A White Christmas

Back to Alberta for a white Christmas this year!  I went out to walk the dogs with my parents on Christmas day.  It was a beautiful sunny day, and all of the snow had these beautiful ice crystals on top.  This formation is known as Radiation Frost or Hoar Frost, it grows on the snow surface when water vapor moves up through the snow on cold clear nights. 

Once in a lifetime

So, incase you missed it (which I almost did), last night there was a Lunar Eclipse which coincided with the winter solstice.  This is the first time this has happened in over 300 years.  So I went outside in the 33km/h wind and tried to get a good shot of this event.  With a crick in my neck and frozen hands I stood on the porch with my camera pointing strait up on the tripod, and watched the moon get swallowed by the earths shadow. And just as the last sliver of moon was about to disappear... the clouds rolled in and hid the whole thing.  None the less, here is a shot of what I did see.

Merry Christmas!

We got our first tree this year, so I set it up and decorated it on the weekend.  It's smaller and a little modest, but I love it!

I'm dreaming of a plaid Christmas...

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas, and so did Steve... although he didn't really have a say in it.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season, and enjoy the time with your friends and family!

Feline Friends

I was back in Alberta again last weekend visiting my friends Amanda and Amy, so I of course had to harass her cats with my camera.

These were taken shortly after I relinquished the spare bedroom to them before my departure.  Penny was so excited to be able to sit on "her" bed and peer out the window again.

And Weechee just curled up on the quilt, happy to have the bed back too.

And well, I just couldn't post cats on my blog without including my little man, Steve.  He also loves watching the world outside the window.

 On a completely different note:  I went downtown last week to take some photos at the Vancouver Island Brewery, for an article in The Martlet (<--- check out the shot and the article!!!).  I was leaving right around sunset, and the sky felt very close and heavy like it sometimes does in the fall.  It's hard to describe the feeling, and it was hard to capture it as well.  But I tried anyway!

Le Chat Noir

My boyfriend and I adopted a beautiful little kitten this week, through a local rescue called the Greater Victoria Animal Crusaders.  Chantelle, who dealt with our adoption, was excited to hear that we were interested in adopting a black cat.  She told us that it was very hard for them to place black kittens (a common problem for rescues and SPCA's through out North America).  This was something I was already aware of, and it played a part in my decision to look for a black kitten.  The Edmonton SPCA even had a one day event recently in which they gave away black cats for free because they had so many.  Besides that though, I find them beautiful, their coats are a beautiful silky black, and they look like little panthers running around your house! 

So my question then, is why don't people want these animals?

A common consensus in the online world seems to be a lingering superstition about black cats being evil, or bad luck. In Western history, black cats have often been looked upon as a symbol of evil omens, specifically being suspected of being the familiars of witches; other cultures consider them to be bad luck as well.  However, in other parts of the world black cats were seen as just the opposite: In Great Britain, black cats are a symbol of good luck. The Scottish believe that a strange black cat's arrival to the home signifies prosperity. Furthermore, it is believed that a lady who owns a black cat will have many suitors (I guess Allan had better watch out!).  Also sailors believed that having a cat on board, especially a black one, would bring good luck; sometimes their wives would keep them in their home in the hopes that it would protect their husbands at sea.  Pirates even had superstitions about black cats, thinking that if a black cat walked towards a person they would have bad luck, but if it walked away it was good luck, and if one were to walk aboard a ship, and then leave, the ship would sink on it's next sail.

So are people really still influenced by old folk lore?  I mean this stuff led to the massacre of black cats during the middle ages, which allowed the rat population to erupt, contributing to the spread of the black plague.

The only other reason I can think of, is that people may find cats with other markings and colours to be more interesting or beautiful.  One person even suggested that black cats are less visible in their pens at the spca.  Which is a good point, we call our little man Camo-Cat in the evenings because he blends into the shadows and our couch.  He'll be lucky if one of us doesn't sit on him at some point.

Either way, as you can see, this little man is adorable.  He is the most friendly, affectionate cat I have ever met.  He wants nothing more than to be in your company (he's sleeping in my lap right now), and he purrs as soon as you touch him, talk to him, or even look at him right.

I will most definitely be posting more photos as he gets bigger.  And hopefully if any of you ever decide to get a cat, you will consider that beautiful little panther, and please, please, PLEASE adopt.  There are so many deserving animals out there who just want a warm and loving home to call their own.

(For more info on black cats, check out the Wikki page)

Fall is Here!

Fall has come to our 'little' island, and I really love the fall here.  Nobody does it better than the rain forrest.  big yellow leaves the size of a dinner plate, pile up ankle deep.  It's amazing!  Sadly the salmon run has not happened yet, but I plan to head up to Goldstream when it does.  But for now here are some leaves.

 And some mossy branches.

While my Mum was visiting to help with our garden, we took a trip up to Ladysmith to visit some friends of hers formerly from Bragg Creek.  I had to try to photograph their beautiful orange tabbies, Miel and Cayenne.  Unfortunately there was very little light and they didn't take to kindly to the camera (they would rather a pet them a hold them).

 This was the best shot I could get (I believe this is Miel), it's not the sharpest.  

And this is their dog Tynda (not sure on the spelling).

Island View Beach

I went with my friend Brenden to Island View Beach earlier this month.  He was looking for wind to go kite boarding, I was looking for an opportunity to use my camera.  The wind failed him, but it was one of those overcast days my photography teacher would have told us was the best for shooting.  We pulled out our cameras and started climbing around in an old skeleton of a shack.  

The old and the new

I finally got to point my camera at some pups again this weekend!  My friend Devin came by to visit today with his handsome little boy Keiser.  The last time I saw him he was about a third of the size he is now (Keiser that is, not Devin).

 You can see why I couldn't wait to post these shots.

I love his squishy face!  And he's such a chill puppy.

Although he did get a case of the zoomies when he met Rosie, my boyfriend's parent's dog. She's much older and wiser then little Keiser, and played for a little bit, but soon had to tell him to settle down.  Anyway the visit reminded me of this great shot I got of Rose the last time she was here in July.

And then I found this shot too.  It has nothing to do with the dogs except that I took this photo the same day as the one of Rose.

This moth and I came to an agreement.  If he sat there quietly and didn't flutter around, I wouldn't squish him.  In fact, he was so good, I finished getting ready (he was in the bathroom), photographed him, then opened the window and let him out, without incident.  It was a pretty rare encounter if you ask me.

Sandcut Creek

As promised, here are the images from Sandcut Beach.  It gets it's name from Sandcut Creek, a creek that cuts through sandstone, running out of the woods, and tumbling onto the beach.  It's a beautiful and secluded beach.  We only saw two other people while we were down there.  This is probably because the trail to the beach is unmarked, there is however, a small gravel pull off marking where to start for those who are looking for it.

Here is the creek, cutting these beautiful formations into the sandstone.  There was a man sitting and reading a book beside the creek when we arrived.  he told us that the creek is completely different every time he comes down here, but always beautiful.

The water as it tumbles over the edge of the stone to the beach below.

I love the compressed perspective on this one.  The Olympic mountains are hidden behind a fog bank that blends into the sky, making it look like you can see to the horizon, but maybe the horizon isn't really that far.

The creek was very yellow.

There were actually two sets of falls, but this is the one to the right.  The water forms a pool where it hits the beach, but then disappears below the rocks and sand instead of running into the ocean above ground.

Mo' Fog

As we passed through the town of Sooke, on our way up to Sandcut Beach (pictures to come), we saw this big fog bank sitting on the water. This led me to pull over, and we wandered down to find this beautiful little marina.

There were some pretty damaged docks. I wonder if that happened during some of those crazy wind storms in the winter.

When we got down there, we saw these two seals hanging out together, and soon realized it was a Mom and baby.

The white one is the baby, we realized this when Mom started doing this weird floating thing with just her nose sticking out of the water. Then we saw baby just under the water, by Mom's belly. She was feeding baby.

The baby was pretty curious about us.

There's the fog bank I mentioned.

The timing on this one was great, the gull in the background took off as I was snapping a photo of his friend.

I got a little closer to the dock, but I would have liked to get right up there. It was pretty warped.

Just out the front door

I just had a friend in town for a few days. It was pretty rainy for the first part of his visit, and he didn't believe that there was a "mountain" out the front of our house. So I took Justin out to Mount Doug for a walk, to prove that it was there.

As we walked through the trees, a fog rolled in above us. It got thicker and heavier as we stood there marveling at it. Fog never quite looks as good in photos as it does in person... but I still gave it a shot (pun intended?).

It's pretty amazing to have a rain-forest so close to your house!