Friday, October 15, 2010
Fall is rising...
It's autumn in the Kootenays. That means shorter days, low-slanted sharp sunlight, crisp loud air and the process of decay and decline in the natural world. Here are a few photos of these changes underway. It's a melancholy time in some ways...as it feels like we are slipping towards slumber, darkness and a form of 'temporary death'. Maybe it's because melancholy cheers me up by pulling me inside myself...or maybe it's just beautiful - I love this time of year.
These are really fun guys! (apologies offered...for such a bad pun)
Kokanee Creek parking lot rascal
A walk through a section of old-growth forest
Anna tree-hugger
Stump monster - taken from directly above
On another fall note - a bear or bears are eating the remaining bits of fruit in the yard at night. We hear them, find piles of almost steaming scat in the morning (looking very fruity) and there are broken branches beneath an apple and purple plum tree. Now to see one and take his or her photo! (But not up close...)
These are really fun guys! (apologies offered...for such a bad pun)
Kokanee Creek parking lot rascal
A walk through a section of old-growth forest
Anna tree-hugger
Stump monster - taken from directly above
Kokanee salmon spawning - this species used to reach the ocean in their life cycle (and were huge), but for decades dams have prevented that - they now live their lives in Kootenay Lake and spawn to their birth-streams in the third year of life - turning from silver to the red and green in the photo of this soon-to-spawn-and-die fishy couple. This channel had several thousand this fall.
