banner or masthead photos and other stuff

Now that we are officially into the summer season here in the northern hemisphere this means more sunny, hot weather for us here along the west coast (British Columbia). We had some much needed rain during the latter part of the week but now the warmer weather and sunshine have returned. I had plans to go into Vancouver yesterday but a cloud cover was moving in, so I delayed that until today. Instead, I went down to the Fraser River to take a few photos despite the cloud cover. Once I download the photos from my camera, I'll post some of them. In the meantime, this is a post minus photos!

Someone sent me a question regarding the banner or masthead photo, so eventhough I've answered the question in my comments, I thought I would expand on those comments a bit. In September 2007 I took a Saturday to visit Gibson's Landing. That meant a bus trip from Surrey where I lived at the time, into downtown Vancouver, then over the Lions Gate Bridge and on to Horseshoe Bay. From there it was by ferry across Howe Sound to Langdale and then another bus ride to Cibson's Landing on a bus heading for Sechelt further up the Sunshine Coast. All the while on the ferry I was taking lots of photos with my Sony digital camera and more once I got into Gibson's. Some of the best shots were posted early on when I first started this blog. Those photos (other than the ones posted) were lost when my old hard drive died. I hope to retrieve the files at some point but its not a priority at the moment. I was in the process of backing up files onto disk at the time when the hard drive gave up the ghost. Such is life!

Anyway, I digress. If you look at the banner or masthead photo at the top of this webpage, I cropped it from a larger photo I took as the ship was crossing the sound. I believe that is Keats Island which is between Collingwood Channel and Shoal Channel as we head toward Langdale. We had just passed the north side of Bowen Island, so at this point we are about two-thirds of the way across. As I remember it, Gibson's Landing is just right off the frame and Langdale a bit further. Although I took the bus from Langdale to Gibson's, I had decided to walk back to the ferry port. This was a bit of a chore dodging the odd car coming down the narrow road but this afforded me a few views of Howe Sound on the way.

There are other banner photos saved but I have decided to keep this one up for a while. By the way, if you haven't guessed it, "saltwater blood" refers to my friend Brad and "spirit mountain" to me. Brad seems to have saltwater in his veins with the love of the sea and the outdoors he has. The words expressed in the introduction are rather fitting in that we are actually discovering more and more about ourselves as time moves forward. Brad has had to come to terms with his sexuality (as I did also in the past) and quite a number of other issues, such as his grandfather's passing last summer just being one of the others. I've encountered death several times during my lifetime but for Brad it is likely the first time. Time is a healing factor as we all know. The other issue we have both had to tackle is what our relationship means and how it should be expressed. This too takes time and I believe shouldn't be forced but develop naturally. We determine our place in life and the role we are to play in it. Some have the courage to do so while many do not. As Shakespeare once said in one of his plays, "life is a stage and we play our part" (or something to that effect), but you know what I'm saying!

Brad is a Gemini (sign) and they require time to think about what is the best course of action while I'm a Leo (sign), and while I too spend time to think about my forthcoming actions and plans in life, my emotions come from the heart. I put my whole being into a friendship especially when the effort is worth it in my eyes. The last photo I saw of Brad (not that long ago) looks real hot but I'd love to see him in the flesh. so we can share our experiences directly. He loves to sail, so that's something I'd love to experience with him, and at the same time he can experience my love of nature which is expressed through my photography. Again, give it time!

Before I ramble on and on, I'll close for now but I'll have more on all this later. In the meantime, keep coming back and enjoy the photos and the commentary! - V.