Story time

The last few days have seen Bev and I revisiting some old sites and tramping over new ground.  The one thing that really struck me was how many of these sites could have been inspiration for an authors who delighted me as a child - Thornton Burgess, A.A. Milne, Beatrix Potter.  See if you agree.

All the woodland creatures are warned about the mossy tree at the center of the
forest - particularly when the moon is full and he can roam the woods for the night,
grabbing at children who are late coming home.
Bowen Park, Apr 25

 

A fitting home for Chatterer the Red Squirrel or Sammy Jay.
Bowen Park, Apr 25

Hansel and Gretel were no doubt leary of ducking under branches like this to
find themselves in the dark of the forest.
Bowen Park, Apr 25

A fitting home for Jimmy Skunk or Bambi's 'Flower"
The Ravine - Apr 26

The road to Farmer Brown's garden.
Nanaimo River Estuary, Apr 29

Peter  Rabbit's Briar Patch dead ahead.
Nanaimo River Estuary, Apr 29

Bambi and Felina's thicket could be just beyond that log.
Nanaimo River Estuary, Apr 29

Along Laughing Brook
Nanaimo River Estuary - Apr 29

Lazy Day

A sun-soaked morning totally sapped the energy of Bruce's office assistant - he slacked off all day and I don't believe he budged from this chair until it was time for Bruce's nap.  Murray can, at least, be counted on to remind Bruce of that item on the daily "to do" list.

Bowen Park

I didn't have my camera on the day we walked Piper's Lagoon beside the ocean, which is too bad because the water sparkled like mad.  Crazy wind and unsteady rocky footing made for challenging walking .. my legs sure felt the workout.  I promise you pictures next time we're there.

The next day . the 19th .. we went to Bowen Park, thinking to take it a bit easier.  We knew the pathways would be wider and better maintained and it didn't disappoint.  It did, however, give us a chance to really get out and move.  Our normal chat was punctuated heavily with gasps for air.  Pungent air.  I have now been introduced to Skunk Cabbage and even though I could forego a prolonged acquaintance with it, it did provide a nice margin for the webpost today.  Now that's how to make lemonade from lemons!

Bowen Park is one of the two major city parks, well maintained by the Nanaimo Parks people.  The first year I was here, I coached a dragon boat team from the City and one of the ladies of The Wave Babes designed all the flower beds for the parks throughout the city.  I'm still impressed. 

Speaking of dragon boats, I will be involved with KVL Kruisers again this year, although not paddling with Bastion Dragons.  I'm hoping to get some more outrigger time on the water with Bruce and his Huliguns.  I'll be designing a weblog for them as well, so I'll be sure to post you a link for that in case you care to peek at it.

Here's some more pictures from the Bowen Park excursion.

The stream wended its way around rock, through trees and brush,
past roads, and under bridges both manmade and natural.

The Mirkwood springs to life.  This pathway totally reminded me of a Tolkein forest
with its graspy bony fingers reaching for unwary travellers.

My favorite shot of the day.  Click to open and enjoy a larger size.
This is just upstream from the waterfall above, which is formed on the left side of this photograph

Catching up

The sun struggles to pop through the cloud layer to brighten our days, and occasionally it succeeds.  Spring has been a mixed bag, weather wise, with more than a few zephyrs clocking in at speeds too high to put a small craft on the water.  Bruce recruited me for paddling last weekend, but we ended up having to call off practice due to high winds.

My camera has still been in use .. I'll poke through the mish-mash ...

April 15

Robin's Den playpark is situated on the Linley Valley walkway system and is the entry point for our way today.   Basically, it;s a small kids playground located in a cul de sac .. but behind it is some pretty fantastic and challenging walking.  Keith managed to lose one of his cute little leather and sheepskin shoes on this walk, so we traversed this terrain twice. Good news .. we found it!

The pathway starts out quite smooth ...

... gets a bit more challenging ...

Ooops .. roadblock!

April 16

Front flower beds weeded and new flowers appreciated.

Late afternoon sunlight promises some great patio times ahead.

The white and pink Pieris bells race each other in an attempt to fill the hedge with their own colors. 
I can watch this competition as often as they care to put it on.

Aunt Sandy .. I think you asked about Pieris in an email.  Here is what Wikipedia has to share ...

Pieris is a genus of seven species of shrubs in the family Ericaceae, native to mountain regions of eastern and southern Asia, eastern North America and Cuba. Known commonly as andromedas or fetterbushes, they are broad-leaved evergreen shrubs growing to 1–6 m tall. The leaves are spirally arranged, often appearing to be in whorls at the end of each shoot with bare stretches of shoot below; they are lanceolate-ovate, 2–10 cm long and 1-3.5 cm broad, leathery textured, and with an entire or serrated margin. The young leaves in spring are typically brightly coloured. The flowers are bell-shaped, 5–15 mm long, white or pink, and arranged in racemes 5–12 cm long.

And now you know what I know.