The volcano is, as usual, spewing ash and smoke.
A Walk in the Woodland at the Richmond Bog
Yakushima, Kagoshima Prefecture
Pathways and Snails Above the Oil Fields along the Beach
Snails, possums, birds and flowers surrounding the oil fields along the beach in Souther California.
Read moreBroken Fence
Along Cougar Creek, up on the side of the hill is a pathway for hikers. Below that a rail track along which trains come at a remarkable and sometimes surprising speed. Then there is a boggy section, the creek itself and another then walkway and last a fence. There is also the highway that cuts through the area crossing the Fraser River, elevated at a tremendous hight. The fence is there to protect the industrial area under the highway but itches now breached in so many places by fallen trees and here and there accidentally backed over by trucks being backed up to the edge of the greenway to be put into storage that is seems to be more symbolic than useful. Underneath all of this is the usual pipeline, here a large city sewage pipe, aromatic in the worse way. The real reason any of these trees are here, or the hiking paths and creek survive, is that the sewage pipe is there. This ribbon of trees, birds, beavers (always flooding the bog by blocking the creek), ducks, heron and I guess once some cougars, is that this sewage pipe. Anywhere within the city limits I find nature seemingly winning a struggle against human occupation it usually is due to a sewerage pipe, oil pipeline or high pressure gas line buried under a few feet of dirt. I wish for once a greenways seemed to be there because we realised in time we needed a greenway.
Winter in Burn's Bog
The bog, when frozen, opens up. Its interior becomes visible, its skeletal system, clear. Water that normally runs for one day and disappears the next freezes, yet the movement of the water is traced in its odd shapes and layers of frozen surfaces. Some plants are frozen inside the ice, like bugs in amber. Their colour remains bright and life like. Most of it will thaw and just go on with what it was doing before the sudden freeze. Birds fill the lower branches of the bushes and brambles, searching for seeds. They call back and forth. I don’t know if they are sharing what they found or warning others to stay away. The low winter sun casts shadows which in the spring are never disappear. It reminds you that we are moving, not the sun. We’ve got it all wrong.
The Fence That Divides Purposes
This image is from a more recent project focused on a small bit of land, on the map called a “nature reserve,” which lies between residential housing and a fairly heavily industrialised area. A fence divides these two, broken in many places and overgrown by saplings that have disrupted its order and continuity. Besides the pathway, creek and fence running through this “natural” area is a freight line. Trains cross the creek, and loudly rumble through the bog and adjacent woodlands. There is no warning except signs telling you not to cross the tracks even though the pathway is clearly marked with steps and elevated boardwalk. An area of many contradictions.
Salt Pile
In the Garden, in the Rain.
The Garden in Winter 2023
A High Tide and Strong Wind
Landscape and Documentary Photography by www.jimroche.ca
Read moreA Walk in the Forest on a Rainy Day
The Rock Along the Pathway
A large rock along a pathway by the river, how much of it there is unseen, I don’t know. Usually it is covered with kids, as we are still close to the parking lot for the trailhead.
The Meadow Along the Pathway
Just Some Images From My Morning Walk
I live in a neighbourhood zoned “light-industrial,” which includes a number of manufacturing plans, industrial laundries, clothing manufacturers, art studios and wonderful back alleys that remind me of Japan. Sometimes, early in the morning, I walk through the neighbourhood and take photos of things that, yes, I have taken before. This is usually a way of relating to the area, a social interaction with a building, rose bush or electric wires which have all become part of my home.