What WAS that colourful blob?

Yesterday I posted a teaser of 'something' we encountered on our hike around Neck Point Park, Nanaimo.  It was.....wait....before I tell you what it was, let me tell you about the first part of our hike, the part before the encounter. 

We saw, of course, beautiful scenery - rugged coast land with wee little islands.  

The hike - or walk, as some would prefer to call it - is an easy one with the exception of numerous short flights of stairs to get you over environmentally sensitive areas or up to observation platforms.  It follows a series of coves and beaches, interesting land formations, and lots of seabirds and mammals.  We nearly always see seals and sometimes sea lions here, as well as a large flock of cormorants - which I learned today is called a "gulp" of cormorants:

We walked on further, enjoying more views.  At one viewpoint we ate our lunch to the song of the eagles - two of them perched in a tree right over our heads.  Unfortunately, the foliage was too thick for a photo, but the called and argued and quibbled and quarreled all the way through the meal.  It seems like the larger one (most often a female) was trying to persuade the smaller one to move on to another restaurant as she kept flying away and coming back, each time calling more forcefully than before.  Who knows, maybe it was parent and child.  "If you don't come right now, there's no dinner for you!" 

We spent some time watching some colourful harlequin ducks who refused to have their photo taken, and then took a cross trail into the forest and did a couple of loops past a busy little squirrel, and along a lengthy gnome house trail (complete with doors that sometimes opened to reveal little toys).

We watched a young deer nibble some leaves and bound gracefully over fall logs.

And then emerged at the third, or maybe fourth beach.  Another beautiful view, and on a memorial bench was a large fresh bouquet of roses honouring the woman who had died far too soon.  

Heading back towards the parking lot, we doubled back from forest to shoreline.  As we came over a hill and around a bend, we saw a most peculiar sight.  First it was one huge clear something floating low over the land and skimming across the top of the water. Then another. Then another.  

You can't fault us for being confused.  Just that morning, the local news had reported a woman in nearby Nanoose thought she had seen an iceberg on the Salish Sea that separates us from the mainland.  Photos suggested that was the case.  Science confirmed it was not - it was a very unusual mirage that was actually a reflection of a mountain over 200 km away. You can read about it here: https://nanaimonewsnow.com/2022/01/12/it-was-so-convincing-so-real-floating-salish-sea-iceberg-stumps-nanoose-photographer/

But back to my story:  soon we were seeing floating coloured orbs as well - not little ones like a child's bubble wand, but huge ones - some over 10 feet long and 3-4 feet high. 

But yes, our strange encounter was bubbles, for soon we saw their origin.  A woman on the shore, with two long sticks joined by cotton rope, a bucket of soapy mixture at her feet, dipped and waved and danced with the wands, creating artistic creations that floated in the air and drifted across the waters as far as the eye could see. 

The bubbles were mesmerizing.  We saw dogs and whales and snakes and birds in translucent colours of the rainbow, shape shifters of the most harmless kind. 

Recognize this one? It's the one I used in the 'teaser' yesterday.

And it shape-shifted into a dog jumping out from behind a log!

One nearby photographer with one of those long, long lenses that professionals use estimated that the line of bubbles extended almost one kilometer out.  At times we could count 20 or 30 giant bubbles all in a row heading to the mainland! 

They were amazing, they were fun, they impelled everyone to stop and watch and none of us wanted to leave.  The bubbles brought out the inner child in all of us as we oohed and ahh'd over the many shapes and colours that formed and re-formed. 

The bubbles even brought out the inner pup in the sea lions - two of them hung around the whole time, popping their heads up continuously to the watch the show. I only had my little camera with me so didn't get a good sea lion shot, but you can see the dark head of one of them in this one: 

And that was part of the bubble-maker's reason for being there that day. As she told me when I thanked her for bringing joy to an otherwise overcast and foggy day, "Always make time to let your inner child out to play." 

Sally, my hiking buddy, got the eco-friendly recipe from her as well as the instructions for making the wands.  Once she emails it to me, I'll add it to the blog.  We plan to take the components on our next camping trip.  And I might even practice here at home or on my local beach first. 

Now, what do YOU do to release your inner child?