dinner anyone?

Our Whistler home provides a great gathering place for family and friends.  Dinner parties seem to be our major evening entertainment, especially during winter.  

And so, we decided that our rather large dinner table would be improved if we could enlarge it!  In the first photo you see the original frame (on the floor) with the newer, larger frame (erected above it) and the original table top (leaning against the chimney).  The second photo shows the completed table, about a foot wider and a foot longer, with a row of tiles down the middle to accommodate hot pots of food.  The table now easily seats 12 with plenty of elbow room!

Ski season has begun

 We woke up to see fresh snow on the deck.

And, it's opening day on Whistler!

Winter is coming!

Some mornings we wake up to see white stuff on our house. 

 Here is our evening view of snow on Blackcomb ski runs.

And, mid-day view of snow-making on Blackcomb.  Skiing starts this Friday, November 19th!

November in the valley

While fresh snow is falling in the alpine, leaves are still falling in the valley here in Whistler.

There is still plenty of good weather for riding a bike ride along the valley trails.

I rode to Rainbow Park and enjoyed watching the mist rise off the lake. 

River of Golden Dreams and Romance, with Whistler Mt in the background. 

Pre-season projects

October is a good month to get things done in preparation for the alpine racing season, and a quiet month here in Whistler for heading up the mountain.   Here is a view of our race venue "Ptarmigan" with Blackcomb in the background.

 

And, our ski club storage building "Garbo Hut", located at the top of the race run (and in need of some more cleaning up....)

 Al and his timing buddies set up some new timing stations along the race run.

Hmm, some deer were browsing near-by....

How did we get up the mountain?  Hiking would have been a good idea, but with all the gear it was more practical to use the ski club truck, and fortunately the summer road goes right by the race course. 

Matterhorn Chairlift

Ready for ski season:   Wini & Irene toasting the new chair lift installed at the Matterhorn base.

Drive to the Adams River

Al went missing in Vancouver last week.....boys with toys?  He decided it was time to trade in our Subaru for a new one......

So, we took it for a drive.... over the Duffy, through Kamloops, and past Chase to the Adams River.  We went to met Charlotte and learn more about her Masters research involving spawning salmon. 

Every four years the salmon run on the Adams River is a big run and this year seems to have surpassed expectations.  It is an amazing phenomenon.  To learn more go here:

http://www.bcadventure.com/murphys/adamsriver/salute.htm

Here are a few photos of the salmon swimming up the river to spawn or fertilize eggs.  Many of the salmon have already completed their life cycle and lay dead on the banks of the river.  

Charlotte's project involves collected eggs from 20 salmon, which she then fertilizes and incubates in three different temperatures.  She is collecting a lot of data at this point....

Fungus Among Us....?

We joined the fungi fun-guys this year for a walk to observe the fungus among us....

Here are a few photos of some we found particularly interesting:
 orange peel, cauliflower and coral....

Unfortunately, we are not yet confident enough to know very many mushrooms that are safe to eat!

Thanksgiving

We had a fun family week-end here in Whistler, with a full house that included Char & Tor, who are both living in Vancouver.   Charlotte has started her grad project in Conservation at UBC, researching how global climate change may affect wild salmon productivity.  Toria (who is currently injured so off ski racing for the season) has just started first year in Kinesiology at Langara College.

While the focus for the week-end may have been the festive Turkey dinner, the traditional puzzle provided some in-between entertainment.


Notice how cousin Ben and nephew Mike are racing Char to get the most pieces into the puzzle?

A few of us drove to Pemberton valley for some fresh vegies and pumpkins from the farm.  Here are cousin Jane and Irene in the raspberry patch.

The weather allowed for a hiking day too.  With all the options around Whistler it was hard to decide, until we saw rain clouds and opted out of the higher alpine route.

So we drove up beyond the 2010 Olympic Park to Callaghan Lake... 

I took our SPOT along so you can click the links below to see where we started the hike.

http://fms.ws/3eWFY/50.19289/\-123.18262
If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.19289,-123.18262&ll=50.19289,-123.18262&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Well, it's not like October in Quebec or Ontario, but we found some Autumn colours.   We started out in a brief hail storm, wearing all our layers.

The trail winds through the woods, over some creeks, by numerous small ponds, and through alpine bogs....

 We ate lots of fresh blueberries, but just looked at the mushrooms....

The trail wasn't steep so by the time we reached our destination (Conflict Lake) we had only gained about 150M.

Click this link to see where Conflict Lake is located.
http://fms.ws/3eZbu/50.19412/\-123.23497
If the above link does not work, try this link:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=50.19412,-123.23497&ll=50.19412,-123.23497&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

Ou sont les castors?

Well, the eager beavers down by Green Lake have been busy.  Here is Green Lake....

 And here is what the beavers have been busy doing.....

 Somewhere in the woods we hope to find their building site!

Back in Whistler!

We got back from sailing in mid-September, just in time to enjoy late summer in Whistler.

Activities the first two weeks back have included some hiking, some biking, some going to the gym, and lots of working on the house.

Here are a few photos of our driveway project:  preparation with compacted sand

 then delivery of tons of stones, and initial efforts to create a design...

 Many hours bend carrying stone, laying them out, cutting some to fit along the edges, digging a trench for a cement border to hold them in place....

Finished product! (Note the black stones that lead the way to our guest entrance.)

Summer is coming!

Soon we will be sailing again.  This is a test message via email, making sure we can update from an internet café as we travel.

And we are skiing again.....

Yes, it's May ....

and here we are at the top of Blackcomb, with Whistler in the background, & Black Tusk on the horizon.

We had perfect, wintry conditions,
dry snow, cool air, and sunshine.


Thanks to Toria and Wini we skied four days last week!