Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Clued In In Ucluelet

On our walk to admire the seascape views next to the lighthouse in Ucluelet,
on the west coast of Vancouver Island...


we passed some very gnarly, acrobatically inclined trees.
It was a veritable Cirque du Soleil of rainforests; or perhaps that should be Cirque de Pluie?




The limbs seem to want to root themselves, or else the roots wish to change their destiny and become limbs...


and sometimes  a tree trunk just can't take the force of the windstorms any more and bends right over to hide its head in the sand.









Maybe these trees don't like to think of the eventual fate that could become them, logs washed up like matchsticks on the seashore

(but, come to think of it, how often do you see matchsticks on the shore? And these are still pretty darn big for matchsticks. Let's just call a log a log and leave it at that. Let sleeping logs lie.)


 



As I was saying, perhaps they fear being cut down and religiously bent to human's purposes (this church is for sale, by the way.  We had several ideas of bending it to our own purposes.)  The palm trees on the "uptown" streets of Ucluelet seem strangely out of place...




but they are not alone in their oddness.
I think this may be a surfer having an out-of-body experience.

(Sorry about leaving you all hung out to dry for the past few days after the last non-posting, but I'm happy to report that the Bloglitch has been resolved and my obsessive blogging habits can once again be indulged.


louciao & carmenooch, mermaiding
Don't forget, though, I am on holiday)


23 comments:

  1. I love how you've personified all the twisted-sister vegetation! The one thing I can't explain, though, is how the wetsuit seems to have real body, arms, and legs (truncated) in it! That jacuzzi looks so inviting--outdoors under the stars (it looks like a deck in the bakground). Still waking up to 20 degrees in northeastern US! Enjoy!

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  2. Margaret,
    I'm thinking the suit was recently vacated and hung to dry. I can't imagine it was found washed up on the beach and posted like a lost mitten on a fence post.
    The hottubbing was brief, and under the clouds rather than stars. More a case of being able to say "I did it!" than enjoying it (note my shoulders are up around my ears).

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  3. Gorgeous rootscapes! Looks like a moose tangled in Lotus Greens. Now how about that church... how much $? What kind of religion would you house in there? Hey Margaret Pangert, I understand it could feel cold @ 20 but if you'd move you 20 South Canadian degres to the North they would be worth much much more! Oh weather currency!

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  4. Dude on the Hills30 March, 2011

    Hey... this high shoulder swimming foto of yours has been censured: where's the bottle of wine?

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  5. I always loved arbutus bent by the wind and other forces to take new shapes but never losing their lustre. Must be a metaphoric lesson for us there somewhere.

    Driftwood should not be underestimated.

    Your little building reminded me of one of my offspring who, when very young, upon being asked what was on top of the steeple said, "It's a T, T for turch".

    WV - midine - a noontime repast

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  6. I see you got yourself into some hot water!

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  7. I think palm trees always look out of place. I think that's part of what makes them so amazing.

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  8. Pietro,
    I think the church price tag is $250,000. A real bargoon! Beef had fantasies of opening up a café with a certain Quebekker he knows, with an art gallery/gift shop filled with work from a certain artiste of his acquaintance, and maybe a bridal boutique/dog walking service run by a certain on-again/off-again/on-again spousal affiliation. I think starting one's own cult could also be of interest. Probably be able to engage various folks from the Hills in that aspect of the endeavour.

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  9. Dude,
    The pool boy was busy refilling our glasses at the time our photo was being captured.

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  10. DCW,
    One would never underestimate Driftwood! The red barked Arbutus trees are so iconic. It's always thrilling to see them curving out of the rock faces overlooking the water. I hadn't seen as twisted as these before.

    Are worshippers at the turch required to wear T-shirts?

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  11. Driftwood,
    More like tepid water by the time we got in.

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  12. c,
    They look like party trees somehow. Set decorations. Festive. Outlandish. It was always fun to see the very tall ones in California when my family drove down to Sacremento every summer. Nooch called them "ponkees" and so they have been called ever since. It's very weird to see them in the neighbourhood here, trying to maintain the fantasy that this is Lotus Land.

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  13. Oh how I remember those yearly car trips to Clovis with Nooch telling us to wake her up "when we get to
    California" so that she could see the "ponkees". Her speech has improved muchly since.

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  14. Shirl,
    And now Nooch is the one at the wheel! Maybe we should do a road trip and you can be the one sleeping in the back till we wake you up when we reach California Ponkee Land.

    I remember the nifty Pez dispensers I got every trip.

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  15. Holding on to live indeed demands 'winding'. Great captures indeed. And yes, I do miss rain already, with summer near, it might take many, many days until the next fall.

    Oh if only I could, guess I would have bought that little church yesterday !
    Thank you for this dream and please have a good Thursday you all.

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  16. Now will you look at that !

    The audacity of it !

    While some folks are slaving away, nose to the grindstone splattering nasal gristle all over the floor and ceiling, others are just lounging in the hot water giggling it up...

    I swear, whoever it was who said that life is not fair sure knew what they were talking about...

    Well, no one can ever say again that anyone is unbathed, and fortunately it seems your blog has come back relatively unscathed after the disappearing shrinking photo caper. Honey, I shrunk your photos down to pinpoints... wasn't that a major motion picture ???

    So was it something you did, or did blogger simply suffer a temporary bout of brain drain ?

    Well, don't get all wrinkled soaking in the hot tub...
    :-)

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  17. Robert,
    How I wish I could send some of this over-abundant rain to you! I awake in the morning, hear it hammering on the roof, and pull the covers back over my head. But it ususally lets up enough to get out for a good walk, and it certainly keeps the vegetation lush and green, and I much prefer it to snow.
    I wonder just what you would do with that church, Robert...

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  18. BrOwen,
    I think the problem with the picture size on my previous blog post was that I'd dropped it in the hot tub and it got all shrivelled and shrunken.
    And I'll have you know that all the wrinkles I have are hard-earned ones and not hot-tub induced. Plus, I don't giggle. Much.
    :-)

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  19. INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY (?)
    FORMER CHURCH FOR SALE
    UCLULET, BC, CANADA:

    $229,000 CDN

    (which is presently about par with US dollars)
    The feeling is, being in a tsunami zone and all, it could be had for less than asking price. Any takers?

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  20. The surfer having an out-of-body experience is a hoot ! :-)

    Yes I agree, swinging in the air between both parents is the best thing ever ! :-)

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  21. Nathalie,
    I still remember my own joy at being swung in the air by my parents, and that of my daughter between her father and me.

    I imagine that getting out of a wet suit would be a joy in itself.

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  22. i can't get these trees out of my mind! and they make me think of Blake's lines (even if this is hardly a quote for holiday mood but something more ponderous, so my apologies :-)

    but they really seem like some ancient force of nature

    Hear the voice of the Bard,
    Who present, past, and future, sees;
    Whose ears have heard
    The Holy Word
    That walked among the ancient tree

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  23. Roxana,
    These were indeed mystical seeming trees. The force of nature is very evident in the area. People go there to "storm watch." The trees are intimate witnesses to the force of such storms and record it in their tree bones, blood, and memory.

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