Ahhh The Beauty of A Sunset

Lately all our sunsets have been influenced by wildfire smoke. Even the slightest smoke particle can change the way we see things.

I like this one because the clouds look like a small stream leading to the
mountain top.

This one is the sun setting behind the mountains. Notice the band of clouds
blocking the middle of the sun and how hazy the mountains look.

Sometimes, we are gifted with some amazing photo opportunities like these.

This is one of my favorites. The contrast of the trees against the orange
sky and clouds is striking.

Wildfire Smoke, A Full Moon and The Sun

Can you see the layers of smoke on the mountains?


The fires continue to burn around us but so far Kamloops has dodged the bullet.

Last week a passing train sparked a fire on Ord Road that spanned several Kilometers and charred the ground. How lucky the residents were that the KFD were able to get a handle on it and had the BC Wildfire Centre right here? A friend of mine lives on Ord Road and the fire burned everything in her yard to within a few feet of her home. When she told us that I almost cried. The cause of the fire is still unknown. Here's the facts:

1. A wheel on the train had locked and was spitting sparks. The engineer didn't know about his locked wheel.
   
2. A train car, loaded with scrap steel, caught fire. This could be a renewed arguement to return the caboose to the trains and some have clearly stated that the fire on Ord Road would not have gotten so out of hand if there had been a caboose and an attendant on the train.
   
3. The sparks, or the fire from the car, started a grass fire that came dangerously close to residences, the Kamloops Golf Club and had the potential to become a full blown interface wildfire.


4. The KFD can't tell which happened first.

Believe it or not, that's the moon! The smoke and clouds give it an eerie appearance.


It is no secret that I like the caboose and think that the need for a caboose during the dry summer months is certainly there. CN and CP, on the other hand, probably think I'm nuts and definately don't want to spend the money to protect our environment.

No so lucky is the town of Lillooet. The fire is still raging, but the residents have been allowed to return to their homes after several days under evacuation order. The town is still under an evacuation alert, the fire fighters have been able to get 40% containment of the fire, but they are not out of harms way yet. I pray for rain.

So, with all those fires burning in the Kamloops Wildfire District (over 600 at the moment), the air quality is understandably crappy. I admit to making an understatement here. There's nothing like waking up in the morning, pouring a hot cup of coffee and looking out the front window to see a blanket of white. Not that magnificent mountain that normally fills my view. Just white. I half expect to see the title of LOST appear in black letters right before my eyes.


But we do get the occasional spectacular skyscape!

The sun, though trying to shine down, becomes obscured by the smoke. The moon, when it rises high in the sky glows an eerie halo. The clouds, when lit from behind, take on strange and beautiful shades. Then, just when we thought the night sky couldn't get any better, it clears and gives us a full moon rising!

The full moon cresting the mountain ridge in front of my house. The trees silhouetted by the moon are amazing. I was lucky getting this shot.

At The Airport

Kamloops Airport is formally named Fulton Field and handles a nominal amount of daily traffic. After over twenty years jet service has also returned to our fair city. Every kid loves to go to the airport to watch the planes land and take off.

During the dry summer months there can be a plethora of planes landing and taking off. But these are not the average passenger prop or jet planes. No, these planes are fire planes. When we hear these planes flying over the house we know that there's a forest fire out there somewhere. We hope that it isn't threatening any homes and that the firefighters can beat it down quickly.

The summer of 2003 was a wildfire bonanza for British Columbia and I was one of the many thousands evacuated from their homes. Some, like myself and my family, were lucky, others lost not just their homes, but their livelihoods as well.

My eternal gratitude goes to the BC Forest Service and all that they do for our forests.