Valhalla View

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.

Wells in the snow

The dark wood of the bushes reflects light and melts the snow.

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.

Pebble beach

Ghost town?

Boarded up, papered over, wrapped up ... It all looks fairly dismal, but good things are coming. Economic activity is highly seasonal here. Winter is the best time to renovate, build, move, re-stock, re-organize, re-launch. On the left is the craft store that began construction in November.

Public pier view

Public Pier

Unused through the winter, the public pier was covered in deep snow. Now milder temperatures and the lake's perpetual heat-sink effect are causing the snow to melt in patches.

Dark sky and maple tree

Snow heap

Tall dirty heap of snow behind the community gymnasium / fitness centre. 

Pet icicle

We get quite fond of certain icicles. This one at our favourite café is our current pet. It's well over a metre long and has grown a little every time we check on it.

Ski Hill Perspective

Putting perspective not on the size of the hill, or the view of the base area, but on the size of the operation. On a beautiful day in February with fabulous snow conditions and finger-and-toe-friendly temperatures, you can count nine cars in the parking lot, and the only four skiers you can see in this photo are the four I brought with me.

Ski Hill View

Looking down on Summit Lake, which marks the northern end of the Slocan Valley, from part way down the southernmost easy ski run.

Pathway

Digging out

... with a two-stage snowblower, the best option around here.

Neck deep

This poor pear tree is up to its neck in snow. And still more falls.

Houselet

This tiny ramshackle house is right in the middle of the "core commercial district." It's for sale. Anyone want to move here and start an intimate little year-round locavore restaurant? There's a dearth of eating-out opportunities from October to April.

Kind of pretty

I think it's kind of pretty what happens to the butt end of vehicles that drive along the highway after a heavy snowfall. Apparently you can be fined by police for not keeping your license plate clear, but honestly, you'd be stopping every five minutes to do so. No one worries about it, and we only have one police officer here.

Pull over!

The heavy snow is taking its toll on the limbs of some of the trees around town. I was driving down 5th Ave. today when I saw a tree driving towards me, sideways. I had to duck into a side street to avoid a possible sweeping.

The beach

Roofing and porch

The hardware store has roofing and the porch is going on.

Hardware

A display case of hardware from the early days of our town, on the wall outside the current-day hardware store.