As I sort of alluded to a little bit before, I was using the format of 1 post per day but went off that. This post continues in that theme a little bit but may as well roll with it to continue to have enough material for this post. I do my best to offer a bit of value with each post, I imagine that we each have busy lives and probably don't have that much time to be sitting around reading blogs all day. Although who knows, it does often seem that there is a real sense of community on #HIVE. Also I think I may have skipped a few pics from Port Alberni, when you're looking at hundreds of pictures for so long you can reach a burnout point where you are not sure what deciscions to make and can end up making some less than optimal ones. It's good to go back with a fresh pair of eyes but then there is also that urge to want to just get on with sharing because one could spend forever making creative decisions, which photos and edits to use and whatnot forever. I have been there myself, I am still working on a bit of a backlog of pictures as you all can tell. I know I am not the only one, welcome to the digital age. So what I am trying to say is I wanted to include a few more pics before we completely move on, not that they are that amazing or anything but my goal with this series wasn't necessarily to share the most mind-melting phootgraphs. If some of them are good then I am happy but for the most part I took some average photos and while they are not the most "artistically endowed" for the spirit of the series and for the journalism aspect they are great.
Regardless; regardless is probably my most often used word on here. 😝 All in one day, after leaving Port Alberni and seeing the abandoned mill and Goats on the Roof we headed back towards Nanaimo for one more nights stay there. During the drive my dad gasped and I wasn't sure what was going on but he quickly pulled over, he thought we had just found a car that had driven off the road and while that was the case it seemed like it had already been there for a while, as there was a yellow police ribbon already saying do not cross. This was a thing in BC, while of course this happened everywhere it seemed like it did happen a bit more often and severely owing to the nature of the curvy and mountainous roads. Regardless, I hope they were OK.
During the drive out we had seen a set of rapids that were quite impressive. As usual on this trip, I was pretty worn out and just wanting to rest but of course my parents were somehow buzzing with energy to want to get out and explore. I think they have better sleep habits or something haha. But yeah this is where I dropped my circular polarizing filter, it wasn't the most fancy but it was still good you know? As soon as I dropped it I thought it was either going to completely go into the white water and that would be the last I ever saw it, or it would break on some rocks. I watched it bounce and roll and tried to follow it as best as I could while still being careful, that water would carry you away and you'd be lucky not to hit your head on the way down or something. The Circular polarizer ended up miraculously landing on a ledge and not shattering. I managed to retrieve it but immediately saw even though the glass hadn't broken, it was still now worthless because the threads were destroyed. Also those filters have a free spinning portion and it was definitely not spinning anymore. I kept the thing for a while, not sure but let me tell you they are not cheap if you are wanting one of the nicer ones! I had to replace it with a different one later on because the Circular Polarizer is such a nice thing to have for certain occasions.
That night we got back to Nananimo, slept and the next day we headed further up North. I was going to the Vancouver Island Herb Gathering Conference which I had heard about and was volunteering at in a couple days. I didn't take many pictures but Wednesday Evening (The day after Port Alberni) I was in Courtenay. Well, on the outskirts of Courtenay really, I was at a herb farm. The lady who owned it and her partner are both into Traditional Chinese Medicine/Accupuncture so they were all into cultivating various herbs growing around the property, it was really beautiful. As the sun was going down I took a few pictures of the plants. And laid down to sleep because the whole time I just felt drained and that is the last thing I wanted during the herb gathering conference that I was about to attend. But my surroundings were indeed very pleasant, and I had yet again found myself in a very beautiful place out in the country. Somehow I became totally enthralled with these reeds growing around the property, I thought they were incredibly beautiful. I was told they were Rye. I asked if they minded me taking pics, and they of course didn't. Afterwards there was a lot of these wildflowers growing, I am pretty sure I they are buttercup, the little yellow ones... In any case, I was in for a real treat with the whole Herb Gathering coming up! I will get to that in a post very shortly. Thanks for cruisin' by 😎