Marian Bantjes: Intricate beauty by design | Video on TED.com

Bowen Islander Marian Bantjes on intricate beauty by design . This was her TED talk given in February of this year.

We are surrounded by brilliant people on this island.

Snowin' on Bowen

A little video blog on the kind of snow we get on Bowen.

Snow day

Firs snow day of the year.  After a few days where snow fell all around us, we finally got dumped on this morning.  Five centimeters fell overnight by breakfast and continued to fall all day.  We're expecting about 10-15 before it turns to rain at our altitude.  Perhaps I'll make another video about THIS kind of winter weather event.

Just in time for our first winter snow event, the Bowen Island Road Status Tool is up.  Please participate.

The Squamish howls

Yesterday the Squamish blew at it's fiercest.  The outflow winds through Howe Sound were 80 km/h during the afternoon and rose to storm force in the evening.  It was as hard a blow as I have seen in ten years here, and not the hardest, nor the longest (in 1990 the Squamish blew for two weeks) but it brought lots of tress down and the power has been out in parts of the island for more than 18 hours.

On the ferry the ride was reported to be wild, and the freezing spray warnings issued by Environment Canada came to pass, as evidenced by Richard Smith's photos of the Cap.  The video above was my way of trying to convey the power of this wind.  Enjoy!

Solving the mystery of guessing at the weather

Dave Pollard has put together a nice summary of how to forecast Bowen weather based on the methods I have used for a number of years.  Have a read here on the Phorum.

What makes my heart sing

In the winter when the snow comes on the edge of the wet southeast winds chilled by the powerful outflow Squamish winds the days are dark and cold. When the weather passes and the skies clear this is the view that steals the breath of islanders no matter how long you have loved here. The Brittania Range is coated in heavy snow and the thin sun is hitting that eastern wall of our inlet on a sharp angle. The white of the mountains and the blues of the sky and sea.

Big Squamish blowing

Trees down, power out. Big winds churning down the Sound.

Update: Robert Ballantyne has more details about this big wind.

Snowfall and cloud

All day the first winter storm of the season has been brewing.  We got a taste last night with a little snow overnight that changed to rain this morning, at least it did below 400 meters, as evidenced by the snow line on the Britannia Range acros the channel.

Tonight is a big deal.  We are expecting 10-15 cms of snow combined with a howling Squamish blowing 80km/h and gusting to 110 km/h in the more northerly inlets along the coast.  That means tonight will be brutal stormy but tomorrow will be stunning.  Camera in hand, I'll hope to capture it all.

First real snow on the mountains

Leaving Bowen the other day I shot this photo of the first real snowfall on the Brittannia Range for the season. You can see the snow is at about 1000 meters, three quarters of the way up Black Mountain.

Winter us coming.

Deer everywhere

WE have the tamest deer in the world here on Bowen. If you wanted to you could probably hunt them with a hammer.