From Campbell River, B.C.......
"The morning wind forever blows, the poem of creation is uninterrupted; but few are the ears that hear. Olympus is but the outside of earth everywhere..." - Thoreau (1817-1862)
From the Coast mountains....
Above Discovery Passage and Quadra Island....
"So here hath been dawning another blue day..."
-Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
To the Mt. Washington Range inland.
And its snow in winter.
"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light....." -An Old Astronomer to His Pupil
It's a marshmallow world...
In my back yard....every day in winter........
"O world, I cannot hold thee close enough! Thy mists that roll and rise..."-Edna St. Vincent Millay
On such a January day as this.......
"To me the sea is a continual miracle, the fishes that swim, the rocks, the motion of the waves...."-Walt Whitman
Photographs 2019
"Hark , now hear the sailors cry, smell the sea,and feel the sky,let your soul and spirit fly,into the mystic....." - Van Morrison.
One of the best place to watch the sea planes land is at Tyee Spit.I love the Spit. It's a comfortable place. A quiet place. Except for the planes....
You can feel the wind whipping as they coast in. Thrilling.
At the edge of the Passage sea walk, Coast mountains rise up. The ocean is darker, more dense, a little more wild. But the Coast Mountains of the mainland keep it balanced.
While the bay at Willowpoint churns like a washing machine. This is where I find my best sunsets. They blaze across the sky like fireworks depending on the season. Winter is my favourite time.
The Canadian flag flaps gustily at the boat ramp. There are houses leaning right into the wind. Wind that howls. Waves that churn.
And the Eagles watch. And fish. All up and down the sea walks.
They shriek equally well from the Spit to Willowpoint. I like to watch them best from the Spit.
Empty benches dot the Sea walks. Some are memorials to children lost. Some hold teddy bears and stuffed animals who live their year round.
B
ack at the Spit planes land in droves. One after another.
And the people walk. And walk....
Tyee Spit is a cape where bird sightings are incredible: turkey vulture, eagle, rock pigeon,white crowned sparrow, Great Blue Heron and......
.....
the Towhee,Marbled Murrelet,Caspian tern, Flycatcher...
If bird watching isn't enough, the salmon fishing is equally amazing. The Tyee Club of British Columbia has been around since the 1920's.
In 2013 a fisherman caught an almost 62 pound Chinook salmon. Almost as tall as he was.
Or you can sit on one of those many benches, photograph the comings and goings.
And watch the eagles watching you.
"There was a magic about the sea. People wanted to swim in it,play in it, look at it...." -Celia Ahern, ( The Gift)
Photographs 2018, Discovery Passage, Tyee Spit, Campbell River Boat launch, Willowpoint
"LONDON SNOW" by Robert Bridges (1844-1930) (excerpts)
When men were all asleep the snow came flying, in large white flakes falling on the city brown.
Silently sifting and veiling road, roof and railing; hiding difference, making uneveness even,
All night it fell, and when full inches seven it lay in the depth of its uncompacted lightness,
The clouds blew off from a high and frosty heaven
And all woke earlier for the unaccustomed brightness of the winter dawning, the strange unheavenly glare.
Marvelled at the dazzling whiteness
The ear hearkened to the stillness of the solemn air;
No sound of wheel rumbling nor of foot falling,
Then boys I heard, as they went to school, calling; they gathered up the crystal manna to freeze their tongues with tasting....
O look at the trees.
When now already the sun, in pale display
Standing by St. Paul's dome, spread forth below
His sparkling beams, and awoke the stir of day
Their minds diverted; the daily word is unspoken
The daily thoughts of labour and sorrow slumber
At the sight of the beauty that greets them,
For the charm they have broken......................
Robert Seymour Bridges was Britain's poet laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor first, he became famous in his latter years. His deeply Christian faith is apparent in everything he wrote. He also wrote many well known Hymns.In 1929 he wrote "A Testament to Beauty" to celebrate the life of his daughter Margaret, who died that year.
Photographs from Mt. Washington Range and the Coast Mountains of Discovery Passage, Campbell River, B.C. 2018
"London Snow" from A Treasury of Great Poems, NY 1942
