From a set of pictures taken at Goldstream Provincial Park, near Victoria, British Columbia.
The salmon were running up the river, busy with their last date and party.
And by the banks of the river, this glorious set of leaves, in contrasting

From a set of pictures taken at Goldstream Provincial Park, near Victoria, British Columbia.
The salmon were running up the river, busy with their last date and party.
And by the banks of the river, this glorious set of leaves, in contrasting

A little colour and some rain drops, for a late October day. This lantana is on its last call, not bad for nearly November!
I will soon have to move it indoors for the winter, along with all the other “delicate exotics” that have spent the summer outside, on the deck…

Once a week, most weeks, I take the ferry to “town”. In the local parlance, “town” is Victoria, on Vancouver Island. This time of year, that two-hour commute is at the right time for sunrise magic.
This was the view, from the back of the ferry, that morning…

I just zoomed on the wake, and let the reflection of the sunrise do the abstract magic…
Textile artist Pat Pauly visited Saturna during the Thanksgiving long weekend. We wandered all over the island, and I rediscovered one of my favourite “beaches”, with plenty of pebbles and logs that escaped the log rafts pulled by the tug boats around these islands. Floating forests… but that will be the subject of another post.

These pebbles were arranged by the waves, pushing and rolling them into a crevice in the rock. Neat, isn’t it?
And then, there were the abstract lines left by beetles , in this log.

While the tree was alive, the beetles bored these lines under the bark… discreetly. Now that the bark has been stripped, we get to see their graffiti. With a pebble on top.
The other day, it was sunny and I went for a drive. This time of year, sunny days are something to behold. The air is clean and crisp, crystalline. Sunlight that must not be wasted! So I went across the island, over the mountain and down a very steep driveway… all the way to Campbell Farm. They raise sheep for the meat (see this link to the Saturna Lamb Barbecue, our Island’s biggest annual fest), and the wool. After being greeted by a pair of very noisy and curious border collies, I couldn’t resist and purchased a big batch of aran weight wool. You never know, the urge to knit may come during the long winter ahead!
As for the apples: I found them on the ground, below a lovely and huge apple tree that must have been on the spot, in Thompson Park, for close to a century. The apples had a fearsome nest of defenders… Any attempt at harvesting those apples will have to be undertaken with protective gear.
And the horse chestnuts: I just love their texture, although I did stab my hand trying to get a couple of them off the tree! Below: the beach at Thompson Park. Nice spot to sit and enjoy an apple, freshly picked.
The landscape on the bench in front of the sandstone bluffs is very rural in feeling. Below, a view of the Saturna Family Estate Winery, from the Campbell Farm gate. The temperature in this area is easily 8 degrees warmer than in the forest, on the mountain a couple of kilometers away.
Now, I am back at home, hunting for interesting patterns to deal with all that luscious wool. And plotting to go back and raid the apple tree…