Today, as I write this, is Emily Carr’s 145th birthday.  I thought I’d recognize the day with this photo of my back yard, and my favourite Emily Quotation.  This quotation always reminds me of this little spot of west coast forest that I call home.  There have been many times over the years I’ve lived here, on those quiet summer days when nothing moves, and those wild winter days when everything dances, that I’ve stood and marveled at the power

  If you take a walk through the woods in behind my house, before long you’ll come across a large concrete pipe winding its way among the trees.  It’s old, covered with a layer of moss in places, but still remarkably intact.  In some places, it lies directly on the forest floor, in others it’s raised on a gravel bed, and in places where it crosses ravines and gullies it rests on pilings and trestles.  When I first “discovered” the

To Everything There Is a Season…   Timing, they say, is everything.  A moment too late, a moment too soon, and you can completely miss out.  Doing the right thing, but at the wrong time, is often no different than doing the wrong thing. As a photographer, I’ve learned to focus on the details – not just the subject of the photograph, but also its relationship to the landscape that surrounds it, the way the breeze pushes parts of the

Remembering Walden I’ve long been an admirer of Henry David Thoreau.  One of the keenest observers of the natural world ever to put pen to paper, Thoreau has a great deal to teach us about our relationships – with nature, with one another, and with ourselves. I first became immersed in Thoreau’s writings many moons ago when I found myself working for a year in the Library of the Pacific Biological Station in Nanaimo.  (Yes, this was back when our

This blog is written with unreserved apologies to all my family and friends in Ontario and Alberta and other places across the country eastward of the Fraser Valley – i.e. all those places that are beyond Hope (sorry, couldn’t resist – just a little wet coast humour). But it’s the middle of February, and here in Sooke that means it’s time to start working on the garden. The broad beans need to be planted, and the early peas, and some

    There are places I remember, all my life…     John Lennon                         I heard Bob Dylan’s iconic song Mr. Tambourine Man playing on the radio the other day (thank you CBC!), and it triggered a memory, immediately transporting me back to a very special place and to a moment, long ago, that rests within me and that surfaces from time to time. Music attaches itself to memory in

Stand still in the forest, and listen carefully. The trees are talking about you. Well, perhaps not in quite the way we’d understand that as humans – it’s unlikely they’re passing judgment on your dress code, for example – but they are communicating with one another. Through their roots and through massive interconnected networks of fungal strands, called micorrhizae, trees and other plants share chemical messages, passing back and forth between them, letting each other know of changes in the

REMEMBER… Here’s a short video for Remembrance Day. Please take 2 minutes out of your day to watch it, and to remember. Remember what’s important. Remember those who came before, and who laid the foundation for the life you enjoy. Remember your own stories, for they are the building blocks of your character, and your future. Remembrance is one of the greatest responsibilities we have, as humans, and one of the greatest gifts. It falls to us to tell the