Bloganagan

New Book Launch: Gifts of the Okanagan

I'm so excited about my latest project Gifts of the Okanagan - in bookstores now! For this photo essay of the Okanagan Valley, I teamed up with my husband Bruce Kemp, who I have to credit with the stunning cover photo. We hope that our images will reveal the deep connection we feel with our home and our true pleasure in sharing the beauty and wonders that surround us every day. Take a preview peek. Now available in bookstores or order direct.

Bouchons Bistro

Here's what I had to say about Bouchons in Grandma Wears Hiking Boots.

Read this review and many more in Grandma Wears Hiking Boots: A personal guide to the Okanagan Valley, available in print at bookstores and online, and in eBook format at www.Amazon.com and www.chapters.ca. 

 

Ivory Express on Kobo and Amazon

Grandma isn't just a travel writer. Check out my novel Ivory Express. A little mystery, a little romance and, OK, lots of travel. Set in Vancouver and Taiwan, eBook editions are available online at Amazon.com and Kobo Books. Read the Prologue and Chapter One.

Reporter Taylor Kerrick's discovery of ivory smugglers is pure coincidence. Her determination to discover the source of the contraband and raise public awareness of endangered elephants is pure madness—or so her editor Ben Palasco fears when the story heads for Taiwan.

Drought Mountain Hike

It looked like rain early this morning and I was ready to bail (out - not the boat - although with all the rain we've had this bummersummer it could have gone either way), but the octogenarian mountain goat convinced me that the sun would eventually shine so I laced up the boots, collected him and pointed Happy Tot (my peppy little Yaris) up Drought Mountain. Locals in the Westbank/West Kelowna area probably know which hump I'm talking about, but for everybody else, Drought is the ridge behind Gorman Lumber. From the summit you can see the Peachland cutoff to the Coquihalla Connector in one direction and the whole of West Kelowna in the other. There's quite a network of trails on Drought, so we mix 'n' match. One day the hike may be 5-K another time it's six or seven. 

Selah Outdoor Explorations Voyageur Canoe Tour

“Preparez!” I raise my paddle over the water. “En avant!” Down it goes in time with the lead stroke, Laurie Bowen, who sits alone in the bow. Jordie, her husband and partner in  Selah Outdoor Explorations, is calling orders from the stern of a 29-foot freighter canoe that’s dressed in the finery of the Hudson’s Bay Company fur brigade. It’s timely that I’m paddling Okanagan Lake with the rest of the 11-person crew. This year marks the bicentennial of David Stuart’s trek through the Okanagan and the opening of a vital fur trade route that flourished for decades.

Travel With a Challenge Okanagan Story

Check out the July/August 2011 issue of Travel with a Challenge web magazine, showcasing Grandma Wears Hiking Boots and the Okanagan Valley. The magazine focuses on alternative travel: ecological, educational and cultural/historical travel, distinctive cuisine and volunteer vacations worldwide. Travel with a Challenge is a nine-year-old globally popular travel information website largely addressing the interests and agendas of the educated, proactive mature traveler, aged 45 to 80 years old.  About 65% of readers are women, and 74% of all readers have at least one post-graduate degree.  The TWAC website attracts 1.6 million readers a year, 74% Americans and Canadians, 20% British and Europeans, the rest Australians, New Zealanders and others. 

 

Kelowna Wine Trails

I am one lucky grandma to live in the middle of the Westside Wine Trail, one of five newly designated routes on the Kelowna Wine Trails. My neighbours include Okanagan wine industry icons like Mission Hill (love hearing the bells of the carillon every day) and Quail's Gate; wineries like Little Straw, that despite a relatively new name, are producing vintages from vines that date to the 1960s; wineries dedicated to organic production like Kalala; old favourites like Mt. Boucherie and newbies like Volcanic Hills.