Views of Kamloops

A week ago Monday, I was visiting my mom at the local hospital. If you'd like to, you can read about it here.  I had to walk up this hill to get to the hospital. I thought you might like to see some views along the way. It was a statutory holiday here in my province that day so the streets were rather quiet.

The big  building in the middle at the end of the street is the hospital. On the right is the red brick Catholic Church.

In the distance you can see an old brick school on the left side just beyond the parking lot. In the distance you can see the mountains. The city of Kamloops is located in a narrow valley and has been built up around the junction of the North and South Thompson Rivers.

A quiet street  facing the front of the old brick school house in the previous photo. In the Summer, this street is the location of a farmer's market where you can purchase wonderful produce and baked goods. On market days this street is lively, colourful and lots of fun.

A building housing many of the city's doctors and a pharmacy.  See the reflections in the glass!

A long shot of the same building.

A view of a long standing hotel chain in the city. In the background the "mountains".

Here is a close up of the school which I reference in the photo near the top of this post.

A view back toward the city as I continue up the hill.

I do hope you've enjoyed the photos. More photos of this walk (to hospital and town) will be posted later.

Skywatch Friday, September 16, 2010

I snapped these photos rather hurriedly yesterday as I saw my bus rounding the corner to pick me up. I was trying to capture the vivid sunlight through the cloudy sky. It was a rather warm day, despite how it looks.

Join the Skywatch Friday gang here and see some wonderful photos of skies all over the world.

At the Bus Stop - Wordless Wednesday, September 15, 2010

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Photo of the Day

I love the sky and the vapour trail.

It's been raining a lot this week but the past few days the sun has come out after the rain. It makes for lovely days though they are a bit "coolish". How is the weather wherever you are?

Went for a Visit to the Hospital

I went to visit mom at the hospital Monday. It is a statutory holiday here so it was rather quiet around the town. I will post photos of the city later.

A view of the City of Kamloops toward the north shore from the hospital grounds.

A view to the hospital from my walk up the hill.

A view from the hospital window. See the Kamloops River in the background.

Mom is doing well but very eager to get out of the hospital. She feels uncomfortable in there because it isn't set up for her like her apartment. At home she not only has the comfort of home, but she also has a special lift chair, and many other aids for mobility and independent living.

In the hospital room they don't even put a sheet on the bed. I have no idea why because they cover most of the mattress with pads and small blankets so they might as well put sheets down. It makes no sense. When she has asked about it they tell her the mattress is covered (which is it) and it is like having sheets on it (which is isn't).

The mattress does have some kind of fabric on it which is very slippery so it is hard for her to get comfortable as she slides around on it. Also she finds the mattress fabric irritating to her skin.

Here is a look at her leg. It had cellulitis and she has been in the hospital bed for 3 weeks waiting for it to get better. You can read more about cellulitis here

 Can you see how the dead skin has just peeled off?

Leg with cellulitis and dead skin peeling off. As you can see the leg is still very inflammed.

Her left leg used to look like this too but now there is absolutely no redness and previous wounds have healed. I think the heavy duty antibiotics she was receiving intravenously for a week really helped.
Mom is really anxious to get out of hospital. She says it is too difficult to keep the leg from getting reinjured in there when they insist on her having physiotherapy while there and that she do everything herself. Given all the equipment lying close by it is easy to see how the leg can be injured as it is quite fragile when red like this.
Once she gets home, (today is supposed to be discharge day), she can rest her leg.

My brother washed the carpets when he was here over the weekend. I have also been making the apartment ready by putting everything that was moved during carpet cleaning, back in place. I also washed dishes, floors and the bathroom and packed some clothes for the discharge girl. That was how I spent my statutory holiday. In my travels to and from the hospital, I saw a lot of hub=bub on the city buses. The high school students were out in full force doing last minute school shopping and hanging out with their friends sharing excitment about back to school which commences Tuesday.

Skies Over Kamloops ~ June 11 , 2010

Such a beautiful sky.

Wait.
Look again.

Looks like a storm rolling in.

I tried to capture the sun as it was peeking through the massive cloud cover.

Have a look at more sky photos here.

New Library

For some time now I have been eagerly awaiting the completion of the new library on the North Shore of the City of Kamloops where I often visit.  I like to use the library when I come to the city and the old library had few spaces to sit and read.  It also had a long line of people to use the out of date computers to access the internet.

Last time I visited was in April and at that time I read that the library was scheduled to re-open in it's new location on April 18, 2010. I had an opportunity yesterday (Friday) to have a quick peek at the new premises.

Here are the comfy leather chairs and fireplace that are in the front area, just to your right as you enter the library.

Here is a view of the entryway to the library.  The check out desk is just beyond the seating area to the upper right as you view the photo.

 I love the sense of space in this new library. There are rows and rows (or stacks and stacks) of books.

 Here is a lengthwise view of the new space.

Last but not least, here is a photo (a rather poor one) of the computer area. Compared to the old library which only had 6 computers for public use, this new library is a dream.  There are now 20 computer stations. The computers are brand new so they have USB ports for file sticks, etc. They have also increased the time for use of the computers from 30 to 60 minutes once per day.  There may also be wifi access if you bring your laptop as most of the province's new libraries have that feature but I didn't enquire yet about this aspect of service.

I was taking surreptitious photos in the library as a lot of public places here do not like you to take photos. However as I left the library, one of the librarians was asking me if I was taking photos. I said of the fireplace. I thought she was going to chastise me. Instead she said she didn't want to get in the way as she was re-shelving books. That was a nice change!

I love libraries because I love books and reading. I also love using the internet. Until recently I did not have a wireless stick to use with my laptop so the library was the only place I could catch up on my email. Wifi has only been available on this side of town relatively recently and I really can't get out much once I am visiting mom anyway so it is more convenient to use the wireless stick. The library internet access will come in handy when I have more photos to upload and more time to get out to the library. Otherwise it is nice to have back up access to the computer. As you can probably guess, there isn't any computer access in my mother's apartment.

Please drop by Jan's new meme, Simple Joy Saturday by clicking here and tell us about your simple joys.

One Neighbourhood on a Scenic Sunday

Scenic Sunday is, for me, a time to share more than one photo. It is a time to give you a flavour of some of the beauty in my country. I've shared several posts already about Kamloops and this is actually where I am spending the Easter long weekend.

So let me share some photos of one neighbourhood in the part of the city known as North Kamloops. There is nothing of note in these photos, no history I want to share. Just photos of a common neighbourhood in an older section of this part of town. I thought it would be especially interesting to my friends abroad to see what some of the older neighbourhoods look like. As you can see, most of our buildings are not made of stone and the buildings are not that old, historically speaking.

I hope you enjoyed the tour. Please visit again soon.

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Scenic Sunday in Kamloops

Kamloops, British Columbia is a very different place from where I live in Vancouver. Kamloops is about 4 hours drive north and is located in what is called the Interior of the province. It is cattle country and for years this small city was more like a frontier town.

[Panoramic shot of the North Shore, Kamloops]

I'm happy to say that in the past decade or so things have changed a lot. New commercial buildings have gone up aplenty. New areas of the city have seen significant residential development and there are new facilities and services to be used such as the new downtown library and the one that will open on April 19, 2010 on the north shore. There are also new hotels and restaurants.

[Photo of the newest hotel opened in February 2010]

If you are a golfer there are numerous golf resorts. If you are a mountain biker, the city is known for it's mountain bike trails. If you love the outdoors the entire region is known for fishing and camping. If you like hot weather you are also in luck as the summer temperatures can frequently get over 30ºCelsius. So you will likely want to hang out in one of the city's many beautiful parks just to stay cool and relax. Or you might participate in a community or national event like Canada's birthday on Canada Day, July 1st.

[Collage of photos taken at park on Canada Day 2009. 
Click on photo to enlarge]

Whatever you want to do, you will likely be able to do it in Kamloops. But you better hurry. Those real estate prices have been going up, up and up.

Here now are a few photos taken downtown in February 2010.

[Plaza Hotel, a landmark in the city centre]

[Zack's Coffee shop, a long time business in downtown core]

[City sidewalks are nice and wide downtown and planter pots await Spring]

[Traffic is not exceptionally heavy]

[Buildings downtown retain their history. Big malls are on the hill & across the river]

[This mall has undergone about 3 complete renovations in last 40 years]

[One of the local radio stations]

[Bus routes are extensive and run every 15-30 minutes depending on time of day]

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