undergrowth

This summer on the West Coast has been somewhat apocalyptic so far, in terms of cloudiness and raininess. I've lived in this area for about thirty years, and can't remember a summer so rainy.

On the bright side, the forest is still lush and spring-green.

I have a ridiculous amount of painting to do in the next six weeks, on top of a fair bit of computer work. So my creative muscles are working hard. To recharge, I'm heading into the forests and forested areas in the mountainous center of Vancouver Island; it's the area I was exploring when I first started writing this blog.

I'm finding a lot of inspiration in the groundcover these days. I like how it kind of flattens out into a two-dimensional pattern. Look at a super closeup of the above photo:

Isn't that gorgeous? Look how the water is all wrapped around the flower. They look like tiny halos.

Here's my bush-buddy, and one of my very best friends. We're down in a creek, and we just heard something walking through the bush up above us, just off the left edge of the camera frame. It's nice to have dog around - a good set of ears, a desire to bark and make himself known. I'm lucky because he takes good commands around bears. He's probably seen about a hundred bears in his life, if not more, and knows when to chase them off or when to stick around.

We went up and checked it out after a while. Judging from some fresh poop I found, it was a bear. I think it was a small one, maybe a cub. Her mother must have been further up the hill. This area is crawling with black bears and deer, which keeps things exciting. I'm not around the seals so much any more (although I do swim in the ocean every day), so it's nice to have some land-mammal wilderness replacements.