Sure there may be monsters lurking up the pathways of life and perhaps even Mt Doug as we have seen.  Fakers will be exposed so be careful where you tread.  I managed to tread carefully as best as could be and travel on and not retreat, although this makes for a nice retreat.  I am glad I did.

The essence of life and spirit is everywhere. This is a great way to meditate, sit awhile or a walking meditation. Ha, even Lydia could meditate up here!

So along the pathways I kept wandering and meandering up and over and around and I did discover more treasures not all of the wooden kind.  Scenic treasure of lush green and colorful abundance.

Trees around here some of which are many hundreds of years old.  Here is an old tree giving life to a new one.  The new tree is growing and feeding on the old decaying moss covered tree remains.

This stuff growing on the trees is called someone’s beard or something.  Old man’s beard I suppose.  When it dries it is really neat and you can make it into craft material and such.  It goes grey or white when dry.

There are some humungous trees around here and a real northern rain forest type of environment.  So it is very nice to view.  Look up way up!

Springtime is special with all the new growth coming through and the regeneration.  Old gives way to youth eventually and so are reborn and renewed.

Ok, so those are a few more of the delights I found in the forest to balance the monsters and to provide contrast, nourishment for the soul.  I do like to discover and rediscover the hidden treasures of the wooden and earthy kind.  Mother Earth you are so wonderful.

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

What lies beneath the surface can be quite interesting.  On the recent trek to Cordova Bay I happened to see a small stream rushing towards the ocean. So I decided to take a few pictures and see how they would turn out.

I was not sure how the photos would turn out since the water was rushing quite rapidly over the surface. Now these are not waves but some interesting ripples were in abundance and did create an interesting view and scene.  Nature sure does have some awesome treasures.  Treasure of the land and sea.

These can provide some balance for the other things that are all around the sea shore some nasty some nice but all are as they are or as they be.

I have a few more to share when I have a moment.

cheers,

genes creative waves

My trip to the sea was very interesting. So peaceful, calm, spiritual and so serene.  Yet lurking beneath, as there is in most things including people, a whole other world emerges waiting to be discovered and uncovered. Yes you must pull back the covers sometimes to see what is hiding under them. Or you can close your eyes, take a deep breath, then jump in and take your chances!

On the flip side, the sea and surrounding terrain can hold some interesting and sometimes disgusting matter.  Or is it anti-matter.

For instance, we have some of this, which is fairly normal and almost camouflaged with the coloration displayed by Miss Crabby as she attempts to become one with the sand.

Further along this becomes a bit murkier as other life forms appear such as these.

Ok, that is likely enough slime for one day/night.  I have much more inside my cave of treasure. I am getting ready to unleash more upon you soon.  There is indeed, plenty of protein in the sea and surrounding waters and sand.

Anyone hungry yet?  As I always say, love me, love my crab.  Well I don’t really say that.

Cheers,

genes creative waves

PS. Hi Honey, Din Din is almost ready to be served!

Before I get into the Cordova Bay scene, I want to say sorry to Lydia as I missed her reference to the 4:20 post I made.  I went back and checked my links and of course I incorrectly linked it to Michelle Obama’s organic garden. Hmm. Not sure what that is all about.  I am sure she is not growing the “weed” in it.  Still you never know.   Should be clear now what 4:20 is.

In any case I visited Codova Bay which we loosely say is in Victoria, BC as we do with many things in this area.  It is actually in Saanich, BC.  No matter, so am I some of the time.  Hey my spell check does not recognize Saanich and wants to change it to satanic.  Hey it is not that baaaaaaaaaad around here.  It is quite pleasant actually.

I took a bus trip close to there and walked a few kilometers or so to the beach and took my Fuji point and click camera.  It does all the work for me so I tend to not take the credit (or debit) for it.  Looking at it on the map it is about 8.1KM from me, as the car flies,  so I must have walked nearly twice that far as I went up Mt. Doug (Mount Douglas) after traversing the beach at fairly low tide.  It has plenty of interesting, and some disgusting things around.  Mt Doug is a real hike, I went up the back way and will have a few pics from there to post later.  You can see the sea all around from every direction except up island to the north.  Fantastic view.

One of the interesting spectacles was a tree that appears to be leaning out to sea almost as if it is beckoning to go there or perhaps to become the bow of a ship headed out to sea.  In any case here it is, so you be the judge.

I will post another shot.  How this tree manages to say up, is anyone’s guess.  What do you think?

I think maybe the “ancients” were visiting here at one time, well I am sure they were, and planted these rocks in this pattern for some reason.

Well, to me, these are all spiritual things and have good energy, calm, peaceful, serene.   It looks and smells great near the ocean.  Even before I got to the ocean I could smell it.  Just feel the energy in these pictures if you will.  Can you?

Ok, enough already.  Perhaps I will make a pictorial video out of the excursion, perhaps not.

Got to get something done today.

Enjoy your day or night wherever you may be.

genes creative waves

All of us has a story, and perhaps multiple stories.  Eckhart Tolle has some interesting thoughts on that in his book Practicing the Power of Now. I highly recommend you check that out.

So ignoring his advice, for now, I will tell a story.  I have had allergies since my days of youth, some of which are quite severe, food and environmental allergies.  A recent trip to an allergy specialist got me some advice to avoid using sulfites in my diet.  Now if you look at most anything in a grocery store, just about everything contains this preservative.  In fact most things you buy have a long list of chemicals and additives that no one in their right mind would willingly ingest. Many of these things are not “green” and loaded with additives.

Still they feed it to us authorized by the various governmental bodies and agencies.  Also the food we are fed is laced with chemicals, pesticides, herbicides and well as many plants being altered genetically.  The soil for the food is dead of almost all the natural microorganisms that keep the soil healthy and the plants used to produce the food for us.

Who is behind this?  Well companies like Monsanto.  Who are they, from Wikipedia, here is an excerpt:

Monsanto’s development and marketing of genetically engineered seed and bovine growth hormone, as well as its aggressive litigation and political lobbying practices, have made the company controversial around the world and a primary target of the anti-globalization movement and environmental activists.

In a recent news item, Michelle Obama was planting an organic garden at the White House so they would enjoy some good fresh vegetables.  So who would object to that?  Well, guess who. Pesticide Lobby Group lead by Dow, Monsanto and DuPont. Talk about WMDs will ya! Totally insane.

No wonder that that allergy sufferers are on the increase.  Of course there are a number of reasons for this.

I started using soap nuts to do my laundry and find them highly effective for me. I react to strong scents, soaps and chemicals.  So this natural tree product is great for me.

Happy 4:20 Day. Or is is Happy 420 Day?

Ok, getting to the 4:20,  I knew what it meant in general terms.  Here is an article about it.  All ready to toke up? Some point to this as the Origin. Seems like this ties in with all this natural stuff.  There are lots of legal drugs around, alcohol and such and the powers that be take issue with marijuana, which is much less of a problem overall.  I am not recommending it just believe it should be legalized and they can regulate it and then the governments can tax it for use just like the other legal drugs.

Ok I will get off this for now and leave you with a few photos I have taken lately.

Cheers,

genes creative waves

Just a short post today.  Does anyone know this person?  From what I hear, she does disappear for periods of time.   Thankfully, she does come back. Well she used to anyway. Actually this post was started likely over a month ago and sat in pending mode for so long.

Clues:

• Rumor has it she may write a blog or two.

• She is not from New York but I understand from sources that she has been known to visit there on occasion.   Perhaps she did reside there at one time
• New York New York

• Insert Picture Here.  That is a note to myself.  What a clue?  Cute!

• Of course she can sing. I did not know she knew that language. Wow. Talented eh!

She also changes so you can never tell her, one day brunette, the next day blonde.  Talented. She sings here also, Wow What An Angel!.

She and Edgar. Who knew?

cheers,

genes creative waves

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

I have always had an interest in photography, of sorts.  Yet I had not taken up the hobby.  I recall in high school there was a fellow student who went around taking all kinds of pictures and even had a dark room at home to process the photographs.  His parents moved around a great deal so he was getting to see the world and play with his hobby and no doubt made it into a profession.  I did manage to get to see the dark room with photographs hanging all over the place but that is as far as it got.

Later on in my adult life at times I thought about taking some courses in photography but being a busy father with 3 children and having a demanding career, taking business courses and doing other things on the side, I never got around to doing anything about this interest that I had.

As for my interest, I suppose being male and as some would label me to have a tendency to be somewhat visual, but certainly not exclusively so, this may make some sense.  I certainly did not have a great appreciation for artistic things, although some paintings do appeal to me and also some things of a feminine nature would catch my eye at times! For sure, that I cannot deny.

In any case, late last year in 2008,  I bought a point and shoot, Fujifilm digital camera .  Not that model.  Hey maybe I will upgrade one day.

It turned out to be a real point and shoot experience.  I took a trip to downtown Victoria, BC , Canada, where I currently reside.  Victoria is situated on an island, Vancouver Island, quite close to Vancouver, BC.  The reason I say a real point and shoot experience is that it was a bright sunny October day and I could not see anything in the camera viewfinder.  So I was really just sort of aiming at what I wanted to take a picture of and pointing and shooting in that direction.

This seemed a bit strange, having not used the camera before and never a digital camera at that.  I was a bit exasperated at first, then became resigned to the fact that this was just the way it was. I just accepted the situation.  Like reading the book, Practicing The Power Of Now – Eckhart Tolle, as seen on Oprah, as Eckhart Tolle would likely suggest doing.  So I proceeded to take the pictures with the belief that they would, somehow, turn out fine.  And if they did not, so be it.  I certainly did not know how to use the various shooting modes and I still don’t.

I showed some of the photos to a few folks and got some positive feedback. I attribute it to the camera, the guy in the sky or whatever else may be lurking behind the camera lenses and helping me shoot.  I can see more now as I found a way to adjust the light inside for the viewfinder.

So that is where I am now, just dabbling a bit, taking some photos and enjoying doing so.  I have put together a pictorial video of some photos I took in downtown Victoria near the inner harbour, the Empress Hotel and the seawall.

****I have removed the video, please use the link below to view it instead.****

I will likely keep doing this for awhile.

Cheers,

genes creative waves

PS. I have also posted the video at  4Shared for a full screen version,  and may take the above one off if it keeps loading slowly or I just may choose to do so.