Turkey Vulture

click on image for a larger view
click on image for a larger view

The Turkey Vulture is one of the strangest of the winged creatures here on the island. Its naked red head seems all  out of proportion to the rest of it’s large body. Soaring overhead, its broad span casts a shadow on the grass, and at rest on the tangle of dead limbs, its folded pinions make the high collared look caricatured in drawings of vultures and vampires.

On its stark perch, the image above is one that, for me, holds an ominous tension. It is not what I would call a ‘beautiful’ bird, but it is a marvel of design and function, consuming carrion right down to the bone,  finding its life in the scouring of the shore and forest.

Driftwood Sculpture… and NEWS!

driftwood sculpture
driftwood sculpture

I'm surrounded by the creative hand, revealing unexpected beauty in even the  flotsam the washes in with the tide— this particular piece of such grace-given beauty is hanging above a friend's workbench where it serves as a reminder and inspiration.

 

Here's the NEWS!

A further note of gratitude today: I finally figured out, or at least mades some progress in posting web galleries. I've put a menu up top of my Curious Spectacles Blog, and also want to include the link to my Galleries page here.

I'll be posting more galleries now that I've got the process figured out (mostly... still learning!)

With the very encouraging response to my offering of photo prints, cards,  and more at the Galiano Saturday Market this summer, I've started offering my photo prints and cards for sale. You can let me know if there's anything on the Gallery Pages or anywhere else that you're interested in obtaining a photo print or some photo cards. Just drop me a note / email, or leave a comment and I'll get back to you!

Warm good wishes from the Curious Spectacles Studio!

 

Evening Reflections…

 

~ evening light... click on the image for a larger view
~ evening light... click on the image for a larger view

Wandering out to Flagpole Point after sunset, the glow was still bright, and the water magnified the beauty in reflection...
The colours last night were intense — so lovely I felt I wanted to share this glimpse of the awesome beauty of nightfall.

Extraordinary Seaweed Phenomenon

seaweed ridges
ridges of seaweed on the rising tide (click image for larger view)

This pattern of wrinkled humps of seaweed  on the rising tide is relatively unusual. It takes several different weather and tide conditions conspiring together to create it.

It goes something like this: First, a southeast wind must blow at low enough tide to accumulate a build up of copious amounts of sea lettuce on the beach. Then, the further receding tide must distribute that sea lettuce over a large patch of the shallow sloping sand, a few inches thick. Then, day must be hot enough to dry the surface of the sea lettuce while the tide has ebbed. The third requirement is that the wind drop, allowing a calm windless period while the tide rises. The result is that the thick layer of sea lettuce is moved slowly from beneath, while the baked-dry surface of the sea lettuce layer is more resistant to movement, and makes for these extraordinary folds.

To me it looks something like colourful elephant skin. Or perhaps a satellite photo of mountain ridges. Or the flowing of some strange green river flowing from the distant rocks...   What do you think??

 

evidence of an unseen visitor…

IMG 5207

Sometimes when we go down to the sandy beach, it’s absolutely smooth, pristeen, untouched.  Other times we can see there have been others there before us: crabs, dogs, people, and occasionally the deer whose hooves leave their characteristically deep impressions as they bound across the sand.  But today it was a racoon that had been to the beach.

The angled sunlight highlighted the perfection of the clawed toes and foot pads: evidence of  the quiet creature’s leisurely stroll across the sand. He’s out of sight now, but he’s left us  this sign of his visitation.

I wonder who else’s tracks we’ll see today?

glimpses of the extraordinary amidst an ordinary day