Withinsight

It's autumn in the Kootenays. That means shorter days, low-slanted sharp sunlight, crisp loud air and the process of decay and decline in the natural world. Here are a few photos of these changes underway. It's a melancholy time in some ways...as it feels like we are slipping towards slumber, darkness and a form of 'temporary death'. Maybe it's because melancholy cheers me up by pulling me inside myself...or maybe it's just beautiful - I love this time of year.

On another fall note - a bear or bears are eating the remaining bits of fruit in the yard at night. We hear them, find piles of almost steaming scat in the morning (looking very fruity) and there are broken branches beneath an apple and purple plum tree. Now to see one and take his or her photo! (But not up close...)

Kokanee salmon spawning - this species used to reach the ocean in their life cycle (and were huge), but for decades dams have prevented that - they now live their lives in Kootenay Lake and spawn to their birth-streams in the third year of life - turning from silver to the red and green in the photo of this soon-to-spawn-and-die fishy couple. This channel had several thousand this fall.

Here is your 3 minute fun for the day - pretty insightful too...

Do you think there is truth in this?

There were hikes to waterfalls (see below), excellent cuisine (see below), euchre games (if Gary is not your partner, you win), martinis in the afternoon...HUGE fish to catch (see below) and even HUGER stories to doubt (er..tell). For those who know the lake, we nosed ashore for nights at Coffee Creek, Sawmill Bay and Campbell Bay.

Lots of burdens in life. Lots of worries to carry for any thinking person. Lots of duties and busy-ness. But not for these days on the lake.

You had to be there to see how large it really was...(not my foot!)

All good ships have their traditions - some include olives on little toothpicks...

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