My Fifteen Minutes of Fame-- Blown

         Back in 1977, the Cosmos seemed to be unwinding in my favor.  At the time I was very interested in nature photography, especially close-ups of flowers and any other small natural thing that caught my interest.  One day, while walking along a beach on Vancouver Island a big toad jumped to get out of my way.  I had all my camera equipment with me, so I set it all up to try to get a photo of the amphibian.

        I had a 200mm lens, which I attached to a bellows that was then latched onto my camera body, which was set on a tripod.  I had a small hand-held flash that was plugged in to an extension cable, so I could hold it close to the toad, which by this time was huddled down in some foliage.

        I pressed down on my shutter cable and the flash flashed, and my camera clicked.  I thought I had gotten a good photo, but in those days you never knew until you had sent the slide film away.  I waited for two or three weeks for it to be developed, and when I got it back, I was able to actually look at the photo that I had taken.  I was very satisfied--it was a great shot.

        The following summer is when we were looking around for a house and property to buy.  We were, for sure, going to live in BC, and we sought properties in the mountains and landscapes of the Robson Valley,  around McBride.  We found a small hobby farm with a tiny house on 5 acres of land, and bought it.

         We weren’t able to move in for a couple of months and in the mean time, we had been reading issues of a new Canadian magazine called “Harrowsmith” that was all about gardening and rural living. At the time, “Back to the Land” sort of articles were all the vogue.

        In one edition, I noticed that Harrowsmith was going to sponsor its first annual photo contest.  The categories were very garden oriented.  One category was “Garden Friends and Foes”.  I wracked my brain trying to think if I had any photos that I could enter, and decided that my toad photo just might fit.  Toads eat a lot of insects, and even though the toad in my photo wasn’t in a garden, it was sitting amongst some yarrow which is a herb, so maybe the Harrowsmith people would think it was in the garden. 

        I sent the slide in, and forgot about it.  Then, during November of 1977 a big envelope from Harrowsmith, arrived in the mail.   Inside was a letter, and the latest copy of the Harrowsmith magazine.  The letter said, ‘Congratulations, you have won the Grand Prize- a Nikon Camera, in our First Annual Photo Contest”, it went on to say they had used my photo in the centerfold of their upcoming magazine.    I was so excited, I could hardly get my fingers coordinated enough to leaf through the magazine for a look.  

        Finally, getting to the middle of the magazine, I opened it and there spread across the two pages was a big blowup of my toad photo.  

        “Wow,” I thought, “I am famous!”    My ecstasy lasted only until I happen to look down at the caption below the photo, which read:  “Grand Price Winner- Bob Marchant, McBride, BC.” 

        “BOB MARCHANT?”

         My name is David.  There it was--my 15 minutes of fame--Blown.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

Look At My Willows Now

     The other day when I was in town, our neighbor Karen came up to me and told me that she couldn’t believe just how our willows were growing, after being so brutally cut off ten feet above the ground, six months ago.  I know she, and all of our other neighbors had been concerned after they saw how they had been topped, leaving just the trunks of the trees.  

    I knew willows were amazingly resilient trees because we had had them topped once before and it didn’t take them long to grow back to their same pre-topping height.  All that said, I too was surprised at just how quickly their tops were re-growing.  In fact I will have to get out there and take off some of those new branches,  just so the trees don’t get so out of hand again.  

   

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

I Guess It Wasn't Kona Squeaking

     The other night when I was fast asleep, I was awakened by my wife telling me that Kona was “squeaking”.   Sometimes when Kona urgently needs our attention, instead of barking, she makes a short, very high pitched, squeak.   It generally means she needs to go outside.

    I got out of bed, put on my pants, synching up my belt tightly, so I wouldn’t hurt my back picking up Kona to take her outside.  I lifted her and took her out into the yard.  I shown the flashlight on her to see if she did anything.   She didn’t, so after a while, I carried her back into the house.

    It was when I was carry her back in that I heard the squeaking sound.  It was coming from inside the house.  It hadn’t been Kona squeaking, it was one of our smoke detectors, telling us that its batteries needed replacing.  I unhooked the smoke detectors from the ceiling and removed the old batteries, so that it would no longer make the squeaking throughout the rest of the night.   

    Of course, getting up, carrying Kona outside, and then taking down the smoke detectors, left me wide awake, so I read a bit in a novel, hoping that would eventually get me back in the mood for sleeping.  Next morning, I replaced the batteries and put the smoke detectors back in their place on the ceiling.

            

View my paintings at:   davidmarchant2.ca

A Morphine Hit For Bees?

     I have a lot of poppies in my vegetable garden.  They come  up every year, and I never weed them out, because I enjoy all of the color they add.  

    Yesterday, I was out there picking peas and I couldn’t help but be aware of all of the bees that were busily buzzing around on the poppy flowers.  There was one particular poppy that was sporting numerous bees, seeking nectar.  There were five different bees who seemed frantically  busy on this one flower.  Since poppies are the source of morphine, I wondered if this one particular flower were giving the bees an extra “buzz” from the drug.  The bees sure seemed especially attracted to it.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

A Visit To BC's Ancient Forest Provincial Park

     Ever since we moved to the Robson Valley, I have been attracted to its rapidly disappearing old cedar forests.  These old cedar forest are a rare ecological habitat, known as a Inland Temperate Rain Forest.  Happily one such area has been preserved and has become the Ancient Forest Provincial Park, which is located about an hours drive west of McBride.  It is a special place that love to experience and I got another chance to do so when my brother and his family up here for a visit.

    A sign beside one of those old cedars said that the tree was one thousand years old when Leif Erickson stumbled upon North America.

    While those gigantic, moss-covered cedars are the main attraction in the park, I have also loved seeing the plants that thrive in the dark, moist ground, beneath the ancient cedars.  Below are a couple of photos I took of those plants.  

    Immediately below is a fern tucked in between the roots of one giant trees.  Below that is a Skunk Cabbage, a broad-leaved plant that grows only in the wettest and darkest areas of the Ancient Forest.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

BC Summer's Triple Whammy

     We are currently experiencing three negative events that sometimes occur during in summer.  Unfortunately at present, they are all happening at the same time:   Our sky is filled with smoke from distant forest fires, we are experiencing unusually hot (for us) temperatures (32°C, 90°F), and our  mosquito population has exploded, making any leisurely pursuit outside, unpleasant.  The photos show what the sun looks like through the smoke-laden evening sky.

    Fortunately, there is a predicted end to our hot temperatures, as a cooler, more normal, showery front is scheduled to move in this weekend.  However there is no way of knowing how long the forest fire smoke and the irritating mosquitoes will remain.  

   The smoky summer skies are something that began occurring ten or so years ago.  It was our very wet and showery spring that gave us the mosquitoes, but at least that moisture lessened our chances of getting a forest fire locally.

    I no longer look forward to summer the way I optimistically used to do, in the past.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Back To Blogging Again

     After a short hiatus in blogging, while hosting my brother and his family who were visiting us from Dallas, my wife, Kona, and I are getting back to our slow, mundane, lifestyle again.  We had an enjoyable visit and were able to catch up with what was happening in their lives.  While we had seen my brother last year when all of my siblings visited the Robson Valley, we hadn’t seen his wife or two sons for years.  In fact, the two boys were just kids last time we saw them, and now they are both in university.

    During their visit, we took them to a few of the unique local Robson Valley sites.  One evening we made the forty-five minute drive to the scenic Tete Jaune Lodge, to belly up and gorge ourselves at their tasty buffet, situated right beside the Fraser River.  This time, the dinner was an unique experience because there was a heavy downpour of rain and thunder storm going on.  

    We ate under the large protective tent roof, watching the flowing river as the lighting flashed and thunder rumbled.  It all made for a very memorable dining experience, but the wild weather didn’t prevent us from stuffing ourselves with the delicious food.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca