The wood butchers strike again....

For those of us unfamiliar with the sight.....

A look at some honest-to-God blue sky, by golly! And it's only six months overdue.
 

Foggy mountain-tops and blooming bottom-lands....

Not a great day on the hilltops.....

But better down here where most of us patiently await nicer weather.
 

Decadent Snack....

Banana cupcake..... the cupcake is chocolate cake, and the icing is banana. Very nice! 

Look, Ma! No leaks!

Old ZX-10 visits Dr. Kawasaki for a check-up

The diagnosis was better than I expected, and the need for a new water pump was solved with a new 0-ring instead. I also got rid of a couple of other little add-ons that I didn't need, like the throttle lock for cruising, and that annoying anti-theft device on the ignition. I doubt that any bike thief with an I.Q. more than twice his shoe size would bother stealing a bike that's already 22 years old. In people years, that's like ninety or so. Fortunately, the bike doesn't know how old it is, so it just carries on, eating Ferraris for lunch, and you've gotta love a bike like this! Even at $95.00 an hour for shop labor. It's still cheaper than a new bike, and it keeps up to the traffic just the same.

Tree-trimming our jungle

When I first moved here, these trees weren't much taller than I am, and now, they're real timber. The branches are bigger now than the trunks were back then. 

New house now has its windows

This morning's weather, in all its splendor

What we see is what we get. Don't like it? Wait 20 minutes!

 Could this be the start of summer? Ask me next week.....

Achtung Monsieur Beep!

Achtung Monsieur Beep: Sie sind gesund und munter und immer noch Spaß auf Gran Canaria und den Süßen?

We haven't heard from you now for quite a long time, and are beginning to wonder.

Trying to shine...

Out touring on the ZX-10

There's still lots of snow on the ski hills....

This is one of the runs at Cypress Mountain today.....

And this is how I got to it. This great old bike is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. Would I lie to you? It can almost fly.....
 

My "new" bike......

I wish I looked this good in my old age, and could get my ass down the road as fast as this baby does! This can still show the younger ones how. And if you've never had a bike with a Corbin saddle, you don't know what you've been missing all those years. It hugs your ass like you're sitting in the hand of God! And at the speeds I like to travel, that's very reassuring. 
 

No, it's not a house fire.....

It's just "old Smoky" cooking supper. But you coulda fooled me....
 

Will it ever stop?

Another view of Mount Pyroclastic - The Witches Castle

This print was cleaned up a bit after scanning, to improve contrast and etc.

Prostate Brachytherapy - it works!

It's just over a year since I had the procedure, and my latest PSA level is 1.1 and the radiation oncologist tells me that this is so good that I don't need to return in six months for another check, but can wait until a year from now.

So if anyone doubts whether or not it is effective, I can assure you, it is. And I can't say enough good things about our team of experts at the local Cancer Clinic operated by the Canadian Cancer Society. They do miracles.

Early morning

This could maybe be one of the opening shots for one of those prehistoric epics featuring dinosaurs and scantily-clad busty babes, but it isn't.....

It's 'The Witches Castle' seen from the main road just as the first rays of the morning sun touch its upper parts, and before the morning mists have been burned off. It does have a rather prehistoric aspect to it, though, and it's certainly old enough. 

The real British Columbia isn't in town, Folks.....

It's in places like this - the several-miles-long whitewater rapids along the Elaho River inside what once was Tree Farm License 38 in the upper Squamish River Valley northwest of Squamish. 

 Or this, an ancient volcano even bigger than Mount St. Helens, which burned out the whole inside of a huge mountain, leaving only the north wall and a huge ash and cinder ridge to its east. I call it 'The Witches Castle' because there's a spire of rock to the left of the highest one on the north peak which looks like a huge statue of a person in a floor-length robe, with a hood covering the head and part of the 'face', and a band of other-colored rock diagonally across the front and around the base of it. This 'figure' seems to be standing there looking down into the pit in the center, as if on watch, and hence 'The Witch'. All around the rim, which is miles, the bedrock is fractured into small cubes which will fall apart if struck by a hammer or another rock. It's a rather spooky place. Just imagine building a road for logging trucks into that burned out cavity, and logging it under the watchful eye of 'The Witch'...... The big black 'dots' on the lighter sandstone colored ash ridge are actually large gas vents coming to the surface from somewhere deep inside. One, when seen with binoculars, seems to be like a large cave with an opening maybe a hundred feet or so across. I camped in there for two days once, to have a good look at it, and it's impressive.

And up at about mile 60 there's this confluence of the Elaho River with the Clendenning Creek coming in from the northwest. It's one of the few more peaceful parts of those streams, and a pair of white swans nest there each spring to raise their little ones. Just two or three miles further along, the logging road ends in a big clearcut, which is now part of a provincial park.
This is the kind of country where you find the real British Columbia. You should come and check it out sometime.