Autumn

Maybe we should drop the "n" at the end of Autumn. It doesn't seem to be doing anything.

Mount Rundle near Banff Alberta

Field BC ; Needs the Taj Mahal in there somewhere don't you think?

Farm near Mara BC

It is another blue sky sunny day here in Paradise, with the light just right for taking photos, or painting for that matter. However it is a little cooler, so there won't be so many swimming in the lakes. Hanne and Barbara have just gone for a bike ride....
Here are a few more autumnal photos from last September. Oh! that word needs its "n" after all! I was quite wrong!

News

There is so much news in the world. Bad news: "Four miners trapped in Swansea coal mine." Good news: "70-year old man swims the Channel." Now that's good news! There's real good hope for Alan. He isn't even 60 yet!
How do we find all the proper news we should? Most newspapers are biased one way or another. Politicians seem to be guided by big money as to what they say. At least Al Gore puts his money where his mouth is, even if he's not popular.
Even on the internet and TV news isn't foolproof.
Hope you all took your 24 hour reality check yesterday and today. Then I can remove the banner above.

" 70-year old swims the Channel "  Photo by Gareth Fuller/PA

 Our Pirocantha (Firethorn)

Fall in Enderby on the Shushwap River

Today it is cloudy for the first time for ages. We will have to admit: Summer is nearly over. As with H, our conkers ( Horse-chestnuts ) are ripe and spiky, our fire-bush is turning red, the pirocantha bushes have orange berries, and the first day of Fall (Autumn) looms.

Oliver

A visit to Oliver to view the remains of the school fire. Still a few bits of smouldering timber. An acrid choking stench in the air. Chunks of half-burnt roof tar littered over the beautiful grass of the adjoining park. The older portion of the school from 1948 is all a pile of rubble; the new parts, gym, science center, library, and cafeteria are all intact, as they were fireproof. No news yet as to cause, but the experts are looking into it. A few more days and plans for the 500 students will be in place....

Remains of old school

Landslide

Oliver Apples

A piece of good news. Frank Venables' grandson was in the auditorium two weeks ago, and discovered a nice framed portrait photo of Frank kicking about there, so he brought it to his mother to look after. The family is looking forward to re-building the auditorium and re-hanging the portrait there, at some unknown date in the future !
( Older pictures from Oliver can be seen starting here.)

Connecting the Dots

Sometimes we fail to connect the dots. We have these blind spots too. Most of us go through this world following the others. Some of us discover new things and everyone benefits. I was thinking about electricity today in particular, ( discovered by a Greek in 600 B.C.) as it seems to me we are at the beginning of a new era when the ability to knock electrons off silicon and other substances with photons to make electricity is being rapidly developed, superseding eventually the burning of coal. This brings me to tomorrow's world event, "24 hours of Reality", in which we will be hourly encouraged to stop being blind to climate change being related to the burning of fossil fuels, and connect the dots and make a difference by changing from herd instinct with a reality check. "Everyone drives big six-wheeled trucks so why shouldn't I?"  Some of my friends say solar power is no good because it only shines in the daytime. There is an answer of course: how about batteries; and a world wide electric grid...?
We have already electric trains, but why not electric cars?

"I have a feeling that I've seen everything, but failed to notice the elephants" ( Anton Chekhov)

? Solar Power ? ( Window from Sharon Lutheran Church Calgary )

Blind Spots: A sunset most missed because they thought the sky was blue ( Digital Sketch)

Connected Dots

I discovered today that amber, a pine tree resin, was called in Greek "Elektron".
By rubbing amber with a silk cloth you can make a spark of electricity. Hence the origin of our word!

Oliver BC School Burns Down

Oliver Secondary School BC

At 2.00 am this morning the large Secondary School ( Senior High School in the old terminology) just south of here in Oliver started to burn down. Fire crews from all the neighboring towns were called in, but it is now all burned to the ground. It was built in 1948, and in those days a lot of wood was used in construction. So sad. About 350 students and staff have nowhere to go. The school was in the middle of renovations; they were building a new Gym and other facilities. Some speculated the fire started in a nearby dumpster or rubbish bin. We visited there last February and this is the only photo I have of part of the school.
Frank Venables ( 1899-1986) was born in Walsall England. He was amongst other things an orchardist, and more of his life history can be found here. 

More Linden Flowers

Hanne at the outdoor cafe at "Frog City", Linden Gardens

These flowers seem to spiral up like fireworks!

Yesterday we attended the Summerland Fall Fair, with a pipe band, clowns, a lady on stilts, balloons, and lots of colorful flowers, vegetables and fruit competing for prizes. There were also quilts, paintings, and photographs; coffee, corn on the cob, and hotdogs. It was all very exciting. We still prefer photos from our Linden Gardens though for today's post....

August Newsletter 2011

I have decided to write our monthly newsletter on blogger as our other website http://www.michaelhanne.ca crashed just as I had finished, so here goes.

Linden Garden in August

We know August is a month for holidays but we didn't go on ours until the 25th, so everyone else seemed to visit us for theirs!  We had a great time with visitors! We had just about as many visitors as flowers in the photograph. Well not quite! Almost. Two of our friends Barbara and Kaj weren't content to just visit us, they moved into Athens Creek themselves, and we had a big celebration party to welcome them here.
 Peach festival came and went. We missed the Iron Man competition. But we did just about everything else, showing our visitors around the wineries, up and down Munson mountain,to the beach at Naramata, walked up Lee Creek, went to Osoyoos for the Desert Model Railway, had dinner there at the golf course club house, showed them the See Ya Later winery, Mahoney Lake, Twin Lakes, Green Lake, took their photo against the Big Rock, had dinner,lunch, and breakfast with them at Athens Creek, even had a campfire supper at Summerland. We had visitors from England, Penticton,Kelowna, Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Denmark. On the 15th we went to stay with Rudi and Ineke in their beautiful house in the Shushwap; another day we had lunch with Inge and Jens in their new apartment in Kelowna; on the 24th Clare drove us to see Tim and Jayne's lovely new house in Kelowna; and finally we went to Vancouver on the 25th to take Alix and Jake to the ferry to Bowen Island. We had supper with Elise and Adam in Horseshoe Bay, then tried for the five o'clock Nanaimo Ferry for a visit to Vancouver Island, but the two hour wait for the seven o'clock became too hot and long so we switched plans and drove up the Sea to Sky highway and found a nice B&B in Squamish. Next day to Lillooet, then Valemount, then our Cabin at Pigeon Lake Alberta for a good rest. The last few days of the month were damp and cool, but we had a nice relaxing time anyway. We have so many good memories of August 2011. We look forward to the rest of September, hopefully it will be somewhat quieter!