Life: It's not September unless I have pine needles in my hair.

[caffienekitty]

Early September is typically gorgeous for weather in this area, so I try to get out and harass re-connect with nature in some way. Often by driving somewhere with trees and wandering around for a while taking random pictures. This involves time and gas that I do not at the moment possess, so I've been putting it off.

I decided to take a half hour walk this morning. Two hours later I got back. Turns out that near where I live there's a little nature park with trails. \o/

A person who was just walking could probably cover the main loop in fifteen minutes, but I'm a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' walker, so I had to go back to the last branch each time and take the other trails. Also, I stopped a lot to take lousy pictures.



So, lots of berries still around on the bushes.

Oregon Grape

Red Huckleberry

Blackberry

Assorted Berries

There were also Rose Hips and some kind of white berries I don't remember the name of that isn't in the photos. I think lots of berries means an extra cold winter, but that's from out-dated Girl Guide knowledge, so really I have no idea.

There were trees and shrubbery and trails and sunshine and more trees.

Blurry Woods 360 degree turn

The... 'canopy' I guess it's called? Upper part of woods 360 degree turn

There was also a blurry squirrel.

See the squirrel?

All videos blurry because it's not actually a video camera. Also, I suck.

Here are some marginally better still pictures.

There were some exposed roots that looked completely innocent in the picture with the flash on...

... but went a little creepy and tentacle-y without the flash. So I made an icon of it *points upward*

And I played with the macrofocus thingy.

***SPIDER WARNING***

There was a full spiderweb across the path. Picture through here, because I know some people are easily freaked by spiders. I did some creative limboing and avoided disturbing it.

If a spider is in my house, I have a problem with it. If I'm outside, I'm in its house, and as long as it doesn't do anything to me, I try not to do anything to it.

No, there's no pictures of me limboing. :-P

***END SPIDER WARNING***

All this is right next to one of the busiest streets in town. (Not being particularly busy in the photo.)

Also I discovered I have a hole in my shoe, just big enough to let in lots and lots of gravel. :-P

And of course I returned home to Chaos having evil thought-bubbles at me.

"Where have you been? You smell like dirt and plants. Why are you not lavishing me with attention and treats? Do you want the couch shredded?"

Not a huge surprise to find wildlife and woods in the middle of town; we do have wild deer roaming downtown, so it's hardly a metropolitan area. It just looks like nothing at all from the outside and goes in a long ways. I drive past it several times a week, but never explored 'til I was walking today. It was a neat discovery today and I wanted to share. :-)

Comments

[charis-kalos.livejournal.com]

Oh, these photos are amazing. Some of the images of the trees are just breath-taking. They make me want to sing happy songs about creation. Thank you so much for sharing!

[havenward.livejournal.com]

Lovely photos! I really like the way you frame your shots, and the way the light plays through the leaves a lot of the time :) Also, as much as I hate hate spiders, the spider picture is really awesome. :D

[teithiwr.livejournal.com]

Wow, those pictures are wonderful! Looks a lot like the southern Finnish forest type, except, well, bigger. Those trees are so tall...

Wandering around the woods has always been one of my favourite things to do. You have such amazing scenery so near by!

[quettalinde.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the photos! It's hard for me to get enough to Pacific Northwest nature. I want to go out and do a hike of my own now, but I know I'm not going to because I'm lazy and have too little time before work. :(

[caffienekitty]

It's a very beautiful area, I just need to remember to stop and actually notice once in a while.

[caffienekitty]

The sun was great, and very cooperative in being in shot. I really lucked out on that spider web shot, it was hard to tell if the web was showing from the camera display.

[havenward.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine once told me that good photography was equal parts patience and luck. And while I don't really know what I'm talking about, you strike me as a very good photographer :D

[caffienekitty]

It's an illusion; these were just the ones out of all the ones I took that were okay enough to post.

[havenward.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, but I've been told that published photographers take thousands of photos, of which only a small number are ever seen, let alone used. ::stubbornly sticks to my opinion:: <3

[caffienekitty]

Looks a lot like the southern Finnish forest type, except, well, bigger.

According to what they tell us in elementary school, this area of BC is a 'temperate rain forest'. It's right around the 49th parallel, so warmer than Southern Finland, but South Finland is listed as "northern temperate", so probably qute similar tree and plant species.

You have such amazing scenery so near by!

Yeah, I just have to remember to stop and look at it once in a while! :-D

[caffienekitty]

I know how that is! And weekend time is so rare and there's so many things that need doing, but it's totally worth it to skive off a few hours of weekend chores to go walking. :-)

[teithiwr.livejournal.com]

Heh, oops. So, it's like Finland except um, a lot warmer. :D

[anniehow.livejournal.com]

Berries! Pretty!

So weird what you discover simply walking around near where you live, innit?

[quettalinde.livejournal.com]

I do shift work. I don't get weekends that coincide with Saturdays or Sundays. However, I'm totally skiving on my day off tomorrow, as long as it isn't raining. XD

[caffienekitty]

I do shift work. I don't get weekends that coincide with Saturdays or Sundays

Whoops. I should have clarified. I consider a 'weekend' to be any day that one is not required to be at work, not strictly "saturday and/or sunday". I've had 'weeks' that last over 14 days, myself. The definition needs some flex. :-D

However, I'm totally skiving on my day off tomorrow, as long as it isn't raining. XD

Good for you! Go if it's raining anyways; it keeps the flying/biting things away. :-)

[caffienekitty]

It's really surprising sometimes!

[quettalinde.livejournal.com]

I consider a 'weekend' to be any day that one is not required to be at work,

Ah, so my current personal definition of "weekend". Got it. Sorry.

Go if it's raining anyways;

But taking pictures won't be as easy and it's less fun to stand at bus stops when it's raining…. ;)

Wow

[(Anonymous)]

You do not suck:P I took a picture of Keisa and the flowers on my mom's dining room table today--that is about it. I really should go to the trail 2 minutes from here and take some pics too--but today I was feeling antisocial..lol Must fiddle with some of the weird effects on my camera too--wayyy too many to know...lol Thanks for the lovely photos though, and I love the tentacle roots:)

Sharon

[malevolent73.livejournal.com]

Your pics are very gorgeous. I love Chaos' thoughts of EVOL. People think I'm nuts if I tell them I walked alone in the woods in a park near here. So I just don't tell anyone. Ha! You've inspired me. Tomorrow, woods walking!

[dendritejungle.livejournal.com]

Oooo! Picspam! TREEEEEES!!!! *flappyhands* Even evil, tentacle-y ones! Also, I love that you took a picture of a hole in your shoe. :D

Re: Wow

[caffienekitty]

I kind of like the tentacle roots too. It was an unexpected pic.

[caffienekitty]

Chaos always looks like he's thinking evol thoughts. Hope your walk went well?

[caffienekitty]

I had to take the picture of the hole in the shoe. I couldn't believe it had got that big without me noticing before, but it's a hard thing to tell on pavement and carpetting.

[malevolent73.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I didn't get a chance to go. :( Ya know, life and my forgetfulness collide and I realize all this stuff I'm supposed to be doing besides walking in the woods. I'll get to it one of these days!

I have an aside question for ya, I've gotten the impression you're in Canada, although I don't know how close you are to Vancouver and you obviously don't have to tell me but I was wondering if you knew if the boys could conceivably be able to watch American football? I asked Smidgy and she said you guys get the Superbowl so she guessed they could watch other games but she doesn't really follow it at all and wasn't sure. Thanks! And sorry for hijacking your comments in order to appease my long standing curiousity. :)

[caffienekitty]

Unless they don't get cable tv for some reason, they could watch pretty much anything that airs on American TV. Vancouver is right near the border. We get all the networks as cable stations, and some of the sports channels too. Some of the American college games might be hard to find, unless it's the Rose Bowl or something like that. Actually if you go here and use a postal code from somewhere in Vancouver (V6T 2G3 should do, that's Point Grey, iirc) it will show you what the channels are, and anything airing on those, we get.

Now, whether they have time to watch football is another question entirely! :-D

[malevolent73.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's alot of freakin channels! LOL The way it works here is basically, games are mostly played on Sunday (That's why I thought they might have time to watch), and you get your local games only, for the most part. In order for me to watch any Dallas Cowboys game I have to pay extra to subscribe to some fancy sports package from my satellite provider (as I am in NY). So anyway, more than you wanted to know I'm sure *g* but thank you for the info!

[caffienekitty]

Wow, that's alot of freakin channels!

That's full cable, I think. They recently did away with 'Tier 1/Teir 2/Teir 3' cable packages and lumped em all together. I think only pre-existing clients have the original 'basic cable' of about 30 useful channels. Without cable most areas only get three or four Canadian channels and that's it.

So anyway, more than you wanted to know I'm sure *g* but thank you for the info!

No problem! :-)

[sandrinnad.livejournal.com]

oooooo, nice pictures!! and especially nice to find a woodsy walking place so near!

the white berries....snowberries? very white, often in clusters of 2 or 3, pop! when you step on them on a sidewalk?

I want to go for a walk now :D

[caffienekitty]

They weren't in clusers, I don't think, but they were very very white.