It was a warm and lovely, late-August afternoon when I asked Kathie to drop me off at the Summerland Ornamental Gardens to photograph flowers. I visit the gardens several times each year and find ample subject material through all seasons. Readers of this blog will already know how I love photographing flowers in all their... Continue Reading →
With thanks to Jan Carlson I am pleased to share yet another inventive, practical, and ecosocial initiative developed in our little Town of Summerland. Good people, doing good things, for good reasons, with good and great outcomes for each other, for our community and for creation. Jan writes: The idea was to create a sharing... Continue Reading →
It was a beautiful kitchen creation; a summer salad; a mix of spinach, chicken, avocado, strawberries, almonds, and cucumber topped off with a poppy seed dressing. And it’s gone . . . On a warm, breezy, summer evening in 2024 Ken and Kathie Gray drove to Sunoka Beach Park, a provincial park just outside the... Continue Reading →
First, let’s get a few things out of the way. A “murse” is a man’s purse. Typically (no woke welcome here) women carry a purse and men, a murse. Years ago in response to my frustration at constantly losing my personal belongings Kathie gave me a murse, a carry-all of a size somewhere between a... Continue Reading →
UPDATE The outcome from tonight’s meeting of Summerland Town council regarding the Peach Orchard Dog Park is very positive. The mayor explained his motion and his desire to continue to build consensus around this contentious matter. In response council while appreciating his intent disagreed. Initially concerns were expressed about the costs, historic and future if... Continue Reading →
In Finland they are called ostoskori. In New Zealand they are called trundlers. Here in Canada the shopping cart or grocery buggy rules the long and straight aisles of store parking lots. The ubiquitous emblem of homeless persons, who carry jaw-dropping heaps of life possessions along city streets, grocery store shopping carts allow shoppers to... Continue Reading →
Another reflection from Juno, Summerland’s 4 year-old Labradoodle blogger. Help me, please; I am having a bad hair day. In fact for the last week or so it has become evident to me and my MaPaw that I need grooming. The problem is that my former groomer has moved away. Despite MaPaw’s best efforts, a... Continue Reading →
Fibre art by Helene Driscoll Melissa Kirsch in the New York Times June! Again! I know! Where has the time gone? It’s boring to even raise the issue — your subjective experience of the months and years passing so quickly, how it seems just yesterday you were doing something (making plans to see Barbenheimer, maybe?... Continue Reading →
Thoughts on the value and practice of a daily routine I love routines. I especially love my early morning routines, especially those I typically accomplish before nine o’clock in the morning. Why this precise time? Well the early Christian Apostles exhibited their spiritual enthusiasm at this very hour (ACTS 2:15). Good for them; good for... Continue Reading →
I make no apology for my cheesy title; it is a contemporary re-working of a traditional children’s song: Old MacDonald had a farm; AI AI Oh. And yes, I thought it up all by myself! No AI involved—a product of my own warped imagination, more attuned to poetic scansion than content-rich technical analysis. You must... Continue Reading →
Take Note - Reflections on life, music, politics, retirement and more by Ken Gray 