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.

Waiting

Another storefront, opposite the vacant ones in yesterday's post. This one isn't vacant, though, just on a winter hiatus. A pottery shop and café will open in the spring. The building recently endured an extensive renovation and nice, historically-sensitive facade upgrade.

Empty

Main Street is really just a couple of blocks long. With two new stores being built, and another building being repurposed and turned into a third new store, you might think we were riding the wave of a boom in business. Alas, it isn't so. There are plenty of empty storefronts.

Winter forest

The deck

Even the tree-sheltered part of the deck is pretty deep in snow. The chairs wait patiently for spring.

Cedars and sky

Compost

Composting is a way of life here. The path to the compost pile at our place is long, deep and snowy. When the snow gets "over the boots" (i.e. more than knee deep) like this no one is keen on making the required deposits.

Sunlight. Trees.

The same trees as the other day, but different light. Whole different photo.

The new grocery store

Three months ago the loggers were falling trees here and clearing the site. For a small town where the pace of life (and work) is typically pretty slow, construction has proceeded at an impressive rate. 

Log cabin

This is the first small cabin built, around 1970, by a US Vietnam draft dodger who moved to the wilderness and taught himself log-home building.

Horned icicle

After 35 cm of snow yesterday, the temperature today hovers just below freezing.

Picture-postcard trees

This is what snow-clad evergreens look like in my imagination. And in real life today, as it happens. It's snowing again to beat the band.

Picturesque returns

Colder temperatures and fresh snow again. And briefly, but alas only briefly, blue sky.

Not picturesque in the slightest