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Lakes and Mountains

On the second day of our hop on/hop off exploration of Banff National Park we visited the Lake Louise Gondola and Moraine Lake. The ride up the gondola is spectacular and brings home the sheer scale of the Rocky mountains. In the first image below you can just make out – in the centre of the photograph – Lake Louise and the Chateau.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidMoraine Lake is quite possibly the most electric of the blue lakes – though it has to be said that it does have a fair bit of competition within the same national park.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidThere are, of course, many things to see aside from the many lakes and mountains.

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid Photo by Andy Dawson ReidHop on Banff‘ was a great find on The Girl’s part and is widely praised in the various online guides. This photo is of one of their excellent teams – Lewis – the (English!) guide – and Bobbi the driver. Great fun  – great value and most flexible in the way that one can essentially construct one’s own itinerary.

 Photo by Andy Dawson ReidKudos!

Lake Louise

Canada is a huge country which contains, arguably, more than its fair share of natural beauty. The Girl and I frequently  find ourselves overwhelmed by its ravishing gorgeousness – and that is just here on Vancouver Island. Should one explore further afield within in the province –  or, indeed, venture into the great expanse of the nation beyond – one finds one’s breath taken away on a regular basis.

There are some parts of the country, however, that go beyond any glories that I have thus far experienced. Lake Louise – in the Banff National Park – is one such area of staggeringly dramatic beauty! So epic is it that I should at once stop trying to capture its perfection in words – and just let the gentle reader goggle at the images.

Without further ado…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidThe colour of the waters of the lake seem almost unreal. All of the glacier-fed lakes in the area have similar distinctive hues – a result of the particles trapped in the ice which remains in suspension once the ice has melted.

Johnston Canyon

There is much to see in the Banff and Jasper National Parks. Aside from Banff itself one would probably wish to devote some time at least to the following: Johnston Canyon, the Lake Louise Gondola, Lake Louise itself, Moraine Lake, the Icefields Parkway, the Athabasca Falls and Jasper.

On our recent trip to the Rockies The Girl and I had three days in Banff and one in Jasper and we aimed to cover as much of this as was feasible. Naturally The Girl came up with the smart solution. ‘Hop On Banff‘ operate a clever schedule with a couple of old yellow school buses which enables one to choose which sights one wishes to see and in which sequence. As you might expect – given The Girl’s involvement – this all went very well.

This first batch of images takes as its subject the Johnston Canyon.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidI was most taken with the elevated walkways which extend more than a kilometre and a half up to the lower falls. As can be seen from the photos the engineering feat that enables one to walk through the heart of the canyon – above the raging torrent – is most impressive. Construction must have been a spectacularly difficult task, but now results in an easy stroll practically through the heart of the rapids.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidBeing out in the heart of nature we were – naturally – seeking wildlife. Armed with bear-spray and a little learning (dangerous!) we were on the lookout for eagles, ravens, moose and bears!

Not a one! Plenty of these cheeky little chaps, though.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidNo – not a chipmunk (though quite similar in appearance). This chap is a ground squirrel – and there are gazillions of them in the mountains.

Bold as brass, too!

Hush!

“Time says hush: by the gong of time you live. Listen and you hear time saying you were silent long before you came to life and you will again be silent long after you leave it, why not be a little silent now? Hush yourself, noisy little man. Time hushes all: the gong of time rang for you to come out of the hush and you were born. The gong of time will ring for you to go back to the same hush you came from. Winners and losers, the weak and the strong, those who say little and try to say it well, and those who babble and prattle their lives away, time hushes all”.

Carl Sandburg

This is my very favourite time of the year. I love how verdant are the woods – how lush is the undergrowth and how still are the trees once the winter winds have abated. These images from Centennial Park in Saanichton here on the peninsula.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidI love that someone took the time to turn this fallen tree into a little piece of art. I love that they did so again when the first version slowly decayed and returned to nature.

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Falling…

“Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt”.

William Allingham

Autumn (Fall) is a time to walk and to talk and to think – and to start to make plans.

It is also a time to take photos of nature’s bounty:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

That spring thing

Took a while getting here this year – but after the snow, rain, hail, winds, damp, grey skies and general lacklustre demeanor – Spring is finally putting in an appearance. Mother Nature – who has been drumming her fingers on the counter-top for some weeks now – enquires frostily (seemed appropriate):

What kept you”?

Cue the usual annual photos of Mother Nature doing what she does best…

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

 

Autumn colours – 2

I thought the gentle reader might appreciate a few more glimpses of autumnal hues – before everything fades to a wintery grey for the the next three months or so. Fall is glorious, though it is the season of which I am least fond. Winter serves a purpose but unless one likes to get out to play in the snow and ice it is not one that some folk – self included – find easy to love. Still – it does eventually give way to the spring and that is a very good thing.

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

Autumn colours – 1

Good grief! Here we are – already well into November. The Halloween decorations are coming down and the over-zealous have already started on Christmas…

Time for some soothing images of autumnal colours – to demonstrate what a beautiful world this is despite what we insist on inflicting upon it:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid

Nature! What’s that all about?

Time for some photos of plants growing in our garden. I know that I do this every year, but the garden is not the same from one year to the next so I don’t suppose that the images are either. Anyway – the nature of this journal is that there will always be something else along in a moment and there are no penalties for skipping ahead (I wanted there to be but couldn’t figure out how to do it!)…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid
The reason for my somewhat incredulous byline is that – no matter how much a part of it we all are – nature is still pretty much a riddle to me (wrapped inside a mystery etc, etc)… Take this Camellia for example. Some seasons back (maybe four or five) I pruned it back a little in the early spring. It was probably not the best time of year for such a treatment, but I was not too severe on the shrub; merely trying to persuade it not to stomp all over the ‘lesser’ plants around it.

The Camellia clearly took umbrage and refused to flower at all in any of the succeeding years – with the exception of the odd desultory bloom once in a while. This year – well, take a look for yourself:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidMaybe I will post an update when all those buds burst into bloom.

Random images…

…from a lost season (see previous post).

Whatever I personally feel about this time of year (and of the month of November in particular) there is no denying that there are some pretty images to be captured. Being a sharing kind of guy I always like to pass such things on to the gentle reader (or viewer!).

These are quite seasonal:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson Reid…and that mountain is still visible (though by no means so every day!)…

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidThere is good, if somewhat nippy, walking to be done – in Centennial Park for instance:

Photo by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidPhoto by Andy Dawson ReidTwo of us wearing raincoats
Standing solo in the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home

Lennon/MacCartney
Photo by Andy Dawson ReidThe other day I was in Sidney, engaged upon the purchase of some comestibles. On returning to the Lexus – the which I had parked under a small tree at the far extent of the car park – I observed that a murder was in progress. A murder of crows, that is…

No sooner than I had mounted the vehicle and fired up the big V8 than one of their number flapped lazily down and took up residence on the bonnet (hood!). He looked me in the eye as a sort of challenge and let it be known that he felt disinclined to move even when I revved the engine a little. Had I not started to reverse gently out of the parking bay I think he might well just have stayed there.

Photo by Andy Dawson Reid

Cheeky bu**er!