All posts by Paul Cipywnyk

Same Scene, Half a Year Apart

Realized that I’ve shot the same scene about half a year apart. While the scenes are not exactly lined up, you can recognize the fence posts and get a sense of how close I must have been standing for the two takes.

NIcola Valley March 2015
March 9, 2015

BC Highway 5A
October 1, 2014

If you look closely, you can see that I was just a few steps to the right compared to the more recent photo. Cool!

Oops, this is on the BC 5A north of Merritt.

Nicola Valley Under Blue Skies

I love the BC 5A between Merritt and Kamloops. The Nicola Valley and its string of lakes has a quiet beauty that changes with the seasons. In three or four hours of slowly touring up and back down, I saw at most a dozen other vehicles. The smaller lakes were still mostly iced over, with blue at the edges.

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Meadowlark
I tried many dozen shots of these Western Meadowlarks, but only these two were usable. They were very shy, and even with the monster Tamron 150-600mm maxed out, they were hard to capture.

Meadowlark

Here are more shots of the same route taken October 2014. 

Impressive Results for Byrne Creek Fish Survey

Volunteers with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society completed a weekend fish survey in southeast Burnaby, BC, today with the third-best result recorded in 13 years of collecting data.  We caught, identified, measured and released 70 juvenile cutthroat trout and three coho.

Please note that this activity is done with authorization from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans SEP Program, and with training by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation.

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
The fish survey involves rambling through the bush. Those hi-viz vests really stand out in the forest.

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Someone had placed this chair at this idyllic spot. Nice view, too bad whoever was sitting here appeared to have been tossing beer cans in the creek… Sigh

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Skunk cabbage popping up in several place. This is a cool plant!

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Emptying a Gee trap

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015Checking out the results

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Releasing the little guys unharmed

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Thanks to all the volunteers!

I Hate Pushy Content

I absolutely HATE it when you go to a web page and suddenly there’s music blaring from your speakers for some advert.

I hate anything that moves or makes noise when I land on a web page, including those creepy “how can I help you” chat popups on some sites.

Oh, yes, I hate animated email messages, too.

If I control my user experience, I am much more likely to read your email or stay on your web page. I’ll even click on a few advert links if they’re something I’m interested in. I might even click on a “click to chat” link if I do have a question.

But if you get pushy with me, I’m gone.

Working So Hard I Overheated! ;-)

Too many things on the go! About half an hour ago a guy from the gas company knocked on the door to say that they had replaced the gas meter (we’d gotten notice a few weeks ago this would happen). He said he’d like to come in and relight the furnace, the water heater, and any other gas appliances.

We keep the house at 18C in the daytime in our mild winters here, so I hadn’t even noticed that the furnace was off.

As part of the relighting he asked me to jack the thermostat way up so that the furnace would kick in.

He left, I got back to work… And mindlessly took my sweatshirt off and continued working in just a T-shirt. And awhile later I was getting more irritated by how bloody hot it was…

And it still took another ten minutes for it to sink in that I’d left the thermostat at 26C!

OK, furnace is off, back to work.

Self-Publishing Fair Convinces Me to Join Federation of BC Writers

I went to my first Federation of BC Writers event today, the Self Publishing Fair held at the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library.

I enjoyed the speakers and chatting with folks who had displays at the fair. I recognized a couple of fellow members of the Editors’ Association of Canada.

I decided to join the “Fed” as it appears to like to call itself. Perhaps being part of such a group will help stimulate me to do more writing!

Restore Canada Rocks!

Thank you Restore Canada, Burnaby location.

The used office chair I bought from you three or four years ago for, if I recall, C$20, died.

So on my way home from dropping off a bunch of stuff at the Burnaby Recycle Center I stopped by your store and picked up a “new” office chair for C$10. Not quite as swanky as the last one, but it still has adjustable height, adjustable arms, lockable back tilt, etc.

Deal!