A walk along the Koksilah River

When walking or hiking, the camera always helps with exploration. It helps get me deeper into what I am looking at. The adventures that come with aging have affected my blogging somewhat, due to circumstantial and physical changes and the ensuing inspiration or lack of it. Nevertheless, there is nothing like blogging for thinking more about the experience and then sharing it.

A few days ago, that morning, after a little rain the day before, after seventy-plus days of no rain I went for a walk on the old, abandoned railroad track by the Koksilah River. Getting off the tracks down to the river things actually were wet. I had not seen anything as beautiful as that for months.

This particular part of the river starts with a trestle.

Here the Koksilah is close to meeting up with the cowichan River and the humongous delta that runs into the Cowichan Bay. The next photo, however, goes up river.

The dry spell does not do much for size but at least the river is still there.

A few more Koksilah River vistas:

Of course, it doesn't matter where you are, whether it is Holland, Germany, England, or here on Vancouver Island, or anywhere else, rivers, lakes, etc. provide essential beauty. In my location here the Cowichan River is a river of healing and beauty but the Koksilah River is definitely among the most scenic rivers.

I know some wildflowers by name but not these flowers that are flowering so late in summer.

At this water tower it was time to turn back towards Miller road.

 And then I came across Ocean Spray, a shrub that has long finished flowering anywhere else around here.

Along this tract are many more phenomena such as cairns, fens, Bright Angel Park, and more. Some of these may show up in a future entry but meanwhile we are back at the trestle.

Many years ago, I lurked in the same spot this photo was taken, waiting to photograph the final train on this track. Alas, after quite some time I realized I'd missed the last train. 😂

Winter February 2019

Most years Vancouver Island's February is a spring like month and then March gives us a little of winter as well as some real spring here on the Canadian Riviera. This year's February brought snow. So, in celebration of this unusual climate behavior here are a few snowy photos from the seaside.

First there are marinas,

the seaside cottages, and

the estuary seen from theses cottages

or the mountain in the background.

It's all fun and games but I am not creating any snowmen when creatures such as this one come up from the white.

I hope you enjoyed this short excursion. 

Even though the blossoms we saw in January are now nowhere to be found, the clean beauty of snow is inspiring in itself.

Looking at the Garth from Kinsmen Park across Quamichan Lake.

Housing estate in autumn

Exploration without much color

It looks like after a year and a half of absence I have both the time and some inspiration to start posting to my blogs again. Photography for the fun of it. On this blog I like to post in mostly black and white, while on Mrjom's Blog entries will deal with full color photography. I have no problems with (over)editing nor with lack of editing so both styles will show up on these pages.
For starters here are photos of people exploring aspects of nature close to my home.

Cobble Hill Mountain

Cobble Hill hill is a more appropriate term. It's a bit of a mess with as many trees down (windfalls) as there are standing up. Nevertheless, it provides for great walks that can be a workout for the lungs as well, and vistas from the top.

In Cowichan Bay 

Of course, the sea is always close by, and boating comes with exciting views all the time.

Above the Cowichan River

Cowichan, the name for this area, comes from the word Khowutzun, the warm land, and this river is definitely the warmest one in the area.

Skutz Falls (more like furious rapids)

In the 1950s fish ladders, slowly deteriorating now, were built to help the spawning salmon as they make their way upriver to their final resting place.

Sombrio Beach (where over the centuries many ships have found a watery grave)

It has some of the most visually exciting tidal pools on the southern end of Vancouver Island. Waves as well as surfers are another part of the landscape. Here are photos of these tidal pools.

In the avatar Grove

The Avatar Grove has recently been developed with trails. It is located above Port Renfrew and holds some of the biggest and gnarliest trees on the island. A blog entry showing a few more trees may be seen here

              

      Vancouver Island has a rich variety of people, natural scenery, and architecture. This blog will continue showing some of these vistas.                                                                                                                                               

Over the past 50 years most of my time has been spent living in the Cowichan Valley exploring every square inch of this area but, surprise surprise, there always is something new to find. The other day my love, as we drove down Telegraph Road, pointed to a one grave cemetery on the side of the road. I had never ever noticed this little scene.

Chapman is an old family name in this area and Chapman Road running sort of parallel with Telegraph Rd (as the crow flies about 1 km away from this little cemetery) shows that the family had their homestead here. William Richard was the oldest of five, with the youngest being born two years after he died.
One hardship of homesteading was lack of services. One day the boy, helping his father bring in the hay, developed severe abdominal pains. The nearest doctor was in Ladysmith more than forty km from where they were, impossible to get to in time, and the boy died. He was buried on the homestead. The grave site deteriorated over time until a boyscout troop came across it and decided to restore the site. They rebuilt the picket fence, cleaned it up and painted. This must have happened not that many years ago since it still looks in good repair. In a contemporary sense this whole little thing is unimportant except for the fact that it makes a person think about the drama that homesteading families had to deal with. Mrs. Chapman lived till 1941. She was right up to her final days intensely involved with the community and with other local pioneer families she shaped the area into today's landscape with many people here still depending on the land and often taking on pioneer-like community supporting responsibilities.

Totem Poles

Duncan celebrates its origins on native territory by including totem poles carved by traditional carvers in its city panorama. Each carving shows the style of the individual artist but much of the subject matter and the way it is pictured comes from way back in history. Several totem poles may be set in groups and single totem poles can be seen in front of buildings or greenery or parking lots. That type of distribution shows on some old photographs of native villages (minus parking lots) as well.  Here are some of them beginning with a group photo.

The downtown area is the main showcase. Stories and short biographies of the carvers are displayed near the poles.

A few more:

Cedar Man Walking Out Of The Log. Carver: Gwe-la-e-gwe-la-gya-les (Richard Hunt)

Here is more of this carver's work:  https://www.coastalpeoples.com/index.php?mpage=artist&aid=248 The rest of the catalog also is well worth perusing. It shows additional incredible artwork. 

A couple of closeups:

 Family Pole (detail)

Owl Spirit (detail)

Most of Duncan's totem poles can be seen on my Flickr site, including the informative images, here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/projoma/albums/72157633265791356/page2/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/projoma/albums/72157633265791356/page3

In this issue I am posting some photographs of buildings in downtown Duncan, the City of Duncan. As a city Duncan is, area wise, the smallest Canadian city. With 5,000 inhabitants and mostly two storey buildings There isn't anything big about this city no matter how one looks at it. However new buildings in the downtown core tend to be higher and so the city grows taller building by building. The older buildings, which make up the approximately six blocks of the downtown area, were built during the first half of the twentieth century into the 1950s and I have selected a few of those for this entry.

For starters there are buildings on the other side of the tracks: the Garage, and its neighbor. It is not difficult to realize these buildings past use but now the Garage is somewhat like a mini mall with a nice coffee shop (coffee beans roasted locally and tasty food as well), food store, bookstore and on the second-floor room for events and entertainment. The building next to it speaks for itself.

Crossing the railroad tracks we run into the station. For now, I like to show just the waiting room part, since the 1912 building itself may become the subject of another blog entry.

VIA Rail stopped running its dayliner earlier this century and since then the tracks have not been maintained and are now in total disrepair Hence freight trains stopped using the line as well except for one. I watched this one train last year. It goes as far south as the animal feed mill just outside Duncan at a speed of 10 or 15 clicks per hour. When I'm in Duncan sometimes I can still hear that train whistle blow.

Across the street from the station (Canada Ave) is the bank of Montreal with its main entrance on the suitably named Station Street.

Let us look at a few more Station Street buildings. This one is a few numbers up from the bank. It was a cafe restaurant until turning into a thrift store not all that many years ago. Below it, through the door on the left, was the pool hall, a great place, before that basement became Duncan's best secondhand bookstore. The bookstore is long gone as well, and I have no idea what's happening in that basement nowadays.

Across the road we see this:

The next two images give an idea what most of the downtown stores still look like.

One of the older buildings in town, across from the old Chinatown now government and court buildings, had the Chow Brothers' convenience store in it for most of the twentieth century. We could buy single cigarettes there and it was a great place to shop for Marvel comics and the likes as well. For most of that century the parking lot was swept by a small Chinese man named "Happy".

Duncan is called the city of totems. There is a tradition here of brilliant native carving. There is also room in our city for guest carvers. The next image shows one of them. Consider this as an intro to a future blog post about Duncan's totems.

This blog post could go on forever. Beside the Station or the totem poles there are churches and their unique styles, new buildings, and more topics for future episodes. Thank you for being here with me and take care until we meet again.