Ruth Hoehne and her husband, Randy, came to Williams Lake a couple of years ago planning to stay just a year, but they liked the community so much that they decided to retire here.
A big part of their reason to stay was the beauty they found at Scout Island.
"My husband gave me a camera. We went to Scout Island and I was forever sold," Ruth says. "People probably don't realize the beauty they have right here at Scout Island."
Their retirement passion evolved into a love to explore the Cariboo-Chilcotin within a four-hour drive of Williams Lake, with cameras in tow.
Ruth's photographs of pelicans and Great Blue Herons have been so spectacularly beautiful that the Tribune/Advisor has featured them in various issues this past year.
This week Ruth has done something extremely generous in having two of her favourite photographs enlarged and mounted for wall art to donate as auction items for the Scout Island Nature Centre's annual fundraising banquet hosted by the Williams Lake Field Naturalists.
Fittingly both photographs were taken at the nature centre, although they now travel all over the region shooting wildlife and scenery of all types.
One photograph is called Lazy Summer Afternoon and is a picture of two pelicans resting in the sun dappled marsh at Scout Island.
The second one is called Last Bite Before Flight and is of a Great Blue Heron with a fish in his mouth and wings spread ready to take the fish off to eat somewhere.
Last year she says they were out in the Chilcotin and were so enraptured with watching a Great Blue Heron eat a fish that they just enjoyed the moment rather than try to get the best shot.
She says the fish was about two pounds and took the heron about 45 minutes to swallow, with fins showing clearly as the fish went down its neck.
Ruth would like people to help support Scout Island Nature Centre by attending the fundraising banquet and if possible making donations for the silent auction.
"Even you can't get to the banquet you can still donate to the nature centre," says Ruth in encouraging support for the nature centre which is such a big value to the community and basically runs on donations.
She will be there with her husband, Randy, their daughter, Jessica, and her mother Lulu Williams, who is visiting from New Foundland.
Their other daughter, Samantha, will be coming home to Williams Lake for the summer to work with the Bethel Church youth group.
People who have items they would like to donate to the fundraising auction are asked to e-mail Sue Hemphill at shemphill@netbistro.com.
In order to prepare for the dinner the last day to purchase tickets for the banquet is this Monday, April 20. The banquet will be held at McKinnon Hall at St. Andrew’s United Church on April 24, beginning at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at The Open Book or the Nature Centre (250-398-8532) at $35 for adults and $15 for children under age 16.
Following a delicious meal catered by the United Church women, Briony Penn will share stories from her latest book, The Real Thing: The Natural History of Ian McTaggart Cowan to be released in May about naturalist/zoologist Ian McTaggart Cowan's landmark biological surveys done in this region in the 1930s.