Cloud Hole
Yesterday I stood in a strong cold wind for an hour waiting for the light to fall on Pebble Beach on the east shore of Harling Point. I thought it might help to satisfy my unhappiness with pictures I have taken here before. The light was coming across the water from Trial Island in brilliant patches against a dark sea and dark sky. Before I had my shot set up, the light hit the beach just as I wanted it to, encouraging me to stick around for the next hole in the clouds to pinpoint the beach with light. I put a polarizing filter on the camera so I could keep the sea dark and then waited, increasingly cold in spite of a wool shirt and heavily lined wool jacket. Of course, the beacon of light never happened where I needed it to.
Fence in the Fall
After accidentally posting today’s blog yesterday (again – aargh), I am just doing a quick and dirty post because I am not yet ready to have a day off in my blog. I understand what quick and dirty means, but if I said I was doing a slow and clean post would you hit the back button on reading that? I think I might.
This picture was taken at the same time as yesterday’s trees, leaves, mist and frost. The mist and raking light are the same and there is some frost left on the pipes, but really, this picture would have seemed out of place in yesterday’s post. I am glad for this accidental chance to use it.
Frosty Morning Fall
Object lesson – don’t blog in a hurry. I hit publish instead of preview on this one, so you are all getting it 12 hours early – enjoy. It is not as polished as I might have made it by coming back later, and perhaps I will still do that.
I passed through Beacon Hill Park yesterday morning (well, today since I published early) while the sun was still very low and the grass covered with a heavy frost and patches of low lying fog. I only had a few minutes, and it has been a busy day, but here are some pictures from that visit. There might be some things that could be done to make them better, but no opportunity to do so – the only tweak is a very slight boost to saturation on a couple of shots and 180 degree rotation of the last image.
Cat Usurped
On Monday I illustrated how the Cat takes over the prime real estate in the house for Her own warmth and comfort. What She hates to admit out loud is that She plays second cat to the dolls. Dolls are nearly ubiquitous around here and also like the best spots for sitting and napping (they are very good at sleeping with their eyes open). They jostle for supremacy with the cat any time and, really, all the time. The small ones, while at risk of being sat upon, (or worse, slept upon) manage to make themselve so uncomfortable that they are unlikely to be smothered. As to the large dolls – well you can see that they have practiced the pretense of ignorning the Cat. How galling that must be.
Bullrush Raindrop
Well, I am wrapping things up from my walk around Swan Lake last weekend with some wet pictures. Inspired by today’s rain I expect. Anyone that rummages around in my blog will soon discover that I have a thing about water drops as seen through my macro lens. I am indulging myself again today. These pictures are of water drops on bullrush leaves and the plants that collect around the base of them. I really like the way the drops magnify the surface of the leaf and end up looking like small shells.
Swan Lake Path
The past two days I have posted closeups from Swan Lake which are necessarily autumnal. Today includes a few pictures which show the broader setting for those macro photos that were taken along the path. The path rings the lake, except just south-west of the Nature House where it crosses a floating boardwalk that also passes over a wetland with shrubs and through a cattail swamp, and back to higher dry land. Much of the path is on boardwalks, but the southern half is all on dirt, and some of it is a bit steep and rocky, so not necessarily best for people with mobility difficulties. However, around the nature house there are wheel chair accessible areas, including a floating dock, so there is something for everyone in this small park.
Fungi Fall
My visit to the Swan Lake Christmas Hill Nature Sanctuary on the weekend was also the subject of yesterday’s post about berries that are still present on the shrubs around the lake. We did not know when we set out that in the Nature House was the annual display of fungi put on by the South Vancouver Island Mycological Society. This is another example of the great programs that the Nature Sanctuary hosts. There were hundreds of mushrooms and bracket fungus and their relatives on display – rows of tables were in fact covered by them. Many I had never seen before, so it was fascinating.
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