Lake Life

There's something about Lake life. It's a different tempo than ocean life. A tranquility and serenity only found around calm waters. Christina Lake is considered the warmest tree-lined lake in BC. Most of the lake is boat-access only and it has stayed a small town that swells in the summers with the influx of tourists, campers and summer residents. My favorite is early in the morning, before most people have woken from their holiday slumber. Bird calls echo across the lake, the sun shines through an early morning mist that hovers above the glassy water... and you savor this moment because you know it is about to erupt into another day of speedboats pulling every sort of sporting equipment out there, with cheers and laughter and sqeals, music blaring, dodging the kayakers and canoes that brave the waters. This scene, these sounds, from quiet to chaotic, is summer holidays at it's best.

I told myself I wasn't going to blog while on holiday, but it's just so darn beautiful!

 

Justin Anderson, early morning training session.

Desert Blooms

The Okanagan Valley is considered Canada's only true desert. Sun-drenched vineyards and orchards nestle in the valley surrounding the lakes. The ideal location for golfing, water skiing and wine tasting all in one day. But for me, it's more than that. Because I grew up in this climate, it makes me feel like home. A deep breathe takes me back to hot summer days by the river, the water down to a slow flow, but still holding its emerald green. It might be the smell of the sagebrush, now brown and dry. Or the sap seeping from the willlows. It might be the hot sun heating the tar on the roads. It might be the sweetness escaping the peaches and cherries, now ripe and full. Or maybe its the crickets in the late summer evening, the rocking of a swing on a front porch. It might be the breeze, still hot with the desert air, blowing the white cotton from the poplars, dancing them down the quiet roads. Perhaps it's the smell of freshly mown grass, or the waft of a bbq from down the alley. Whatever it may be, I feel a pang of homesickness and in that breathe, remember a million moments spent in the desert heat throughout my childhood.

Here are a few desert blooms from last week's venture. Lavender... my favorite.

Summer + the Westcoast

In the four months since I'd been, the ferns became lush and took on a bright green glow, the large maple leaves danced in the dappled light, fighting for the rays beaming through boughs of the old growth cedars. Previously dormant, life now vibrated through every pore of the forest. By the ocean, the brown grasses were replaced with swaying stems, long and green and eager. Hiding in and around were wild flowers, vibrant and elegant, yet hardy to the core. And when the sun was setting in just the right spot, all came aglow, as if in thanks for this new life bestowed upon it. Such beauty in simplicity.

 

Canadiana Harvest

Road trips can be therapeutic. Music blaring, just loud enough to not hear yourself singing (although we all sound better in the car, don't we?), road snacks, and for me, a lot of reminiscing. I always dread the 6 hour drive home, until I get on the road and get swept up in the landscape and the memories. One of the best parts of the drive is to see the changes that have taken place since my last visit. Pine forests heavy with snow, then the bright, fresh grasses in the spring to the fields of wild flowers, orchards and vineyards laden with fruit in the summer. One of the most spectacular though, is the brilliant reds, yellows and oranges of the Fall. Harvest time. I see remnants of a pumpkin patch, the odd one left behind to return to the earth. Apples forgotten on leafless trees, perhaps once hidden from the fruitpickers, now long gone. Smoke plumes from chimneys leaves a lingering haze in the valley, a soft burnt smell in the air. It is as if the rush and excitement of summer has slipped away, and now the valley is settling into quiet slumber, storing its energy for another year. Nowhere else, than in the countryside, is the change in seasons more evident.

There are stretches of road I particularly enjoy. The Similkameen Valley is stunning, the vineyards and lush fields follow the river, meandering down the narrow valley banked by the steep mountain ranges. But my all time favorite is a stretch of fields, ranging from vibrant greens in the spring and summer to golden in the Fall, and eventually smooth white velvet in the winter. There are a couple homesteads, now abandoned, but not forgotten, surrounded by groves of poplars with their poignant white trunks. Sometimes I drive past and the vision is ordinary, but other times when the lighting is right, the snow fresh or the fields golden, I am forced to stop and breathe in the extraordinary beauty. Those are the moments to be cherished, and I wrap them up and tuck them away for another day, a gift that lasts a lifetime.