D431-001
17-05-17 - Skype session: Hi Mommy in Montreal.
D431-003
17-05-17 - Nursery School was great today.
D431-005
17-05-17 - Isabel models new knit dress by Merle.
D431-021
17-05-18 - Our goal for today.
The museum is on the Wreck Beach side of the UBC campus. We wanted to get a
refresher course in West Coast native culture before setting out for Haida
Gwaii.
D431-022
17-05-18 - They dances with salmon.
D431-023
17-05-18 - Entrance.
D431-034
17-05-18 - The BC frog seems an endangered species.
So many examples of frogs in the craw of some big-eyed monster.
D431-036
17-05-18 - Looking toward the main gallery.
D431-046
17-05-18 - Cooking pots?
On the floor. Hollowed logs. Contents heated by dropping in hot stones. For
communal feasting.
D431-049
17-05-18 - Happy slaves carrying the big guy?
D431-050
17-05-18 - Reminds me of the Asterix comics.
And Chief Vitalstatistix who is carried around on a shield. Do
the white faces on the carriers hint at non-aboriginal slaves
who may have been captured after being shipwrecked on the
coast? I remember a novel based on this possibility.
vitalstat
-
D431-062
17-05-18 - I took a similar pic years ago.
This group of poles evokes, for me, part of the meaning of the term
"autocthonous" - aboriginal, sprung-from-the-earth. They still emanate a strong
sense of tree-ness, powerful plants that have, indeed, sprung from the earth.
But which also carry the parallel identity of their native creators.
D431-064
17-05-18 - He's making a definitive statement.
D431-069
17-05-18 - Kinda makes a guy feel vulnerable.
D431-079
17-05-18 - Home through the woods from daycare.
D431-090
17-05-18 - Cute boots.
D431-096
17-05-18 - You should've seen the other guy.
17-05-19 - Moresby Island Guest House.
A walk from Sandspit airport.
17-05-19 - The lobby.
17-05-19 - Lobby decor.
17-05-19 - Outboard motor frog.
Seen on the way to the grocery store. Not part of a totem.
17-05-20 - Exposure togs.
At the end of a long logging road south, this is our put-in point.
The tour company stores their zodiac boats here.
17-05-20 - Safety gear for everyone. No exceptions.
17-05-20 - Can now pick up Isabel by her collar.
17-05-20 - Launch
17-05-20 - A fast, sometimes bumpy ride.
17-05-20 - Snacks en route. Have a cookie..
17-05-20 - Don't mind if I do.
17-05-20 - Stop before lunch, big trees.
17-05-20 - Beachcomber territory
17-05-20 - Oh-oh. DR is going all abstract again.
17-05-20 - Surrounded.
17-05-20 - My word. That's a big one.
17-05-20 - Must get this all down in pixels.
17-05-20 - Trees growing on trees.
17-05-20 - Our guide and driver, Heron from Rose Harbour.
17-05-20 - DR practices his beachcombing skills
during a brief wait back at the landing.
17-05-20 - On the go again. Pirate Cave?
17-05-20 - Lunch stop at Skedans, A "Watchmen" post.
This is a Haida village site maintained by volunteers.
17-05-20 - Fallen totem clasped by younger tree.
17-05-20 - Emily Carr painted some of these totems.
17-05-20 - Set up by a veteran of 13 Potlatches.
Each groove stands for a circular hat ring. The giver of the Potlatch was
entitled to add a ring to his hat for each event. Heron suggested that with
this many to his credit, the wearer might be tottering under a very tall hat.
17-05-20 - The "Watcher's" house.
17-05-20 - Nice situation. Front yard and beach.
17-05-20 - Lunch.
17-05-20 - Guide Heron describes the Potlatch.
17-05-20 - She's all wrapped up in herself.
17-05-20 - Foundation of a once-luxurious lodge.
A raised bench surrounds a sunken area where the fire would
have burned.
17-05-20 - That 13 potlatch champion pole again.
17-05-20 - Another foundation pit.
17-05-21 - Coast Guard ship on the return trip.
17-05-21 - Lineup for the ferry north.
From Moresby Island to Graham Island.
17-05-21 - DR explores the ferry terminal site.
He has a (we hope not unnatural) fascination with decay.
17-05-21 - Mother Nature repo project.
17-05-21 - Foot passengers first.
17-05-21 - Miriam parks the minivan.
17-05-21 - Merle, Viking Queen. In her element.
17-05-21 - Not so sure about HER Viking heritage.
17-05-21 - But just taste that salt air.
17-05-21 - Bee boots will conquer all.
17-05-21 - Giant gall, like a pumpkin, at craft shoppe.
17-05-21 - North Beach. Their cabin.
Miriam, Adonis, Paula, Dimitri, Isablel packed in here. Ours, more modest.
17-05-21 - Snug as a bug in a bed.
17-05-21 - Kitchen, with upper bunk.
17-05-21 - Swing chair.
17-05-22 - Cabins, back of beach, left.
17-05-22 - Flotsam and jetsam.
17-05-22 -
17-05-22 - Kid project.
Old fishing float. Fill it up with sand.
17-05-22 - Then move it somewhere.
17-05-22 - North Beach, looking toward Tow Hill.
On the left horizon.
17-05-22 - Sorry. I just go nuts with this stuff.
17-05-22 - Hmmm. Getting ahead of the gang.
17-05-22 - Shows the circularity of all things.
17-05-22 - Not to mention the holiness
of all things. Scuse me. Just thought I'd toss in a little
holistic sectarianism.
17-05-22 - Awwww. Sweeeet.
17-05-22 - DR is overcome with lassitude ...
after too much philosophising.
17-05-22 - If you found one of these on the beach ...
17-05-22 - ... Would it be a religious inspiration?
These two pics remind me of the old argument from design, for the existence
of an intelligent designer-creator of the universe. The watch couldn't have
got there unless it had been originally created by a high intelligence. But
what about the crab-shell, surely it also is an artifact so structured and
purposeful that it couldn't have developed by accident. (... Run
that by me again.)
17-05-22 - Littoral metaphysics is exhausting work.
17-05-22 - Lunch bus. Rainforest time-machine.
After beachwalking, our search for eats and coffee transports us back to the
1970's.
17-05-22 - DR has to sit and contemplate while ...
17-05-22 - ... the bus runs out of food.
17-05-22 - Trending upward on Tow Hill.
A wonderful boardwalk clad in some nailed-down roofing material, guaranteed
non-slip.
17-05-22 - Merle, west.
17-05-22 - Merle, east.
North, south, nor-east, nor-west, sou'-by-sou'-west on other occasions.
17-05-22 - All of us atop Tow Hill.
Taken by a couple from down under.
17-05-22 - At sea-level we have Isabel to amuse us.
17-05-22 - And fabulously contorted lava rocks.
17-05-23 - Skidegate museum.
17-05-23 - Hungry critter.
17-05-23 - Offshore island.
Apparently the Haida liked to situate their villages near
an offshore island. This would become a place where the medicine men could
perform their rituals out of the public eye.
17-05-23 - So there!
THAT, for public opinion.
17-05-23 - Ferry top deck again.
Back to Moresby Island and Sandspit airport. There we'll drop the rental
car and catch a plane back to Vancouver.
17-05-23 - Two solitudes. (Not in our group.)
He has a spiral-ringed notebook, and both have binoculars. They must be birders.
17-05-23 - YVR, here we come.