Looking at my previous post which was quite awhile ago when the Olympic Torch passed through our local community. It actually started in Victoria, BC and was quite impressive, then traveled across the country and to parts far north.

People became quite emotional about it and the Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, BC turned out to be a tremendous success with Canada winning the most gold medals after having had two Olympics on our soil without having won even one gold prior.

More than that though it gave us inspiration and a coming together in this spirit. Even our Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, attended the games and many events. Of course some were saying that is why he prorogued Parliament so he could spend a nice vacation there and enjoy the spillover effects.  Yes he is a hockey fan like many Canadians, yet mostly an opportunist.  Well we won’t let that kind of stuff interfere with the good times that happened during the games and that transcended the mundane aka politics.

All right then(now) I managed to make it up Mt Doug again, quite a few times recently, and revisited the seaside park side as well.  So I have a few pictures to share.

If you are feeling a bit crabby, I found a mate for you:

After turning it over from under a rock it was ready for me and in attack mode.

I found the leaning tree again.  It is amazing how it is still standing.  Most of the bank, where the roots stick out from, has eroded away.

I got quite close to this fellow who was pecking away without paying any attention to me.  All that pecking was doing some major damage to the tree of course.

I also caught someone else in the “act” so to speak. Well some of these need assistance in breeding their offspring. Nature, unlike most humans, does not care who is looking at them.

Yes, spring is in the air and on the land in this fair place.  I reckon we got a fair bit of heaven here.

Well, that is it for today, as I say, more to come.

Best wishes to you.

Eugene

Some time ago, I posted 10 Minutes To Creating Whatever You Want In Life. That is a simple step by step way to do it and I had success with doing this daily.  It really works.

Some will say that it is too simple. Well simplicity is the key as is repetition, over and over again along with a desire to do so.  I imagine you have heard about The Secret and the Law of Attraction.  All of this is part of an overall philosophy.  You can adapt any of this to use to create what you want in life.  Or do nothing.  YOU and only you, DECIDE.

I believe there are no gurus and you are the one to take the initiative to create the life you want. That includes no sitting on the mountain top.  Sure you can meditate and become involved in a spiritual journey.  Ultimately it is you who decides what that journey will be, and even if you listen to someone else, they cannot live it.  They may come along for the ride but it is your journey.

Along the same philosophy is something called Mind Movies.  Mind Movies can be made to assist you in creating what you want.   I was introduced to this sometime last year.  It is an interesting concept.  Check out the movie and get 6 Free Mind Movies now.  Use them daily for at least 30 days and longer is what I suggest you do.  Hey, it is FREE, what have you got to lose?  Sometimes the best things in life are free.  You can easily fit 5 or 10 minutes into your day.  Just decide to do so.

I mentioned that for the Canada Day celebrations in Victoria, BC one of the performing groups was Pacifika, Pacifikamusic and they were really good and well received by the large crowd on hand.  I did a pictorial video of them, the crowd and some scenes.  Here is the result.  I hope you like it:

This is the first, my first, YouTube – ing creation so it is a bit rusty and I could not quite manage to get the shot I wanted above. I showed this to one of my daughters and she said “Those are great shots! I like the music- it’s so relaxing ”  And my granddaughter said “Cool”.  My other daughter said “I got the pictorial vids.. they looked great. Nice to see Victoria through your eyes.”

A little bit of fireworks at the end.  I did another pictorial video on the fireworks but have not uploaded it, not sure I will.  Here is one photo of the fireworks:

Some of the pictures came out quite psychedelic, purely by accident of course.

Back to Pacifika, a lot of fireworks there!. The lead singer is Silvana Kane, originally from Peru who landed in Quebec and did not know the language and is now living in Vancouver.  Awesome, sexy,vibrant,sensual and a definite crowd pleasing performance.  Oops losing my train of thought again.  I cannot figure out why.

One last picture and has become a favorite of mine, not quite sure why.

Anyway, it was a great day celebrating Canada Day here in Victoria, BC.  Got to love this place, everyday I am grateful for just being, and being here.

Cheers,

Eugene

aka Gene

It is a beautiful day here in Victoria, BC Canada.  Canada is officially 142 years young today.

Lots of celebrations going on all across the nation.  Wishing all the Canucks a Happy Canada Day.

Celebration brings up the subject of music for me. Music transcends the mundane and uplifts us.   Canada has a history of producing some great musicians, poets, writers, performers etc.  I will post a few later on.  Just a sampling as there are too many to list.

In our capital city of Ottawa, Sarah McLachlan is performing today.  Here in Victoria one of the performers is Pacifika from Vancouver featuring a Peruvian born singer I first heard on CBCradio2.

It is impossible to  pick and choose the best one with such a rich list of artists with the likes of Neil Young, Anne Murray, Leonard Cohen, Burton Cummings, Randy Bachman, Céline Dion, Shania Twain and so on.  There are many newer artists up and coming and who have arrived on the scene. Some move on to the USA and other countries and many choose to remain “Canadian” maintaining their connection with the country of Canada.

As a nation we are generally tolerant and takes things in stride and rarely shout about this great land of ours.  It is a natural beauty.

I like to view the natural settings we have, when I take time to do so, such as a recent photo I took.

I will leave you with one of Canada’s finest, Gordon Lightfoot singing about one of the greatest historical achievements in Canada. It is hard to imagine the difficulty in building the railroad across the varied and rough terrain.  I am sure many died along the way so people could travel across the country coast to coast.

Enjoy your day, wherever you may be.

Cheers,

Gene

Here are a few of the performing artists, mostly singers from Canada, you may have heard of one or two of them:

Bryan Adams
Paul Anka
Randy Bachman  The Guess Who
Paul Brandt
Michael Bublé
Tommy Chong
Tom Cochrane
Bruce Cockburn
Leonard Cohen
Bare Naked Ladies  group
Burton Cummings
Céline Dion
Leslie Feist
David Foster  composer
Sarah Harmer
Jeff Healey
Diana Krall
K.D. Lang
Daniel Lanois
Avril Lavigne
Gordon Lightfoot
Ashley MacIsaac
Natalie MacMaster
Sarah McLachlan
Alanis Morissette
Anne Murray
Nelly Furtado
Brad Roberts – singer for Crash Test Dummies
Sam Roberts
Serena Ryder
Hank Snow
Shania Twain
Ian Tyson
Sylvia Tyson
Chad VanGaalen
Gino Vannelli
Martha Wainwright
Neil Young

Apologies to the many others not mentioned.  Feel free to make a comment and add your favorites, if you wish.

On a walk to from the Inner Harbour around the winding pathway following the seacoast to the Seawall I came upon an interesting tree.  From some perhaps it would evoke a memory of Twisted Sister, but not for me.

Instead it reminded me of a friend from days past.  Quite a few days past.  It kind of goes like this, well it does go like this:

My Friend

Standing naked before me
Gently waiving as if in greeting
Arms reaching toward the heavens
Soaring upward yet grounded are thee

To find more about my friend go here to My Friend. You may ask what it was that evoked this memory.  Well it was this tree:

You likely know you can click on the image to make it bigger then come back using the back button.  This was originally inspired by a tree in St Vital Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Trees, even the twisted ones, have a lot of character and many live longer than we humans.  They are strong survivors and thrive in all kinds of inhospitable environments.

Down by the seawall the tide was out and I was able to take some closer pictures down the side.   I found this to be another interesting sight.

There are more photos which I may post on another day.

Enjoy your day!

Cheers,

Gene

At the end of May I went looking for something and could not find what I was looking for.  Actually I was a day late but did not realize it until later.  But do not tell anyone!  Shhhhhhhhhhhhh.   Hey, it happens.

So instead of heading back home I decided to explore a bit and came across the Galloping Goose Trail and I started to walk north up island way away from downtown.  I later reversed that direction and proceeded to go downtown to the Blue Bridge area.

Well as I walked north I came across an interesting over/under pass. The underpass was part of the trail that passed under The Gorge.  I noticed something from a distance that I did not know was there.

I could see that something looked like it was painted on the underpass wall and ceiling.  I approached to get a closer look and hey, I was walking that way anyway.  People walk and cycle the Galloping Goose Trail for many miles or kilometers as we use the metric system for the official measurement.

I went under the underpass and discovered an amazing sight.  It was completely painted from one side to the other and across the top.

Of course I could not capture it all in one shot nor three or four shots so I just took several pictures and this one shows the artist.

Quite a surprise and I was delighted to have discovered this on this day I was looking for something else entirely.  Goes to show that sometimes there is a reason for things to happen even if we do not know what that reason is.

So off I went towards downtown and this trail lead me to the Blue Bridge which is being replaced soon.  Many are upset as they really like the old blue bridge which was originally designed in 1920 but has gone through changes over the years.

So all in all it turned out to be a great day in Victoria, BC, which is usually does, BTW.  I am all for appreciating what what mother earth, this island, Vancouver Island and the land provides us.  It truly is a land treasure and with all the water around, a sea treasure as well.

Cheers,

Gene

There are likely a few ladies out there who have danced to the “end of love” with Leonard Cohen.  Like Willy Nelson and Julio Iglesias in sentimentality at least with their song To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before, Cohen has had his share of ladies.  But I am not here to talk about Willy and Julio.  Not not Bill “Willy” Clinton! I tend to like to feature Canadian artists as much as possible.

On a recent CBC television interview Cohen says he has not regrets about the ladies and for not having had a one long term partner.  He also talked about depression in the interview.  I do find some of his music melancholy and while I like some of his music I tend to favor upbeat music most of the time.  Cohen started out as a poet, writer, comedian in his early days in Montreal.  Perhaps he was funny back then.   He does a lot of concerts and travels quite a bit.

For the most part Canadians are a tolerant lot and most usually disregard things such as race, religion and philosophy.  That is one of the great features for living in Canada.  The minorities are working at being close to a majority in the general population of Canada.  Most people can speak any language in Canada and people do not mind.  We tend to honor that in people and respect their heritage.  It is mainly about respect and tolerance. Most do not see it as a threat at all.

Somehow Dance Me To The End Of Love fits with that also even though music tends helps to transcend the human condition and rise above so much of the pettiness, violence and the like.   Cohen is Jewish and we do not care.  So here is that video and song:

Another song I liked from a long time ago was Suzanne. (hot) But that is for another day and time.  The wannabe poet in me resonates with that and others.

Also a recent contest in Canada had a number of Cohen songs on it and the version of Cohen’s Hallelujah was done by KD Lang.  Cohen had also said in the interview previously mentioned this version by Lang touched him. Here is her version of Hallelujah:

That is a beautiful version, for sure.  I hope you enjoyed these two great Canadian artists, . We do have a few of them,Canadian songwriters and singers, in Canada and around the globe.  Wink wink.  I’ll see if I can find a few more for you another day.

Cheers,

Gene

I received an email from Scott last night in which contained a link to a video about water.  The video was called Water, The Great Mystery.  Indeed it is, I added the life part because without it life simply would not exist.

The video was compared with the movie What The Bleep Do We Know, which is an excellent movie. I have viewed that movie 5 or 6 times and learned something each time.

Anyway, this video is not quite the same thing but does give some powerful insights on just how magnificent water really is, H₂O.  It has some amazing qualities. Of course we know that life would not exist without water. Our bodies can contain up to 78% water.

Oops, just had to go and get a drink of water.  All this talk about water was making me thirsty.  We are fortunate to have an abundance of water around here.

There are many interesting things in the video, such as the work of Dr Masaru Emoto who has done experiments examining such emotions as love, peace, music, photographs, thoughts, prayers and the effects they have on water. How water responds differently to different emotions and treatment.  Also discussed is how our emotions affect one another and also can be transferred to water.

The video is 1 hour and 20 minutes long so view it when you have some free time, grab some popcorn or a glass or two of water.
Click Here to View, Water, The Great Mystery

Enjoy the movie!

I will leave you with a few more pictures from Mt Doug.  These are hidden treasures that you won’t see unless you hike up the trails.  Worth the effort, for me, at least.

Yes, I want to rename the blog, keeping the creative waves but the rest, I don’t know yet.  Suggestions?

Cheers,

genes creative waves

Well I suppose it is time to go green and provide a bit scenery from the other half of the excursion I made to Cordova Bay then hiking up the back side of Mt Douglas aka Mt Doug.

First though I am going to give an award to a fellow friend and blogger who writes very well and is a treasure.  Her name is Lydia and she has a blog entitled Serenity Talk for which you will find the link to on the right hand side.

The flower is not from Mt Doug, it is one I found in my yard.  Very pretty and appropriate I think.

Ok, so back to the trek up the mountain.  It is quite a climb but well worth the effort.  Here is what I found along the way. You must let your imagination run wild using the right side of your brain which is the most important one you know, for creativity.

Well, the first one is a beaver eating a dog , a croc, or something.  Surely this is a Canadian beaver.

For sure this is a beaver.  It is really clear.  You can see the foot or hand at the bottom.  I go with foot. But who’s foot is it?  Is partially consumed and being sucked in? That is one huge foot, magpie.

There is definitely a monster up this tree.  Look carefully at the menacing eyes and snout.  Looks like a werewolf from hell.  Or is it from Transylvania? Do not mess with this sucker if you want to get out of the forest alive.  I had to run like a bugger to escape, believe you me.  It is clearly excreting something below.  Well see more on that down aways.

This one has one eye or two with one covered with the focalized brains exposed.  They are not going to get my brains out of my head like that. I am out of here, quick!

I am afraid to even guess what is in here.  This tree is possessed.  Yikes!  NO NO do not stick your fingers in the crack.  It is a trap and you will be pulled in and devoured and become part of this scene in no time.

Thank God I got out of there before they got me!  But I think I have to go back, I forgot something there. Well that is part of the trip.   You should see the obstacle course I had to cover.  That will have to wait.

Cheers,

genes creative waves and ways

I was pondering discussing personal relationships but will perhaps save that for another lifetime.  Perhaps that is where the golden age will be.  I tend to be somewhat naive, sometimes putting too much faith or trust in someone,  or I am unaware at the best of times.  Perhaps just being plain stupid when it comes to matters of the heart.  Or so it seems.  I cannot decide which.  Ok, now that clears up the confusion. I am indecisive.  Yes. I am firmly convinced of that.  Well, hmmmm.   Maybe.

Now I would like you all to sing along with Justin Rutledge posted in a previous post.  I thought there was 1.75 readers, well, I know of only one.  Don’t know if Rod can sing!  Perhaps.  Maybe.  No indecision.  Just a general lack of awareness.  Sing along, record it and send me a copy, preferably on the computer so I can play it back.

Ok, what am I really going to post about today.  Well I did have something I wanted to say.   I will get to that in a minute.  I will post another photo from the hike up Mt Tolmie the other day.  It is a view taken from the top and looking across Juan de Fuca Straight with the Olympic mountains in background and the ocean in between.

Victoria, BC, View of the ocean and Olympic mountains, Washington State

I was watching a TV program called The Hour, on the CBC network with George Stroumboulopoulos.  Ok I had to look that up. I could did not know how to spell George!  Sorry George.  As if he cares! Ah I see there is an email address to email George.  Well maybe I will do that one day.  Maybe not.

Anyway he had on a guest named Malcolm Gladwell who wrote a book entitled Outliers. The interview was interesting and semi-informative, as these things tend to be when the media is involved, perhaps this is why PyraBang has taken off as an alternative source of information. PyraBang is starting to garner some interest out there. There is more about that posted on the Easy Ways blog.

In any case Gladwell has studied successful and lucky individuals and has an interesting perspective on this as to why some of us are more successful and some not so successful.  It is also interesting how some people are luckier than others, and Bill Gates, Microsoft, was mentioned as one of them.  From what I understand, Gladwell is a successful author so perhaps it is worth a read.  Since I don’t read I mentioned it to a friend who is now my designated reader/researcher and has promised to get back to me and let me know more about it.

Speaking of Bill Gates, some say he has found “religion”, well they have become philanthropists, and is now dishing out some serious cash of his own and Warren Buffett’s. Well that is a good thing as they are helping folks out now.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, wrong with that.  Is there?  I will answer that.  No there is nothing wrong with that.

Ok, I was going to also mention Soap Nuts and how I came to use them.  But I will leave the soapnuts to another day.

I wish you much success, today and everyday. Sending some love, positive and creative waves your way.  Enjoy your day!

genes creative waves.

Thanks

I did a short hike up Mt. Tolmie this morning and took along my fujifilm camera to see what I could see and photograph from the top.

It is taken on a beautiful sunny day in Victoria, BC. Yes, that is a snow covered mountain to the east and the view from up there is awesome. We had our snow back in Dec and this is just fine to look at it away over there in the scenic background.

I spent many winters in other parts of the country and this is just an ideal setting for me. It is breathtaking and lifts the spirit to be around here and such marvelous sites.

There is no doubt that Mother Earth still is a magnificent wonder to be enjoyed, appreciated and deserves to be treated with respect. This despite the harsh treatment she receives at times from the inhabitants of the planet of the human kind. Enjoy the view.

I most certainly did.

Best wishes and find your own gems wherever you may be.

Namaste.

genes creative waves