Saturday, September 29, 2012

Our Favourite Trail, Edith Point

We like to invite our guests that visit Mayne Island to come on our favourite walk out to Edith Point.

There are three trails that go out to the point... all on private property.  We all went out on the Middle Trail, which is wider with gentle ups and downs.

Geoff caught this cute photo of Marci and Shirley in a fun pose.

As we got near to the Point we went off the Middle Trail to the Outside Trail and walked the last few minutes beside the ocean where we often can watch sea life.  The tide was out... and a sea gull was looking for opportunities.

Marci was happy to get to the Point and welcomed the chance to sit down... where she slid into laying down for a little rest.

This massive rock at the Point looks a bit like a natural sculpture of a sea lion with it's head missing.

There are lots of huge rocks, worn with the wind, water and storms... and with a little imagination one can see many different natural sculptures of animals.  Do you see the smiling face?

I always enjoy exploring around on the weather worn rocks.

Shirley visits with Geoff and Marci Paynter as they sit around on the rocks... solid comfort!

The owners of the Edith Point property built their house at the point by bringing in most of the building supplies by barge... there is no vehicle access to the house... just an ATV wide trail.  The sub-trades had to walk in to work... or bring some tools and stuff by ATV and wagon.

As we were leaving the Point an Arbutus tree provides a colourful background for a photo.

Several Garry Oaks struggle to survive at Edith Point, where the exposure to the winter storms takes it's tole.

On the way back we left the trail to explore in the rocks along the shore line.  I always try to look for messages in the rocks... I think the little holes contain a code to decipher.   This almost looks like a map of the Unites States and the border between Canada, with major cities shown by the holes.

Marci and Shirley went back on the same Middle Trail we came out on... but Geoff and I went back on the Inside Trail... which goes past the owners entry gate and follows the shoreline about 80 to 100 feet above sea level.

Close up photos of house number and fish on the gate.

There is certainly an abundance of arbutus trees along the trail.

We took several photos of the seals and sea lions basking in the sun and playing around on the rocks and in the water.  I think we counted 10 to 12 of them.

A couple of seals enjoying each other.

When we got back from the Edith Point walk we took our friends to the lighthouse at Georgina Point... and got another chance to take photos of seagulls and seals.

Saturday, September 1, 2012

Once in a Blue Moon

My son told me that he was missing my blog posts... hadn't seen one in quite a while.  So I thought that once in blue moon I could do another post.  As it turned out, last night we had the rare opportunity to see a blue moon.


I awoke in the night and the moonlight was streaming thru the skylights in our bedroom.

So I went out on the deck with my camera on a tripod and spent the next 15 minutes trying to get a decent shot of this baby.  In the end the photo I liked best was taken in 1/2500th of a second at f5.6 with an 80- 400 mm Nikon lens at full zoom.

This was taken with my favourite Nikon zoom 18-200 zoom lens... with just a single exposure on auto. Also at f5.6 but for 1.6 seconds... hence the over exposed moon.

Can anyone tell me how this happened?

It makes no sense to me... but was kind of a cool shot, eh?