Tag Archives: Photography

Commentary, nature, Photography

What Does the Nose Know?

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At present there are a number of public art installations throughout Penticton as part of a rotating exhibition. Below is a picture of one of them.

Sculpture by Ronald Simmer

When I first saw it, I thought the intension was to emphasise fun on the sunny beaches, that sort of thing. However, once I read the signage, I saw that the point was much more serious.

Is Big Brother spying on us? What do you think?

nature, Photography

Little Quail

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Quail are ubiquitous here in the Okanagan Valley. I often see them racing around, their cute little comma-shaped head feathers arriving ahead of them.

The male is on the left and the female on the right.

Although they can fly, they are amazingly fast runners and when chicks are nearby, the adults will suddenly burst into flight, distracting potential predators away from the little ones.

They are extremely social and live in family groups of 20 or more birds. They don’t migrate for the winter but will congregate in coveys of up to 100 birds to keep warm since at 25 cm, (10 inches) they are very small.

They are portrayed extensively on the art work of this area and there’s even a winery named after them.

Greetings from the quail of the Okanagan Valley!

Commentary, musings, nature, Photography

Coquihalla Connector

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M and I have travelled the Coquihalla Connector highway between Kamloops and Peachland while on our way to and from the Okanagan Valley and the Northwest Territories many times.

Coquihalla Connector into the setting sun.

This four to six lane mountain superhighway at an elevation of 1240 m (4100 ft) is in many ways an engineering marvel. Its posted speed is 120 km (74 miles) per hour and access is extremely limited, so once you have set your cruise control, you are very efficiently traversing an area that was once the bane of early travellers. The railroads of the early 1900s failed frequently due to winter storms, avalanches and washouts and the population of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley was fairly isolated from the rest of the province with only lengthy and circuitous road routes at lower elevations.

Even now, it’s not all smooth driving, however. This highway experiences severe winter storms with low visibility and nasty icing conditions. “Runaway lanes” are available in case you lose control on the extreme downhill portions of it. In fact, a reality program called “Highway thru Hell,” detailing the challenges of operating tow trucks along the Coquihalla and Coquihalla Connector debuted in 2012 and is still very popular today.

When M and I travel this highway in December and January, we are careful to do our homework first and to only drive it in the daylight hours. Nevertheless, it’s an amazing highway and well worth the drive if you find yourself in the area; the views are spectacular, especially as you start nearing Okanagan Lake.