Unforgettable Elephants

Last night Cael and I watched a documentary on PBS about an elephant researcher/photographer who spent over 15 years in Africa studying an elephant family lead by the matriarch Echo. I have always had a love for elephants since I was a kid, so this show was so special. Here is a blurb from pbs.org:

NATURE chronicles African elephants' families through stunning film and still photos in "Unforgettable Elephants."We have seen them dressed in costumes and dancing at circuses, living solitary lives at zoos or giving our children a thrill with a ride on their back. But the largest land animals live a life that is completely foreign to us when left to their own in the wild -- one complete with battles and births, kidnappings and camaraderie. More than fifteen years ago, Martyn Colbeck began to document in film and photos the lives of African elephants. For the better part of two decades, he has grown particularly close to the elephant matriarch, Echo, and her close-knit family, who have never failed to astonish, amuse, and inspire him.The family seems to accept Colbeck into their world, and perhaps even considers him one of their own. The result is that he can record unimpeded the gentle love, and tight bonds that elephants feel for each other. Colbeck's film gives us a glimpse into the complex world of elephant society. We meet Echo and begin to understand the importance of such a majestic matriarch to her devoted clan. He shows us their language and ways of communication. And he captures remarkable scenes such as the rare birth of a crippled calf that the family desperately and collectively tries to help to its feet. The film causes us to question if this could be about more than simply survival. Is there a deeper emotion we have just been privileged enough to witness through Colbeck's lens? In scene after moving scene, Colbeck makes us fall in love with Echo, Erin, Enid, Ely, and the rest of this loving family. He conveys through his film and in a special interview with NATURE what complicated, powerful, tender, funny -- and, yes, unforgettable -- creatures elephants are."Unforgettable Elephants" airs Sunday, February 3rd at 8 p.m. ET on PBS (check local listings).

If you get a chance to watch this documentary, I highly recommend it! I was so amazed at these animals' emotions and society. They truly are some of the most complex animals on earth! :) My favorite scene was the elephant family approaching and soon falling asleep all around Colbeck. He was surrounded by sleeping, snoring elephants who accepted him into their group like one of their own. I hope you guys get to see this amazing show soon! :)

Let it Snow! Make it Stop!

So over the weekend a nasty cold snap hit all of British Columbia. We had temps well below freezing here on the Coast with an awful wind chill thrown in. It snowed a few inches a few days ago, and then with these lovely temperatures, froze to a complete ice rink. Our whole area is completely covered in an inch of slippery, icky ice! Here is the view out back on Monday afternoon. Note the semi-hockey rink conditions:
And here we are this lovely morning....At least 3 inches of new snow, with more comin down! It's been snowing all morning, and it doesn't look to be slowing up any time soon! I love the way snow looks out my window, but I'm not such a fan when it comes to driving in the white stuff. I am possibly the worst winter driver in the history of crappy snow drivers. I am working on learning, but ah! It can be so scary! Lol!

Brrr!!! We are supposed to get more snow today, then it will hold off till Sunday when the newscasters are predicting a huge dump! Hmm....I think I'll be staying indoors next to the fire reading a book!

Birds Of Christmas!

A few weeks ago Cael and I went to the local nursery and bought a couple of little potted trees that we are going to use as Christmas trees. I've always felt a bit guilty about chopping down a gorgeous tree to decorate, so we got two we are going to plant outside after the holidays! The nursery had the cutest selection of ornaments that I fell in love with! We found the sweetest little homemade birds made with feathers that I had to have!

Little white one...
Little peacock, I had to have two! I have a soft spot for peacocks because they are sooo beautiful. Pretty annoyingly loud in real life though! Lol!

Gorgeous giant peacock bird thing...I love this one, but alas, Cael has decided to give it to his mom for Christmas :( Maybe I'll find another one next year.

Here they are all together on our little happy tree. Yes, I did take them outside and had a mini photoshoot. I am aware I am a huge nerd! Lol! Happy Holidays!

Pretty Days!

Long time no blog! I haven't fallen off the face of the earth...just haven't done much worth blogging! Lol! Over the last few weeks, we have had some amazing sunsets up here. I managed to lug out the ole camera and take some pics on a few nights. Here are just a few:

I am amazed at our gorgeous view on a daily basis!
The colours were so pretty this afternoon, sometimes the camera just can't convey it!

So pretty!!! Now today, we are absolutely covered in icy snow and freezing our butts off, so I'll try to take a few pics!

Pumpkin Patch!

Last Saturday I went to the local pumpkin patch with my friend Serena and her two kids Keith and Ayyah. We slacked off and went to the patch waaay too late so all of the good pumpkins were gone...the only ones left were tiny, green or rotten! Boo! It was my first time going to a real pumpkin patch, so it was great anyways!

Here's Keithy sittin in a pile of pumpkins at a nursery we went to after the patch. There was a maze for little kiddies made out of hay bales and a little haunted house! I took Ayyah through the house and she had such a brave face on, but she was holding my hand awfully tight! :)
Back to the patch...it was so cute! It was this little garden with a tin box that you put money into! You go out into the patch, pick your pumpkin and put $2 into the box! I love small towns!

Here is Ayyah standing against one of the ginormous sunflowers that the farmer had growing at the pumpkin patch! It was seriously the biggest sunflower I have ever seen!

Ayyah investigating some dead plants! Keithy fell asleep in the truck on the way there, so we decided it would be best to let him snooze while we searched for pumpkins. He is a little bear when he wakes up from naps! Lol!

Here we are at the barren pumpkin patch! There were almost no pumpkins left! Ahh! We each got a couple of little green ones, just to support the local farmers. I think we're going to go to the supermarket and buy some of the giant orange ones heheh!

A New Baby in the Family!

So as I mentioned in my last post, Cael's brother and sister in law were expecting their first baby. Here's a little backstory: Mike and Tara were married on the beach in Hawaii a couple of years ago. While visiting Maui, they fell in love with an amazing place called Makena Beach. Makena is a beautiful white sand beach that stretches almost a mile on south Maui, and is very popular skim boarders and body borders.

So...when their first little one came around they decided to name her Makena! Little Miss made her appearance almost mid day on October 18th in Toronto after poor Tara was in labour for 31 hours. She weighed in at a whopping 9lbs 12 ounces and 21 inches! She was too comfortable in there because she decided to stay in for an extra 10 days!
Makena is such a gorgeous little baby! We can't wait to fly back to Toronto and visit the family again! She's the first baby for both families so it is extra exciting :)

As with all newborns, Makena sleeps like a little angel all day and wakes poor mom up every half an hour for feedings during the night! Let's hope for Tara and Mike that she gets over that quickly! LOL!

Livin it up Toronto Style!

C and I are in Ontario right now relaxing and seeing the sites! We got here on Thursday afternoon and spent the last couple of days hanging out in Toronto with C's brother Mike and his wife Tara. They have been SOOO sweet and taken us around to some of the really cool tourist spots in TO (Tara is 9+months pregnant with their first, due last Wed)! I've never been to Eastern Canada before, so being here in the fall is a real treat!

We went to the C.N. Tower yesterday for lunch and it was AMAZING! C.N. Tower is an observatory tower and revolving restaraunt that was the tallest manmade structure in the world for years and years. There is a section of floor that is made of glass and it is so freaky! The tower is over 1200 ft high, so looking down is scary!
Here's the view from the observatory deck. It was super windy and cold even though Toronto was about 24 degrees yesterday.

View from the base.

We also went to the Toronto Zoo! It was so much fun! I'm not usually too into zoos, but this one was absolutely amazing! It has over 5000 animals on acres and acres of forest land in the middle of the city! So cool! C is family friends with one of the zookeepers there, so she took us on a behind the scenes tour of the African pavilion. We got to meet (and touch) a big python, chameleon and a pygmy hippopotamus names Abu! She was adorable! As soon as she heard people in her area she came running over to the fence! All my pics of her are super blurry, so I probably won't post em.

Full-size hippo (not sweet Abu)!

A gorgeous African elephant! I've never seen an elephant in real life, but I've always been in love with them, so it was pretty special to be so close! They are so amazing! We also saw giraffes, tigers, lions, zebra, gorillas, orangutans, baboons, cheetahs....the list goes on! It was so much fun! We missed a couple of pavillions b/c everyone was getting a bit tired after roaming the zoo for 4 hours! Next time!!!

Down at the Lake!

I figured I should take advantage of the half decent weather this morning at break out the old camera again so I drove to a nearby lake. The light wasn't the best b/c it was still fairly early and really cloudy, but I messed with the shutterspeed until it looked ok.

I can't wait to take some pics of the orange and gold trees in Ontario next week! I love BC, but I need some bright colours to take pics of! :) Wish us luck tonight! A storm is blowing in with winds up to 100km an hour! It doesn't seem like much compared to the girlies who hunkered down during the hurricanes, but it's pretty windy for BC!

Mini Photo Shoot

Last week my friend Serena came to visit me with her two lovely kiddies Ayyah and Keithy. It was a gorgeous day, so we decided to go out and play in the grass. I have been practicing with my camera lately and I figured these two would be great little models!

The setting:

Running along....hard to keep up with these little monkeys! Ayyah is 4 1/2 and Keithy is just over 1 1/2. They have so much energy!
Ayyah's mom Serena is a photographer and so are her parents...Ayyah knows how to strike a pose whenever a camera comes out! Lol! There is a little bit too much light on her...gotta learn how to work the sun!

So in my last blog I wrote about this mysterious herd of elk that has been roaming my area...well the very next day we saw them! I heard this weird bird-like chirping sound coming from over a nearby bluff, so Ayyah and I went to investigate. Lo and behold there were half a dozen female elk stomping through the bushes across the street! They were absolutely HUGE! Serena and I decided to pack up the kids in her truck and go on an elk-hunting mission! We offroaded some of the dirt roads searching for them, but alas they had moved too deep into the woods. Ayyah was poking her head out the window behind me and I saw her in the sideview mirror. I thought this was a pretty cute shot of her! She is such a camera ham I love it!

A Little Bit of Beauty out my Back Door

I was bored this afternoon so I got my Fuji and went for a walk in the woods near my new place. It is a gorgeous autumn day on the Sunshine Coast! I never realized just how much amazing life is in the forest surrounding my house! I am going to head out tomorrow and take more pics with some better light!

A road less traveled.
Birch tree I think? I love the texture of the bark. It photographs so well.

I discovered a little patch of blackberries a short way away from our place! I think I am going to go and try to salvage the last berries of the season tomorrow and make a little pie!

Hard to see, but it's a deer track about 20 feet from my house! They come out a lot at dusk around here! Apparently there is a herd of about 2 dozen elk (yes I said ELK!) that live in my area. I have yet to see them, but they are around quite frequently! I am gonna have to get motivated and start looking for them at dawn!
Pretty Poplar trees.

Poor snakey. This little fellow was dead, but I thought I'd take a pic of him anyways. Is that weird? lol!

Strange rock/tree branch sculpture our friend Keith made the other day out our front door. Ok so he just tossed a branch on top of some rocks, but it could be a strange art piece! :)

Road Trip!

A couple of weeks ago I went on my first solo road trip to Kelowna. It is only 4-4.5 hours from Vancouver, but as my first trip, it was great! I took the Coquihalla Highway and passed by some gorgeous mountains. I was in a bit of a rush (140km an hour!!! Go Jetta Go!) so I didn't stop for too many photo opportunities. I did stop by this gorgeous little lake/pond about halfway down the Coquihalla.

Not the best shot, but I loved the texture and shapes the rocks carved out on this mountain. There are really some amazing natural wonders in BC!

The same pond as above from a different angle. I would take that trip again in a heartbeat! It was an absolutely gorgeous drive on a beautiful sunny day.

Greatest Movie Ever!

So earlier this week I watched the Sex and the City movie and I LOVED IT! I have always adored the show and was bummed when it wrapped up a few years ago, but the movie definitely makes up for lost time! I think I just might have to invest in the entire series on DVD!

I thought this Vivienne Westwood dress was absolutely gorgeous and so unique, but the blue bird on her head??? I just don't get that look! I thought the other ladies looked great in their bridesmaid dresses. The wardrobe in this movie was stunning! To die for! But, it wouldn't be Sex and the City without a couple of head scratching outfits right? :)

I can't wait for the sequel! I am so excited!

Fire Fighter Day!!!

Oh deary me...It's that time again! Every September, our local volunteer fire dept holds a fundraiser at the local beach park. They have live music, a beer garden, an auto-extrication demonstration and a bbq! Every year we are the first bunch of hooligans to set up camp in the garden and the last to leave! (I don't know if I should be so proud! Lol!) There really is nothing better than hanging out with great people, having a cold beer on a hot day, all while donating to an awesome cause. I somehow skipped last year, so we have lost time to make up for this Saturday! Ayayay I have gotten myself into trouble at this event, so I must compose myself and act a lady this year! Lol!

Here are a couple of pics of the dept doing some training!