SMOKY HAZE...

SMOKE by Henry David Thoreau ( 1817-1862) From his book "Walden" published in 1843. Thoreau was an American naturalist and author.

Light winged Smoke! Icarian bird

Melting your pinions in your upward flight;

Lark without song, and messenger of dawn

Circling above the hamlets as your nest;

Or else, departing dream, and shadowy form

Of midnight vision, gathering up your skirts;

By night star-veiling, and by day

Darkening the light...

and blotting out the sun;

Go  thou...

my incense

Upward from this hearth,

And ask the gods to pardon this clear flame.

Photographs 2026

 

MT. WASHINGTON RANGE

For the first time, a full view of Mt. Washington range from Campbell River,B.C. and looking south.

"You are not in the mountains. The Mountains are in you..."

                                                                                                                  -John Muir

"Mountains know secrets we need to learn..." -Tyler Knott

"In the presence of eternity, the mountains are as transient as the clouds..." -Robert Green Ingersoll

"May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. may your mountains rise into and above the clouds..." -Edward Abbey

"And into the mountains I must go, to lose my mind and find my soul..." - John Muir

“May your dreams be larger than mountains and may you have the courage to scale their summits.” - Harley King

“Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.” -Kahlil Gabran

44. “Although I deeply love other wild landscapes, it is only mountains that beckon me with that sort of painful magnetic pull to walk deeper and deeper into their beauty.” – Victoria Erikson

Photographs 2026

 

RAIN SWEPT...

RAIN in the COUNTRY by Margaret E. Sangster (1828-1912)

The rain fell like a song of hope on fields that had been dying.

It was a mother's loving kiss upon a wistful face.

                                

Tall trees that had been parched and dry 

broke into gentle sighing

And happiness lay like a smile upon the garden place
The house was very snug and sweet; the rain's kind slender fingers

Made magic on the sloping roof and smoothed the streaming pane.

                               

We lighted candles, slim and white, 

and, like a dream that lingers,

                               

They painted paths of drifting light 

against the silver rain.

The house was very sweet and snug.. its shadows caressing.

Yet for a moment we were swept away with sudden aching                              
For folk who do not understand....

that rain may be a blessing, who wander, shelterless, and sad,

                                 

across the rain-swept city.

Photographs 2026 Campbell River, B.C.

                      

 

NEW MOUNTAIN SNOW...

"In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in mean invincible summer..." -Albert Camus

"That's what winter is: remembering how to still yourself, and then come pliantly back to life..." -Ali Smith
              rainforest....Mist...quiet

"When there's snow on the ground, I like to pretend I'm walking on clouds..." -Takayuki Ikkaku

"Melancholy were the sounds on a winter's night..." -Virginia Wolf
 
“Snow was falling, so much like stars filling the dark trees that one could easily imagine
its reason for being was nothing more than prettiness.”

- Mary Oliver

In winter.......look up , far up, into the mountains...

"It was a black and white day of frost..." -Robert S. Hichens

                                       

“Christmas ghosts visit

rearranging emotions
tears waltz among smiles”
- Susie Clevenger

         "There is a wilder solitude in winter..."-May Sarton

                                     

“Rain-diamonds, this winter morning, embellish the tangle of unpruned pear-tree twigs; each solitaire, placed, it appears, with considered judgment, bears the light beneath the rifted clouds—the indivisible shared out in endless abundance.” —Denise Levertov

"I am a book of snow, a spacious hand, an open meadow, a circle that waits. I belong to the earth and its winter..." 

                                                             -Pablo Neruda

Photographs 2026 Mt Washington range February 2026, Campbell River, B.C.