The last of the fall colour, with a few leaves just about hanging in there – farewell, the leafy portion of fall!
Shrubbery leaf colour, hanging on…
Now we (I!) will wait, somewhat impatiently, for the arrival of real winter, hopefully a proper one, with decent snow and many opportunities for xc skiing and heading out on snowshoes…
Stop! (the mild winter projections!)
Unfortunately, the early forecasts and predictions are for a mild winter, but I won’t stop hoping! And I’ll be properly provisioned and prepared:
A decent IPA – one to be enjoyed post snowshoeing!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Here are a few seasonal sippers we’ve enjoyed, home and away, since the leaves started to turn and darker beers appeared on the shelves.
Delicious in any season, a great campfire sipper!
When I find a particularly good beer, I often think I’ll go back and get one or two more, set them aside for when things turn really cold and we’re indoors on long winter evenings. Then I’ll read about or see another new one to try and completely forget about stocking the nonexistent cellar. Easily distracted.
More than a hint of berry, not my usual, but just right in early autumn
What was I saying? Oh yes, a few fall favourites, and they’re all pretty good, no need to have a top choice, but because that’s a fun game (in my head only) I’ll reveal the sort of winner at the end.
Shared this before – really good, but more suitable for winter?
I did try a splendid triple strength Belgian style beer from Quebec, but it must have been so strong that I didn’t remember to snap a photo. Maybe I’ll get one or two more in for later in the season. I’m always thinking I’ll do that. (Did I say that already? Forgetful, and easily distracted…)
Autumnal through and through! Quite light, could probably still drive a tractor after a small glass…
And the winner is – it would have been that Quebec beer, but no photo, so not this time. Where were we? Oh yes, and the winner is – oh, hi Scout! You like the dark ones best? Cool!
“Beer? Yum!”
And the winner is:
Born Ready Brown Ale from Manual Labour Beer Company. Fall in a glass – dark, but not too dark, malty, with just enough hops for a bit of zing to cut through the caramel – delicious!
What a wonderful beer that brown ale is. They were all decent beers, but the Manual Labour brew was the best suited to fall for me! I might buy one or two more…
Should I do this again for the winter beers? I’ll probably forget, or get distracted… Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
And fabulous fall! Here are a few pictures taken along the lovely Qu’appelle Valley, SK.
Echo Lake
We enjoyed bright blue skies overhead, some warm and still days that felt like summer, followed by a few days of big gusts and strong breezes – they sent leaves tumbling and skittering, dancing yellow and gold.
Green and gold
We’ve gone from lazy summer into very brisk fall – goodness, it was barely above freezing yesterday morning – in the space of just over a week!
Hanging on
With those temperatures dropping, it is probably time to pack up, head back and store the trailer until next season…
Is that a ghostly Sasquatch figure floating in the trees?! Too soon for Hallowe’en stuff…
But what a way to complete this season – a colourful week in sunny southeast Saskatchewan!
Saskatchewan sunset
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
“Chase leaves? Nope, I’m too regal… is the camera off yet?”
Goodness! The fall colours have started to show – quite far along in some places. We set off yesterday on a short prairie trip, our last blast of camping this season, and we’re looking forward to big skies and perhaps some seasonal sunshine to light up the tree colour.
Here’s one we saw earlier:
A good start!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’re currently camping among the trees in the coastal fringe behind Miracle Beach. Isn’t that some name, Miracle Beach? One minor miracle so far? Mostly sunny skies and very little rain! That hasn’t always been the case, as expected late summer/early fall in this little corner of the Pacific Northwest. Earlier, before Miracle Beach:
The waters had receded by morning – still, time to move on!
Miracle Beach is located on a shallow bay, so low tide reveals miles of sand, but when it turns, farewell to the sandy beach, and make a quick retreat to the rocks. You can walk out on a high tide quite some distance with the water only knee high.
The view across the strait is wondrous, miraculous even – coastal mountains stretching each way into the distance, north and south, capped by low clouds.
Coastal fringe (small child crawling into frame helpfully adding scale)
We saw a heron patiently stalking in the shallows and the hunting was good. We were too far away to spot the prey – perhaps small scuttling crabs along with a few fish? We’d seen both earlier.
Fuzzy heron, making waves
We enjoyed watching the tide ebb and flow, the scene one of constant change – ripples and waves on the water and on the sand.
Far out
One afternoon the sky was a series of perfect blues, from dark to light, high to low over the distant mountains.
Coastal blues
Miracle Beach? We thought so, with all that space, light, blues, greens, ripples and waves!
Incoming
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
We’ve been out on the coast for the past little while, enjoying the contrast with what we experienced up in the north. Since then, as time has moved on, it is starting to feel distinctly late summery, even early autumnal-ish as night falls sooner and daytime highs drop.
Our campsite is underneath this long cloud, to the right, and just right!
Being on the west coast, we’ve had sunny days, rainy days, misty and foggy days, and sometimes all of those in the same afternoon! The ghostly grey mists and glowing silver seas and skies have been delightful, and after the relative aridity of earlier in the summer, I can almost feel my leathery (yet rugged and really rather handsome) features beginning to rehydrate.
Silver glow
What a transformation, and I now look barely a day over 95… As for that pesky frizzy oceanic hair, let’s just say that ship sailed many seasons ago, so no worries and the cap/toque stays on. (And what hair up top there is does tone really rather well with those aforementioned silvers and greys…)
West coast rugged
We’ll be enjoying the west coast for another week or two before beginning our trip back to Alberta, and having to come to terms with the end of road trip and camping season. Although, winter camping is an option? If Mrs. PC could be persuaded… (Nope, no chance – Mrs. PC)
Big textured skies
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful long Labour Day weekend!
On the road for sure, zigging and zagging, this way and that, and off the grid most of the time, so who knows quite when this will be posted?
We enjoyed our time north of sixty enormously, the Northwest Territories surprising and delighting us all the way. As first time visitors, we didn’t know what to expect, but our hopes were for peace and quiet and time away from what passes for normal – wifi, headlines, dramas (confected or genuine) and shallow people. The shallow ones tend to be the ones involved in confected dramas, or so we find. Poor things…
Find yourself – or lose yourself – here
Anyway, time away from all that – and huge distances away from any of that, or so it felt – meant we could immerse ourselves in enjoying being on the road and off the grid. The Northwest Territories (the small parts we experienced) are spectacular as advertised, but not necessarily in an immediate way. If you have it, plenty of time means the place can seep in, get under your skin…
Take your time
A few facts and figures picked up along the way:
There are only eleven highways!
The population is around 45 000 people in a space larger than Spain, France and Portugal combined! Almost half the population resides in Yellowknife, so the other half has so much space to enjoy…
There is only one craft brewery in the entire NWT – fortunately, the beer is good!
Driving, if you like a road trip, is a delight!
In the four hours we took to drive from Hay River to Fort Smith, after the first hour, when we took the turn to Fort Smith, we didn’t see another vehicle for two hours. Make sure you have a full tank, a spare tire, and you know how to change that tire. There’s no cell service most of the time.
Almost three quarters of the NWT population live in these three places!
All that time and space encourages you to slow down, take it easy – there’s no rush, might as well enjoy where you are. It helps if you like boreal forest, lakes, all manner of wildlife and you don’t require external sources of entertainment.
Northern blue
The long daylight hours were quite something, and again encouraged us to slow down. Why rush to complete things, whatever they might be, if you’ve got all day(light)?! You’ll have all the time you need!
All that light, all that space (Great Slave Lake)
Being north of sixty is a state of mind as well as a geographical location (and, in our case, what we’ll both be next birthday) and it works for us.
The icing on the cake was a glimpse of the northern lights, late one evening – or early one morning. Just after mid August, when it starts to get dark enough, you just might catch them. For our sightings, the lights were little more than pale ribbons, floating silently across the sky, too high to mistake for clouds and eerie to see, I thought – probably because they move so silently, and they are so high up, shapeshifting and mysterious and quite beautiful.
Busy
We’re planning a late winter trip to Yellowknife, when we might, if lucky, see the northern lights in full colour. The wispy ribbons and curtains we saw a few days back has us excited for that.
So much northern fun, on the road and off the grid – spectacular!
Northern fun
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Or did I? Perhaps this is a health and safety advisory? No, all clear here. Goodness, I don’t miss doing the safety assessments for field trips with students. Of course slips, trips and falls – otherwise, why be a child? All part of the fun…
A few photographs this week of our short out and back again hike to Margaret Falls, a lovely spot in Herald Provincial Park, BC.
Reinecker Creek
A narrow trail, criss-crossed with tangled tree roots, follows the Reinecker Creek into a deep canyon as you head up stream. Not too much sunlight gets in, so the tough trees growing in here cling to the steep sides and reach for the light. Tenacious growth! Some have grown too large and heavy to cling on and have tumbled down, falling across the narrow creek, left partially held up by one side of the gorge or other.
Tangled
The conditions are cool, damp and mossy, increasingly so as you approach the falls, and a welcome break, if you’re looking for it, from the warmer temperatures at the nearby lake. When you reach the falls – it is hidden from sight almost all the way by the twists and turns of the stream – it is a noisy and spectacular water force!
Cool
If you’re ever in the Shuswap region, a quick side trip to visit these falls is a pleasant diversion! It’s worth the slight risk of a slip, trip or fall…
Steep
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
It’s Canada Day next week (Wednesday) and, as always, I’m so happy this is my home. I’ve said it before, and that won’t stop me from saying it again: Canada is not perfect, but my sense is, as a nation, we are mostly trying to paddle in the right direction (it would need a large canoe, but that’s ok and all are welcome to climb in)…
January February
The photos chosen this week are one for each month of 2026 so far, in an attempt to share something of the flavour of western Canada. (If you add maple syrup from the eastern side, the flavour improves even more! Maybe throw in a TimBit or two…)
MarchApril
So, if you’re Canadian and choose to celebrate, have visited Canada, maybe would like to visit one day, or simply like maple syrup and the big outdoors, Happy Canada Day!
MayJune
Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Sneak preview for July – Stampede starts next Friday!
