A whale of a time!

On the aforementioned trip to the mainland, I was thrilled to once again hear the captain of the ferry direct our attention to the killer whales - orcas - swimming past the starboard side.  This is the second ferry trip on which I've encountered whales, and we have also seen them in the bay near my home.  On this trip, it appears there were just two - perhaps a mom and a juvenile, as this photo seems to indicate:

One day I hope to see one when I am better prepared and with a larger zoom.  But even this distant view brings pleasure and reminds me of why we all need to do our part to keep these waters clean.

Sandy heroes and villains

Today I drove up island to meet a friend-of-a-friend who would like Mitzi and me to house-and-horse sit for a few days this summer.

HORSE sitting??
I hasta sit on a HORSE???

Me:     No, Mitzi, it just means we'll be looking after the horses.  Not sitting on them.
Mitzi:  Well that's okay then - but dem horses better not sit on ME!  
Me:     We'll keep you well away from them, Mitzi.  

Anyway, I had a little extra time, so decided to pop into Parksville, a small mid-island city I have always enjoyed and usually visit at least a couple of times a year.  In fact, I was there just this May, when my daughter took Mitzi and me to a beachfront resort for Mother's Day weekend where we enjoyed beautiful sunrises, great seafood, and of course each other's company.

Parksville has a lovely sandy beach which, even when busy, isn't crowded.  Ocean, mountain views, boardwalk, and breezes perfect for kite flying - it's a community I could see myself living in one day.

Each summer, Parksville hosts a sand sculpture competition - this year was the 33rd Canadian Open, with the winners going on to the World's.  Today, I decided to check it out.  While it seemed small as such competitions go (having attended larger ones in Harrison BC as well as on the Oregon coast), it does draw master sculptors from across the country and around the world, who demonstrated their artistry with their representations of this year's theme: Heroes vs Villains.

There were, predictably, sand sculptures of caped superheroes and fairytale villains. In fact, the winner in the doubles was this one of The Joker and Batman, as a young child informed me:

First place, Doubles.
By Marielle Heesels (Netherlands) and David Ducharme (BC)

There were a few where I had a hard time figuring out how they fit into the theme, like this one of a baby:

Or where the subject was unknown to me but the detail, let alone the physics of the sculpture, was mesmerizing:

Such detail - and physics!

The first prize in the solo division went to a sculpture of Einstein, which, while very well done, didn't appeal to me as much as several other sand sculptures.

First place, solo
by Abe Waterman, PEI

Back of Einstein

I had three clear favourites - not necessarily technically the most difficult, but certainly ones that tugged at me for their creativity, their capture of emotion, and their spin on "heroes and villains" theme.

The first to grab me was - not surprisingly - an animal one:  Here Kitty, by Bruce Phillips of California

I particularly liked the expression on this little mouse's face!

.
The second to grab me was a piece in which mom and dad were in their super hero capes....on one side, a young child looking up to them - and on the other, surly and slouching and hands busy with smartphone, was teenage daughter. We know which child considers her parents heroes, and which considers them villains!

Sculpted by father-daughter team  Guy and Melineige Beauregard, of Quebec,  I wondered which of them had come up with the idea.  Just look at how true-to-life the sand daughter looks!

But the piece that I stared at for the longest time was a piece particularly meaningful across the province this year - the hero firefighter and the villain fire.

Firefighter weeps with exhaustion and sorrow,
his cap and pack behind him.

On the other side, the villain fire
rages with anger

Sketched into the mountain of sand was a familiar sight, one I photographed on my recent trip on the mainland - smoke rising from forest, helicopter dumping water just above the tree tops:

How well I remember this sight
from my travels to Lillooet

That piece, by Peter Vogelaar and Denis Kleine, both from BC,  came in third in the doubles.  But to my way of thinking, it won hands down - for capturing the theme in a way that spoke to my heart.

The firefighters are truly my heroes this summer. And fire (and those who cause it) the villain.

Fire on the Mountain, Sheep in the Hills!

This is the fifth and final part of "Oh the Places we've been and the Critters we Saw", about the recent road trip Mitzi and I took to visit our favourite places, people, and critters on the BC mainland.  We left our readers up in Lillooet, as we prepared for the three hour drive back to our campsite near Hope.  And what an adventure that return trip was!

I was only about fifteen minutes along the winding road back to camp .  Suddenly, I was seeing mountain sheep flying and leaping in front of me - up the steep slope below me, over the barrier along the edge of the road, across the road and up the steep slope above me.  In the course of  just a few miles, I must have seen a couple of dozen of them. There was no traffic on the road, so I slowed to a crawl, knowing my little Honda Fit would be no match for a flying mountain sheep.  Then one polite sheep halted almost mid bounce on the other side of the barrier, so I stopped the car and rolled down the passenger window to grab a photo.

To my surprise, he stepped right up to the barrier and from a distance of about three feet, peered in the open window.

Next he turned sideways to offer me a profile shot, before stepping slowly over the barrier, crossing in front of the car and bounding up into the hills.  I was on a natural high.

You don't plan to add a convict number to
this photo, do you?

But it didn't take long to temper that high.  Driving south, I could see a significant haze rising from the valley and drifting around the mountain tops.  Heat? Pollution?  Smoke?  Was there a forest fire blocking my route back to camp?   At the first opportunity, I pulled over to get a better look.

Haze? Smog?  Smoke?

Still hard to tell, so I continued on my way.  But the further south I drove, the more sure I was that a forest fire was burning in the valley below, and quickly spreading up the mountains on the other side,  fueled by our very dry forests and hastened on by a very brisk wind.

Strong wind blowing smoke up valley

The road I was travelling was in no danger as the valley was wide and the fire heading north west to my south. But I couldn't resist frequent stops to check on its progress, to watch this beautiful though horrific display of nature's power.

By the time I was half way back to camp, I realized my lonely road was the perfect vantage point for shooting the fire - and so did the media, as I was met at each stop by one or more news crews and their videographers - CTV, Global, CBC, Shaw, as well as still photographers for local and provincial newspapers. Other than the occasional local resident, it was just them and me, shoulder to shoulder.  That was thrill number two of the trip back to camp.

Watching news crews at work

As if the thrill of taking photographs along side the "real photographers" wasn't enough, a helicopter suddenly appears through the smoke, almost at eye-level to us, and began its job of dumping water on the flames then turning and going back down to the river below to grab another belly load of water and coming back again - and again - and again - and again. Thrill number three.

I watched, mesmerized, as trees candled into flame, as trucks began to arrive on scene below, as hillsides lit up with fire and heavy smoke turned black then gold as it drifted across the sun.

Trees candling - going up like matchsticks

Forest ablaze

The speed at which that human-caused fire spread is emblazoned in my mind.  I later learned that the Cisco Road Fire, which was about four hectares at the time I saw the first signs of smoke, and spread to nearly sixty during the hour or two I watched it, was 1200 hectares by the next morning.  Today, three weeks after it began, it covers over 2000 hectares and is 70% contained.

There will, sadly, be many more fires like this over the summer.  All fires are tragic - for the wildlife, for the environment, and often for humans too.  None make me angrier than those caused by discarded cigarettes or careless campers - and we are seeing a lot of those this year.

With that in mind, Mitzi and I headed back to camp with our friends Ann and Ken where we spent the evening reading or playing cards instead of singing songs round a fire.  Mitzi did amazingly well at camping, even sleeping in the tent without complaint - but I confess she practically kissed the floor when we returned to my friends' home in the Fraser Valley a few days later.

Ah did not! Ah just reclaimed mah
favourite chair!

The day after our return to Ann's and Ken's, I spent a morning re-connecting with Keaghan, my late friend Bonnie's Irish Wolfhound who now lives with his new family in the Fraser Valley.  We all went for a walk in the woods with an assortment of other dogs too.

Keaghan and his new fur sister Keevagh

Kieran, Keaghan and Keevagh

And after nearly two weeks relying on our friends' hospitality, it was time to head back to the island.  Ann and Ken, with whom I'd stayed, were still smiling - or perhaps they were very happy to see me go!

Can we stop smiling now?
Is she really leaving?

And so it is back to island life, where the weather is hot and the days are slow.  If you've enjoyed the photographs in this series, please check back on Wednesday, Canada Day, for my annual tribute to my beautiful country, showcasing some of my favourite shots of the past twelve months.  I think you'll like it.

On the Road to .....Somewhere Great

In Part Four of  "Oh the Places we've Been and the Critters we Saw", Mitzi and I head up the Fraser Canyon to Lillooet, a drive of about three hours from where we were camping with our friends just north of Hope. Our goal was to spend the afternoon with our friends Del and Mark, and their dogs King, Lady May and Princess Mollydawg, who visited Eddie and I at our campsite two years ago.

At Lytton, Mitzi and I turned onto Highway 12, a route I'd not taken but which I knew had one very winding, steep single lane section, the result of a rock slide a few years ago.  It also had several places where the risk of slides was sufficient that no stopping was allowed. There are tall bare or sparsely treed slopes rising on one side of the road, and dropping to the river valley below on the other.  In winter, it isn't a road the average driver in the average car wants to take, but in summer I was willing and eager to experience it.  It was definitely worth it! The views across the valley were amazing, the road had virtually no traffic, and the feeling was of being on top of the world.

A small slide had just occured  which crews were clearing up, resulting in a delay of perhaps twenty minutes while machinery was blocking the road.  Even the delay was fantastic - the young flagger, perhaps around twenty,  was excitedly looking up at the slope beside us, and then motioned for me to roll down my window.  "There's a cougar up there, chasing a family of mountain sheep!" he said, and invited me to get out for a look.  The cougar - and the mountain sheep - had disappeared behind one of the craggy rocks by then, though we saw a couple more mountain sheep while we waited.  And while we waited, he entertained me with stories from his First Nations heritage, of the animals and birds in that area, the changes his band was seeing, the environmental impact of climate change.  It was the shortest twenty minute traffic delay I've ever known.  (On the return trip, I saw lots of mountain sheep and got some great photos of them which will be in tomorrow's post).

I continued on my way, enjoying every moment of the drive, stopping very briefly where permitted to take a photo or two or three.  I took the photo below as I was leaving Lillooet on the return trip, but now is a good time to show you the road I traveled - the fine white line cutting through the bare mountain side:

We arrived safely at Del and Mark's, and set up the x-pen in the shade for Ms. Mitzi.  Del brought King, Lady May and Mollydawg out one by one to meet her.  Mollydawg was most inquisitive and the most excited about having a visitor come to visit her - HER - and really wanted to say hello.

Mitzi was not interested in being social and retreated to her crate, so we let her sulk rest while I photographed the dogs and chatted with their humans.

King was easy to photograph, and my only difficulty is deciding which of about twelve favourite shots to post.

King is my favourite Turtle Gardens Rescue dog (but don't tell the others),  the sweetest, most benevolent leader of any pack I've ever met.  I love him to bits, and it is clear Del does too.  And King adores Del:

Princess Mollydawg was confined to the deck for awhile, but posed nicely while trying to tell us she REALLY wanted to go meet that little fluffy thing I brought with me.

Lady May was willing to sit for a few photos, but she was far more interested in chasing the ball, ball, ball, ball.

BALL BALL BALL BALL BALL!

After a delicious lunch, we decided to try for a photo of all three.  An exercise in futility, thanks to the irrepressible Princess Mollydawg.  It went something like this:

Everyone say CHEESE!

Mollydawg:  Cheese?  Did someone say cheese?  Where? Over there?

King:  Molly, you get back here!

Molly:  Pssst,  King, there's a cat behind you!

King:  Wha.....where?
Mollydawg:  BWHAHAHAHA!  Made ya look!

King:  I'm gonna tell Mom
Mollydawg:  Pffttttt!

Mollydawg:  I hate this!

Itchy back!

You suck, Auntie Jean!

Oops, sorry mom.  Sorry. 

Oh boy! Bribes - er, treats - that's more like it! 

Lady May:  Not sure why she's getting any.
She was the one who kept wrecking the shot! 

That's the best we can do - -
even for treats.

Time for a rest!

Can we go back to the campsite now?

And so we said our goodbyes and headed back to camp......and that return trip is another story in itself.  See you tomorrow!

Thanks for a great day, Del, Mark, King, Mollydawg and Lady May!