The pictures I had taken last week clearly show that Old Man Winter is on retreat. I thank him for giving me the opportunity to capture many images of snow covered landscapes, ice sculptures and even of my wife dancing at the lakeshore. But now it is time to bid farewell and allow youthful Spring onto the stage of our four-season countryside. Enjoy.
Yesterday, the air was crisp after a frosty night. Still, the sun came out with the full brilliant force to warm and light up brilliantly the morning landscape of our beloved Arrow Lakes. A ten-minute drive from Fauquier going north on Highway 6, we visited the so-called Burton Flats. This low-lying area was once productive agricultural land. It got flooded when BC Hydro built a dam near Castlegar. The lake level is so low around this time of the year that one can see how narrow the Columbia River once was. There my wife and I went for a long walk to the original river bank. The following is a small sample that we brought home from our outing. Enjoy.
On Valentine’s Day, my wife and I ventured out into the cold again. As we put on very thick gloves to prevent frostbites, we found it very difficult to handle those tiny buttons on our digital cameras. So we bared our hands to shoot some more pictures of the impressive ice formation. In return for our numb fingers, we were rewarded with a few more photos with interesting ice formations. Over a cup of coffee and a delicious apple torte, we always preview, compare and critique each other’s photos. Rain and milder weather are in the forecast. So this could be easily the last instalment of winter photos. Enjoy.
Winter has finally arrived. Extreme cold has gripped the Arrow Lakes region with temperatures hovering around the minus 15 C mark. Luckily, the cold weather was still tolerable, as the sun was casting its brilliance over the winter landscape. My wife and I all bundled up walked along the lakeshore at the Fauquier boat dock. The freezing temperatures had worked hard to cover driftwood, boulders and boat launch with a thick layer of ice. Then I discovered icicles in all kinds of forms and shapes which I captured with my camera. The following is just a small sample of Nature’s artwork. Enjoy.
This has so far been the mildest winter, since we moved here over forty years ago. In the early 1980′, we experienced massive snowfalls with snow piling up all the way to our kitchen window. In the extreme cold weather often lasting several weeks in a row, the lake would occasionally freeze over and our ferry barely managed to break the ice in the morning. It seems that such extreme weather is now part of the past. After a night of wet snow covering the ground with a white blanket, rain, quite heavy at times, returned to our area at the Arrow Lakes. When it let up a little, my wife and I went out for our daily walk equipped with our cameras hunting for rain drops. Here are the results. Enjoy!
The Peter and Gertrud Klopp Family 