Young Santa Spotted

Went for a ski and stumbled into this bearded character. He proved to be mostly harmless...

... and capable of hucking pillows while still puffing!

Christmas Bird Count

I joined bird-nerds Rory and young Nelson for this year's Christmas bird count in Revelstoke. I took plenty of fuzzy far-away photos of birds, but I'll spare you the 'try and spot the bird among the sticks' photos. I did get some good shots of our local peaks at sunrise.

Birds we spotted and could actually identify:

Common Raven: 20

American Crow: 35

Northern Flicker: 11

European Starling: 30

Pine Siskin: 19

Song Sparrow: 1

American Robin: 2

Red Breasted Nuthatch: 4

Evening Grosbeak: 19

Black Capped Chickadee: 8

Chestnut-backed Chickadee: 2

Isa Brown Chickens: 6

Merlin: 1

American Goldfinch: 9

Stellars Jay: 3

Brewers Blackbird: 2

House Finch: 8

Bald Eagle: 2

Ski Day

Went out for a ski with four boys and a Dizzy Dog today.

Snow crystal

Steve and Dizzy

Fun pillows

Checking out options for next time.... when there's another metre of snow.

Nelson Visit

J and I headed south to one of our favourite Kootenay towns. One of the best parts about journeys south is the mellow highway, which includes the free ferry ride across Upper Arrow Lake. I always feel like I'm on the sunshine coast.

View looking south down Arrow Lakes.

The Jetta and I on the ferry. We were one of two cars.

We headed up to Whitewater for some pre-season turns. Yes, this is what the parking lot looks like before the hill is even open. Nelsonites sure love winter.

On the ridge, right before skiing down some untracked, fluffy powder. Like butter.

The weekend ended up being one of our best in a long time (and we've had a lot of great weekends). Catching up with old friends, meeting new friends, playing music, watching coffee get roasted at Oso Negro, numerous trips to Kootenay Co-op for delish food, new skis, good beer and great talks.

Patience, feeling at home in Nelson.

Nelson also happens to be home to the fantastic Kootenay Animal Assistance Program (KAAP). They happened to have a few siamese-cross kittens down there. We sort of stumbled across one and he snuck into our car. (Ok, I've been eyeing up this litter of six gray cuties for several weeks now and watching their numbers dwindle as they all get adopted. We chose from the last three and his brother and sister also got adopted this weekend.)

This guy came with the name Bart Simpson, but we are looking to rename him. So far in the running: Whisky, Wilson, Slateford, Nevis or Moonbeam (he's from Nelson after all). Leave a comment if you have a name opinion.

Getting manic on the car ride.
(And check out the bit of a new ski in the background.)

Blog Competition at the Nerd Household

First snowy views of the season...

Snow Nerd was very excited about doing his first snow-related blog post, so I had to concede the post to him. Meanwhile, here are some final shots of Edinburgh.

The city and the Firth of Forth from Arthur's seat.

Red ship in a blue world

James amidst the chaos of moving.

Black Cat trying to sneak into our shipping boxes.

Point Roberts

Great blue heron

We spent a day down in Point Roberts where my parents have a cabin. Because we had just arrived back on the west coast, but our bodies thought we were still in Scotland, it was easy to wake up early. So we headed to the beach to watch the sun rise.

Jellyfish

The cabin

This female cross spider (Araneus diadematus) had just caught a wasp, wrapped it up and was sucking out its juices when I took this shot.

We went mushroom hunting with my parents. I got distracted by the macro mode on my camera and didn't find any edibles, but luckily everyone else shared their chanterelles with me anyways.

Red Point Beach

We spent a day at Red Point Beach in between Loch Torridon and Gairloch. Here are some of my favourite shots from the day.

Lizzie went for a swim in the Atlantic, you can just spot her getting hit by a wave. She didn't just run in and out like I would have done (had I been brave enough to attempt this), she spent a good half our in there. I got cold just watching.

Sea lichen-scape

Foamy hobbit feet

Guy and Ewan

James and Ewan hanging out in the creek.

A Final Week in the Highlands

We spent a week at cosy Aird Cottage in the Highlands before heading back to Canada.

Boats at Badachro Bay

Loch Maree

Wandering up An Tellach

On one of the summits of An Tellach.

Superb scrambling on Torridon sandstone.

Lizzie on the Ridge.

Exploring on the bikes.

There was a deluge of rain the week previous and the creek was rather full.

Wet hill walkers heading up Liathach.

On the ridge of Liathach.

Unfortunately it was too windy to do the ridge proper. We thought we'd check out the goat trail to the south of the ridge instead. Once James (ahead in red) started hanging onto grass to navigate the narrow trail with deathly consequences, the rest of the group opted to turn back. James claims the grass was very healthy and sturdy.

Looking down on Glen Torridon from Liathach during a brief moment of sunlight.

Lizzie sporting a proper Canadian touque.

Wet Keir

Loch Torridon