Greenwood Charm

I admire this 1897 house for it's Lilac's - so much potential!

Built for a Dominion land surveyor for the CPR - now for sale.  Built in 1898.

Current Greenwood city hall where the movie "Snow Falling on Cedars" courtroom scenes took place.  It was built in 1902-03 and served as the provincial government building and courthouse.  The building originally housed the gold commissioner's office, the chief constable and the mining recorder, as well as the functions of the county and supreme courts. There are three jail cells in the basement, one of which was part of the original design.

Greenwood Post Office which also used to serve as the Canadian customs.  We use one of the original brass post office boxes!

These three buildings are important to modern Greenwood. They are the two-story Guess Block, built in 1899 and now home to the Copper Eagle Cappuccino and Bakery.  Next, the red-brick three-story building is the Greenwood Inn and Saloon, originally the Windsor Hotel, also built about 1899.  It houses one of the longest operating pubs in BC, which has a  30 foot long antique bar and mirror.  One door north is home to the Pacific Grill; which operate in the white three-story building built in 1907 as the Pacific Hotel.  During the Second World War, this building served at the #1 Internment Building housing more than 200 Japanese-Canadians.

Source: Greenwood Heritage Walk brochure published by the Greenwood Heritage Society.

Greenwood Gems

Iron pyrite - "fool's gold"

Copper - the mineral that built Greenwood in the late 1800s

Trillium ovatum - in bloom around 1200 meters right now

One of the many mines a person can find exploring around the woods here

Dhu Lookout

The lookout sits on top of a tv broadcasting tower!  The BC Forest Service cabin too

A "Jewel" of a lake

Bitchin' chair for watching the weather

Our local bike trail

The trans-Canada trail goes right through where we live and it's great to commute to places instead of using the Hwy 3. Thanks to the Columbia and Western Railway (C&W) we have this section of the trans-Canada trail. No need to ride on Hwy 3 at all!  

 
The trail was busy with two people on it.

A father and son "Zack" from Australia that are headed to the east coast of Canada.  They said they've been travelling for the past 5 years.  Dad only got his horse yesterday though and it's 11 years old and never been ridden until yesterday.  Guess the horse was feeling pretty stiff today.  He was walking the horse today on the trail.  They were probably going to stop short of town because he needed some hay and a ranch to keep the horse more comfortable.  What a lucky horse to have a new owner like him to travel across Canada.

I've met other people on the trail, like a guy walking across Canada.  He is relying on the kindness of people to make his trip happen. Apparently he had quite the breakup and he's decided to walk to the east coast with Pacific Ocean water, dump it into the Atlantic Ocean and then return back to the Pacific with Atlantic Ocean water.  Guess he'll be on the road for about 3 years he said.  The CANNFOREST blog is his.

I met another guy who is riding his bicycle across Canada and his blog is the BIKE TO THE FUTURE LITTLE PRINCE.  I met him about a month ago and he is already in Saskatchewan!  I didn't get a picture of him but on his blog he's standing outside in front of one of the businesses because he got hosted pretty well by the locals.  He got a private tour of the Greenwood Museum before it was even open!

So I'm looking forward to seeing more people coming through touring.  I spoke to one woman who owns a cyclist stop who said that about 10 years ago thousands of people would travel this route.  Now she says she sees about 500 cyclists a year.  

The Balsam Root are still blooming...

The Columbines are almost blooming

And we rode today to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

There is so many railgrades around here.  Today we decided to ride on the old Vancouver, Victoria and Eastern Railway or VV&E grade - for we wanted to see the tunnel that friends had told us they got married in.  The VV&E was a major competitor of the Kettle Valley RR and it went from Princeton to Midway.  The railroad caused the "Battle of Midway" when the VV&E drove tracks across a piece of property belonging to the CPR.  Finally, the BC Supreme Court eventually settled it and nobody was killed.

Mt St Helen's 33 years today

Mt St. Helens erupted on Sunday, May 18th, 1980.  My parents were at the beach on the Pacific Ocean and my dad said that he had heard the blast that morning. I remember going up to Capital Hill to go look at the ash plume.  53 of the 57 people who died that day were outside the restricted area that the USFS had established.  The restricted areas were based upon prior eruption history.  The blast was so much larger than anyone thought it was going to be because it was a lateral blast, the largest recorded landslide to date on the planet.

That morning, Gary Rosenquist took an entire sequence of the blast that morning - 22 frames in all. He and his family survived.  What an adventuresome soul to be so close to such a giant waiting to blow up.

This is what it looked like the day we visited in 2012.

When the eruption occurred, the gophers in the area were still hibernating, there was still snow on the ground protecting the plants and they reseeded the area according to the scientists.  The area was designated a National Monument by President Reagan for study, research, education and for nature's own sake. 

The car that was able to help scientists determine the heat of the blast.  Apparently the car had heat-treated tires with the ability to withstand 400 degrees.  The people who died were visiting a mining cabin and had signed a liability waiver to enter "the blue zone".

Mt Rainier is a dormant volcano too!  

Tacoma and Seattle are at serious risk if Mt. Rainier becomes active anytime soon.  When I visit outside of the Seattle area around Enumclaw, in the area of the White River, there are volcano evacuation routes posted.  Good luck with that!  Kinda like living on an island when there is a tsunami.  Where we live now,  I think the biggest natural disaster that we face is forest fire.  There is a lot of fire load in the forests around here.  Luckily it's been a rainy day here, so we got moisture after the week of 30C temps.  Still waiting for the frost this May.

I watched a great video about Mt St Helens in commemoration of the event.  I like the quote at 38:10.  

KVR Trestles

After much anticipation we finally made it to the rebuilt trestles on the KVR

Only one of these trestles survived the fire of 2005

Looking towards Little White Mtn

Moose use the old RR path too

Trestle #3 didn't make it through the winter, big rock hit it damaging it good

View looking towards Kelowna

Two tunnels in this part of the canyon

Most of the trestles burned during the fires of 2005

With the snow melt, still lots of water to ride through

Spring Celebration

Shooting Star - Dodecatheon spp.  (primrose family)

Blue clematis - Clematis occidentalis (buttercup family)

Avalanche Lily - Erythronium grandiflorum (lily family)

The view from our house with setting sun on new leaf growth

Livelihood in the Boundary

I'm having an adventure in finding employment in the Boundary.  I put my name in the hat for working at the museum in Midway and got shortlisted.  

I even wore a dress to the interview, but there was another candidate better suited for the position as I got called last night to say I wasn't selected.

There is some other plan in the works for me.


I'm applying for jobs in my professional field of social work, most of these are in large population centres .  I've applied for a bike patrol position to utilize my OFA III.  There the issue is that I've never gone to one of the bike parks to solely ride "downhill".  I like going downhill better than uphill I joke and I would really like to work outside in that type of athletic pursuit while being an emergency responder.  And I wouldn't wear a dress.

I have been working volunteer though. We've been helping out at the Greenwood Museum and I'm replacing the signs on the Phoenix Interpretive Drive.  We went up to M&P's house after the immigration interview and got to work in the garden.  I had fun rotortilling the garden and Mark helped to sharpen the blades of the lawn mower.

It's been a beautiful spring.  It's been record breaking temperatures in the region and around 30C everyday.  Today is the first day of rain for a long time.  Yesterday we rode up the railroad grade to Eholt, via Jewell Lake and we watched the clouds roll in. Saw three lenticulars!  The clouds rolling in was nice though cause by the time we really had to start working climbing up the hill  the sun was in the shade.  And the entire trip we weren't hassled by any vehicle traffic.  That's one reason we really would like to stay in this area.  We only saw 4 people on off road motorcycles and one truck.

 Dropping back into the valley of Boundary Creek

Greenwood is at a little higher elevation so the trees are finally leafing out in all their glory.

Where it is dry and the Balsam Root are in bloom is an entirely different story. 

Summer has arrived.

Yes, in Canada, eh?

I'm in.

It was a short and sweet meeting to just answer questions to confirm our relationship, that I hadn't gotten deported from any country or arrested and convicted of criminal activity and that I didn't have children that I was hiding or any other marriages to report. 

Permanent Residency as of today.   

I like Canada.  The people are nice, there are cougars and bears living near the town I'm in, it's not a frozen iceberg like the rest of the world believes, and this is where I found my love of my life, Mark.

I'm a lucky woman, eh?

NOT in the US

I'm absolutely in Canada....



because it's just barely spring


and the locals are thinking about curling season!

Hummingbird Day

Springtime in Nelson

Classic truck

 While eating dinner outside at a patio cafe, I heard hummingbirds flying by...  They were too fast to photograph though.  Solid frost last night, not yet time for the tomatoes!