North by Southwest

Flyfishing in the Pitt River

2010-07-09T06:09:00.001-07:00

Saturday, June 26th, 2010 took a jet boat to the headwaters of Pitt Lake. It is a wonderful, wild place less than two hours from Vancouver. The fishing consisted of sating a large fly - fish imitation, upstream and after mending the line letting it drift with the current until it had swung around. A slow retrieve was often when the fish would hit. I went with two other fishing companions and between the three of us we landed more than 20 Dolly Varden. A spoon on a spinning rod was the best ticket but I stuck to the fly. Spectacular scenery and well worthwhile. We fished with Matt, a guide from the Pacific Angler shop on Broadway.

War on Junk - Day 25

2010-01-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

The junk war has slowed down a bit but no truse has been declared. Here is the day's haul:

1. An octagonal glass jar
2. A stainless steel water bottle sans lih
3. A small glass jar with a lid
4. A small plastic container with a lid
5. A plastic candy divider box
6. A package of anchors for a car
7. An accessory for a defunct dustbuster
8. Tears for Fears CD
9. HP DeskJet 5900 CD
10. A Rockin for Research music CD (we got 2)

War on Junk - Day 23 A Trip to the Dump

2010-01-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

Huge junk invasion over the weekend. New TV and home theatre system resulted in a massive pile of cardboard boxes, styrofoam and other packing materials. It required the junk war nuclear option - a trip to the dump. The dump is no longer called a dump, it's called a transfer station. For the privelege of driving to the dump and unloading our garbage, we get to pay a fee. In addition, garbage goes to one location, paints and metals to another and recyclables to a third. They are all in proximity but it seems that the process could be streamlined. For example, to get rid of the paint, you can drive directly to the paint station from within the garbage facility. The collectors were there but wouldn't accept your paint cans until you drove out of the facility, back onto the steet and then turned back into the same facility ten yards down the road where you were met by the same collectors at the same station who would now accept your paint. Not quite sure why we had to do it that way but we did.

What we got rid of today:

1. A cardboard box from the TV
2. Styrofoam from the packing crate
3. Multiple boxes and cardboard inserts from the home theatre packing crate
4. ANother cardboard box
5. A lenght of copper pipe
6. A rotten 2x4
7. A small piece of plywood
8. A drawer from an old piece of furniture
9. A 5 gallon paint container
10. A large ceramic tile

War on Junk - Day 22

2010-01-02T09:03:00.000-08:00

Now I'm getting in to the tool/hardware section of our junk cornucopia. Some of this stuff might be useful, but hasn't been used for 20 years, is redundant or has an unknown function. This will be a rich source of crap!

The list:

1. A Prestone lock De-Icer, never used but defunct
2. A vintage pair of pliers
3. A President's Choice jam jar in which I found a piece of lapis and rutilated quartz - bonus!
4. A brass pot
5. A clamp for a specific but unknown purpose
6. Another clamp - ditto
7. A package of toggle bolts 1/8 x 2 inches
8. A package of 2 brass tap seats
9. a plastic box for earplugs - no ear plugs
10. A dual clamp for something - never been used

War on Junk - Day 21 A New Year

2010-01-01T09:28:00.000-08:00

It is now 2010. Who knows what this year will bring? My hope is for peace, prosperity, good health and good luck. I watched Dick Clark last night doing the countdown to the New Year. Dick, it's time to retire! He is is an ancient man with a plastic surgeon's deft touch all over his face. He doesn't look old but he sounds like he belongs in an assisted-living retirement home. I digress.

Today's haul:

1. A pair of Italian scissors - not used
2. A redundnat tape gun by 3M
3. A broken plug plate
4. A door stopper
5. A nylon thingamabob.
6. A washer
7. A plastic reservoir cover
8. A light bulb, plug converter
9. A plastic chair leg whatchamacallit
10. A plastic plug plugger

War on Junk - Day 20

2009-12-31T09:33:00.000-08:00

Two hundred pieces of junk down! The holidays have been distracting - so many better things to do than look for junk, but I must remain vigilant because new pieces of junk creep in daily. It takes about a hundred items to fill the tote.

Today's list:

1. An American Eagle Sweater
2 and 3. A pair of Swazi candles made in Africa
4. A bundle of tubes
5. A defunct lighter
6. An Ikea attaching device
7. A fridge magnet
8. A Dustbuster attachment
9. A plastic vial
10. A paint brush

War on Junk - Day 19

2009-12-27T08:20:00.000-08:00

After a Christmas hiatus, during which a lot of future junk made its way into our house and the war on junk was temporarily suspended, I'm back in the trenches. There are entire stores full of garbage that people foolishly flock to. They're called Dollar Stores and they sell exclusively stuff which will be in the garbage within two weeks of purchase. The only attraction they seem to have is price. However it's not restricted to the dollar stores - my mother-in-law, who is not mechanically inclined, purchased a flashlight this week. She brought it over and handed it to me, because she couldn't get it to work. Thats' not unusual, however this time, there was good reason for her difficulties - it was an unalloyed piece of junk - poorly made, poorly designed, instant garbage, all manufactured in China, blister packed, shipped overseas, stocked in the hardware store, purchased and then discarded. A total waste of resources, energy, time and money.

Today's Junk.

1. A Macanudo Cigar box
2. A cigar cutter - cheap and nasty
3. An aluminum cigar tube
4. A Macadamia Royals chocolate-covered nut tin
5. A lighter
6. A Cortland Fly Line Cleaner - never used and not needed
7. A blade from a sword-shaped letter opener
8. A plastice vial containing iron pyrite flakes
9. A glass jar
10. My Abu-matic reel, given to me by my dad on my 10th birthday. A few years back I disassembled it, then couldn't figure out how to put it back together. Not junk but no longer useful.

War on Junk - Day 18

2009-12-22T20:32:00.000-08:00

One of the side benefits of declaring war on junk is that in the 5 minutes I spend selecting the days 10 pieces, I will occaisonally come across something useful. Like today I found my Nikon Coolpix 4500 Guide. I have been looking for it for a couple of years! That's one of the insidious things about junk - it obscures the useful.

Today's Junkorama

1. A Japanese fan box - empty
2. A box containing lacquered paper bows
3. A Kenwood Portable CD player
4. An empty film canister
5. A charging device for something
6. A booklet - Growing Children: A Parent's Guide
7. A bag containing coin tubes.
8. A set of Sony headphones
9. A cord for a computer or printer
10. A plastic round box top

War on Junk - Day 17

2009-12-21T19:17:00.000-08:00

Will it never end! There is a lot of this stuff and it's everywhere - in drawers in cupboards, on shelves and in closets.

Todays junk:

1. A Halloween 'hockey mask' - scared the bejesus out of my wife with it yesterday.
2. A cheap flashlight - it would never work if you really needed it
3. A Sony Digicube radio
4. A Gillette Mach 3 Turbo razor handle
5. A pair of earbuds.
6. A pait of Halo Heel shoe inserts
7. A role of Kodak 24 exposures 200 ASA film - expiry date Oct 2004
8. A really cheap and tacky wristwatch
9. An electric razor cleaning brush
10. A plastic monocular

War on Junk - Day 16

2009-12-20T16:42:00.001-08:00

Today I emptied the turquoise tote, which was full to the brim. We are now 150 items lighter in the junk department. Another wave of junk is about to come ashore however so we will start to re-fill the tote.

Junk Menu for Today:

1. An unexposed role of Kodak 200 ASA film. Kodak couldn't dodge the digital bullet.
2. A car cell phone charger
3. An ex-mouse
4. A battery charger unsued for many years
5. A plastic electronic device
6. Nick Manoloff's Spanish Guitar Method instructional book- copyright 1935
7. A congratulation for for being Today's Sparkler given to our eldest son in elementary school
8. A drawing of a snowman by one of our kids
9. CD stomper Jewel case insert set
10. A charger for an unknown electronic device

War on Junk - Day 15

2009-12-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

One hundred and fifty pieces of junk are now captured and being held prisoner in the turquoise tote. There is no end in sight!

More Junk:

1. An obsolete charger for a cell phone
2, A broken plastice salad server
3. An old tooth brush
4. A lady's razor handle
5. A cork form a bottle of Graham's Port
6. A plastic bag with 4 pennies
7. Half a pen
8. A cord for some electronic device - unknown
9. A sachet of flower food
10. A pewter bob with a west coast native image (Bear?) and the word strength on the back

A Tribute to Paul McCartney

2009-12-19T00:45:00.000-08:00

Buy Buy
Says the Sign in the Shop Window
Why Why
Says the Junk in the Yard

Paul McCartney

I have always found that there is a Beatle song for every topic and although "Junk" by Paul McCartney was not a Beatle song, it was written by a Beatle, so close enough. Anyway, to take break from junk to the sublime, I wanted to pay homage to Paul McCartney, a musical genius of incandescent brilliance who has performed a large part of the soundtrack to my life. I just watched "Good Evening New York City" - a DVD about a concert Sir Paul did in Citi Field in the summer of 2009. It included 33 songs, 31 by Paul, one by John Lennon and one by Geaorge Harrison. What is staggering to contemplate is that he could have performed an entirely different collection of 33 Lennon/McCartney or McCartney songs and it would have been just as amazing. I cannot think of another living soul who has such a vast, global reservoir of love and good will among people throughout the world.

Thank you Paul, for creating so much joy and pleasure In My Life. And thanks too to the other 3 Beatles, the dearly departed John Lennon, George Harrison and the indispensible Ringo. You'll Never Know How Much We Really Love You.

War on Junk - Day 14

2009-12-18T05:27:00.000-08:00

The banality of this blog is starting to annoy me. Seeking out mundane and useless objects is not as much fun as say - looking for lost treasure. In fact this is pretty much the opposite. We'll see how long I can keep it up.

Junk du jour:

1. A flyer from the municipality
2. A hand-made birthday card
3. A tourist's map of Vancouver
4. The handle to a Schick razor
5. A plastic top for a round container
6. A set of unknown keys on a ring
7. A moustache comb
8. A cleaning brush for a non-existant electric razor
9. A plastic tweezer
10. A nail file

War On Junk - Day 13

2009-12-17T16:29:00.000-08:00

A large bolt of fabric showed up in the junk tote. By volume it takes up a lot of space. Then there is the usual culling from various drawers around the house'

Todays' Junk:

1. A bolt of fabric
2. Two obsolete keys on a ring
3. Another obsolete key
4. An eraser
5. An orange peeler (I think we can live without this)
6. A strawberry huller
7. A plastic gizmo
8. A Radio Shack Enercell AA battery
9. A chrome bolt with a washer for something very specific - don't know what!
10. A plastic bag with 2 pennies, a nickel and a US dime.

War on Junk - Day 12

2009-12-16T06:03:00.000-08:00

It still only takes about five minutes in my office here at home to identify 10 pieces of useless crap. I have filled the tote at this point, so I will now have to separate the contents into the 3 piles:

1.Garbage
2.Recycling
3.Charity

Here's today's assortment:

1. A black three-ring binder
2. A green scarf
3. An ink pad for a non-existent stamp
4. An obsolete Motorola car cellphone charger
5. An obsolete charging device
6. Another box of bookplates featuring the Ural Owl
7. A block of wood
8. A plastic bag with 2 pennies, two nickels and a dime
9. A useless green bolt
10. A club key

War on Junk - Day 11

2009-12-15T06:03:00.000-08:00

A mundane collection of junk from various drawers in the house.

Today's list:

1. A wooden knife
2. A wooden fork
3. A plastic thing
4. A padlock, formerly on my trailer hitch, run over by my wife
5. A fancy string
6. A strawberry huller - who knew such a thing existed?
7. A bolt
8. An unknown key
9. An obsolete key
10. A useless key

War on Junk - Day 10 - A Christmas Special!

2009-12-14T05:51:00.000-08:00

Day 10 - One hundred pieces of junk consigned to banishment! It hasn't even made a dent in the chaos, but it does feel good. It was Christmas tree time on the weekend and like every other year, a string of lights no longer works. When I was a child we had the screw in, flame-shaped, multi-coloured lights. If one of them went out, you could replace it. Today's miniature, cheap little twinkly lights are garbage as soon as one light goes out. On my website for Rare and Precious.com, I have a gallery dedicated to the well-made object, items I have owned for decades that are still useful and functional. http://www.rareandprecious.com/

Todays Christmas list.

1. Miniature artificial tree
2. A string of christmas lights
3. A wreath of twigs
4. A cluster of fake cherries
5. A blue glass globe ornament
6. A pink glass globe ornament
7. A red glass globe ornament
8. A white and gold christmas tree ornament
9. A round white plastic attachment for a massage tool
10. Two more of the above

Strictly speaking that's 11 items - we'll call it a Christmas bonus.

War on Junk - Day 9

2009-12-13T07:25:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned this project to a few people and it seems to have struck a nerve. Upon hearing that I am eliminating 10 pieces of junk a day some have said "I'm going to do that!" We could call ourselves the junkinistas. Any way, I got rid of some bulky junk today.

Here is the list:

1. A CD for a Samsung computer?
2. Cardboard box for my Blackberry World Edition
3. Cardboard box for the Nikon Macro Cool-Light SL-1
4. Nikon Guide de demarrage rapide for the Coolpix 4500
5. Nikon French Instruction manualfor the Coolpix 4500
6. Nikon multi lingual instruction manual for the Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
7. A plastic black felt tip pen
8. A broken zipper pull.
9. A Nikon Quick start guide for the Coolpix 4500
10. A cork stopper from a Martell Cognac

Ironically, the one thing I really need of all the Nikon stuff is the English instruction manual for my Coolpix 4500 and it is nowhere to be found. I did find some useful accessories for my Blackberry that I didn't know I had - like a car charger and some earphones. The war on junk is having some useful side effects. Who knows what else I will discover once the junk is out of the way?

The War on the War on Junk - Day 8

2009-12-12T06:11:00.000-08:00

It turns out, the war in junk is not as popular as I expected. In fact, in some quarters it has been met with scorn and derision. I will however persevere, for I believe it to be a noble and worthy challenge.

Today's Junk:

1. A vintage address book (way before e-mail)
2. Michael Jackson's rehearsal glove
3. An impressive plastic device, precisley made for a very specific and unknown purpose
4. A plastic bag with 1 screw and 1 pencil tip
5. A Nikon Coolpix 4500 French manual
6. A Nikon Battery manual
7. A charging converter for an obsolete device
8. A highliter in a case
9. Telus maual Our Privacy Commitment to You
10. A JDRF folder

War on Junk - Day 7

2009-12-11T07:15:00.000-08:00

So today there was one decision that took a little bit of thought. Do I get rid of the box of book plates featuring Hiroshige's Great Wave of Kanagawa? I've had it for more than a decade but I kind of like the idea having bookplates in my books. Bottom line is I like the idea, but not the doing so - 'they're outta here!'

Today's outstanding crop of junk:

1. An Audiologic Portable CD Player with Virtual Skip-Free Protection
2. A CD Stomper for labelling CD's
3. A Telus USB Hub
4. A King of Diamonds playing card
5. A Crayola Super Tips orange felt pen
6. An encore vinyl eraser (we have 3 - never used)
7. A plastic bag containing 2 Canadian dimes, 2 American dimes, 2 Mexican twenty centavos coins, a Maltese 2 cent coin, a Playland game token
8. A box of Hiroshige "Great Wave" bookplates
9. A Rio Grande Tools & Equipment catalogue from 2003
10. A set of 4 obsolete keys

War on Junk - Day 6 The Resistance

2009-12-10T05:49:00.000-08:00

Here's how it works. Every evening I cast a glance in various cupboards and drawers and find ten superfluos pieces of junk. Perhaps it's a pad of heart-shaped Post-it notes or a duplicate of some seldom used device. I pile the offending articles on my desk to take a quick photo. Last night, my wife objected to disposing the heart-shaped Post-it notes and three pencil sharpeners. After some negotiations we agreed to get rid of one pencil sharpener. There was no shortage of suitable candidates to replace the reprieved junk. I can see the junk war may morph into a guerilla campaign - the Resistance movement has been born.

Today's junk:

1. A phone cable
2. A staple remover (we have two)
3. A plastic pencil sharpener
4. A computer mouse
5. A Texas Instruments BA-35 financial calculator
6. A Quantum Micro-V FM Auto Scan Radio (genuine junk)
7. Some to/From labels
8. A pair of Steelworks keys from Desmoines Iowa
9. A floppy disc
10. A set of instructions for an obsolete computer

War on Junk - Day 5

2009-12-09T05:45:00.000-08:00

No shortage of junk in sight. This is the easy part, getting rid of the obvious stuff, once that's all gone it will get harder as we contemplate things with emotional attachments. I discovered an unopened box of contact lenses in the medicine cabinet. I bought these for skiing last year using my old prescription but found out recently that it has changed,so they are now obsolete. Most junk started its life as a useful or potentially useful object and became obsolete over time.

Day 5 list.

1. A plastic spine for a report
2. Avery hole reinforcers
3. A Lego arch
4. A pull for a zipper
5. An empty staple box
6. A defunct marker pen
7. A floppy disc
8. A suction cup arrow for a toy gun
9. A pad of paper from Executive Hotels & Resorts
10. A plastic bag containing 2 plastic pencil lead holders

The tote is now half-full.

War on Junk - Day 4

2009-12-08T06:01:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned my war on junk to a couple of people. They seem to agree that the proliferation of stuff is a common problem. It's not like we are not constantly getting rid of garbage and recycling and giving things away. We are. It's just not enough and a large part of the problem is the manufacturing of junk disguised as useful items. For example electronic converters. We must have 10 obsolete converters because each one has a different plug and will only fit a specific device. Standardize the converters.

Today's haul:

1. A floppy disc
2. A key fob with two compasses
3. A triple-header hiliter from the Dominion of Canada General Insurance Company
4. A converter
5. A paper mache vase made by one of our children 10 years ago
6. A bicycle lock key
7. A magnifying top to a plastic box
8. A plastic bullet
9. A plastic plug for something
10. A cigar journal

I don't think I'll need to look outside my home office for quite a while. there is a lot of junk here!

War on Junk - Day 3

2009-12-07T06:44:00.000-08:00

I see some other members of the family have tentatively joined in. There was some junk that I didn't recognize when I looked in the box today - Except my 10 lb barbell, formerly one of a pair. How does a 10lb barbell disappear?

Today's haul includes:

1. A telephone cable in a plastic bag
2. A 10 lb barbell
3. A music box/christmas decoration that looks like a miniature record player
4. A brand new cordless phone, still in the box
5. A very interesting and complicated plastic device that may have something to do with wine, or maybe not
6. A cork from a bottle of Aberlour 10 year old scotch whisky
7. A device for smoothing the goop from a vinyl repair kit
8. Some aluminum measuring spoons
9. A plastic vial containing fool's gold from a 'gold panning' exhibition at Old Tucson Arizona
10.A scarf

We have removed thirty items from their former hiding places so far. It hasn't even made a dent. Junk is legion but we are determined.

War on Junk - Day 2

2009-12-06T09:11:00.000-08:00

I told my mother-in-law about my war on junk. She was so happy and said "I,ve been waiting to hear that for thirty years!" She is very neat person. She will help us every week when we sort out the week's collection for recycling etc. My family is reluctantly going along with this idea, I'm sure they think it's just a phase. Maybe they are right, time will tell.

Here's today's list of junk.

1. A plastic divider box from the medicine cabinet
2. A small zip lock bag containing $0.22 (1 dime, 1 nickel and 7 pennies)
3. A black poker chip
4. A white poker chip
5. An obsolete computer back-up tape
6. An Allen Key
7. Another Allen Key
8. A Sony Walkman
9. Instruction manual for A Radio Shack Universal remote
10. A ball point pen with no ink

There is so much stuff, I feel like I could do this forever and not make a dent. Of course it is not a static process. Everyday, new junk worms it's way into our house from various sources, so we are not really netting out at -10 pieces per day. Junk is a clever foe, a master of disguises. It often shows up as part of something useful and then hides in the clutter for years after its usefulness has ended.

I Declare War on Junk!

2009-12-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

The Lee Homer Household declares War on Junk!

Ok, so here's the deal. We have too much stuff. A lot of it is garbage masquerading as something you might use someday or hiding among useful items. Much of it has been there for years, malevolently cluttering up our lives in a sneaky manner. Hey, - I'm not doing anything, I'm just a piece of junk sitting in your closet that you are never going to use - what's the harm? Or Hey, we're just a bunch of useless items festering in your drawers and getting in the way of finding the few things we actually need and use.

Well it's no more Mr. and Mrs. Nice Guy. Our family is declaring war on junk. It's either us or the junk and at this point the junk is getting the upper hand!

Today is day one and our goal is to get rid of 10 pieces of junk per day. There is so much of it that at this point it takes less than 5 minutes to identify offending detritus.

Once identified they will be placed in a holding area (a superfluous tote) and once a week be sorted into 3 piles:

1. Garbage - unredeemable junk
2. Recyclable
3. Stuff to give away.

If we do this for a year, we will have eliminated 3,650 useless items from our lives and be all the better for it.

Today's haul:

1. Old baseball glove
2. Old 3 ring binder
3. metal pen box
4. Obsolete Name Tag
5. Plastic bag of Screws
6. Unidentified plastic thingamabob
7. Another unidentified plastic thingamabob
8. Another unidentified plastic thingamabob
9. 3 Christmas lights
10. Canuck's Rubik's cube
Labels: de-clutter, junk, recycling

An Encounter with A Gila Monster

2009-05-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

Over the years, I have hiked many times in the desert around Tucson. Until yesterday morning, I had never seen a Gila Moster. Yesterday, on my second hike up the Ventana Canyon Trail (I had been unable to rouse my wife for the early morning hike, we spotted a large, stubby lizard lumbering along the trail ahead of us. We were very excited to see this fat Gila (pronounced Hee la) monster. This is the only venomous lizard in the USA. This would account for its slow motion and fearless behaviour. Once we spotted it, the monster casually moved into the undercover for a couple of minutes and then decided to come right back to where we were. It plodded across a dusty trail and climbed over a rock within three feet of where we were standing. I was able to get an number of pretty close photos of this not-so-scary monster.

Tucson Arizona

2009-05-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

It's springtime in the Sonoran desertand the cactus is blooming. This is a shot of a prickly pear in bloom. The weather here has been very strange for May according to the locals. When we arrived on the 15th of May the temperature was over 100 degrees F. It stayed that way for about four days and then heavy clouds set in. On Thursday it rained all day long. The desert flora was vibrant but since we were here to be warm and dry, we were only warm. However, the rain and clouds started to lighten and by Saturday it was beautiful and sunny once again.We stayed in Ventana Canyon where there are some great hiking trails that take you up the canyon and into the Santa Catalina mountains. The landscape is dominated by the Saguaro cactus which is an amazing creature. Impossibly huge and alien-looking, it grows in incredible abundance here. The Saguaro may visually dominate the landscape, but it is by no means alone. The desert here is teeming with flora and fauna.The Gila Woodpecker is a key player in Sonoran desert. By creating it's nest in the Saguaro, it also creates a home for many other desert creatures, once the woodpeckers have left the cavity.

Whisky Review - Ardbeg 10 Year Old

2008-12-31T18:13:00.000-08:00

.
Those who know me well know I love Scotch Whisky. I have decided to include an occasional whiskey (or whisky as the Scots would say). Since I have a few different bottles on hand right now, I will start alphabetically with A for Ardbeg. Ardbeg is a single Islay malt, from the Isle of Islay, Argyll, Scotland. Islay malts are generally peaty and smoky and this is no exception.
Here's a quote from:http://www.royalmilewhiskies.com/default.asp
"The last distillery on the road along the south coast from Port Ellen on the magical island of Islay, past Laphroaig and Lagavulin.
The distillery itself dates back to the final years of the eighteenth century. The site's water source, Loch Uigeadail, is superb and has had the honour of having a whisky named after it. Until 1976/'77 Ardbeg still had its own malting floor, but take their heavily peated malt from the Port Ellen maltings. Jim Murray, in his Complete Guide to Whisky, described Ardbeg as the greatest distillery to be found on Earth. This was high praise indeed, given that the distillery was mothballed for most of the 1980's until Glenmorangie took control in 1997 and secured its future. The transformation from neglect to a homely and handsome distillery with a fine restaurant has been heartening to watch. Their first new release, an unchillfiltered 10 year old, has proved to be a huge success."
This is their 10 Year Old and a fine whisky it is. Before you open it up with a few drops of water, there is initially big smoke and peat wafting up to the nose, rich and delicately balanced. With a bit of opening, some caramel floats through. Now I am not blessed with a talented nose so I probably miss a lot of the subtler notes, but it presents itself deliciously. The appearance is deceiving, it is a weak, watery-looking whisky, like a very pale citrine. Judging by looks alone, you might be tempted to think the flavour might likewise be insipid. There you would be wrong. It is wonderful, rich and sweet. It lingers sensuously on the tongue and has beautiful smooth finish. Altogether a very delicious and satisfying single malt that would be welcomed by any aficionado

Rating 8/10

I'm Not Dreaming It's a White Christmas

2008-12-29T22:40:00.000-08:00

So here we are on Christmas Day, heading for two feet of snow in our yard. We had an amazing dump of snow where it snowed about one inch per hour for about a day and a half. Big piles of light fluffy snow just kept falling until we were beyond enchanted and all the way to fed up! There was snow fort making and sledding and general messing around but it did get tiresome. Speaking of tires, many people in this city do not understand that when you have two feet of snow on the hilly side streets, your Japanese compact front-wheel drive car will get stuck - guaranteed. Cars were abandoned every where, including in the middle of intersections - I kid you not! Not my trusty truck though. No one was laughing at my SUV this week.

I must say that I prefer it when our yard looks like this.

Coho on the Fly

2008-09-05T17:03:00.001-07:00

Early August found me winging my way to Dundas Island. This is the most northerly island on the coast of British Columbia. My mission was to attempt to catch the muscular northern Coho on an 8 weight fly rod. My friends, Clayton Vanier and his beautiful wife, Jennifer Nelson, own and operate the Haa Nee Naa fishing lodge on this island. Every spring, they tow in the lodge and set up the resort. It is a wilderness experience with all the mod cons. It's sinfully sumptuous for a man who has learned that catching fish in Canada involves some sort of suffering. Usually fishing in Canada is accompanied by cans cold wind, rain and or snow merciless onslaughts of by black flies, no seeums or mosquitoes and some beans for lunch, breakfast or dinner. At Haa Nee Naa, you are pampered with delicious, gourmet food, a beautifully appointed lodge with comfortable beds and luxuriously appointed bathrooms. Once out on the water, you may have to suffer a little wind and this year it was chilly but as I always say, when you live in canada you can be cold at some point in all 12 months of the year!

However catching coho on the fly is a world-class fishing experience and this year was my 2nd attempt and it was great. I managed to land eight 10lb to 14 lb. beauties like the one in this photo.

France - Les Bourdas

2008-07-21T05:34:00.001-07:00

If you want a truly relaxing, delicious, picturesque and entirely French vacation Les Bourdas is the perfect destination. Majestically situated overlooking a bucolic valley, this charming house with a very well-appointed guest house, is the product of many years of renovation and good taste by our friend Alison Bridger. After 3 days of planes, trains and automobiles, (not to mention a taxi and a funiculaire), we arrived in the dark, exhausted at Les Bourdas around midnight. We were delighted with the house, but too tired to really absorb anything. The four of us, my wife and our two boys collapsed into bed for 12 hours of sleep. At noon the next day, I woke up, swung my legs out of bed and opened the windows and the shutters to gaze out at this scene.The accomodation at Les Bourdas was lovely. Beautifully modernized, yet retaining an antique and rustic charm it was really the perfect home for our time in this region of France. We spent two fabulous weeks of exploring the Southwest of France. Les Bourdas is situated in the northern reaches of the Haute Pyrennees region. CLose to the mounains and only and hour and a half to Biarritz on the Atlantic coast, it was a great spot for day trips. I think we most enjoyed taking the short journeys to the local villages for market day.
At the market we would be the local cheese, perhaps a fabulous chevre, a pheasant and cognac sausage, a pain de campagne. Anyway the food was unbelievably good. It is amazing the difference between the industrial approach to foof production that we favour in North America versus the artisanal approach in France. If you are interested contact:

TERRACARTA, Landscape Design
Alison Bridger, 604 294 4864
abridger@shaw.ca

France - The Sud-Ouest

2008-07-20T06:40:00.002-07:00

I have just returned from 3 weeks in France with my family. This was my first trip to France and only my 2nd visit ever to Europe. The last time being in 1971! It was our first major overseas family vacation. Our journey began with a flight from Vancouver to Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris and an overnight stay in the Montparnassse district of that great city. This part of the trip was a bit of a blur since we spent only a few hours in Paris the afternoon of our arrival before tucking in for the night into our tiny but clean and well-appointed Hotel Mercure on Boulevard Raspail. The next morning we walked to the Gare Montparnasse to take the TGV (the French bullet train)to Pau, the capital of the Haute Pyrenee region we would be exploring. From Pau we rented a car and drove 45 minutes to the northeast to our destination, Les Bourdas in the village of Vidouze. We spent the first 2 weeks in a beautiful home in the Southwest of France. Les Bourdas is owned by our friend and neighbour here in Burnaby, Alison Bridger. Alison and her family have spent the last 4 or 5 years renovating an old country house with an accompanying guest house (called a Gite in France). She has done a wonderful job, creating a sense of tradition with style and all the mod-cons. More on that later. This region in which it is situated is bordering several areas comprised of the Midi-Pyreneees, the Haute Pyrenees, the Pyrenees Atlantique, and the Gers. It is a marvelous tapestry of rolling hills and valleys, turning into the snow-capped Pyrennes to the south, the Atlantic seaside resort of Biarritz to the west and the Armagnac region to the north and more rollimg hills to the east. It is very rural, in fact what struck me about France is what a great agricultural nation it is. From Paris south, there is vast agricultural development. What we found most outstanding about the Southwest was the food. The cuisine of this region is simple and the secret is quality. We went to many of the small incredibly picteresque towns near Les Bourdas on market day to buy cheese, sausage, produce and duck directly from the producers. Of course as throughout France, the Boulangerie and Patisseries create deicious bread and pastry. Our days focused around finding food, preparing food and eating food. And the food was fantastic.

Cedar Waxwings Take up Residence

2008-06-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

A flock of Cedar Waxwings arrived a few days ago to dine out on the abundant holly berries in the backyard. I counted about 30 birds this evening as they roosted in the pine tree while they rested from gorging on the red berries. A week ago the holly tree was festooned with thousands of crimson berries. Now it has been stripped bare, so I suspect that they will move on. It's been a treat to see them, they are remarkably beautiful birds with the silkiest plumage imaginable.

A Trip to Alberta

2008-06-03T13:41:00.001-07:00

I spent last weekend visiting family in Edmonton, Alberta - my hometown. As per usual, I trekked down to the river valley in search of rocks and despite the river being very high, was able to find some cool stones. No dinosaur bone this time because the area where I usually find it was under water. The weather was mild, cloudy with sunny periods and alternating between warm and cool. The area I like to explore is a big bend in the river with a cut bank on the far shore. When I started going there 20 years ago, I was usually pretty much alone except for the occaisional dog and its owner..
Now it is replete with mountain bikers, dogs galore and scads of people. Being selfish, I liked it better when there was no one there. However, it's still a great place to go for a walk, very level and easy hiking and very pleasant country. It lacks the majestic drama of British Columbia, but the beauty is there in a gentle way. I came across a drama in miniature as some red ants had captured an emerging damsel fly. This life and death struggle was taking place among the detritus of the river bank, unseen by the cast of thousands except for one who was peering intently at the rocks and stumbled upon it.

Run, Do Not Walk to Vandusen Gardens

2008-05-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

You will rarely see anything as breathtaking or as beautiful as the current display at the Vandusen Botanical Gardens. Located between Oak St. and Granville St, with access from 37th Ave, this is one of Vancouver's great treasures. Right now there are two displays that are worth dropping whatever you are doing, and run, do not walk to see the Laburnum walk (pictured on the left) and the Azaleas now in their full glory. The azaleas in particular present an overwhelming assault of beauty on the senses. The colours, the scent, the sheer extravagence of this display is so intense as to be hallucinatory!
Short of tripping on peyote with a shaman diguised as a runaway dog, this is as close as you'll ever get to a true psychedelic experience. So take my advice and run, don't walk to Vandusen Botanical Gardens in the next 5 days, because something as beautiful as this, cannot last. Admission to the Garden is $8.50 for adults. With a display like this, it will be the best $8.50 you ever spent. Ask the staff about the secret pathway through the azaleas, once you are in that Secret Garden, you'll feel like you've walked through the looking glass and stepped into a world of overwhelming beauty.

Great Mystery Gemstone Caper Clue # 3

2008-04-26T07:32:00.000-07:00

This is for all the gem sleuths who are trying to figure out the Great Mystery Gemstone Caper. The third clue is geographical. The mystery gem was named after a river in central Oregon which provides much of the drainage on the eastern side of the Cascade Range in Oregon, gathering many of the tributaries that descend from the eastern, drier flank of the mountains. It provided a major route to and from the Columbia for Native Americans and later pioneers on the Oregon Trail. It flows mostly through rugged and arid country, and its valley provides a cultural heart for central Oregon. Today the river provides irrigation and is a popular in the summer for whitewater rafting and fishing. In the early 1800s, French fur traders plied these waters and named it - the "river of falls." If you have stumbled across this entry and are curious about where it comes from, check out: http://www.rareandprecious.com/

Bonefishing - The Most Fun You Can Have with Your Pants On

2008-04-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

So here is a picture of me in 2004 fishing for bonefish in Ascencion Bay, Mexico. I have to admit, I do not look cool in this picture. That is not a kilt I'm wearing but a very baggy pair of shorts that were in style about 15 years ago. A kilt would have been cool. The hat's OK, but those skinny white legs poking out from the baggy shorts is very dorky! Oh, well. My mahogony coloured guide was a Mayan named Carlos and he was trying to point out the 'nervous water'. I couldn't figure out what the hell he was talking about for the first 3 days. Notice the clouds in the background. Bonefish are very hard to see under the best of conditions and the best of conditions include bright sunny skies and light winds. The sun illuminates the white sand below and you are able to see the shadows of the ghostly schools of silver/white bonefish as they maraud for the crabs hiding in the sand. When it's cloudy like this, all you see is the surface and being somewhat windy, the surface is all chopped up with waves.We spent a lot of time looking around for the elusive bonefish. Ocassionally, we would get out of the panga and wade. That's what my friend Karl is doing in the 2nd picture. Karl always looks cool! Eventually, after about 3 days, we started to be able to see the fish. You could sometimes see their tails as the nose around in shallow waters. The 'nervous water' the guides kept talking about was the faint v-shaped ripples on the surface created by one or several fish as they cruised just beneath the surface. Finally, on Day 3, the sun came out , the wind died down and a school of bonefish were moving in the direction of my panga. I laid out a perfect cast, about 5 feet in front of the lead fish and he took it! then I found out what catching a bonefish was all about. A screaming run which takes out all of your line to the backing. You fight the fish back in and it takes another heart-pounding run. It is a lot of fun. One you land it, you might have someone take a photo, just to prove that you went 3 thousand miles and spent 3 days flailing away but you did catch a bonefish. Then you want to do it again. That is a genuine bonefish smile right there.

Aaah Spring!

2008-04-19T07:17:00.001-07:00

You've got to love Spring in Canada! Here we are in Lotusland, baseball season is in full gear, the flowers and blossom trees are emerging and what else? It's snowing!!! This global warming sure has funny ways of manifesting. Last night, just after supper, huge, wet snowflakes started to descend in our neighbourhood. We were freaked out. Our 10-year-old was happy! After a couple of hours, I had to go out with a broom to knock the snow from the branches of many of the shrubs and trees in our yard. They were laden down with the sticky white piles of wet, heavy snow. The tulips in these pictures are the same.The photo of the bedraggled, shivvering group was taken this morning. The happy orange flowers with their heads held proudly in the sun was from a couple of years ago. Note the green grass in the background. Can we please have that picture back?

My Backyard Sanctuary

2008-04-17T05:34:00.000-07:00

I love my back yard. I would live in it if we had the climate to do so. Unfortunately, that would be pretty uncomfortable for much of the year. So for most of the year I wait for those warm days where I can putter around in the garden or sit on a bench in the sun. Such is life in Canada, where you can be cold 12 months of the year. However, living in the lower mainland of BC, we enjoy the best weather in Canada for gardening and can grow a huge variety of plants that other parts of Canada can only wistfully dream about.

During the winter months, I never actually see my back yard except on the weekends. That's because I go to work when it's dark and return home in the dark. It is beautiful on those few days in the winter when we get a heavy snowfall that blankets the yard and plants with a puffy white covering. Our 10 year old son is ecstatic when we get a snow fall like this. It gets to the point of obsessive. "What's the temperature?" "Is it going to melt?" "Do you think we have more snow than Ronnie?" (He's a boy who lives just down the road). "Are we going to get more snow tonight?" I will get each of those questions twelve times a day when it snows. Lately he has become more philosophical, as we were driving home from Ronnie's one night and he was obsessing about the snow, as we drove into our yard he said to himself - "Remember Harrison, don't get too attached to anything made of snow".

Tai Haku Heralds Spring

2008-04-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

Spring is magnificent in the Pacific Northwest. It is also the predominant season starting sometime around the end of February and lasting until mid July. The good part of that is that it shortens the winter. On the flip side it also shortens our summer. Nonetheless, we greedily await the onslaught of blossoms - ornamental cherries, magnolias, daffodils, azaleas, rhododendrons, camelias, primulas, aubretias, bluebells, lily-of-the valley, flowering currents, tulips - the list is exhaustive. In our yard, we await the exuberant clusters of white flowers on the Tai Haku cherry in our back yard.
Originally from Japan, it was extinct in its native land and known only as the "Great White Cherry" or Tai Haku. Then Botanist Collingwood Ingram found a tree in a garden in Sussex, England that had been sent long before from Japan. He was able to identify it from an 18th-century Japanese print as the variety long extinct in its native land. It has the largest flower of all the ornamental flowering cherries. In the last couple of days, the flowers have started to open, officially heralding the beginning of spring in our back yard.

Rare and Precious.com - My Lapidary Hobby

2008-04-14T05:39:00.000-07:00

I spent 20 years in the jewellery trade during which time I was involved in virtually all aspects of that business. I designed, imported, exported, wholesaled and retailed everything from hippie silver to large diamonds. I left that business in the early '90s to pursue a new career but the love of gems was in my blood. What I enjoyed the most of my jewellery experience was cutting gemstones. Over the years in the business I had collected a considerable amount of gem rough which started to call out to me from various boxes in my basement . One of the great things about stone is that it doesn't go bad over time. If you put a piece of rock in a box in your basement and stumbled across it 10,000 years later, it would look exactly the same. You on the other hand wouldn't look so good.

Anyway, a couple of years ago, I built a workshop in my basement to rekindle my love of stone as a hobby. I also set up a website, with the help of my friend Michael Drechsler which you can see at: http://www.rareandprecious.com/

Sunny Ven Detta - Up and Coming Stars

2008-04-12T07:26:00.000-07:00

Some day I expect this will be an historic picture of a famous band. That's my son Dylan in the middle, he's the lead singer. Cole Godfrey is on drums and Leo Muntank is playing the Fender Precision bass. This was taken in our backyard last year (June 2007)during my annual Angus Guevera Scotch and Cigar Event. These boys are all 20 years old and have been playing together in one form or another since high school. They are great kids and Dylan and Leo are great song writers. Check them out at:http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=352529745

Our first clue of Dylan's musical talent came when he was around 6 years old. We were driving down the highway in our old '83 Subaru with some good tunes in the tape deck and Dylan starting singing along - in harmony! Just popped out. Then there were 6 years of piano lessons - he wrote his first song at around age 10. It was pretty good. By fifteen, piano practice was not happening so the lessons stopped but a couple of years later, he asked for a guitar - so I went to NJAMS on Granville St in Vancouver and bought him a Peavy Stratocaster knockoff. A couple of months later he came home to announce that he was now the singer for a band of local boys who included Leo, Cole and Perry Einarson on lead guitar. From their first performance, two things were clear - they were pretty darn good and Dylan was a charismatic performer. Stay tuned to this Blog for more on his musical career.

Our House in Tucson, Arizona

2008-04-10T04:50:00.000-07:00

This is the Southwest part of this blog. We recently purchased a house in Tucson, Arizona. It's a 3 bedroom, 2 bath with a 3 car garage and some nice landscaping. Why Tucson? We chose Arizona because we have both been there many times in the past and love the desert. It's warm, dry and the Sonoran desert is beautiful. In addition, with the current sub-prime mortgage fiasco, my wife Angela and I wanted to invest in that region because housing prices have dropped 25% in the last year or so. Eventually we want to be able to spend a couple of months in Arizona in the winter. The contrast in the vegetation is wonderful. In the Sonoran Desert the giant saguaro cactus dominates the landscape, in the lower mainland, it's giant Douglas fir and cedars.
I hope to visit Tucson annually now, particularly in the late winter and early spring when the weather in the Vancouver region can be cold, wet and grey while the weather in Tucson is warm, dry and sunny. Another draw in Tucson is the great Mexican food, which we all love in our family. This trip we disovered a fanastic chain called La Salsa which serves city in the style of Mexico City. I had the Mahi Mahi tacos and they were delicious. The food is fresh and the salsa bar features an array of tasty and colourful salsas. Combine that with the very reasonable prices and you can bet we will be eating at La Salsa many times in the future.

Where's Spring?

2008-04-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

As we stood in the pouring wintery rain at yesterday's little league game it seemed like spring was AWOL. The game was called at the top of the 3rd due to rain. The sky was heavy, with thick piles of cold air and lashes of precipitation. Cleverly, I was announcing in the booth and had my on typical Spring clothing - my ski base layer, a fleece sweater, a down vest, baseball cap and my Helly Hansen rain suit. I love that suit! it keeps me dry in the worst that the Lower Mainland can dish out. After 14 years of early Spring baseball, my motto is "Dress for Winter!"

Spring is about to blossom forth and in the Vancouver region, that is a splendid and beautiful thing.. Already, my garden is sporting a luminous green attire as hostas sprout and unfurl. Buds swell to bursting. The ornamental cherries and magnolias are proclaiming their majesty in streets of exquisite flowering canopies. The plants can't lie. There will be spring and one look at my garden and hope "Springs" eternal.

Two of the early signs of spring in my garden are the lush green emerging hostas and the Magnolia "Leonard Messel".

North by Southwest Debuts

2008-04-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

This is where I live. Somewhere over the rainbow in the Pacific Northwest. This blog will be about how the geography of western North America has shaped and influenced my life. I suspect it will also contain anecdotes, observations and opinions that I will serve up from time-to-time. I hope it will also be a way for me to communicate with people about ideas, passions, history and any other subject that flits across the garden in my mind. I hope to talk about things I love to do: fishing with a fly, gardening, playing music and rocks.

Why North by SouthWest?

It encompasses the geography of my life from my hometown of Edmonton, Alberta (which is certainly north of where most people live on this continent), to my western migration out to the West coast of BC. It also reflects my love of the west from Alberta to Arizona, and from Northern BC to Southern California. We live in a fantastic part of the world.

Its not all rainbows and sunsets though. Sometimes it rains for weeks and the sun seems to have forsaken my part of the world. I'll try to keep the whining about the weather to a minimum.