Quatse River reflections...

All that is left of the old Quatse River logging bridge

are the pilings that used to hold it up.

The dog days of summer...

A couple of panoramas from Quatse Lake this morning.

The clouds were just right and the lake was calm.

The rice shaker mystery...

What I'd like to know is this...

How are you sopposed to sprinkle

a bit of rice on your food

without getting salt all over everything?

Seagate Squall...

Suddenly with little warning the day went from opressivly warm and humid to a squall of big wet raindrops, lots of them! Within  a few minutes the squall was over and everything began to steam when the sun came out again.

Where's there's smoke....

 

Yep, you guessed it. There's fire!

We had a major brush fire on the island yesterday. It burned over 10,000 acres and is still burning today. Roads were closed and you couldn't get into or out of the Kihei area for several hours.

This photo is not of a full moon. Although I've been told my entire life you should never look directly into the sun, yesterday was an exception. This was taken at 3:00 in the afternoon here from 3600 feet above sea level. The fire was at sea level. At times the smoke was so thick that the sun was completely blocked and you couldn't see it. The whole island smelled like a great big BBQ. Satellites even photographed the smoke since it was so big and thick.

They closed the airport, evacuated people from their homes in Kihei and rerouted planes to other islands or returned them to their original starting point. My friend and photography partner was on a plane from Los Angeles to Maui and even though they were two thirds the way through their flight they were told to return to L.A. She lives in Kihei and thankfully her home did not go up in flames. It was almost midnight before I could get to her home to check on the condition and the worst that was there was black ash on everything outside. Today will be a cleaning day!

Thankfully no one has been hurt and as far as I know this morning no structures were lost. This was all from bush. The fire is still burning this morning and they think they will have it out by the end of the day. 

I have found myself wanting to be a little more prepared here in paradise lately. Island life is fantastic and I wouldn't want to be any where else but you do have to plan ahead for certain things that you never think of on the mainland.

Port Hardy Coast Guard

A view from the Seagate Wharf of the Cape St. James at the Coast Guard float with the Port Hardy Coast Guard Base in the background.

Rust In Peace...

Here is another fixture in Coal Harbour.

I've driven past this old truck thousands of times.

Finally it dawned on me...

"I should take a picture of it!"

Downtown Coal Harbour...

A couple of panorama pictures from "Downtown Coal Harbour".

I think the overcast skies this morning add a bit of character to both scenes.

Sign here...

Just some of the many carvings on the dock at Quatse Lake.

Not an eagle video

 

Normally I would be very jealous of Paul's eagle video however...

when I can step out onto my lanai for a view like this, I'm not so jealous anymore!

Especially when winter comes!! LOL

A short Eagle video...

I took this short 10 second video of Eagles on

the beach in Hardy Bay with my cell phone...

Here is a link to the same video on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGhdT5im9T8

Campbell River Bridge...

The old Campbell River Bridge 67 years old and still going strong!

A quick look on the Internet would suggest that this is a "Pratt" style steel truss bridge.

Quiet morning scene...

Nice quiet morning in Coal Harbour. View of Stephens Bay with Stuart Point in the background.

Before and after...

Still having fun with the "Snapseed" app and it's more capable cousin the "NIK" Photoshop plugin. 

This scene is of the "Tsulquati River" where it flows into "Hardy Bay". 

Private tours guided from Port Hardy.

Just want to give a rating 10 out of  10 stars on my 3 days private tours in Port Hardy.  He’s always booked throughout the year.  So, good luck to find a spot open for you!  Oh, if you’re a good customer, he would let you try some of his delicious smoked salmon.

Old car pictures...

A couple of months ago this old car showed up in Coal Harbour. I finally got around to snapping a couple of pictures of it.

I couldn't resist, I just had to play around with the post processing and gave the pictures an old as the car look.

Modern day Graffiti

Although most visitors to Hawaii think these stacks of pohaku (stones) are a Hawaiian ritual and have a special meaning, in reality, this is looked at as graffiti and disrespectful. The stacking of rocks in the National parks can get you up to six months in jail and a $5000 fine.

“Pohaku are considered as much of the conscious universe as any other part of the Hawaiian universe would be. So you wouldn’t be messing with stones unless you had a real good reason to do so."

"When you move and displace Pele's "MANA" or spiritual energy (Volcanic Rocks) in an UNNATURAL WAY across the landscape you are disrespecting Pele. If Pele herself would not create such piles in Nature it is not Pono (right) for you to do so. This is Kapu, (Taboo) unless for worshiping reasons to the Gods in such forms as Heiau's or Ahu's.

I took a hike back into the jungle to check out a waterfall I just heard about this past Friday. Unfortunately there was only a small trickle of water when I got there but I found multiple stacks of the stones at the base of the waterfall. Which is in a National park I might add.

Although it made for an interesting photo I was disappointed to see so many of the stacks there.

The old RCAF Coal Harbour "Bomb Dock"

Back during The Second World War Coal Harbour was an RCAF (Royal Canaidan Air Force) Seaplane Base, one of several on the West Coast of Canada.

This is a picture of the old "Bomb Dock" where anything of an explosive nature (bombs, bullets, etc) were unloaded and stored a safe distance away from the operations area of the base. Today (70 years later) only the pilings remain.

Eagle's sushi smorgasbord

Eagles chowing down on salmon scraps at Port Hardy beach.

Quynh here are the Eagles we were looking for last week... 

Just a quick swim

 

I found a spot where the octopus seem to be plentiful however, they don't want to cooperate when it comes to taking their photo.

After spending an hour trying to get a shot I would like I gave up, took some photos of the turtles and then went back to the beach and a cold beer!