The Music Shop is a wonderful book. It is a story about ordinary people who strive for dignity and their guru is Frank who provides musical therapy in the form of albums selected to match each person’s needs. Joyce introduces us to a series of characters who are touched by Frank’s caring and his vinyl music shop becomes a hidden … Continue reading →
Pines by Blake Crouch is the first book in the Wayward Pines trilogy which was also made into a 10 part miniseries for TV. This book uses a limited point of view to bring the reader to a big twist/revelation at the end. It starts as a crime novel as the protagonist Ethan Burke, a Secret Service Agent, travels to … Continue reading →
We traveled to hike Death Valley in the winter months. From the Furnace Ceek area we hiked up Funeral Canyon. This is a lesser-known hike, but one we enjoyed a lot: Thanks to Jackie for leading the way. We hope to get back to Death Valley for some more hiking. More Information – Funeral Canyon Hike
Continue reading →We camped at Horsefly Lake Provincial Park, we padded the lake over 3 days, we hiked to a lookout over the lake, and we hiked another trail to the top of Viewland Mountain. A video on YouTube features some of the sights to be found at Horsefly Lake:
Continue reading →We hiked Sidewinder Canyon in Death Valley in winter. We enjoyed the hike in the main canyon, but there were 4 additional slot canyons to explore too. This was our favorite hike of this trip. We worked our way through some dark slot canyons and took many photos. These are compiled into a new YouTube video: More information – Sidewinder … Continue reading →
We snowshoed the 5.7 km loops twice on the (North) Bush Lake Trails on fine winter days. We know many routes in the area, but most of the trails were well-stomped-in by snowshoers, so we followed those. We could see other routes that hadn’t yet been broken in, so we will be adding some new tracks over the next month. … Continue reading →
The Long Call is a mystery/crime novel by Ann Cleeves, the author of the Vera and the Shetland series. Ann Cleeves is a master storyteller, writing procedural detective books with well-developed characters and complex lives. For much of the book, the pace is slow and the small team of detectives in rural Devon follow possible leads, without much success. As … Continue reading →
We hiked the Titus Canyon Narrows route in Death Valley in winter when there was no one else in the area. We hiked the canyon, climbed into the hills, and returned the way we came, taking many photos along the way, now included in a new YouTube video: Death Valley is one of our favorite hiking destinations, especially in late … Continue reading →
We have hiked to Helen Lake and to Dolomite Pass a few times and one time we hiked the Helen Lake Trail, then went up Cirque Peak (2993m or 9819 ft). It was a tiring day since on the previous day we had hike Mt. Temple. A YouTube video shows some of the hike to the top of Cirque Peak … Continue reading →
We hiked down to Balancing Rock and the line of hoodoos below to explore, take some photos and video, and enjoy the views. Some of the images and video footage was compiled into a YouTube video, embedded here:
Continue reading →In mid-fall right before the first snowfall we hiked a loop route in Tranquille Canyon, near the Watching Creek confluence. Some of the moments are catured in this YouTube video: More information can be found on Kamloops Trails – link
Continue reading →Fairy Tale was published in 2022 and, as with all of his books, landed on the best sellers list. It is indeed a fairy tale with direct and indirect references to well-known stories from the Brothers Grimm and other authors, but also to classics in the horror genre. The 600 page book has three distinct parts. The first section follows … Continue reading →
Bruce Springsteen’s fall of 2002 release of the album Only the Strong Survive brings a new sound to his fans. The songs were chosen, arranged, and recorded during the Covid isolation time. He has chosen older soul songs from the 1960’s. In most cases, he has not reinterpreted the songs by artists like The Supremes, The Impressions, Sam and Dave, … Continue reading →
The Mysterious Affair at Styles was Agatha Christie’s first book. She wrote in on a dare in 1916 and tried to get it published, unsuccessfully until 1919. It was then releases in serial format with 18 parts. It was not published as a full book until 1920. In the book we are first introduced to Hastings, the narrator of the … Continue reading →
We hiked a 12.3 km loop route in the Roche Lakes backcountry: The 3.5 hour outing was on a sunny fall day: Details of the hike can be found on Kamloops Trails.
Continue reading →Townes van Zandt released an album called For the Sake of the Song” in 1968. There are some memorable songs on the album like “Tecumseh Valley”, “Waitin’ Around to Die”, “Maria”, “Sad Cinderella”, and “I’ll be Here in the Morning.” The album is named after the first song. It is a pleading call for understanding from a lifetime of sorrow … Continue reading →