New Vintage Shop on Fort Street

No longer are there so many antique stores, now things are vintage. This new shop, Zeitgeist has just opened and we had a good time poking around in there. - Fern

Worth a Second Look 9

Here's a set of photos I originally posted in 2008, along with the original captions.

Wisteria
I keep trying to get a good picture of the beautiful purple wisteria flowers in the back yard...

...but something...

...keeps getting in the way.

Must be something to do with that new trampoline.

That charming little girl is my grand-daughter Rosie who, despite being all grown up now, remains as charming as she was 9 years ago.

Look Up

Lights, golden leaves and a lion. - Fern

Wet Weather

Lots of rain lately. Here's what the strait looked like this afternoon from Saxe Point.

Found Composition

As an artist one of the side effects is that where ever you go you see interesting things to look at it. Even in a parkade for example. - Fern

Winter

It was unseasonably cold here for several days - we even had a light dusting of snow - but it has warmed up a bit the last few days though still damp and cold. Here's what it looked like along the West Bay Walkway this morning.

Worth a Second Look - 8

Yesterday's photo reminded me of another photo I posted a year earlier, in 2010, entitled "Curiosity". This photo was taken at the Harbour Ferry stop in the Inner Harbour. The two boys were excitedly peering at the anemones and other undersea plants/animals that grow on the underwater parts of the dock while their parents were sitting placidly on the bench behind them. Here is the caption I attached to the photo at the time:

Though we never really lose our curiosity completely it does seem to be one of those characteristics that fades as we mature. I suspect it has to do with the growth of confidence and decisiveness. You can't act with confidence unless you feel sure that you have a firm grip on the nature of reality. There is no place for wonder in such a state of mind. Yet curiosity is what enables us to explore the world, meet new people and learn new things, a process that should never end.

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.

Worth a Second Look 6

Here's a couple of photos from the summer 2011 when, in case you haven't noticed, I discovered HDR processing and, like many of its early practitioners, pushed it to the max. I still like these photos (the top one actually won a prize in a local photo contest) but I'm happy that I now have learned to use HDR with a little more restraint. The top photo is of a friend's vintage restored truck and the photo below was taken on a trip to the beautiful nearby city of Seattle, Washington, in the USA.

Worth a Second Look 5

This from Victoria's Victoria Day Parade in 2011. I photograph this parade every year and of all the dozens (or hundreds) of photos I've taken of the parade this is my favorite. I think it's pretty hard to go wrong with a bunch of bare legged teen girls leaping with such energy, but the black-suited marchers in front of them make a nice contrast and the low angle in this photo also contributes to the sensation of bursting upwards into the blue spring sky. I've tried a crop that cuts out a lot of the right side of this photo but I ended up not cropping it since I like the way the relatively empty space on the right makes the photo feel less crowded. Those little girls sitting on the pavement are also sharing this low point of view so I like to have them there too.

Worth a Second Look - 4

I've taken many photos of these huge floating hotels while they are moored at Ogden Point or entering or leaving the harbor but I think this is my favorite. I took it in May 2011. There was lots of snow on the Olympic Peninsula mountains that year. I like the contrast between the bright mountains in the background and the dark rocks of Work Point in the foreground and the way these two features frame the huge ship.

Worth a Second Look 3

I took this photo in April 2016. Droplets on a spiderweb have been photographed by many photographers before me but what I think makes this photo worth a second look are the several ways the delicate web contrasts with the muscular cables.

Autumn on The Gorge 3

In the last couple of photos of the Gorge we have been looking south towards the city. Here we are looking in the opposite direction, up the Gorge towards the Tillicum Bridge.

Halkett Island

Towards the middle of the Selkirk Waters lies this small, rocky island. Local First Nations people often used such small islands for burials. The one pictured above is now called Halkett Island. A plaque on the Selkirk Walkway reads as follows:

In 1850, the "Island of the Dead" contained subsurface burials, but was mostly covered with small sheds, burial boxes and canoes containing human remains. The deceased were often placed in a fetal position and wrapped in a cedar bark mat. Adults were placed in a European-made, metal trimmed trunk and children were often placed in wooden cracker boxes.

Life sized carved wooden memorial figures representing prominent individuals were a common feature of burial locations.

The Lekwungen people, from the old Songhees reserve across the water, came to the island at twilight for feeding of the dead ceremonies. Sticks with chunks of sap were thrown into a fire to keep it blazing until midnight. Ritual words and chanting proceeded, as food to feed the dead was thrown into the fire.

Burials were no longer placed here after 1867, when a fire set by three Victoria boys got out of control and burned off the island. The boys' parents were heavily fined under the Indian Graves Protection Act. The island was taken away from the Songhees in 1924 by a Federal Indian Reserve Commission, but was restored to them by court order in 1993.

Joseph Pemberton, Victoria's most prolific early map maker, gave the name Halkett to the island in 1851. The Halketts were a well known, prominent British Navy family at the time.


(From a plaque placed on the shoreline near Halkett Island by the City of Victoria)

Autumn on the Gorge 2

Like yesterday's photo, today's was taken from the Selkirk Trestle, but looking south towards the city.

Autumn on the Gorge

Many of the trees along the water's edge of the Gorge are turning now. I took this photo near the center of the Selkirk Trestle, an old railroad bridge that has been repurposed as part of the Galloping Goose trail for walkers and cyclists.

Dusk On Old Blue

Just about 6 p.m. and the sun is almost down. *sigh* - Fern

Worth a Second Look 3

I posted the photo above back in February of this year but the original (below) is from June 2015. I liked the original enough to post it. It's got a nice lines that run across the photo and up and down that make a dynamic opposition to the diagonal line of the skater's body. But after I had thought about it for awhile I realized that the color in the photo was distracting from those dynamic lines. I tried a few monochrome versions before I arrived at the above. As well as the composition I like how it exemplifies the kind of natural grace many kids have. This boy's stance, his one legged balance, couldn't be more perfect if he'd been trained in classical ballet.

Mount Douglas Park 4

Here's another kind of mushroom I encountered on my recent visit to Mount Douglas Park. These ones appear to be a favorite meal for slugs.

Mount Douglas Park 3

Well, forest trails and autumn leaves are fine but what I really went out to Mount Douglas Park for was to see if any mushrooms were up yet. Above is the first one I saw. We've had a couple of days of rain lately so I expect that next time I'm out in the forest I'll see a good selection of these autumn delights.