July 17th

11am: Shingles!I was right, the reactivation of the dormant chickenpox virus...strange, supposed to be a disease in the elderly but the doctor said stress, fatigue or just generally being run down can cause it to resurface. I had the symptoms looking back, especially the intense pain in my back & legs. Luckily I acted quickly & they gave me anti-virals drugs today which should help diminish the effects & duration of the illness. It is not contagious thankfully. We popped out in the morning to the local Kelowna Farmers Market _ i need to eat lots of fruit, Vitamin C is a major nutrient in combating the disease. Charlie liked the fruit at the market, here, as per usual he is wearing some of it. Another boiling hot day, evident in his flushed, sweaty complexion.

July 16th

7pm: The pain has subsided a bit, still sore but my legs are coming out in little rashes - looked it up on the Internet - shingles??!! Will visit the doctor again here in Kelowna tomorrow. Managed to get out with the kids after work & visit Moxies, Charlie attempted to soothe my pain by tipping that full glass of Diet Coke all over me moments later!! The kids & restaurants don't wholly mix.

July 15th

11pm: The pain is still there, just as bad - doctor says it is a pulled muscle, I am not so sure - he prescribed a muscle relaxant, it helps me sleep. Still had to work in the heat all day though. Crap picture but photography was not uppermost in my mind today - this is the view from the hotel window, Orchard Mall & Highway 97 in Kelowna - lovely.

July 14th

7pm: Another pain ridden day. my back & legs are on fire. Still had to work though, 6 hours on my feet did not help. I just about had it in me to pull over & capture an otherwise beautiful (and steamingly hot) day. This is the view towards Coldstream ,just south of Vernon BC. The water is Kalamalka Lake.

July 13th

11pm: Oh man! Am i ever in pain, so much pain - something wrong with my back. It has been a little sore for a couple of days, but today I made the 6 or so hour drive to Kelowna for work & was in agony most of the way - nerve felt pain like it before. I even had an ice pack from the pharmacy on it, but to no avail - these things aren't doing much good either.

May 10th

11pm: Here are the fresh, young leaves & flowers on my new tomatillo plants. I love tomatillos & even though they are pretty easy to get hold of over here - I thought I would try & grow some thsi year. I picked these up at the farmer's market in Kelowna - not sure how they are going to adapt to Canmore's unpredictable montane climate. They are really a Mexican/Southern US plant - I don't have a greenhouse so they are going to have to take their chances outside pretty soon. Wish them luck......

May 9th

3pm: So here we are at a surprisingly quiet Rogers Pass, high up in the mountains on our way back from Kelowna - its been a nice drive, kids well behaved & conditions good. Rogers Pass is a treacherous thoroughfare during the snowy months as avalanches tear down the steep slopes either side of the road - in the summer it is home to hordes of ground squirrels like the chap above, posing for photos, basking in the sun & eating food offered by the coachloads of tourists who pass this way.

May 8th

3pm: A gorgeous sunny Saturday in Kelowna, warm & springlike everywhere - we started with coffee on the trendy Pandosa Street, graduated to the Farmer's Market, bought a picnic from Choices Supermarket & ended up in this lovely wooded park, behind the little airport. The kids had a great time playing in the woods & chucking stones in the river. The river was in fact pretty feisty, a series of waterfalls throughout it's course & as the trail got progressively harder we ended up turning back not far from this point.

May 7th

9am: On my way from Kelowna up to meet some customers in Armstrong, the weather forecast was calling for thunderstorms & this impressive stack was brewing in the north west beyond the little town of Oyama in the foreground. the storms didn't transpire though & by the time I got back to Kelowna in the evening we had time for a nice dinner at the sushi place on the main drag through town. The kids ended up playing in the little park on the lakefront downtown, but they were exhausted - a result of sharing the sofa bed & the chaos that this entailed.

May 5th

11pm: Off to BC tomorrow for work, it's a 5 hour drive over the Rockies & away from snow & frost - the weather forecast isn't great but compared to here it's positively tropical!!