The Radio Girl

Just Keep Swimming, Just Keep Swimming...

Shelbert and I took a long stroll around our rural BC neighbourhood yesterday.

Here's my buddy Shelbert patiently posing on the rocks by the river.

Gotta admit I was a little distracted, trying to focus the camera AND plug my nose at the same time.  Smells a little fishy down by the river because of the salmon run.

I recently read an excellent write-up explaining the massive sockeye salmon run that's hitting our little part of the country:

"A couple of months ago somewhere between 20 and 30 million sockeye salmon massed at the mouth of the Fraser River near Vancouver to begin their one-way trip to their spawning grounds in the interior of B.C. The number of fish caught everyone by surprise, from local fishermen to government officials. It is the largest salmon run in nearly a century and nobody knows why it happened."

That was swiped directly from columnist Mike Drew from The Sun newspaper chain, who covered the story in a very easy-to-understand style.  You can read the whole article here.

And now, the stars of the show: 

The bright red salmon are still alive and kicking, slowly swimming upstream.  They run the entire length of the river and seem to be anywhere from 10 to 30 fish across, depending how wide the river is.

At the edge of the riverbank, the dead salmon (in white) bob along the shore or get wedged between the rocks. 

But the bright red salmon keep swimming by as they complete their mission.

Or as Dory says in Finding Nemo - "just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

October in the Okanagan

Our little Okanagan beach town is turning orange, yellow and green. 

October = a cold lake, but happy fish. 

 
If you're visiting the Okanagan this weekend, expect grey skies, a few showers and highs of only 13 to 15C. 

Final Friday of the Summer

Fall begins next Tuesday so this is the last weekend of summer 2009. 

The Okanagan forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 28 today.  It's my day off but I have some quick errands to run (ship off those baby clothes, restock my fruit bowl, clean old plants off the balcony) and then I'm gonna take a walk to the dock this afternoon and say goodbye to summer :(

I watched this video on YouTube this morning - Richard Marx and Endless Summer Nights.  It is soooo eighties cheesey.  Love it.

And I had to laugh out loud at the gal in the video with the ponytail on top of her head.  There is no photographic evidence but I wore my hair that way almost every day in high school. 

I found this pic of Richard Marx with Daughtry.  Wonder if Marx misses his 80's hair...

Wild Bunny

Our condo is still on the market.

We've actually gotten several offers on our place but they were all too low.  The condo is priced very well for this economy and we're sticking to it. 

We had another showing late yesterday afternoon so we left the house around 4pm to go for supper in a neighbouring beach town.  Driving the back way on a bumpy BC forest service road, we came across this little guy at the top of the mountain.

For a wild bunny, he let me hop out of the car and get pretty close.

I guess he didn't want to leave his snack behind.

We had our snacks at a marina pub on Okanagan Lake.  Here's the view from our table, with the boat fuel shack and the little general store at the end of the dock.

The Park Shed

On my walk to and from work I pass this little shed in our city park.

It's tucked into the hillside and I think it houses the irrigation system or something along those lines.  There's a heavy lock on the door and I've never seen anyone around it except for city workers.  They have to repaint the shed at least twice every summer after local gangs and graffiti hacks put their stamp on it.

City workers were out there at the beginning of August with their paint brushes and rollers.  It's been 17 days now and the shed is still brown. 

Maybe the graffiti hacks lost interest.  Personally I think if they stopped tagging it with gang names and whipped up a cool colorful mural or something, the city would probably leave it alone and stop wasting paint to cover it up.

I dare you graffiti hacks to get more creative.

Purple dinosaur, anyone?

Okanagan Weekend Weather

There is a Heavy Rainfall Warning in effect for the Okanagan today.

The rain started last night and it just poured all night.  That's awesome - our gardens and our fire crews need the moisture. 

More rain today and a high of 21, but then sunshine and high 20's all weekend.

Tennis and Fishies

My Fella and I play tennis three times a week.

We haven't been on the courts lately because the air is so smokey from local forest fires, but it was clear this morning so we grabbed our rackets and ran out the door before the wind shifted.

We try rotate through all the local courts in our little Okanagan beach town and this morning we went to the one down by the lilypad pond.

The pond is on the other side of the courts - surrounded by willow trees, and home to many local ducks, geese, frogs and fish. 

And lilypads.

Here's My Fella in action.

After tennis we made our usual Saturday trips to the local greenhouse for fruits and veggies, and then the Mediterranean Market for cheese, coffee beans and noodles.  I like wandering around the aisles and smelling the sauces.

And checking out the dried fishies.  I have no idea what you do with these ...

They look like fish jerky.  Ick.

Terrace Mountain Fire

It's like a war zone in the Okanagan Valley with all the helicopters flying overhead.

The fire on Terrace Mountain outside Fintry has doubled in size and strength and the smoke across the lake is brutal.  Really acrid, it curls the hair in your nostrils.  About 2500 locals and their pets have once again been evacuated while fire crews try contain the blaze.

I was on-air for the morning show today but after work My Fella and I wanted to get away from the smoke, so we drove out to Mabel Lake golf course for lunch.

It didn't work.  The smoke has permeated the entire valley.  We had a great lunch though.  Best nachos ever.

And the drive home was smokey, but the scenery was pretty.  I like hay.

  

Another Forest Fire

Showers in the forecast this weekend for the Okanagan Valley.

That's good news for local fire crews. 

After the west Kelowna fires were finally contained, another huge forest fire started directly across the lake from our little Okanagan beach town.  The blaze was about 4000 hectares as of last night and the smoke was so thick outside I could actually see it in the control room yesterday.  It was sneaking in through the vents.  Brutal.

The wind has died down this morning so it's not raining down ash anymore but after working in a smoky studio for five hours yesterday I have a better appreciation for what the fire crews are experiencing. 

There are 175 firefighters and 7 waterbombers fighting the blaze and I hope this rain continues to give them a hand.

There were a lot more evacuations yesterday and my heart goes out to those folks and their pets. 

On the other hand, we've had so many calls at the radio station over the past week from people volunteering to help the evacuees: 

• storage companies offering free storage of rv's and boats

• hotels/motels letting evacuees stay for a few days

• dog kennels offering free pet boarding for the duration of the fire and clean-up 

Heart warming stuff. 

It's sweet to see good things come out of bad situations.

Highway 97 Open Again

The fires are still burning in West Kelowna but the highways have been reopened.

Highway 97 and 97C south of West Kelowna were reopened this morning after being closed over the weekend.  This could change at a moments notice if the winds kick up again so if you're planning a trip to the south Okanagan, check out driveBC.ca before you hop in the car.