A morning walk along Riverside Park

 I arrived Thursday night in Kamloops, ready for the 2018 Secwepemc Winter Gathering.

I slept in (what a treat), and then went for a walk in Riverside Park. 

It was a crisp morning (hovering just above zero), but that was fine, since I was dressed for the weather.

It was a quiet morning.  one dog walker, a person jogging with a baby in a stroller, two women doing a power walk, and a few random stragglers (such as myself).   

The clouds were low in the sky, with only portions of this hills visible.  

The river was beautiful at each turn of the bend.   

I love its reflective capacity.   

It is so easy to imagine another parallel world beneath the water.

I also love how the colours of winter kind of creep into my heart. 

There is not the vibrancy of spring or summer, but there is much beauty in the palette of grey and brown.  

Driving home the scenic way - mid september

On Sunday afternoon, I headed off with Stacy to see "The Children Act" (with Emma Thompson).  It was one of those movies that generated a ton of conversation, though maybe not the conversation we had thought we would be having.  Seemed a good excuse to continue the conversation by taking the long way home, stopping at all the lookout points as an excuse to keep talking.   It was also an excuse to keep taking photos.   What a beautiful afternoon/evening.

Because my phone is only partly functional, there are no selfies here (the camera will only work in one direction).  I did try to get one picture of Stacy and I.... you can see us here in the shadow of the photo below!   I do like the colour contrasts!

Oslo to Yellowknife, or Adventure in Travel, July 2018

July was an amazing month.  A trip to Esket'emc (near Williams Lake) to attend the Secwepemc Elder's meeting.  That trip was followed (literally, as in flying back out the same day I flew in) by a trip to Oslo with Val Napoleon for a 5 day workshop on Indigenous Law sponsored by YoungCAS (the Norwegian Centre for Advanced Studies).

We were staying at the Holmenfjord Hotel in Nesbru (just outside of Olso).  It was beautiful. Hot and cloudless days.  Wonderful conversation and intellectual adventures in a truly beautiful location.

Val and I also got to spend an evening with her friends Richard Daly and 

On the trip home, our path took us from Olso, then to Frankfurt, and then to Calgary.  This would allow us to fly on the "Dreamliner", which Steve told me in the best plane around.  and it was beautiful.   Here, for example, is the view out the window the Dreamliner.  It was daylight at the time, but the window dims things down so you are not blinded and can still watch a movie.  Unfortunately, i was not making best use of the technology:  i was having massive pain in my chest.  since i was wearing my fitbit, i could also see that my heartrate was up in the 120 beats per minute, and I was not exerting myself.

The long and short of it is that I finally went to see if there was aspirin at the back, as the pain was bad.  And eventually, it was the moment for one of those "is there a doctor on the plane?" announcements over the PA system.  Yes... there were 4 of them.  Plus a nurse (since the doctors did not feel able to put in the IV).  The doctors were organized:  there was nitro, an IV, oxygen etc.  The spoke with the doctors on the ground, and the eventual decision was to re-route the plane to yellowknife (we were still 4 or so hours away from Calgary).  sigh.  

Val came off the plane with me (thanks Val) and took care of getting a message to Steve (who headed right to the airport and made it to Yellowknife by midnight). 
  
The people at the hospital were great:  it looked to be a virally caused periocarditis (inflammation of the lining around the heart).  Morphine and antiinflammatory meds [gout meds?!] did the trick.  And so... an unexpected stay in the yellowknife hospital.