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Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Off and paddling


The second team through CheckPoint 6 heads out on the lake for a 23 km paddle after spending the past 26 hours trekking and mountain-biking through the mountains from the north.

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Raid the North Transition Area


Bikes are left in the transition area by teams who have taken up the first paddling leg of the race. GPS navigation is not allowed so traditional compass and topo map navigation skills are required.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Raid the North


An array of 39 canoes awaits the arrival of teams participating in Raid the North Extreme, a 6-day, 500 km adventure race.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Little shop of horrors?


This is the back window of the hardware store annex, the part of the business used for storage of little-used stock. What is going on in there?

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Groceries


The new grocery store is open, floors gleaming and shelves well-stocked.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Carpenter Creek


That tiny white stripe, up close. Islands swamped by logs and rushing water, cold and clear and flecked with glacial silt.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Looking down Carpenter


The tiny white stripe is Carpenter Creek, which runs into Slocan Lake from here. 

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Alamo


The town once known as Alamo, BC, gateway to the boomtown of Sandon, once stood here on a railway siding.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Soccer


Warming up for a soccer match at Centennial park, with lake, mountains and clouds in the background. 

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

RCMP


Leading the May Day parade in their red dress serge, the two officers who staff our local Royal Canadian Mounted Police detachment.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Royalty


An anachronism about which many have mixed feelings to say the least, but the May Queen Pagaent is a local institution that continues strong.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Bubble World


Today at Centennial Park during the soccer game, kids of all ages on the sidelines were blowing and chasing bubbles. The day was dreary but you would never know it from the reflection of trees, houses, hills and sky in this bubble.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Friday, May 13, 2011

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Car free


Considering that our towns have no local public transit and only occasional (a couple of times a week) inter-village buses, an impressive number of people manage without cars.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bosun progress


Ahh, that's better. The blank flat facade of the Bosun Hall is getting a roof to cover the entry.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Almost a grocery store


I like the way the roofline fits in with the tree behind it. Apparently the floor has had its 28 days to cure and they're moving in shelving and coolers. They expect to open by early June.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Monday, April 18, 2011

Construction on Main Street


The new craft store is getting its porch built. Construction of the building began last fall. 

Sunday, April 17, 2011

The Esso


One of the things I find endearing about small towns is how long the collective memory lasts. There's a crumbling corner in our town referred to as "the Esso." Years ago it was an Esso gas station but the gas station closed, though an auto service shop continued for some years in an adjacent building, eventually dwindling to hobby status for the owner and closing entirely more years ago than I can recall. The buildings have since housed a succession of failed businesses including a video rental place, convenience store, pizza joint, bakery and warehouse space for an African import business. But although it hasn't been an Esso in more than 20 years, maybe closer to 30, people around here still call this The Esso.

I think of it as a decoy that keeps the tourists from moving in wholesale. It's ugly as anything, and it graces the intersection of Main Street and the highway through town. I suspect a lot of people miss giving our town a second glance as a result of driving by this empty lot.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

My Aunt's Place


This is the formerly-crumbling building that used to house "My Aunt's Place," an ice cream store, gift shop, lottery ticket agent and a surprisingly terrific little yarn store. The owner retired several years ago and the building had sat dismal and empty ever since. It's the left-hand building in this photo. Now it is on its way to becoming something new. We're not sure what.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Turkeys


Wild turkeys. These two toms and their wives, scratching nearby.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Sun, melting and steam


The whole canyon fills with steam when the sun starts really melting the snow.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Leftovers


An entire winter's worth of parking lot plowings, minus 95% of the snow. Ewww.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Laundry and snowbank


The snowbanks are almost as high as the laundry lines, but spring is in the air.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Service Station


Whether you need gasoline, antifreeze, new tires, a new timing belt, your headlights pointed or your brake discs replaced, our town's service station will look after you. They also have host one of two remaining payphones (beside tires). Payphones are quickly going extinct across Canada with the advent of cell phones.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Foul weather blowing in


Weather comes from the west here. Which means we see storms coming "from the Valhallas," meaning from the Valhalla mountain range on the west side of the lake. When the Valhallas start to disappear in clouds of precipitation you have just a few minutes to take cover.