Category Archives: Winter

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.

small creatures in a powerful sea…

a lone female Goldeneye (click on the image for a larger view

Usually the ducks and shorebirds take refuge and find quiet spots where its safe to seek their nourishment. But not these two I saw yesterday. While the NE Wind blew over 40knots, and the waves crashed ashore in the sandstone shallows, a lone female Goldeneye cruised through the tossing waves and dove and fished and bobbed bravely continuing  her search for a good meal.  And on the rocks above, a single Killdeer stood stoutly in the face of the oncoming sea.

Watching these  small birds I was struck by how spirited—  even audacious—  they were in the face of such powerful forces of wind and sea.

 

thoughts on a winter walk…

The colours are muted and soft along the Heritage Forest Road, and the ground is rock hard, frozen solid. It may look like there's little life in the landscape, that it everything is 'dead'. Dull. How far from the truth!
As we walked  the road what struck me was how many signals  there were that even in the quiet stillness of winter, and its apparent  barrenness,  there is a  pulsing vitality to the season:  the creeks burble beneath a skim of ice, lichens hang conspicuously from limbs all round, colourful slime molds are 'there' for the observant eye as are various fascinating fungi; winter birds— wrens, sparrows,  nuthatches, chickadees and towhees flit amongst the low shrubs while the finches and others occupy the higher branches; the deer meander and graze undisturbed. Surely the forest pulses with life as much in winter as any season.
I wonder if maybe the forest and its creatures enjoy the relative quiet. Maybe its their 'sabbath'.

Winter Colour

colours and frost on sandstone- small copy

Colour and beauty are  strewn everywhere— even in the depths of winter and in the unlikely and seemingly inhospitable spots— Its all right there for us to 'behold' .

During the past week of crisp weather, the frost coated most everything rendering the world in a muted colour palette. But as the sunlight warmed the places it shone, colours emerged  more intensely than ever.

The photo above shows what I mean:  the melting frost revealed the most gorgeous, brilliant colours of the small succulent plants that cling tight to the steep sandstone banks.