About me: I’m Robert Ballantyne, and my business web sites are: ballantyne.com and Governing.ca. I work with non-profit organizations to be successful in providing real results for their community, and I facilitate the process of governing boards to implement Policy Governance®.
My Twitter account is: RobertB
To see exactly where I am: Ballantyne & Assoc. on Yelp
About this picture in the header: I took it from the forward end of the Queen of Capilano’s car deck at sunset on Halloween 2009. We are about 1/2 way across Queen Charlotte Channel, and that is Bowen Island ahead.
About this blog: It began as an experiment and an exploration of WordPress and blogging in general. In the years since this started, I’ve become very familiar with WordPress, and I’ve set up several domains for other people using the stand-alone version. WordPress has developed far beyond the concept of a blog to become one of the best available platforms for managing a whole web site. Since I’m self employed, I’ve found it useful to create and manage my own web sites. You can see that I was an early user of the Internet and I own my own name-domain. So in the 90s I learned HTML, a few years later I struggled with CSS, and now I’m experimenting with CMS. I’ve implemented several Joomla! sites, a Moodle site and several phpBB forums. You are welcome to contact me if any of this interests you: http://www.ballantyne.com/Contact_BA.html
Please click on the Category title About This Site (in the sidebar) for more details about this specific blog and a description and map of the Salish Sea. We picked the title because it is is about our lives in this magnificent landscape. The blog is evolving so that the scope of articles includes our observations of the dramatic high wilderness watersheds that surround the Sea, the vibrant urban areas that border the Sea, and our experiences on Bowen Island.
Early in the summer of 2006, when we set up this site to experiment with the features of a blog, we were not expecting to make this a blog that would last for any length of time, or ever write anything very profound here. At first, as a result of using ecto, we found that the blog was growing, and adding to it was easy and fun. Now it actually has some content, and I hope you will enjoy poking around.
I believe that I invented and researched the concept of a Legacy Blog. If this concept interests you, click that link. At this time, I have several WordPress.com sites, and The Return of Comet Halley (a true Legacy Blog) is only one of them.
On December 17, 2006 we changed the theme from Sapphire to K2 Lite
on the recommendation of timethief in this thread.
Salish Sea 
Yes! K2 Lite looks great here. 🙂
Hi there. I’m a reporter at The Gazette in Montreal. I saw your comments about the Falaise St. Jacques on the Walking Turcot Yards blog and I was hoping to talk to you. I couldn’t find an email address on this blog so I was hoping to reach you via this comment. Please email me at ariga @ thegazette.canwest.com.
cheers,
andy
I just thought i would say hello from the UK and that your doing a wonderful job! I ‘accidently’ came across your site which is immensly interesting. If there is ANYTHING one can do to help, please just email me. Kind Regards, Stephanie
I am very interested in your question on collaborative governance. There is a lot of interest in this area, it would make a great topic of further discussion. There is an entire program at Harvard that is looking at this topic:
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/m-rcbg/wpcg/index.html
I am thinking about this from a perspective on our governmental public-private partnerships. There is a lot that could be done using social networking tools that wasn’t possible until recently.
I can see how it is that you aren’t gardening now with boats and so much snow.
I’m listening to the radio show as I type. I read a poem on Pacific radio last year about wanting Bush to have a dream like the one that Ebenezer Scrooge had.
Sounds like good work you’re doing. Good to know. And you wife is a singer?
Colleen wrote: “…And you wife is a singer?” I think you have found the web site of my daughter, Morgan Ballantyne. Morgan is an actor who spent many years learning dance… and sings too.
I am afraid I am giving the impression that we have a lot of snow. Here, near sea level, there is none. I love to hike and ski in the amazing mountains around here, and above 3000 feet there is still lots of snow. That’s where I go for recreation and adventure.
Jim Thompson, thanks for your comment and the priceless links! “Collaborative governance” is very much an issue for me this week, and your information is well timed. I am amazed that you found THIS personal blog and not my tools for governance at http://governing.ca. I’d also be curious to know exactly to what you were referring when you mentioned my question on collaborative governance. You are welcome to write to me directly: http://www.ballantyne.com/Contact_BA.html Because of the volume of spam I receive, please put something about Collaborative Governance in the subject field.
Hi Robert, it’s Helen (and Peter) from the Stawamus Chief.
Great blog! Thanks so much for sharing your vision, experience and knowledge in BC’s most beautiful landscapes. I look forward to reading your posts. 🙂
Hi Helen (and Peter), we enjoyed your company up on the Chief! It is great that your kids will grow up with you experiencing our amazing wilderness and mountains that begins within the City limits, and extends 1700 km up the coast to Alaska. I’m enjoying reading your blog.
Robert: Do you recognise anyone in this photo from the early days of Benny Farm ( circa 1949) taken from Christian Gravenor’s blog – Coolopolis –
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Michael Quinn, No, I don’t recognize that group. But in 1949 I was only 6 years old. What is the story here? And if there is a story, would it be better to write about it in this thread (more people are reading that page): https://howesound.wordpress.com/2007/02/03/when-i-was-young-montreal-west-turcot-yards/