Worth a Second Look 7

Here's another of my favorite photos, from August 2011. I think my original remarks on this photo are still the best caption:

As adults we often forget that "play" can be deeply serious and satisfying. It's not only running and jumping and giggling, important though those are. Play may involve deep concentration that is a kind of practice for the most important work we will do later in our lives. One of the most fascinating aspects of beach-watching is to see how often this environment induces this profound level of contemplation and purposeful activity in children.

Gonzales Beach

When I was young I loved to lie under a hot sun on a sandy beach and dip in and out of the water for hours on end. Well, those days are long past but if they weren't I would probably be spending a lot of time on Gonzales Beach. It's a very nice quiet, neighborhoody kind of beach. The bay is called Foul Bay but I think that just refers to its qualities as an anchorage because there's nothing foul about it otherwise. This is what it looked like yesterday afternoon when the temperature climbed to the high 20s.

Gonzales Beach

Gonzales Beach in the late afternoon.

Desert Island?

This view always reminds me of what I might see on a desert island but it's actually the western side of Gonzales Beach, a lovely little beach right in the residential area of the city. We'll have a closer look at the beach proper tomorrow. Those mountains in the distance are on the Olympic Peninsula of our American neighbours.

Looking West

I like this view from Gonzales Hill because while it is high enough to let you see what is ordinarily not visible such as the general shape of the landscape and the houses' roofs, it is also close enough to be intimate in that you can see the details on the houses, their sundecks and porches, sidewalks and the stairways they have built for shoreline access. In this photo we are looking westwards from the top of Gonzalez Hill, just in front of the the white observatory building posted here yesterday. Directly below is Gonzales Beach. In the distance on the right, Clover Point can be seen and beyond that on the horizon are the hills of Metchosin.

Gonzales Beach 2

This photo was taken from the same vantage point as yesterday's photo, at the western end of Gonzales Beach, looking eastwards. It's not a large beach but it has a very pleasant neighborhoody atmosphere.

Gonzales Beach

Gonzales Beach is another favorite of mine. It consists of the shore of Foul Bay - not a very attractive name but here "Foul" refers to the nautical character of the bay as an unsafe anchorage due to the nature of the seafloor. Although it doesn't show much of the beach, I have chosen to use the photo above because it provides a good orientation to the location of the beach. On the eminence we can see the white Gonzales Observatory atop Gonzales Hill, which gives its name to both the observatory and the beach. A couple of years ago I posted this photo of the beach taken from the observatory should you wish to see what this intimate little beach looks like from above.

Above Gonzales Beach

Today was what I consider to be the "default" weather for Victoria in spring and summer - a nice sunny, blue-sky day - so I decided to try to get up above the city and have a look around. In this photo we are looking down on Gonzales Beach from Gonzales Hill. Gonzales Hill has interesting views in several directions and we'll spend a little more time up there next week.

Gonzales Beach

Is there any better way to spend a summer afternoon than down at the beach? - Fern

Gonzales Beach

One of Victoria's nicest little beaches is Gonzales Beach, just below the hill capped by the Gonzales Observatory. Here's what it looked like last Sunday - surprisingly uncrowded despite the warm weather. The huge boulder pictured above is what is known as an "erratic" meaning that it is unlike the other nearby rocks. This erratic and others along Victoria's coastline were carried here by glaciers during the last ice age and dropped on the shore as the ice melted. On the left, one Gonzales Beach resident uses driftwood to communicate a nice yogic reminder.

View from Gonzales Hill

While the Gonzales Observatory (pictured here yesterday) is itself worth a trip to the top of Gonzales Hill, the view is spectacular. Here, with the observatory behind us we are looking out over Foul Bay (left foreground) with Ross Bay beyond. The mountains barely visible on the left are the Olympics across the strait in the USA. The dark blue hills on the right background are in Metchosin, further along the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Beaches 5 - Gonzales Beach

While not quite as large as the beaches mentioned earlier, Gonzales Beach is very popular. It's easy to miss as you drive along Victoria's coastline since it is only slightly visible from the road. Gonzales Bay is also known as Foul Bay, its original name. Nowadays we generally understand the word "foul" to mean bad smelling or rotten. But this bay was named Foul Bay in the 1790s by Captain Vancouver because its bottom offered no good holding ground for a ship's anchor so it was "foul" in the nautical sense. Whatever its name it's a lovely little beach that has a very comfortable, neighbourhoody feel about it.

King of the Castle

To round out a beachy week here's another shot from a recent afternoon at Gonzales Beach. Like goats, kids always like to climb to the top to see what there is to be seen.