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| This cedar is on one of my favourite bike rides. This elder could be up to a thousand years old, with a life span of up to 2 or 3 thousand. |
After almost a decade in this location we are in the process of saying goodbye to friends.
One reason we moved here from the city was to be surrounded by wilderness, to experience a landscape and everything living in it more than we ever had before. We had the time to explore and followed every little whim.
Because of this mandate we made friends with a lot of trees.
Here are a few of the gentle giants that we had the privilege and pleasure of meeting.
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| This big douglas fir had a large banana slug sleeping in its deeply furrowed bark. |
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| This massive cedar is one of very few surviving members of the primordial forest that once blanketed this land. It is humbling to stand next to it. |
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| This old growth sitka spruce is several hundred years old. It lives close enough to the crashing surf and salt spray of the Pacific ocean that it can be heard and felt from this location. |
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| We will miss our forest friends, but look forward to making new ones in the Acadian Forest. |
What a privilege to have spent time in the presence of these wondrous beings. To think of what they have witnessed on this planet is mind blowing!
ReplyDeleteMiss Marla,
DeleteYup. They saw us come, and they might see us go.
Beautiful! What an amazingly wonderful planet we live on. Thank you for sharing these pictures with us.
ReplyDeleteKaren,
DeletePlease do check out our other blog that is all about the Pacific Rainforest that we have had the privilege to live in for the last nine years.
You can link to Vancouver Island Big Trees by scrolling down our side bar on the right.
Magnificent trees! I'll bet the air there is wonderful. So sad to have to say goodbye.
ReplyDeleteClamco,
DeleteYou are so right - the air is divine, and this time of year it invokes frequent moments of olfactory ecstasy.
Stunning trees, photographs and people! I'm awe struck.
ReplyDeleteI relate intimately to saying goodbye to places. Closure is profoundly important.
I'm not a religious person, but there is something about quiet spaces in nature; a peaceful perspective, worthy of great respect, a calm-ness and understanding like no other place. I'm not getting out there enough...thinking on that.
Terri
Terri,
DeleteI have had more peak experiences in nature than anywhere else.
Oh, one more thing, I thought of this quote from "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance"
ReplyDelete"There is something about places like this that raises your spirits a little
And makes you think things will probably get better."
I listened to most of this book on tape some years ago. The reader read that line from the book with such expression, I rewound the tape and listened to it several times. I wrote it down as a quote as I have felt that way often when I am in nature far away from man made stuff.
Terri
Terri,
DeleteThat is a great quote. Thanks for sharing. There really is nothing quite like being in the wilderness for extended periods of time. Although we haven't recently, Linda and I used to spend weeks at a time away from civilization while camping out of vehicles or out of backpacks.
Those experiences of living close to nature had the effect of raising our spirits permanently.
Former avid solo car camper, and a little backpacking experience when I can get someone to go. (I don't backpack alone.) Again, I'm not getting out there enough just yet.
ReplyDeleteKindred souls, thanks Gregg.
Terri
Terri,
DeleteAnywhere I have backpacked has been in bear and cougar country, so solo trips aren't without risk. I have not done many.
I have done some awesome solo trips on motorcycle, in a 1969 Mustang, and an old Chevy van.
So free out there.