Midori visiting Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. We took her with us for the long weekend. She’s actually a great traveler, despite what turtle books say about changes of scene causing stress. She loves looking out the window when the car is moving. Dunno what the heck she sees. . .
NOTE: We’ve had ‘Dori for nearly 25 years, and we do not recommend turtles as pets. They require care and attention like any living thing, and because she’s a wild animal and not native to BC, we have permits from the government.
Yeah, I know, invasive red-eared sliders are all over the place, and that’s precisely the point. Either you take care of it for 25+ years, or don’t get one and then dump it, eh?
I had a one-day break in my schedule, so I took advantage of the last quiet week before summer holidays kick in for a night of camping up the Sea to Sky.
There something about the Pemberton area that often results in dramatic skies
Got the tarp up in preparation for a forecast of rain. Had a few claps of thunder in the evening, and a bit of drizzle. The rain kicked in more heavily early this morning, so I just rolled everything up and stuffed it into a heavy duty garbage bag to dry at home.
Rambling around Duddingston Loch in Edinburgh last month. Lovely walk, old stone walls, Dr. Neil’s Garden, Duddingston Kirk, and some geese, swans, and pheasants.
At one point when we were unsure as to how to get to one of the places we wanted to see, a friendly woman noticed our apparent confusion, opened a gate, and led us there. Wonderful!
Old stone walls that went on for kilometers
Remnants of a horse-drawn railway dating to 1831
When I saw this chain on the church wall I joked that it was for sinners. Turns out I wasn’t off the mark. . .
An oddity found in Edinburgh last month — a statue of Abraham Lincoln in a small, old cemetery we chanced upon. It’s dedicated to Suffrage, Emancipation, and Scots who served in the US Civil War.
The famous Naruto whirlpools and the Onaruto Bridge in Japan. These shots are from back in April this year. Unfortunately we missed the peak whirlpool tidal action by about half an hour.
As someone who is not that great with heights, this was quite the exercise in willpower for me .
A few rusty treasures unearthed while cleaning and organizing our utility room today.
On the left, a massive old door stop, gleaned from the site of a former farm on Byrne Creek just a few minutes walk from our place. (All part of a municipal park for decades now. . .)
On the right, a spike from the late, lamented, electric Interurban tram line that ran near our place and all the way out to Chilliwack before it was sadly decommissioned with the rise of cars and highways.
What a loss!
I hear that the teeny Powerhouse Creek that runs a few dozen meters out our back gate and into Byrne Creek was thus named for having a steam-powered electrical generator for the Interurban back in the day. The wee creek taps an underground aquifer that runs to this day. . .
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