The Imperceptible Immigrant

Tired of being brave

February 4, 2026 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

“I killed my ex lovers and buried to my memories’ grave.
It is January and I am tired of being brave.”

Arzum Uzun

It occurs to me that the month just finished was the first January (with just a couple of exceptions) during which I had not worked since way back in the 1970s. Strangely – and slightly guilt-inductively – it has zipped by and disappeared over the horizon with nary a second thought. How odd!

It helps, of course, that though we have been watching avidly the reports of terrible weathers afflicting different parts of the globe, here – on the west coast of Canada – it has been merely wet… not icily, gustily, torrentially or anything else like that. Just wet!

Yesterday – however – there was sunshine as well – and we marvelled at how the shafts of sunlight pierced the forest at Centennial Park.

Naturally, pictures were taken:

Hey guys – it’s still the middle of winter!!

Tags: nature, Photo, Walk, winter

Island View revisited

December 30, 2025 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

It seems that the majority of posts to this journal for December feature photographs taken at and around Island View beach here on the Saanich Peninsula. In part this abundance is because Island View is a particularly good place to walk in winter, but also because it is photogenic and constantly changing with the weather. This latest batch of images were taken on a day when the wind was seasonably bitter and gusting strongly from the south east. The Haro Strait rarely sees breakers (not behind Sidney and James islands at any rate) but this was an exception. One could easily appreciate how so many fallen (or felled) trees could end up being tossed onto the shore:

Now – for me this sort of day calls for a brisk walk and then to scurry back into the warmth of our safe abode – where we can hunker down and day-dream about sun-bathed beaches in the distant south. Not so for these dudes:

Respect!

Tags: Island View Beach, Walk, Weather, wind

Foreshore/backshore

December 14, 2025 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

“Late afternoon on the West Coast ends with the sky doing all its brilliant stuff”

Joan Didion

Last time out I posted a cluster of images of the driftwood that accumulates above the strand line on our beaches here on Vancouver Island – and of the structures that our fellow humans feel compelled to build using it.

I thought I might now just add a few further photographs taken on the same sunny walk. The motivation so to do is in part the fact that the weather has comprised nothing but rain since that most pleasant day and I would like to be able to contemplate other more cheerful moods.

Tags: nature, Photo, Walk, Weather, winter

Above the strandline

December 8, 2025 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

We are well into December now and the year seems to be rushing away as though trying desperately to escape. Given the grim happenings of the passed twelve months that is perhaps no surprise. Indeed it may even be no bad thing.

Here on the west coast of Canada the weather is also doing its best wash away all of the horribleness – with a forecast for the foreseeable future featuring rain, rain, rain and even more rain.

As a result the occasional sunny days seem to be even more of a gift than usual – and we are sure to make the most of them. Here we walk along Island View Beach – above the strandline – marvelling at the huge logs that have been thrown up along the shore by the extra high tides.

Not only are these ocean-worn monoliths strangely beautiful in their own right, but it also seems that folks cannot resist the temptation to erect makeshift monuments from this un-looked for bounty on the beaches.

I thought that the gentle reader might perhaps like to peruse a few images of these driftwood dreams:

Tags: driftwood, rain, The sea, Walk, Weather, winter

Hush!

May 23, 2025 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

“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.

I 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.

Tags: nature, Photo, rain-forest, Spring, Summer, Walk

A winter walk…

January 19, 2025 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

…with friends – on a cold but sunny day at Island View Beach.

Enjoy!

Tags: Island View Beach, Photo, Vista, Walk, winter

Random images…

November 19, 2022 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

…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:

…and that mountain is still visible (though by no means so every day!)…

There is good, if somewhat nippy, walking to be done – in Centennial Park for instance:

“Two of us wearing raincoats
Standing solo in the sun
You and me chasing paper
Getting nowhere
On our way back home”

Lennon/MacCartney
The 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.

Cheeky bu**er!

Tags: Autumn, Fall, nature, Photo, Walk

Francis King Park

March 12, 2022 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

We are most blessed here in Greater Victoria with there being so many splendid places to walk. Amongst this number are included favourites such as: Centennial Park in Saanichton, Island View Beach, Elk and Beaver Lakes, Horth Hill, Gowland Tod, Thetis Lake, Witty’s Lagoon, John Dean Park and Bear Hill.

Last weekend we visited a new spot – Francis/King Park – the which comprises 265 acres of lush rain-forest. I thought you might like to see some pictures:

Tags: Photo, rain-forest, trees, Walk

Then came the rains…

January 3, 2022 in Life in BC | Permalink

…and washed the snow away.

But not before we went for a walk in a very snowy Centennial Park in Saanichton.

Just a few snaps – which were not that easy to take given that I was wearing two pairs of gloves to protect my aging hands against the icy wind-chill. Walking is fine; standing still is a mistake!

Tags: British Columbia, Photo, Snow, Walk, winter

Lucky break

November 12, 2021 in Life in BC, Photos | Permalink

Even during the wettest autumns there usually comes the occasional bright interlude. An alternative to getting out into the garden to slog one’s way through the many outstanding tasks there is to go for a nice walk instead.

To Gowlland Tod for example: