Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
forest sentry
i took this photo of the waning sun setting over the research cut-block on my second night in the forest. as evening came on, i was reading in camp alone, as nathan was out in the field taking hemispherical photos for a couple of hours. the silence of the forest was occasionally animatted with the chatter of birds winding down for the day, when suddenly, from the dark forest at the bottom of the hill there came what sounded like someone playing a flute in the distance. at first i thought it was a bird, but quickly discarded that thought – though it had a definite pattern to it like a bird call: first a high note, then a low note then a run from high to low.
hearing this noise roused me from my book, and i came to the edge of the cutblock to look out, whereupon i decided to get my camera and try to take a few shots. i found out later that the fluting noise carrying in the dusk was the bugle of a male elk, common in that area during the fall.
i have been trying to locate a decent recording of one to share on this blog, but haven’t come up with anything that sounded like what i heard in the forest that night.
returning
road trip statistics
from/to: roberts creek, bc to carson, washington return
total distance: 1234 kilometres
fuel used: 85 litres (approx)
small towns passed through: stevenson, carson, stabler, randle, washougal
highways travelled: 99, I-5, WA-205, I-84, WA-14
state lines crossed: washington, oregon
monuments visited: mt. saint helen’s national monument – i don’t know why this is called a monument in americanese – it’s really just the site where the volcano blew up
impressive feat: best gas mileage ever with my car, 550 km on one tank of gas
it’s so difficult to start in again after being away from the computer for 6 days.
i returned last night from another trip to the gifford pinchot national forest where i spent 5 days with nathan while he tried to get the rest of his data collected for his thesis project. we hiked around cutblocks and slept out in beautiful places, marred only by the continual firing of shotguns in the distance (it’s hunting season and the ‘mericans are busy communing with nature by driving their big SUVs around and wearing camo – just like they were desert storm or something)…
we camped at three different sites, all of them in stands of beautiful hundred-year old trees, hiked in an old-growth cedar grove, and on the last day we took the afternoon off and drove up to the mt. saint helen’s monument to watch the sunset from windy ridge.
i took a lot of photos and had a lot of time to think on this trip, i will post images with some of my thoughts over the next few days as i think it is easier than trying to put it all in one post.
(as usual, my photos look better on a mac, because i edit them on my ibook)
ferry musing
growing up on vancouver island and travelling the coast i have had occasion to ride a myriad of ferries over the years.
some of my earliest memories of family vacations involve the hulking ships with barely any amenities that were ferry service in the 1970s (now since long replaced on the major routes by sleeker and shinier interiors with multiple restauarant choices). half of each seating section was the smoking area, no wall to separate that from the “non-smoking seating”, something that my dad spent most of our trips grumbling about. i remember those ships interiors as being largely unfinished with bare metal and insulating materials visible in the ceilings and walls. despite the visual shortcomings, the seating on those old boats was always comfy – stuffed-vinyl chairs with armrests you could lean a book, or set a coffee-cup on.
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rogalsky day
my bandmate ben rogalsky sent me a link today to his latest project – recordings for a new kids television show. you can listen to the talented mr. rogalsky here. my favourite is the vox bonus track….
interestingly enough, his brother matt rogalsky is featured in a salon magazine article on the 25 best protest songs for his piece 2 minutes, 50 seconds of silence for the USA in which matt edits down the speech bush gave in 2003 while declaring war on iraq to just the pauses between words. his later piece a little bird told me is a similar reduction of the speech given in june of 2004 when the cia director stepped down. i would like to make some sort of incisive commentary about these pieces here, but i’m not that gifted a musical anaylst and really – they stand on their own – these spaces left between the really scary things people say.
fish game fun
last week at work we launched our “kids corner” – a bunch of games that were conceived/written by me, and animated/programmed by our co-op student. you can view them here in flash or html.
let me know what you think – my favourite is the name that groundfish quiz. geeky? hell yes!
Red Cedar 