Category Archives: forest

Seeing in the mist

Walking along the Bluffs, when the clouds enveloped the hillside, most of the view was obscured, hidden in the mists.

On a clear day, my eye is drawn to the array of islands, Mayne, Prevost, Saltspring, and the larger hills of southern Vancouver Island, and even the gorgeous Olympics beyond. Eagles often soar above and beneath us and the sound of sea lions ascends from the Pass.

But on this misty day, it was different. It  offered a distinctive beauty only ‘visible' when the mist obscures those things that draw the eye on a clear day. It seems that its on misty days the shape of things is revealed. The lichens gleam bright on the darker fir limbs, the mosses almost glow. 

It was in the fog and mist that I noticed the beauty of one tall snag: one I have seen frequently, but not til the mist obscured most everything else did I note its structure, its curves, its peculiar bare beauty. 

Makes me wonder what other beauty I am missing when the sky is clear, and the days are bright.

Nature’s Spotlight

Natures spotlight

This morning’s walk in the forest was a delight with the sun slanting through and highlighting the shapes of trees and roots.

A couple of times I simply had to stop and note the way the sun was highlighting a particular place, as though it was important for us to look and see the lines, the design, the light and shadow.

This photo is one of several I took at those moments, noting what nature’s spotlight was showing me.

What ‘Nature’s Spotlight’ has pointed out to you today?

one young cedar …

click on the image for a larger view

Much of our coastal forest is made up of western red cedar, and sadly many of these giants of our forest are dying with the shift of climate. There simply isn't enough water for their needs. Maybe this is why this single cedar offers me hope, provides some encouragement.  There’s a clearing all around it while it stands in its singular beauty. Healthy and vibrant. The forest gardeners are no where in sight, but the signs of their labours remain. And the tree is flourishing: a signal of care.

a tangle of texture

 

click on the image for a larger view

Walking at the Bluffs in the winter, even on an overcast, drizzly day,  offers a feast of colour, texture and shape. The trees are clothed in mosses, and draped with lichens. Here what caught my eye was the twists and curves of the Garry Oak. They were almost luminous with the deep greenness of the mosses, though much darker than the tangle of lichen covered branches  in the foreground.

a curving trail in the forest

While the clouds were hanging low, and the incessant drizzle tempted us to stay inside by the fire, the awareness there was a new trail to explore drew us out. We put on our best wet weather gear and headed for the spot we'd heard of, and were rewarded with a magnificent adventure, getting yet another perspective on our lovely island.

The trail curved downwards through large cedars and firs, ferns and salal, and then a patch of wetland, before emerging on the sloping sandstone of the north east coast of Galiano. Though the trail isn't long it took us some time, as we kept stopping to admire the curves and shapes and the rich beauty around us,

transformation…

This sight stopped me in my tracks today:  pink honeysuckle climbing and blooming all the way up an anchor cable of a power pole. Sunlit against the shadows and fir trees, with fragments of blue sky  visible through the spaces— the beauty and colour invited standing at the roadside, looking, and capturing a photo (or three).

So often honeysuckle clings to the trunk of a tree, choking its life from it, but this one's found a place to thrive and bloom, doing no harm at all. And it has transformed the harsh hard lines of the anchor cable into a striking beauty.

light in the forest

click on this image for a larger view

I have loved walking in the forest since I was small. It is, for me,  a place of mystery, of wonder— and a veritable feast of  beauty.

Here in this image, the warm sun pierces the canopy— its light falling on the tender fresh green of a young hemlock.

What is it about this that evokes such pleasure? even a simple joy...  I wonder.

 

Willow shapes

 

"Willow Shapes" - click on the image for a larger view

Yesterday, walking in Galiano's Heritage Forest, my eye was drawn to the shapes of the trees— the shapes that will soon be hidden by the profusion of leaves.
Mixed with the evergreens are are are several willow trees of varying kinds, along the main path. They’ve been there, as their size indicates, for years and years, but it wasn’t til yesterday that the light caught them in a certain way, and I ’noticed’ them. They are, to me, absolutely beautiful—  the stature of the tree as a whole, and the detail of the slender curves…

I will likely post several more photos of these and other trees in the days ahead, either here or on my Curious Spectacles Facebook page which you can find here.

huckleberry buds

A lattice of huckleberry twigs and buds: click image for a larger view

Maybe because we've waited so long for spring this year,  or maybe its just that these wonders are more precious with each passing year, but surely the delicate beauty of the huckleberry buds opening has never been quite so breathtakingly beautiful to me.