Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Work and Play


More than half this year has passed since my last posting. My excuse is that I'm anything but prolific, have only so much time and energy to sit at my computer, and most damnably this poor scribbler has only so many words and ideas in his head. What I have I've been putting into the novel I've been working on since last winter in Mexico and, intermittently, this spring and summer in my home here in southeastern British Columbia.


I say intermittently because real life, including "real" work, has a way of intruding on my literary labors when I'm not happily in Mexico on my annual working vacation.


What's more, there's play, as well as work, involved in the real life I share with my beloved partner. Periodically, my wife "nags" me into getting off my butt and out into the surrounding mountains with her for said play.


April and I happen to belong to a hiking club, which every other week or so gets us, along with our fellow members (most of whom are, like us, retired, and therefore free to take off in the middle of a given week), into one of the West Kootenay's prime, and more or less easily accessible, wilderness areas. Recently we spent two days and nights up in nearby Kokanee Glacier Park, enjoying the amenities of the Alpine Club of Canada "hut," really a splendid lodge, on Kokanee Lake at its elevation of some 7,000 feet. And just a week ago we hiked into Monica Meadows, in the alpine north of Duncan Lake, which was the highlight of our high-country excursions this summer.


Above is a view of Monica Meadows. We'd like to hike up there once more before the snow flies.


Meanwhile, tonight is chilly enough that we've made a fire in our woodstove.


Summer is definitely over.




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