Sometimes we have shadows. They help us stay cool or they lead to the light.
Sometimes we have shadows. They sit in our hearts or they lead to the night.
Category Archives: Photography
Night Garden with Moon
My wonderful friend C has an equally wonderful yard. It took her many years to bring it around.
She has many beautiful, mature trees, a small pond, and a vegetable patch.
Loads of flowers, ornamental plants and a gurgling stream complete this garden oasis.
It is truly stunning but also relaxing. My friend has built a remarkably calming haven in the middle of a dense and busy neighbourhood.
On a recent night, we sat on her large comfortable deck, ate good food, listened to sleepily twittering birds, and watched the sun go down and the bats flit in search of dinner. We talked and spent time together.
Thank you, C.
My British Columbia Home
Here’s a little tour of my home in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. When I am not working in the Northwest Territories, I am usually here.
Okanagan Lake is a very deep, very long north to south (135 km) body of fresh water with very different climates from one end to the other.
Even within short distances, there are extremes. Enormous sage bushes crouch in the dry soil in one spot, and a few meters away …
… there’s a vibrantly green apricot tree.
And then there are the grape vines. Many, many varietals. Some of these grapes will become very expensive bottles of wine while others are much more lowly, but pleasant and worthwhile all the same.
Part of this valley is classified as desert while other parts further to the north are made up of deciduous and coniferous forest.
Right now it is very hot (about 36°C) and dry and while the wine grapes might really like that, there have been some significant lightening-triggered fires as well. A few rain showers would be very helpful.
What are the defining characteristics of your part of the world?
Prairie Skies
We recently drove across Alberta’s northern prairies during a rain storm.
We passed beautiful canola fields.
And then we left the storm behind as we continued our drive through the Rocky Mountains.
The western provinces are very different from each other but very beautiful.
We are home now in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley.
How is your July?
Inuvik
For the past few days, I’ve been working in Inuvik, NWT, which is at 68° N latitude. It’s very much the home of the all-night sun.
I found these pretty cotton plants.
And purple fire flowers.
And the Mackenzie River, which is so wide that it looks like a lake.
Greetings from the summery far north.
Happy Fireworks Days
I am away in the far north at the moment: 68° north latitude, to be exact, in Inuvik, Northwest Territories.
We are in between the national days of Canada and the United States, so, I hope all you Canucks had a fabulous Canada Day, 🇨🇦 and to our great American cousins, I hope you have a brilliant July Fourth 🇺🇸.
Happy Fireworks Days!
A Dodgy Summer
It has been a rather dodgy spring and summer also has had an interesting start. Well, not really. Kind of alternating. A couple of days of cold rain followed by a couple of days of sweltering humidity. Really unattractive.
But …
There have been wild roses.
And interesting clouds.
And panting northern hot dogs.
And lots of green growing.
And more wild roses.
But my, it’s been rainy and humid and cold.
Not the best spring/summer, but lots to appreciate.
How about yours where you live?
Where’s Home?
When you think of home, what do you think about?
Is it a town? A city? A building?
Is it being in the same place with your significant other?
Or is it a state of mind?
Do you have to leave it in order to recognise it? To know that it’s home and it’s where you belong?
I left “home” many years ago. So many places have now been “home” that I don’t really think of it any more as a place.
You can’t go home again. That is the title of a novel by Thomas Wolfe. In it, the idea of home is explored, but there are no definitive answers.
Once you leave home, does home become a construct? Is it an illusion? A sentiment? If what you experienced as home still exists, is it the same? Or was it ever what you thought it was?
I think of home as a place in my head. I don’t always recognise it, but I know it when I feel it. The land where I now spend my working life is a type of home, but I also know that it isn’t home.
Some people can’t wait to get back home. They will only leave it temporarily, if they do at all.
I couldn’t wait to leave home. I wanted nothing to do with it and got as far away from it as I could, both physically and emotionally. I had to find my own concept of home, and did so by exploring the homes of many others. I travelled a lot, both throughout Canada and the world.
And what I found was that the idea of home held a great number of commonalities across ethnicities, countries, religions and regions. It was often about a familiar group of people doing familiar things in an environment that, for the most part, held few surprises, even if there was a war going on. In fact, the notion of emphasising their familiarities was even more pronounced if there WAS a war going on.
So, maybe home is about expectations. We expect certain people to be doing certain things in certain ways in a certain environment. When all about us moves and changes, this idea of home provides a great deal of – well – certainty.
I once took a course that taught that expectations are inherently disappointing. That if you expect something, and then don’t get it as so often happens, you are causing a lot of trouble for yourself.
Maybe that’s why you can’t go home again. Expectations are never what they are in your head.
Now it’s your turn. What are your thoughts about home?
Meet the Bruin Triplets
We recently encountered the Bruin triplets. As a precaution, we photographed them through our windshield – the photo quality suffered because the window was dirty and there’s also a lot of visible glare. The bears are coming into a lot of contact with humans however, and we think it’s best not to open windows or to stop and get out. The more minimal we can be, the better, because in the end, it’s the bears that pay the price for human thoughtlessness.
The bears? Well, they’re just being bears.
One of the bears was particularly explorative while the other two stayed close to mummy. They all appeared to be very healthy and well fed.
These bears were born during the winter and will stay with their mum for about the next 12-14 months until they become juveniles, at which time they will start their independent lives. Their mum will go on to find another mate and to give birth again.
But as with all young ones, right now they are completely adorable. 🙂
Naramata Peacocks
The Okanakan Valley is more known for wine and fruit than it is for peacocks but surprisingly, they have nevertheless become a part of the ecosystem.
About 20 years ago someone abandoned some pet peafowl to the forest near the village of Naramata. No one thought that in the long run they would survive, and there were attempts to capture them.
But here they are, years later, fitting in well and doing their peacock thing. They’re Canadian now.
It’s a bit odd seeing them strutting around, but odd can be a very interesting thing. 🙂
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 