Summer’s Zenith
August 5, 2020
We’ve been sizzling here in British Columbia’s Southern Interior. For the past two weeks, it has been very hot and very dry. This is when all the dirt bikes get loaded on the back of country music-blaring pickups, heading for the hills, bypassing all the slower, fishing boat-toting pickups. And even those pickups bypass the even slower camper trailer-toting pickups, with everyone and their dog all heading out of Dodge.
What’s left behind are solitary scenes of empty pasture, sun-weathered farms, the occasional horse. And not a lick of shade.

We’re at the apex of Summer–the zenith–with a high today of 35C (95F). And tomorrow? Well, tomorrow marks the slow slide into September, with showers and a high of only 23C (73F).
So today we pretend we’re Texans, and tomorrow that old familiar tinge of an early Fall brings us all back to where we really are and love to be.
hot
August 24, 2015
This has been one. hot. summer. Right now smoke from fires burning on the Washington State/Canada border is blowing up our way due to Southwest winds. It’s an acrid, doused campfire smell and hazy even when just looking across the street.
‘The Silt Bluffs, Kamloops’, watercolour on Hot Press #140 Arches, 19cm x 24cm, (7.5″ x 9.5″) sold
Oh yeah. I’m done. Bring me a nice serving of September.
Hot
January 12, 2012
When we moved to Kamloops from Vancouver, we weren’t really prepared for the heat. Being a coastal city, Vancouver rarely sees temperatures over the high 20’s. Kamloops on the other hand, is in the South West Interior and is arid and hot — very hot. Summer temperatures can crest 45C, which is hot for Canada.
There’s sagebrush and Ponderosa Pines and cacti and lots of barren, weather-worn rock. The painting below was done in a location called Silt Bluffs which are full of character and stand above the North Thompson River. This scene is only about ten minutes away from downtown.