Naked In The River

I went skinny dipping a few days ago for the first time and most likely the last- at least hereabouts!

My sister came over to visit from the coast and we went for a drive all over the place. I wanted to show her some of my favorite spots like Kentucky Alleyne Provincial Park ( and no, it wasn't there! ) among other places. It was rather cool these past few days compared to normal but warm enough so that when we came upon a quiet ( read SECLUDED! ) spot on a river I really wanted to go in for a dip and decided at that moment that not having a bathing suit or towel was not going to stop me and so in I went! My sister got into the spirit of it and joined me and we had a great time although I was worried the whole while that someone might come along and see us!

At least now I can say I actually swam naked once in a river and so can she. :)

I burned some discs of family photos for her and my brother as a gift and also finally gave her their birthday gifts: A print of Xiangjiang Safari Park for her which thrilled her- I had no idea she was so fond of that picture so it was a good choice, and a print of Java Male for my brother.

Next month is the Nicola Valley Fall Fair and I plan to have some photos in the show...there's also a photography exhibition at the gallery so ditto for that.

I've got a new website up as well that is aimed at advertising my services as a photographer and image processor as opposed to my main site which is oriented towards stock photography and those who are shopping for images.
The new site will have portraiture as it's main focus and will contain galleries of portraits from my pre-digital camera days; specifically the 3 years spent at XIangjiang Safari Park in China and the 8 years working for West Coast Amusements.

I've also got another site in the works; essentially an on-line yard-sale.

I've done 2 actual yard sales now and I don't like spending the entire day doing something like that and in the end the stuff that doesn't sell goes back in the house so I'm going to make use of E-Bay again and craigslist to get the ball rolling with links to the images of things I've got for sale.

It's amazing what we all accumulate in a life time: books, tapes, records, comics, magazines, clothes, shoes, vintage clothes ( mom's ), this that and the other things...we would be foolish to ignore the greater audience that is available via the internet.

Besides all that I hope to start a project through the Art Gallery with another person- putting together an illustrated cookbook of ethnic recipes with illustrations provided by local artists- we shall see how that goes.

In other matters- we've removed almost all the weeds and disgusting grasses in the front yard and are planning how we're going to make a vegetable garden for next year and are currently preparing to put ( engineered) hardwood flooring into the living room. When the carpet came out the old linoleum was still there- a pattern identical to the one that used to be in the bathroom of the house I grew up in!

I decided to also pull the carpet out of my office and the same lino is there as well- I'm going to leave it that way because it's cooler, easier to clean, virtually dust-less compared to the evil carpet, and the nostalgia of it still blows me away.

On the subject of carpeting: I have never liked it. Carpeting, besides being a trap for dirt that you can only get out with professional steam cleaning, is full of toxic things- Volatile Organic Compounds is the proper term. You can bet I'm looking forward to getting rid of all of it- the nice thing is when you have a lot of it and cut and roll it up in neat manageable pieces and leave it out front with a 'Free' sign, some fellow with a truck is going to come by and take it off your hands. That's what happened with our first batch and I'm glad it didn't go to the dump.

And to finish off this post I will post my current links:

Artemis Graphics And Design - Stock and Local Photography

Artemis Graphics And Design - Traditional and Digital Art

Heidi Koehler Photography and Photographic Services

Heidi Irene Koehler on Facebook