Representation afar 1

There are a number of organizations whose purpose is to promote the fortunes of local businesses, particularly businesses that cater to tourists, one being Nelson Kootenay Lake Tourism. An interesting variant is the job of Nelson’s Cultural Ambassador, a person who promotes local artists. 

My website and blog do not lie within this group for, although I present Kootenay Lake, I don’t promote it. I merely offer a collection of personal reflections about where I live.

Yet, while not promoting the region, I am aware that my site does represent it — particularly given that it averages about five-thousand visitors a month from around the globe.

Techie stuff: The pictures to be shown have already been transferred and will be presented through one projector. I will appear through another projector via FaceTime from my living room. My host will provide a running translation into the local language. The interview is Thursday.

The breadth of my site’s footprint was brought home to me when, from a distance of nine time zones, I was asked if I would be willing to be interviewed at a meeting and show some of my pictures of Kootenay Lake. 

As such, it appears that I will be representing us from afar. What follows in this first posting are the notes I shall follow when talking about why I explore my locale with a camera. The next posting will be my take on the Lake, itself.

******* Below are the opening notes and images that set the stage.  *********

My front yard touches a large lake; my back yard abuts a mountain forest. I explore both.

This is a tiny portion of the extensive lake that fills 400 square kilometres of the valley floor.

The forest sweeps up the mountainside

to alpine meadows, glaciers, and mountains reaching over 3000 metres.

The lake and creeks contain fish.

The forest contains wildlife.

And both forest and lake are awash with birds.

This is Kootenay Lake. It is a minor lake in the Canadian context, yet it has an area larger than the Swiss portion of Lake Geneva. It lies in the Kootenay Districts of British Columbia, sparsely populated mountainous regions that have an area over twice that of Switzerland but with fewer than 2% of its people.

The Kootenays in Canada are Switzerland without the Swiss.

Before I retired to my lakeshore, a corner of my career had been spent making sense of small-scale meteorological phenomena. For example, the appearance of the uncommon but delightful frost flowers. These do not come about from the expected process of vapour cooling, but from vapour mixing.

Then there were steam devils: vortices from obstructions that are revealed by steam fog rising from warm water.

Two of my favourites were the green flash, a momentary island of emerald green light atop the low sun.

And walking on water: a vision where people appear to be strolling out over a water surface and among boats.

Now in my retirement I have sought to learn about the world of Kootenay Lake. It has turned out to be as rich as anything I might have imagined (to be continued in the next posting).