Fraser River Photos

    Here are some shots of the Upper Fraser River as seen around McBride.  The Fraser is a mighty river (800 miles 1300kms in length) that begins near Mt. Robson in the Canadian Rockies, flows NW to Prince George, then turns south and carves its way across BC to Vancouver where it empties into the Pacific Ocean.  Here in McBride the winter’s ice has now melted and open water is again visible.

I paint.  See my works:    www.davidmarchant.ca

Lisbon Earthquake

    A couple of weeks ago, John Oliver did a funny bit about Google Search about how when you write in a subject, topics related to that subject pop up on the screen to help shortcut your search.  These suggested topics were supposedly the most popular searches done by others.  He used the example of writing “moon.” into Google.  His pop-ups were really funny.  I just tried it and got four suggestions:  Moon Phases, Moonrise Kingdom, moonshine, and Moon Palace Cancun.  It is bizarre to think that those are the most popular topics that people are looking for when they type “moon” into Google.

    I read a lot of historical fiction.  I was reading a novel yesterday about a Jewish man in Lisbon during the middle 1750’s who was struggling against the Inquisition.  The author seems to have done a lot of historical research before writing the novel.  I came to a very exciting scene where the main character was finally in a life and death confrontation with the main inquisitor and suddenly there was a huge earthquake which destroyed the city.

    The situation in the novel almost seemed too convenient and contrived, I had never heard about any big earthquake in Lisbon even though earthquakes have always been an interest of mine, and I thought I knew about all of the big ones.   My curiosity took me to Google to see if there was any record of a big earthquake in Lisbon.

    I typed in “Lisbon” and as you can see by the screenshot above, the number four suggestion from Google was “lisbon earthquake.”  That amazed me even more than finding out there really was a huge earthquake (Richter 8-9) in Lisbon in 1755.  What surprised me was that this earthquake that I had never heard of was the 4th most popular search under “Lisbon”--either that or Google has so much information about me that they know what it is I am looking for.

You can see my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Koeneman House

    I find old log houses fascinating.  We noticed the old Koeneman house immediately after we moved to McBride.  Not only was it a well built old house but it was nestled nicely on a rise beside the Fraser River with beautiful views of both McBride Peak and the Cariboo Mts on the other side of the valley.  Even though it was in fairly good shape, it hadn’t been lived in for some time and was beginning to have some structural problems.

    The Koeneman’s were an early pioneering farm family in the Robson Valley.  I have always heard that Fred Koeneman (I think that was his name) used to also work as a fire lookout, spending a lot of his summer days up in the lookout on McBride Peak (that is the mountain you see in the background).  I also heard that our home is situated it what was originally a potato field owned by Koeneman’s.

    In the 1980’s the Robson Valley Art Council took up the Koeneman House as a project.  They had hopes of doing some restoration and using the building for sales of locally produced arts and crafts.  They secured a grant, and dug and built a cement basement as a new foundation to the building, however the building was never really used as a store, because the Art Council never had the money, time, and organization required to pay personnel to run the place.

    Eventually the building was taken over by the Regional District (sort of a county government).  They took over the whole property and the whole thing is now Koeneman Park.  I took this photo yesterday while walking the dog in the park.

Look at my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Cat on a Cold Tin Roof

    Lucifer likes to be on the roof.  Whenever she is done her exploring outside, and has trouble forcing the back door open with a head-butt,  she goes to the back porch, claws her way up the post that supports the balcony, then hangs around on the roof until we rescue her.  In a way it is a good that she has discovered a place that she can get too where she will be safe from danger, but it is a bit of a hassle to continually have to get her off of the roof.

My paintings can be seen at:  www.davidmarchant.ca

The Lure of Spring

    In a place like Canada where there is a long winter, there is of course quite a strong longing for spring.    As a result people are willing to place a lot of value on anything that appears to show we are moving closer to spring.  With the warm weather +9C (48C) that we had yesterday it is hard not to conclude that spring is just around the corner.  After all the snow is disappearing, the roads are clear, and Joan even collected some pussy willows.

    It is so hard not to be lulled into thinking that winter is over, but realistically, it is still February and there is bound to be cold temperatures and snow still to hit us in the face.

    The photo shows Beaver Mountain, from Jeck Road in the Robson Valley yesterday.

View my paintings:  www.davidmarchant.ca

Weathered Wood

    Yesterday I took some photos of weathered wood on some of the hangers at the McBride air field.  Here are two of them. 

Open Water on the Fraser River

    While a lot of North America is shivering under frigid Arctic air, the Robson Valley has been experiencing a very mild February with above-freezing temperatures.  As a result the valley bottom is clear of snow and the ice on the Fraser River has melted.  It is always nice to see open water.  

    Last year the open water didn’t appear on our section of the Fraser until the first third of April, so we are a good month ahead of where we were last year.  Here are some shots of the ice that has piled up on the shoreline.

You can view my paintings at:  www.davidmarchant.ca