Roads Less Travelled

Time is spinning and I turn around to find myself in an ancient place. Here, ancient wisdom knows that there are roads less travelled - and wisdom would have known that there are reasons why.



Suns rise and fall like clockwork - without virtue of cloud or rain.



A pool provides morning's refreshment.



The heat of evening hangs still over the Nile valley and traps skeins of smoke from the sauna's oven. An old water tower stands above a water treatment plant undergoing renovation.

Mission: "Brass Cat"

This is a brief account of the recovery of agent Hobs - a story that can finally be told now that the mission is complete and Hobs is safe on home turf.

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At the point of mission deployment a bronze tiger stood frozen in time - a prophetic symbol of both the mission objective . . . and the dangers ahead.



Hobs was a political refugee from the dark side. What she knew of our enemies was more than she could tell us.

In a mission gone awry, Agent Hobs had become separated from her handlers, was captured and held prisoner in a building discovered only after long surveillance amidst Cairo's endless urban sprawl.

Her special skills included an uncanny sixth sense and ability to survive the most harrowing experiences. An attempt at her rescue was never in doubt - only the timing remained to be determined.



First contact within the prison facility found her weak with fatigue, and in shock from rough interrogations.



Her rescue was planned to take advantage of a brief moment of inattention of her captors - following a routine interrogation session.



With her captors distracted, the plan was put into affect with lightening speed. Agent hobs was slipped into an open bag that had been smuggled into the prison. . . . in a flash, and hidden from view, she was swept out the door and into a taxi - which sped to the airport.



On the transport to the plane, other passengers had no idea that Agent Hobs was making good her escape - right under their very noses.



With her former captors alerted to her escape - and the alarm sounded - a direct departure was out of the question. Instead, a safe house was arranged up-valley for debriefing and to rebuild Agent Hob's strength for the final escape.

Arriving at the safe house at an undisclosed location near the ancient City of Thebes, Hobs slowly realized her ordeal of captivity had ended.



Her debriefing told a harrowing account recounted with flashbacks of terror retold with paws waving wildly in the air.




To Be Continued .. . .

Yesterday Once More

A small town in southern Canada was one of the first settlements in Oxford county about 200 years ago. The river cut through good farmland and crossed over a geological feature of gently rising layers of limestone. Enterprising pioneers began to gather the limestone blocks which had broken off into the river and built crude kilns to make lime. An industry was born which supported generations of families in the following decades.



A small museum in the homestead of a family which expanded the quarries holds pictures . ..



Stories . . .






And a model showing the location of pioneer shops and homes



Employees from 1929 are shown in a photo commemorating a trip to see Niagara falls - a work-related geological feature.



The main product of the three lime quarries and kilns is highlighted with labeled packaging.

Summer's Time Thinning

In the northern half of the globe there is a chill in the air as the equinox approaches. The energy of summer air slowly ebbs and the land becomes a bright quilted blanket in preparation for a coming winter.



A path through time has now taken on a new colour where once blue spring flowers grew . . .



And a country's flag begins to shine from every tree.

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Journey's Scenes

A walk in the wilds takes one into a rich and varied texture, changing by the day, as if one were on a journey with time itself. The path follows a stream to areas not seen before.



Some bushes seem to have changed colour overnight . . .



Other's are deepening their colour with each evening . . . cooler than the previous night.



The bullrushes shelter fish in their shadows . . . and warn of the risk of wet feet!

Wilderness Paths

The wilderness of the boreal forest has been cut through with survey lines, property boundaries, and seismic routes laid by oil companies.



When walking in the woods - sometimes one can lose one's sense of direction. Emerging onto one of the paths is a revival of sorts - reassuring with purpose in a through a wild place preoccupied with its own laws and rules without consideration for anything else.



Sometimes a dam may provide a way across a stream and into a new region of exploration.



A path in the morning provides a space for sunlight to reach the forest floor.



Here is a video pan of the forest on either side of the survey line. . .

World of the Wild

In the wilds of northwest Canada the residents are large or small and comparatively rare. A suburban backyard may provide a bird-feeder, and a garden, and perhaps several cultivated fruit trees, but the boreal forest is a tough place to live and those who live there often have to frequently watch over their shoulder for predators.

A deer was seen through a cabin window. He looked around cautiously for danger between each mouthful of grass.

This Ruffed Grouse was one of several flushed from the forest floor. He/she stopped long enough on the high branch to ascertain the best escape route.

The ever anxious red squirrel is perhaps the most common forest mammal - typically busy storing pine cones and mushrooms for the long winter ahead.

These fine perch were previously in a school just a few metres off shore . . .

. . .. before being caught by the most ubuiquitous, adaptable, and feared of all the forest wildlife.

Although some creatures could not be coaxed from the woods long enough for a photo - observed creatures included a Moose, Bear, Bald Eagle, Osprey, Mink, Raven, and Canada Jay.

This small winged wasp remained still long enough for a photo - and to hint at the presence of a vast smaller world of creatures - too numerous to mention.



And a much larger winged creature - the grey speckled Time Traveller - is also a visitor to these distant wild lands.

Air Time

In the northwest of Canada moist air flowing from the Alaskan coast pushes over mountains and is squeezed, dried and dropped on the far side of the Rocky mountains. It is too clear to see without aid of clouds and birds as it tumbles over forest scented hills.

The texture of trees is etched against a diamond clear sky.

As the sunlight fades into yellow at the end of the day the trees turn to gold . . .

And when the water is at rest, the surface is a portal to a mirror world below.

And as the day ends, both worlds flow into the dark, red tinged, glowing world beyond .

Mushroom World

In the northwest the sun is low and the clouds are even lower. The sky wears a veil of lace spun from strands of cold water. Since the ice melted here so long ago this slowly evolving world has been patiently growing new forest in a current of cold rains flowing eastward . . .



The cold winds sweep across a shallow lake . . .

The human denizens of the forest may keep close to their wood stoves . . .

but each moment above freezing brings life to the moist carpet of moss and decay lying in the constant shadow of spruce boughs, popular and pine trees. In the short summer season only a few weeks of warmth power the slow life of renewal. The lichen on the trees may be decades old.

And a host of fungi are patiently at work in the forest. . . .

These visible mushrooms are just a smallest fraction of the mass of fungi at work beneath the surface to breakdown. Just a few of the very many species to be found include:

This spiky white puff-ball - about 3 centimetres across . . .

And this exotic shiny purple species . . .

A relative of the shitake mushroom . . .

A large orange capped variety . . .

A golden brown capped variety . . .

A conical variety . . .

A more traditional white variety . . . .

And another white variety with an unusal shape. . .

This orange-capped variety has a spongy bottom rather than the typical ribbed shape. I am told this is one of the more popular edible varities.

In a future editing of this post I will hope to identify the species of the above! . . . or feel free to forward this link to someone who knows about mushrooms!