A horse with no mane...

Assembled horse deep in thought...

These equestrian wooden sculptures can be found on Mayne Island across from the Japanese Gardens.

Driftwood horses on the gallop...

Fantastic Shapes and Where to Find Them

Organic textures carved out by the ocean's forces...

Along the shorelines of the Gulf Islands, you'll find strange strange shapes and textures that have been carved out by the relentless forces of waves and water.

It's a characteristic of the soft sandstone and shale that makes up the islands.

A balancing act

A collection of cairns glow in the setting sun on Vancouver Island...

Airy aerie

Soon to making sweet sweet eagle love...

And speaking of eagles...

On Galiano Island a few months ago we spotted this pair of eagles "skree-ing" in a tree overhead as we were walking along the harbour waterfront.

It was just good luck that we turned and I happened to glance up another nearby tree to see this nest.

Soon to be the sight of eaglets...

An eagle's nest is known as an aerie. Typically they are constructed from large sticks and lined with moss, grass, seaweed, etc.

A typical nest can be as wide as ten feet in diameter and up to nine feet high. However, first year nests are usually smaller, and the nest size will increase each year as eagles re-use the nest and add sticks to it. So that would suggest that this nest is a newer nest.

Bald eagles are territorial. Breeding pairs return to the same nest site year after year.

Very large nests can weigh as much as 1000 pounds!

The Tree of Life

Brilliants shades of green...

We were walking along Parksville's boardwalk. The sun was low in the west. We passed under this tree. I glanced up and was struck by how it positively glowed on the sunlight.

A Flock of Eagles

A cloud appears above your head 

A beam of light comes shining down on you 

Shining down on you

-- "I Ran"

We tried to tempt this young eagle with a freshly dead crab. We tossed it over to him and s/he cautiously approached it and gave it a couple of exploratory pecks.

Maybe it was all the work involved to get at the meat when there were easier pickings about that deterred the bird.

BTW, a group of eagles is known more specifically as a "convocation" of eagles.

Beach buffet

While in Parksville recently we noticed dozens and dozens of bald eagles congregating on the beach. We walked over to investigate and discovered that they were digging some sort of fish out of the sand.

Unfortunately for the fish once the tide went out they were exposed to the eagle-eyed... uh... eagles unless they are buried quite deep. (The fish, not the eagles).

Sitting ducks for the eagles...

Mt Baker

Mt Baker seen from Vancouver Island...

It has been a long while since I stopped to admire Mt Baker from the top of our own mountain Malahat on Vancouver Island. It was a clear spring day last Friday and I decided to check out the view.

I lined the mountain up with the sign at the lookout but, if you want to see the real deal up close, check it out below.

Washington's Mt. Baker...

Exclusive

The surf clubhouse at Jordan River

The surfing at Jordan River has effectively ended for the season as the winter storms -- and their associated waves -- fade away. A rare spring surf day last week resulted in 70 people showing up. Far more than can reasonably be accommodated by the small spot so my surf pals gave up after a short time.

Jordan River has its own surf club who 'own' this clubhouse at the site. It includes storage for their boards as well as a sauna for the use of its members. You can only join the club through invitation. The few members that I know of are old timers who have been surfing out here for decades.

They aren't known for being inviting of newcomers and outsiders. And they barely tolerate SUPboarders like me. So I likely won't be offered a membership card anytime soon.

The buffalo don't roam

Buffalo block the road...

At Oregon's Wildlife Safari, the animals are free to roam while visitors are confined to their cars and must slowly drive through the compound...

... unless the animals decide to bring things to a stop. That's what these grazing bison did for about fifteen minutes as they paused in the middle of the road for some important bison business.

An amblin' lama...

The death of conspicuous consumption?

An apropos message in today's times...

In my Facebook feed recently was this quote:

The great irony coming out of all this is that the world's economy is in danger simply because people are only buying what they need. Think about that.

The COVID crisis has revealed just how flawed our First World consumerist lifestyle is with its emphasis on 'growth' where 'growth' is really just a euphemism for 'buy more useless s**t'.