No, this blog post title does not refer to recent earthquakes, refugee nightmares or the current federal election campaign, although all of those would qualify for sure. Nor do I refer to the jawdropping news that National Geographic Magazine has been purchased by Fox Media. And not even the revelation that Volkswagon deliberately and fraudulently installed software on 11 million Volkswagon diesel cars that would recognize when the vehicle was undergoing emission testing and would show low emissions during the test and would revert to high performance mode when driven normally. In reality these vehicles were emitting 40x the regulated amount of nitrogen oxide through their tailpipes into the air we breathe. By deliberately falsifying emission testing results (and getting caught) not only did they lie to everybody and illegally cause further air pollution, they have wrecked the diesel car market in North America AND have no doubt destroyed any resale value OUR own Volkswagon diesel station wagon may have had.

No, I refer instead to one of my less than exciting latest projects, the conversion of my photography software. My own private software hell on earth.

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It’s well past Labour Day now and summer is by any stretch, over and done with. What a fantastic summer this was, for some of us, at any rate. It seemed at times that it was endless, July weather starting early May, but of course that was not to be.

The change when it came was sudden and extreme. The rain returned, finally, after months of dryness. Of course Mother Nature couldn’t just send the wet, she also had to send a huge windstorm with it that felled those parched trees and wiped out power to hundreds of thousands over on the mainland (Vancouver). Over here we were fine. Just the rain – the very much welcome rain. Continue reading →

I woke up yesterday morning to what was at first a puzzling sight. Instead of the usual blue sky and sunshine, a golden glow was seeping through the blinds. Dennis and I got up and went outside where we found an amazing, and beautiful sight, something new for me, a sky that was completely orange, casting its magic on the lighter tones of the garden.

A little later, I went down to the beach to see what there was to see out in the open, looking across to the mainland. Here’s what I saw…

Beautiful and frightening. Hundreds of forest fires burning in British Columbia. The day remained overcast – occasionally you could glimpse an orange sun through the haze.

Last night we visited neighbors down the street and sat outside in their garden. By the time we left the smell of smoke had descended and I had started to sniffle and sneeze. Back home I shut all the windows.

This morning the sight is decidedly not a beautiful one. Again overcast, the air is noticeably smokey and the smell of burn is very strong. A layer of ash covers the garden furniture. Down at the beach you can’t see across to the mainland at all, it is all smoke and haze. In addition to the large fires across the Strait on the mainland, fires are also burning here on the island, including one about half an hour’s drive away near Port Alberni. The first fire fighter has succumbed – fire has claimed the life of a tree faller battling the blaze across on the Sunshine Coast.