Summer at Mt. Baker

Richard and I headed up to Mt. Baker Ski area on Canada Day to check out the views and play in the snow. We saw a lovely small forest fire on the way just outside of Maple Falls and the smoke did not make photographing the mountains as fun!

Mt. Shuksan - One of the most photographed mountains in the world! I actually seen pictures of this mountain hanging on the walls all over the world!

Mt. Baker ski area does hold the world record for the most snowfall in one season at 1,140 inches (95 feet or almost 20 meters). This is what some of the snowbanks look like in July. Keep in mind Richard is 6'7. Imagine what these snowbanks look like in the middle of winter... It's usually like driving in a tunnel.

More of Mt. Shuksan, you can see the toe of the glacier.

One more jellyfish...

Tourist In Your Own City Part II

Richard and I spent Saturday afternoon doing another tour of a few of Vancouver's famous attractions. We went to the Vancouver Aquarium and then finally took a tram ride up to Grouse Mountain. While we have both been up Grouse Mountain alot for snowboarding and skiing during the winter we both had not been up there during the summer, so it was interesting. We watched a log show and checked out the grizzly bears. There is still alot of snow up there, this winter was a crazy one.

Here are some jellyfish we saw, they really seem like amazing creatures.


The Vancouver Aquariums famous paw holding sea otters. They were not holding paws at the time, as this little guy was just too busy sleeping. They are so cute though!

The giant harbour seal is having a good snooze also, if you look closely you can see that his tounge is sticking out a bit, I never noticed until I looked at the picture :)

The only picture I really liked from up on Grouse, although we took alot of the view and whatnot, it was a hazy day and the photos just did not do the view justice. This log show was actually pretty good, had a few laughs from it.

Aloha Yeti!

I recently snapped some shots of the Yeti wearing some of Hawaiian leis that we were given in Maui. At first he didn't seem to notice he had them on. I think he looks cute.


He does not look as impressed in this shot but his eyes look nice!

Garside's Fruit Farm through the seasons..

I have collected alot of shots of the farm over the last few years, I thought I may as well share some of them. To give you a bit of background, this is my husbands family farm, it is an Organic fruit orchard located in the Lower Mainland of BC. We grow a variety of apples, pears, plums, hazelnuts and other fruits and vegetables. The apples we grow are considered "heritage varities" and are generally not the type you find in the grocery store. Here is a quick list of the apples we grow: Gravenstein, Crab, Discovery, Prima, Jonagold, Spartan, Gloucester, Bramley, King, Boskoop, and Northern Spy. We also grow two varities of Pears: Bartlett and Anjou, as well as Prune Plums and Hazelnuts. During the summer the fruit is sold off the farm and at a farmers market. In the last few years alot of the farms responsibilities have fallen to Richard and I, which at times has been a bit tough as we were not really given the choice.

Anyway as promised here are the shots through the seasons...

With Spring come the buds on the trees, this season the winter seemed to hang on for so long that the trees are about 5 weeks behind schedule.

Looking down a row of Spartan and King apple trees.

The buttercups are out everywhere.

A shot of the inside of a tulip.

Summer: My MIL picking apples off the tree.

Fall: The leaves have fallen and the weather is looking ominious, looks like winter is on its way...

Fall: The hazelnut grove.

Winter has arrived and the Hazelnut grove has a wonderful dusting of snow throughout.

Tourist in your own city

Wow it has been so long since I last posted :( I can not believe how tardy I have been, I have lots of photos from the last month, I just need to get my butt in gear to edit them and post them.

Anyway on the May long weekend, we did a few touristy type things in Vancouver, it was alot of fun. We rented a tandem bicycle and rode around the Seawall at Stanley Park, which actually was quite terrifying, as I had no control over where we were going and how fast, all I did was peddle, the other problem was that Richard is so much taller than I, I could see where we were going!! My cousin once said that those tandem bikes are "Divorce on Wheels" I can understand why he says that now! We did not end up crashing or anything but it was still scary and a bit painful when Richard would change gears and the peddles would go flying out from my feet and smash into my shins. We also went up the Harbour Center tour at sunset and looked over the views of Vancouver, it was really beautiful. On our drive back we saw the Chinese Night Market in China Town, so we perused the peoples wares. There was some very tasty food vendors there, I totally recommend it.


View of Canada Place and the North Shore Mountains from the Harbour Center tower.



View of the city scape of Vancouver also from the Harbour Center Tower.


The Chinese Night Market is a very busy place, even late at night!

Colour for me

I had a little fun taking pictures while doing some makeup the other day!