Red and hazy days of summer in Cowichan Bay

 It makes one wonder about air quality, but the local measuring stations all run in green which means the air is wholesome for sports and work. Open windows and freshen up living space.
 

Reflections

The forest reflections are from a walk by the Koksilah River, the Marina ones were observed outside the house.

It's all about the look of water.

 Hipstamatic Camera August 8 and 9 2025

I like using Hipstamatic camera, an app made for the iPhone, at times. The results may be refreshing if not surprising.

Here are a few recent hipstamatic images. The first two were taken on an abandoned railway line where it runs along the Koksilah River, and the rest at Cowichan Bay's Fisherman's Wharf.

Let's open the show with the photographer's self-portrait:

Getting ready for the Koksilah walk

It is a hot day and I sat down for a while in the shade at the river's edge.

Koksilah's frog

Levitating railroad

                                      The following shots were taken at the Fisherman's Wharf.

👋

 What Will It Be... Flickr or This Blog

Flickr was my go to photo gallery and storage for many years, until I realized that the pro price was no longer in my retirement budget. I brought the number of photos back to around 900, and Flickr still worked very nicely as my showcase. However, as expected, the new management made it ever more frustrating to work through Flickr as a happy no-pro. Not sure what to do about it since I don't like the Instagram platform and every other outlet runs into money.

For a year now I have been thinking about my long dormant blogs and the other day I decided to start posting photos to this blog again, rather than to Flickr. The blog is old and friendless and that's okay. Anyone can drop in for a peek.

 High summer wildflowers

The Cowichan Valley's hiking trails are everywhere with views galore. They also show a wide variety of wildflowers. 

In this post I like to share a few of them. Some of them are not really wildflowers at all, but all of them were photographed in the wild.

Asters

Many years ago I found that if they grow on your property they love a little TLC to make a massive show.

Gumweed

This one belongs to the aster family as well.

Monkeyflower

very pretty and showy.

The same goes for Yellow Toadflax.

Red Chickweed

That is what Google tells me.

Bridewort

Bird Vetch

A string of very little flowers, common enough, but it needed googling for the name.

Hollyhock

It shows up in fancy country gardens as much as in the wilderness

St John's Wort or Hypericum

This is a native variety. It gets quite tall. Another variety of Hypericum is used as a groundcover in landscaping but the flower is then a lot larger and not on tall stems. Both varieties are beautiful and flower around the same time.

Meadow Rue

Google helped me on this one and hopefully I got it right.

Hollyhock close up

Hairy little beauties, aren't they?

fuchsia

Finding this on the side of an abandoned railroad was a surprise.

Pearly Everlasting

Tansy

Queen Anne's Lace

These last three and the following are perhaps the most common or the most noticed around here. They grow in abundance along roads, railroad tracks, forest clearings, and other open spaces.

Chicory

The flowers look like they are stuck on the sides of tall stems/

A fancy thistle

Threeleaf Foamflower

Very pretty, and I hope the name is right. It needed to be googled.

When hiking so many more flowers come under foot, too many to photograph, but that is a good reason to go out more often and keep on shooting.

My phone is the camera I use nearly all the time.

 

Genoa Bay, BC

Genoa Bay, as a very small community, is located on Southern Vancouver Island at the entrance to Cowichan Bay. I wonder whether more than 50 families live there. It has an awesome marina and the renowned Genoa Bay Cafe. I visited the marina with the unpredictable Hipstamatic camera. 

Check it out.

Its backdrop is Mt Tzouhalem, a great place for hikers and dirt bikes.

I have never seen the marina this empty, but perhaps it still is early in the season.

The floating store 

Genoa Bay Cafe

Live over your ship

Many varieties pass through

The village in the background

 

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. 😂