GALLERY
The Nicola River Valley stretches green and alive east towards Merritt. A large piece of the mountainside on the right is dry and nearly bare of trees. Perhaps it was logged some time ago and nothing new took hold but the hills in behind are covered with a thick carpet of Ponderosa and other pine. All of them in danger of being wiped out by the Mountain Pine Beetle. What will these peaks look like in twenty years?
The long lost Nicola branch line can be easily seen approaching from the center of the photo and curving off into the lower right hand corner. I wonder what a smallish 2-6-0 would look like when snaking around those gentle curves westward out of Dot with 16 to 18 cars; coal, lumber and cattle, followed by a heavyweight combine.
I included this photo as a reminder to modellers that, in nature, there are many shades of every colour and we shouldn’t be afraid to use them all. Despite being relatively late in the summer there are still plenty of light greens on the valley floor and deeper greens on the hillside. Backdrop painters will notice the humidity in the air has painted the more distant mountains a variable shade of blue. No marshmallow clouds here though. I expect the sky is clearing of overcast as the winds blow from West to East.