little paint to the water stain on the wall, added a bit of vignetting to the corners, and sharpened the image, and cropped it a bit. See what you think. I think it is a better representation of reality than the unedited one...