Winter tires

Everyone here has at least two sets of tires. "All-season" tires only cover 7 months of seasons. At this time of year beefy winter tires with aggressive treads and ice-gripping rubber are what go on the vehicles. Collections of alternate tires are a common sight beside carports and sheds.

Black, white and grey

Outdoor skating

Small farm

Progress

Things are moving quickly with the new craft store. Just a three weeks ago it was nothing more than < this >.

Snowing

The view across the lake today isn't much more than a wash of grey. The deep cold snap has broken and it's now "warm enough to snow."

Trees and tree shadows

This photo was taken at 2:36 pm. The sun stays low in the sky at this time of year. By what would normally be considered mid-afternoon we're just over an hour from sunset and the trees are throwing long, long shadows. This shot was taken from Highway 6. The rock face is not natural; it's been blasted to allow the highway passage by some bluffs at the edge of the lake.

Sunrise: 7:15 a.m.   Sunset: 3:56 p.m.

Frigid lake

It's really cold out for November. Clear skies and sun today. Temperature around -11ºC with a fresh breeze over the lake making it feel much colder.

Curled tight

Rhododendron leaves tightly curled against the suddenly frigid cold of dusk.

Closed

The snow on Goat Mountain is creeping ever nearer to the village. The local hotel has a "closed" sign beside its main door on this dreary weekend. The Tourist Info office, noted on the blue highway sign, is closed until spring. The hotel parking lot is empty. There is no traffic meandering by. It's the absolute nadir of the tourism year just now. In another few weeks the snowmobile tourists and skiers will start showing up.

Season's passage

To those inclined towards the motorized vehicle style of back-country recreation, there are just two seasons: ATV'ing and snowmobiling. We're now on the cusp of the season's change. Today we spotted the first snow machine in the back of a pick-up truck. It won't be long before all the ATVs are in sheds for the winter and snowmobile-toting vehicles will be everywhere.

Garden fence

White world

Rosebery Bay

Drear

Tight fit

It's a tight squeeze at the community fitness centre. This photo shows about a third of the space. There's also a very small gymnasium attached. It might not seem like much but it's an amazing community asset. On a cold dreary school holiday in November there's a steady stream of teens, families and adults amicably rotating through.

No. 2 Pumphouse

The pumphouse that is part of the Village of New Denver water system gets a picturesque treatment, situated as it is in a small park on the waterfront.

Boathouse

Kayaks

A minute of silence

Sky. Leaf.

Wood heat

Firewood: the fuel that warms you three times over: once when you split it, once when you stack it and once when you burn it. At most homes this year's firewood will have been drying at least since spring.

Sign of the new times

A teenager strolls outside the school at break, talking on a cellphone.

Church, mountains, cloud

Catholic church in the foreground, Valhalla Provincial Park (with fresh snow) in the background.

New Paint

The little café at the main intersection in New Denver has got a fresh paint job. 

Mail

One of two walls of mailboxes where New Denverites pick up their mail. 

Socked in

Fall always includes a certain amount of dreary cold weather. When things are overcast here we not only miss the blue sky, we don't see the mountains. As the socked-in weather drags on through November it's enough to make us look forward to proper winter. But at least small breaks in the cloud remind us that the mountains are still out there.

Construction

Another new business is going in along the main street. The foundation is being build with the styrofoam forms shown in the lower right. These fit together like lego bricksand are then filled with concrete. The styrofoam remains in place as an insulating material. This business will be a craft store and is being built on the vacant lot that was once home to a giant outdoor chess set.

Where clouds are born

We often see this on cool damp days, especially on the slopes above creek canyons, where cold air from higher elevations follows the topography down towards the warmer moister air at lower elevations. Many of the larches on exposed slopes are past their yellow stages and dropping needles now.

Larch

All spring and summer you could have mistaken it for a pine or spruce. But at this time of year the larch, a deciduous conifer, suddenly casts its lot in with the angiosperm hardwoods, turns yellow and begins to drop its needles.