Duncan’s Totem Poles

Duncan celebrates its origins on native territory by including totem poles carved by traditional carvers in its city panorama. Each carving shows the style of the individual artist but much of the subject matter and the way it is pictured comes from way back  history. Several totem poles may be set in groups and single totem poles can be seen in front of buildings or greenery or parking lots. That type of distribution shows on some old photographs of native villages (minus parking lots) as well.  Here are some of them beginning with a group photo.

A totem pole walk in Duncan’s small downtown area shows most of them and come spring summer is both interesting and enjoyable.

The next pole, a little off the beaten track, shows this art media’s relevance as a recorder of modern history and is one of my favorites.

Except for one or two poles they may all be viewed in full color on my Flickr site here and here.

 

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weather

Hi again!

A mere 162 days till summer.

tidal pools and more

Sombrio Beach, 10 km south of Port Renfrew, is in the picture today. During August that place just gets into a fog. If staying there for any amount of time you may want to get off the beach back onto the road so far above where the ocean is. The ocean from up there is hidden by a flat layer of white cloud one can look down upon (like in a plane sometimes). From down below it is the fog that mostly hides the sun but not totally. The light changes minute by minute according to the way the sun can get through.
Tidal pools are definitely an attractive feature of this part of the beach.

There is a lot of tiny life in these pools. Mostly those critters are only noticed as they move. A video camera may show these crawling creepers where as I with my camera do not get close enough. There is larger activity as well as shows in the following two photos.

On this particular day there were mostly five minute openings where the fog parted to show that there is sunlight beyond that cloud.

The light changes continually as the haze swirls.

These people, walking the Juan de Fuca trail, just now descended on Sombrio one of the many beaches along this trail. Every beach has a different look and feel from the ones next to it with some of them to mystical or beautiful for words. Sombrio fits in very nicely with some of the finest on this coastline.

The Port Renfrew Affair

As life moves us and changes day by day, as it always does, and I get a renewal notice from WordPress that the annual 25 bucks is due again for showing my nice address, this blog may be put to a (perhaps for the time being) stop. It is just that there is not much alone time these days and that is when I do my photographing. Under those circumstances it is fine to maintain a Flickr site but as far as my blog goes there hasn’t been enough time to maintain it right for quite a while. So unless things change once again there may be a few more posts before it all winds down on this website.
At any rate my wife, Frankie, and I needed to get some coolness, sea air, and sea breezes, and for that we went to the west coast of this island. The east coast’s sea, which I live on, is kind of like an inland sea and has a totally different feel, temperature, and smell to it. We drive straight across the Island on what used to be logging roads. I remember these main logging roads being closed to the public during the week. One time as I was exploring there during the off limits time on my trusty 400cc Honda two fully loaded logging trucks sandwiched me in. Eating dust and with a few inches to spare front and back between my bike and the trucks it took me 10 to 15 km to extricate myself from that embrace. I have been more careful with those truckers ever since. Yes there was adventure when driving these roads less than 20 years ago but now the road is nicely paved.
One tree I like to show is a gigantic spruce. When the treeists brought in their legions to cut down every tree they could find, one tree was left. This was during the “forests forever” days and that phrase was turning sour when I arrived here in the sixties. There must have been some worries about that big old spruce wanting to escape because there is a fence around it now and it isn’t going anywhere.


The beach most easily accessible in Port Renfrew is Botanical Beach. Even though there are tidal pools here it is not really the best beach for tidal pools. Sombrio Beach, among the easy to access beaches around Port Renfrew, is nicer for that. Botanical Beach is at the end of the Juan de Fuca trail and right above it starts the West Coast Trail. Here is one photo to show where I approached that beach this time. What I like about this photograph is its westcoastness.
At the water’s edge stands the Port Renfrew Hotel. The hotel burned down some years ago. I stayed there a few times every year from the early seventies till the mid nineties of the past century. Mostly the finishing inside out was cedar but the walls between the bedrooms were paper thin and every sound from the next room could be heard like it was happening in your own bed which, by the way, creaked at the tiniest body movement. One night I listened to my neighbours fighting and swearing, physically fighting, during the first half of the night. During the second half they made up and out. The bar below the bedrooms could be heard as well. Close your eyes and you’d think your bed was in the bar. The separate bathroom had a humongous bath in it and all that, everything in the rooms and bathroom was always spotlessly clean, for $25 per night. Of all the hotels I have stayed in this one is among my favourites. After the fire the place was rebuilt. The second floor with the rooms is now history and the main floor has become a canteenlike pub and a dining room, just those two areas. Ceilings go up now to the roof. Overall the rebuilding has been done nicely especially the preservation of the outside looks.


Port Renfrew and area is known as Victoria’s playground (not as in Victoria the lady but as in Victoria the capital of British Columbia). The area is as beautiful here as anywhere along the Vancouver Island west coast. It gets of course very busy with people on beautiful days but when the sun disappears even for a short time the people tend to disappear as well and that is when I start thinking about visiting Port Renfrew and its beaches.

Revisiting a Chemainus Statue

A few years ago I showed a statue here and wondered about its repair. Well here is the 2014 overhauled site.

It is a bit of a reorganization born from necessity for this site on Heritage Square, but pleasing enough a summer scene. However the story is no longer totally clear as the lantern bearer has left probably fed up with waiting or the colonies. At any rate once he lost his hand and lantern there really was no reason for him to stick around.

Jelly Fish Embracing

Hello, I would like to share this in case it is new to you as well. I have seen jellyfish on different seas from frighteningly nasty to pacific, but up till now I have not seen them embrace, but they do it. Here they are.

As an illiterate in the jellyfish department I wonder about the color difference between the two: different races, sexes, or excitements?

Downtown Vancouver

Being without a computer for a few months is a little like some divorces: it is both good and bad. However now that I’m back on line it is definitely time to show a few photos again.
I visited Vancouver in British Columbia a few days ago. It was a gorgeous day for a stroll through the downtown area. Even though public transportation here is fine, it could be said that downtown Vancouver is made for walking. There is always so much to look at. It’s a city for people watching, but besides that I keep my eyes also on the great architecture that runs rampant here. The old and the new freely and tastefully intermingle.

On another note I still photograph for my Duncan 2014 project. The other day the pickup truck was missing in front of this little building so that it could finally be photographed. If my memory serves me right the bookstore inside it opened its doors in the early seventies.

145-147-149 Kenneth Street

I’m glad to be able to show a few photographs again and hope you enjoyed this walk.

Recording Duncan

Here is the continueing story from the post before this one. At that time I walked around town very early in that dark night. Clicking away with my phone camera set me to thinking, the way I think so often, about photographing everything as a record for the future. Different cities around the world have these type of photographs in their archives, the ones that you stand in front of the building photograph and move on to the next.
For this post I started photographing about half an hour before the oficial sunrise. The closer I came to sunrise and going beyond it, the more the natural light interfered with the colors I wanted.
I’m showing a few of the same buildings photographed in the post before this one.

So these are a few of the storefronts that light up Kenneth Street. The new construction shows what kind of development is in the planning for this area. It’s a shame that the downtown core, about 6 blocks down to the railroad track, cannot be preserved for posterity in the mid of future tall steel and concrete development that will dwarf even city hall’s tower.

I like to show a building one block over. This building, even though with history, cannot be long for this world. Nothing pretty it’s just old. Across the road from it was Duncan’s Chinatown. The building housed the Chow Brothers convenience store. The store had a little of everything, a great comic and magazine section, and single cigarettes. Closing its doors coincided with the beginning of Duncan’s new era of growth, renewal, change.

Nothing like an invigorating early morning walk through Duncan with its very cool air. I have cold hands to show for it. Glad you came along and hope to see you soon again.

More images of this project are being uploaded to my Flickr Duncan set of photogaphs.

Duncan very early one morning

This post has a bit of an introduction to it. While my mother was in palliative care I spent a lot of time with her. First of all The staff at Sunridge Place that was involved with the care for my mother and the family around her needs to be complimented and thanked for the care they provided and the kindness and love they portrayed to us. Their care was both professional and, at times, beyond any call of duty.

When possible I used to go out early in the morning to get some cool fresh air. Mostly it’d be pitch black, but some days those mornings were close to sunrise. As it was in Duncan city, I couldn’t help but give my attention to all the little store fronts. They are small historic jewels very slowly replaced by humongous concrete boxes since the needs of the town grow. As I am not fond of night camera apps the HDR app on my phone was put to use again and seeing the results was a pleasant surprise.

What you can make out here is the First Memorial Chapel. Before its present function the building was Duncan’s first Catholic church.

Here are a few of the store fronts in the dark. Over the years these buildings have had different businesses occupying them without much visible change to the buildings themselves.

Daylight is making itself known as I wander back to my resposibilities passing by city hall.

This exercise calls for a follow up with camera and tripod in the near future. Thank you for walking with me.

Light

Final photographs pertaining to winter I took the other morning. It was the light that lured me out before even having coffee. Mostly these photos are right from the phone. Except for one or two needing straightening they didn’t need editing since they pretty well show what I saw.

Thanks for being here with me to see the end of winter. It is almost time now to venture farther from home with camera in hand, so who knows where we meet next time. Take care.