Pumpkins at the orchard, originally uploaded by jamesshearer.

Around about Thanks Giving, Vanessa, Rob and I were driving from Vancouver to the Okanagan. The route took us along BC Highway 3 known as the Crowsnest Highway.

Just as the highway splits at Keremeos we came across a bright orange collection of pumpkins along the side of the highway.

Amongst the pumpkins were ancient tractors at the edge of an apple orchard. We stopped, took some photos, bought some fruit and were on our way. Apparently this is one of the best places in British Columbia to get fresh apples, pears and other fruits.

If you are taking Highway 3 in the Summer/Autumn months, keep a look out for the fresh fruit stands located along this highway between Hedley and Osoyoos.

Fresh produce at the market, originally uploaded by jamesshearer.

I spent a few days in the town of Lugano in southern Switzerland. Unfortunately for me it rained the entire time I was there so despite this being a beautiful town with spectacular surroundings, I saw little to none of it.

However, I did explore the town thoroughly and one of the highlights for me where the great little market stalls which spilled out of shop doorways into the narrow streets which makeup the main part of the town.

This scene shows 2 shops which are so small they expand on the street to increase the space and it makes it easier when shopping since you don’t need to go into the actual stores. The shops here are a bakery and grocer.

Many more pictures are available on my Flickr photo set for Lugano, Switzerland.

This is an interesting perspective and has some useful tips.

See the photos here

As great as Drupal appears to be, it ended up being a source of time wasting and frustration due to the requirement for additional modules for each and every little thing. Wordpress is a lot quicker to get things going and thanks to a really handy guide on how to migrate from drupal to wordpress my website is back up and running.

Vanessa and I took a drive around Whistler’s neighbourhoods to check out the huge houses and varied mountain architecture. Most of the building designs were straight out of the Swiss Alps.

This one caught our eye - perched on a rocky crag the entrance to this Whistler home is via a glass elevator up the side of the cliff (on the left) then across an enclosed bridge.

Here are a couple other images from our Whistler Weekend…

Recently, Washington State has made it illegal to gamble online. It is even illegal to run a website which mentions online gambling! It is so serious that offenders are likely to be treated the same as if they commited a violent assault or robbery. One guy who lives in Bellingham set up a guide to online casinos and although you can’t play on his website, because it mentions online gambling the Great State of Washington, in all their wisdom, decided to take criminal action against the poor guy!

Amazing!

The Internet may be a lawless land and could do with some tightening of laws and enforcement of others but this type of law does nothing to help anyone. I really fail to see the logic behind it.

So much for free speech, and all those other freedoms American’s ‘have’…

In Scotland I went canoeing and kayaking fairly regularly but never in Canada, the home of the boat you can carry.

Vanessa and I took some sea kayaks out on English Bay and around the edge of Stanley Park. The water was fairly calm and the trip was a nice way to cool down from the heat of the sun. Wake from one boat nearly sent us to the bottom. Vanessa (who was at the front of our double kayak) took the brunt of the three waves which then filled out boat. Fortunately we had a pump so spent the next 15 minutes bailing ourselves out.

Other than that it was relaxing, uneventful and just what was needed. It was a great way to see the city, Stanley Park the beaches around English Bay and also the wildlife (harbour seals in the water).

I’m looking forward to a more activity filled summer this year!

Lower income tax has been increased from 15% to 15.5% for the first income bracket. If you combine that with the GST reduction it seems that someone with low earnings wouldn’t see any change because their savings on GST would be absorbed into a higher income tax bill. People in the highest tax bracket stand to save the most (if they spend the most - which they probably do)…

Once immigration is sorted it is going to be interesting seeing the huge differences between the Canadian tax system and the UK one. The Canadian tax and benefits system is incredibly conservative in its design, especially compared with the UK. Anyway, we shall see!