Blue Between Blizzards

Ok, blizzards might be putting too strong a spin on it, but you catch my drift!

Before I get onto that, though, here's the sunset Alpenglo on Garibaldi from last weekend's day of gale-force winds - the fuzziness you can see is the snow blowing around in the alpine!

As always, click to enlarge the photos!

And now, back to regular programming...

Yesterday's storm brought 10cm+ to the Squamish area. Needless to say, this caused chaos on Highway 99, the main artery between Vancouver and Whistler, on the worst possible day of the week: Friday! Vancouver was snarled, too, because the city isn't set up for snow (or efficient snow-clearing) and city-mice don't put winter tyres on their vehicles.

This morning, though, we woke to a glorious bluebird day and, as soon as the sun reached the valley floor, we were out walking to enjoy the winter wonderland before the sun started knocked the globs of snow out of the trees:

The next storm is forecast for tonight ... another approx 10cm of snow!

Could this be the last blast of winter?! We shall see...

Until next time!
Tanya

Onwards!

As I sit at my window and watch the latest North Pacific winter storm dumping what's forecast to be up to 30cm of wet snow by tomorrow morning, I am contemplating what's scheduled for me (and my camera) this year!

After a couple of summers taking photos at local equestrian events, this year I have been offered the chance to shoot at three multi-day hunter-jumper events at Maple Ridge Equestrian Centre! Those are in May, June and August.

Hunter-Jumper at SVEA

Also, in late June and early October, I'll be capturing the action at two two-day eventing clinics being taught by world-greats William Fox-Pitt and Lucinda Green! These gigs will be shared with popular Vancouver area equestrian photo-guru, Marion Fox. (Marion also happens to be the person who I owe props to for opening the door to the events at MREC!)

Lucinda Green instructing at MREC

To say I'm excited about these opportunities is an understatement!

As soon as the schedule for the local Squamish riding club, SVEA, has been released, I'll be adding a few more dates to my calendar - hopefully a couple of dressage dates along with hunter-jumper and other activities!

Dressage at SVEA

Of course, I'll be continuing to do any pet photography that comes my way, too!

But, it's only mid-February and, the weatherman says, after this snow has fallen and the skies start clearing, there's an Arctic outflow coming! This means all this lovely slush will freeze solid! Ack!

See you next time!
Tanya

A Year Ago Today ...

It's almost a year since I posted here! I have every intention of making it a regular contribution but, as my track record indicates, my intentions can't be counted on ... at least when it comes to regular blog posts! (One of my new year's resolutions was to get back to my blog ... and look how long that took!)

What inspired this return to the blog? Today was the first full day of sunshine that we've had in about 6 weeks! It feels like spring (although we know that's probably a false alarm)! Don't get me wrong: Not complaining! We had a couple of weeks of snow over the holidays but, since then, nothing but rain. Dreary, yes, but less of a pain in the butt to deal with in daily life!

Today we had a lovely walk from our flat through Squamish towards the Terminals and Estuary area. Here are a few of the photos (click the image to enlarge):

As many of you already know, we now live in Squamish. That's about 90 minutes' drive south of Pemberton, where we were before. It's a moderate-size town at the head of a fjord called Howe Sound, on British Columbia's coast, about an hour's drive from Vancouver. We've been here since June last year, and are loving it! That's a big surprise, particularly to me, because I didn't have the town at the top of my list of most-want-to-live-in locations!

Have to admit that I'm getting a tad nervous because our lease is up in 4 months. No idea if that will mean we have to move yet again ... one can only hope not but, at this time, it's up to the landlord gods, if we're to continue renting. And the WHA gods ... which by extension means the wait-list gods, if we ever hope to be able to find a place to buy ... and finally unpack all these xxxxing boxes!!!

If anyone's still out there ...

See you next time!
Tanya