Blog Archives

The remains of last week’s offering

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My friend Ehpem lives only a couple of blocks from the Chinese Cemetery. I’d gone there on my previous visit but was so captivated by the ocean that I forgot to photograph the cemetery, an astounding oversight on my part.

On my recent visit, Ehpem and I were eating dinner when he interrupted his own sentence and said, “Look at the light! We need to get to the cemetery right now!” And off we went.

A bank of clouds meant that the light wasn’t quite what we were expecting, but we did what we could. And finished dinner after the sun was down.

There’s an interesting article on the cemetery here, if you’re interested.

Chinese Cemetery
Victoria, BC
photographed 4.23.2015

Clouds reaching toward the sea

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Planning a trip around low tide is something that wouldn’t occur to me, since I live on the High Plains. (We’d be more likely to plan a trip when the wind is generally calm, which we define as “below 45 miles per hour.”) Anyway, my tour guides, Ehpem and his lovely spouse, planned our day so we’d arrive at this beach at low tide. That gave us a view of the tidepools and rocks. The waves and clouds were especially accommodating that day, too, and all of us found lots of things to photograph.

Botanical Beach
San Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, British Columbia
photographed 4.22.2015

Disappears around the bend

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My tour guides took me to see the Kinsol Trestle, which is one of the highest railway trestles in the world, coming in at 44m tall. The trestle was operational from 1920 to 1979, and has been recently restored. But for now it’s for feet, not trains: it’s part of the Trans-Canada Trail.

Kinsoll Trestle
near Shawnigan Lake, BC
photographed 4.22.2015

The encroaching forest

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As I mentioned the other day, I recently went to British Columbia to meet up with my friend Ehpem. He was an excellent host, showing me non-tourist parts of Victoria, and arranging a trip up the west coast of the island, where’d he planned a stop at this little ocean-front community because he knew I’d like to see (and photograph, endlessly) the remains of the place.

As we were standing there, cameras in hand, he remarked on the difference between what the surroundings looked like compared to what I usually see in West Texas. It was a good point: we have more problems with encroaching dirt than encroaching forests…

Jordan River, British Columbia
photographed 4.22.15

(Here’s a self-portrait that Ehpem made during our Jordan River stop.)

I was there after the zombie

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That is, I think I was.

Gas Works Park
Seattle, Washington
photographed 4.18.2015