weavercreek

Weaver Creek Salmon Spawning

October 2007

My friend Graham was staying with me for a few days. Sunday morning we took a quick trip inland to check out a salmon spawning creek. We headed up near Harrison Hot Springs to the Weaver Creek Spawning Channel. This one is a man-made facility to help the little fish make sure they have a fighting chance.

Graham at the Weaver Creek Spawning Channel

The fish coming back to spawn are sockeye, chum and pink salmon - mostly sockeye. It was a very cool place. They actually control the species and sex of the fish that they let inot the spawning channel, to ensure an optimal mix of fish. Pretty amazing. The site itself is very nice - lots of trees, and this long meandering stream winding its way through the site.

A couple of views of the stream.

From one end of the stream to the other, there were tons of fish, most of them quite a fair size. Of course, once salmon spawn they die - to the stream was also filled with the bodies of lost of dead salmon - and the smell wasn't pleasant either.

So many salmon...

Dead salmon; a gull having lunch; two salmon mating

It was a pretty cool thing to see. I had never seen spawning salmon, and while this wasn't what I had pictured, it was very cool to see.

The end of the line...

Some Huge News to Share

October 12, 2007

I've been keeping this mostly under wraps for a little while now, but as it is now 95% a done deal, I think It's time to share this bit of news with everyone. Once again my wanderlust as gotten the better of me, and I am on the move once more. I have just accepted a transfer, and will be moving to our UK office in the New Year. Yep, I'm moving to London!

The Ventyx office in the UK is actually in a town called Woking, in Surrey, just to the Southwest of London. I haven't quite decided what I'm going to do yet, but it's likely that I'll chose to live in London, and commute on the train to Woking each day. But, that, as with many of the details, is still to be sorted out. I have made a two year commitment, so I know that I will be in the UK for that long at least. So Alex, it looks like you'll have some company soon, on the other side of the Atlantic...

Woking highlighted in the yellow circle, bottom left.

My start date is February 1st - I've got a bunch of things going on here in the New Year, plus it will take some time to get visas, work permits and the like sorted out. I am probably going to go to the UK for a few weeks at the end of November, to try and start sorting out some of the details.

All in all, it's a very exciting time. I'm really looking forward to the experience of living overseas, and the opportunities for travel that this will afford. It should be an amazing experience, and should provide me with lots of opportunity to update this little blog.