Ranchlands and Rivers Country

 A brief trip to the Cariboo - just north of 100 Mile House BC

The Drive
I do love a roadtrip and although we had Trinity students in the backseat (who on getting into the car asked "So have you read the textbook?" of which there are two lengthy tomes both prerequisite reading - oh to be 21!) they plugged into their laptops and watched movies all the way there. 
Even so we didn't really have the chat time I love and we didn't crank our music lest we intrude on their movie watching.  
I love watching the landscape change as we leave the valley and climb through the Canyon and drive through the tunnels emerging into the dry rolling hills and then onto the plateau dotted with lakes......and that dry hot air.....love it.

The Ranch
Returning to Spring Lake was lovely and although we didn't get the room we booked we had a lovely suite anyway with a great view of the lake from our bed.  The lake was the perfect temperature and my twice or thrice daily dips were so refreshing.  The horses plodding by, the hay in the fields, the dock.....a sense of history in some of the old buildings, a gathering place of many nations - we met folks from France, from the Netherlands, from Germany as well as some folks from Richmond BC who knew many people we do! A place to return to for sure.

The Sounds
There is something very special about hearing Loons call across the lake, especially at night.....for me a quintessentially Canadian sound.  The horses neighing and snorting in the paddocks or on the trails.  The sounds of horses hooves clip clopping along.  The voices of people on the lake oblivious about how their voices carry....snippets of conversation drifting across.  And the Thunder oh.my.word.

The Storms
One night we watched a huge electrical storm circle around the ranch over the distant hills - nice to watch it in the distance and see the whole landscape light up.  
On our last night the storm came right over and was accompanied with cracks and booms of thunder......Allan slept through it all but I sat up at our window (just above our bed) and watched trying not to squeak when the lightening and thunder cracked very close to home....I drifted off eventually but the rumbling thunder kept going until we were up and at it the next morning.  I am not a huge fan of storms (ok ok I am a total wimp about storms) but this one fit the landscape somehow and added to the whole ranch experience.

The Time
As Allan was on a course and it was not as organized as it might have been, time was sort of hard to manage....broken into bits when he was in class and I was able to swim and read and prepare meals and then bits when he was around for a meal and a couple of hours here and there...not quite the long lazy timeless days one sometimes gets on vacation - more punctuated but that was expected.

Essentials for Lakeside comfort

The Course
Allan was in class a lot and there were parts he really liked and parts that were dull and dry.....He sure seemed to get to grips with the technical side of the camera and its settings and was immersed in ISO's, apertures, shutter speeds, light metering, white balancing etc... His daily assignments had him out and about trying to capture blur, pattern, texture, juxtaposition and more. The night photography in an electrical storm was crazy (and he got some amazing shots) and on the last night the barn was set up like a studio/scene and the ranch hands all dressed up in Western gear and posed in various scenes - lots of fun but a couple late nights.  I watched the final course slide show with 15 images per student and am proud of the work Allan did - studying for an exam in the middle of it all -  He did himself and his camera proud....I see many amazing photos in our future.