BC on my mind

I've been back from a trip to the Gulf Islands for a week now and I can't seem to get these images out of my head. So luckily I have a blog where I can post some of these images.
November is supposed to be off season out there - a dark, damp and rainy time.
I found that everything was just that much more intense (colour-wise), clean and fresh smelling. I had the opportunity to walk the woods for miles. I filled 2 gigs with digital images of what I came across. This is just a small sampling.

Majestic Douglas firs with the pacific ocean just on the other side of that ridge.


Forest floor with wild mushroom and arbutus berries

More forest colours

a deer skull

Weathered Douglas fir on the beach, or is it arbutus? not sure...

Forest mosses

This tree wears a moss sock

This is a growth bump on the trunk of an arbutus tree.

This is another arbutus 'bump'. Left to weather, it will eventually take on a more bark like surface, somewhat like this one below.

Arbutus trees continuously shed their bark. The forest floor is littered with coppery shavings of tree bark. This is stunning against the deep green of the mosses.

Here is a detail of a much older arbutus tree trunk

Beach wash up.

Wet Bull Kelp leaves held up to the sky.
When held up to the sky, this leaf reveals an amazing outline.

a section of this same bull kelp shown upside down - it's float bulb above and leaf branches below.

Closer inspection of this section shows the exquisite intertwining of leaf stands where they meet the float bulb.

Wet beach rocks. I could have spent all day arranging and re-arranging these...

Two eagles practising their manoeuvres.

This young eagle takes a breather.

This is a shot from on top of the island, overlooking the US Channel Islands.