These woods....

The other morning we had a very frosty one. 

The sun came out a bit and showed off the workings of cold and nature...

Look how sporty Jed looks!!

Ready for some duck hunting bud?

Another perspective on wabi sabi...the beauty of the decaying...acceptance of the imperfect...

I have a never ending fascination with moss...thick, thin, feathered, velvety, fluffy, trailing...

Remnants of the old farm that used to be here many years ago...

And then there are These Woods.

Growing up in Victoria I had a love for Garry Oaks.

There ecosystem is restricted to a small area on the Southeast part of our Island.

Nowhere else in the world do these gnarly, craggy ones grow...

The very bones of them in the winter, the loving dappled shade in the summer.

But for eighteen years when I lived in Sooke I had a relationship with the coniferous

evergreen forests that surrounded our house.

The deep, tall woods of the west coast are a spiritual place for me.

A free and open place of worship where quite often I was alone with my thoughts and prayers.

So now I think among these different beings...some tall, some short and scrubby. 

But a place like this is my tall drink of water in this sad and beautiful world.

I can sit and wonder and grow along with the moss and the lichen.

Invent my own stories of the things I find.

Like this simple wooden cross I found lying at the base of a big oak.

I wondered...what lies beneath?

So I propped it up against the great tree, stood up some of it's meaning again...

So I will wander these wiry meadows now.

They are new kin to get to know.

I find comfort when I drive up our road, past the subdivision, entering our block

 where the oaks still line the sidewalk-less street. 

Some parts around here were left to be.

For that I am grateful.

Still wondering whilst wandering...

(forgive the photos but my real camera is in the shop so the iphone will have to do for now)

I suppose I will always be a wanderer, dog or no dog.

With my wandering, hand in hand, is my wondering.

Late this afternoon, even though the weather is grey and drizzly,

I still feel the urge to get out.

The time for another dog is creeping up but hasn't quite caught up to me yet

so out I go anyway.

I'm fortunate to have found, in this new home, many places to walk...

You see my neighbourhood was once home to vast farmlands, of which some still remain...

In the shadows of development lie forgotten remnants of the fences

which once bordered many fields...

I wonder what this rotten wood kept in......or out.

I have yet to search the local archives but will one day venture into the files

of photos of days gone by. 

Our house was built in 1925 so perhaps it may appear in its early days along

with some other rural scenes of the area.

There was a family named Layritz who owned a very large parcel of land here...

At one time it became too much for the farmer and his wife they so graciously 

donated their property for parkland.

So many future generations have reaped the reward in the form of baseball and soccer fields, 

walking trails, bike trails and big wide open spaces, much needed in the throws of

land grabs for development.

And the birds...

...as well as the tiny mice, rabbits, reptiles, insects and woodland snails can call this place home.

Today I was lucky to find an empty shell in the field.

So I thank those who thought to be stewards of the environment.

They committed a most gracious act of conservation.