Category Archives: Just Because

Blog, Inspiration, Just Because, Wanderings

Mushrooms, Viewed with a Filter

Winter on the West Coast… To say that this is a moist time of the year would be an understatement. Wherever you go, the forest presents evidence of moisture.

Mossy Forest Lines WL

After looking up, time to look down at my feet. Here is a very ordinary shot of tiny mushrooms, poking out of the mosses. A typical forest floor moment in the winter, on the BC Gulf Islands.

Mushrooms0

When I looked at this photo, I decided to play with some filters. See what would result.

Mushrooms and moss, BC Gulf Islands forest floor. Photo © Andrée Fredette

It got interesting. I could see the various colourways…

Mushrooms and moss, BC Gulf Islands forest floor. Photo © Andrée FredetteHow easy it would be to get fabric printed in contrasting colours, by playing with filters.

Mushrooms and moss, BC Gulf Islands forest floor. Photo © Andrée Fredette

Why not go for brutal brightness? Indeed.

Or just go for the black and white classic…

Mushrooms2BWd

Blog, Just Because

Eagle Chat

This is a short clip of a noisy, talkative eagle. This bird was voicing some objections to another eagle’s presence, a few hundred meters away. Obviously, some important rules of etiquette were not being observed.

 

 

 The background noise you can hear throughout the video is the sound of a CSL “self-unloader”, a large cargo ship which is unloading gypsum onto barges, right here, in these beautiful islands…

CSL Gypsum Unloading onto barges, in Plumper Sound, Southern Gulf Islands, BC

Apparently, the eagles were too busy with their territorial discussions to care. But that engine sound, lights, and dust can get annoying when they last for days…

Blog, Just Because, Photo Wednesday

Long-term parking for the Tug and Boom – Photo Wednesday

This tug spent at least a week in a holding pattern, in front of the house. Up and down the Sound it went, very slowly… dragging the raft of logs. In BC, this is called a log boom.

At night, the tug has horizontal lighting, signalling its “parked” position, and the log boom also has position lights, light green, at all corners. Avoiding navigational hazards…

A whole forest is chained up, and floated behind a tug. Eventually, after a proper wait (at least a week, in this case) for a spot at the Port of Vancouver, it gets dragged across the Strait of Georgia, to the lower mainland of BC… Where all the log booms are gathered in the river’s mouth, also parked and waiting for loading. Most of these logs are likely loaded on ships headed West. Across the Pacific.

Floating Forest November 2014 WL
I am not complaining, my house is made of local cedar, so are my decks… I just watch cedar islands being floated across the waters.

I wonder what it’s like to be the tug’s pilot and crew. Do they play Scrabble? Watch videos? Play cards? How do they pass the time?

Blog, Just Because

Recon Deer

Reconnoiter (Merriam Webster definition):  to go to (a place or area) in order to find out information about a military enemy : to do a reconnaissance of (a place)…

Well, here is Mr. Junior Black Tail Deer (Odocoilus hemionus Rafinesque… if you want to get formal), doing a recon of my garden fence, at about 50 feet.

Fence Sitter WL

I took this picture of him from my kitchen window. Sure, he looks very relaxed and innocent. Don’t let that fool you. This wily black tail boy is just pretending to enjoy the afternoon sunshine, maybe waiting for the girls to go by.

But all along, he is checking out my fence, to see if he can jump over it, barge through it, or sneak under the gate.

We have an uneasy truce. He recons, and I surveil…