Ski season

A bright spot in an otherwise dark year...

 Our local mountain has opened for a new season of skiing. It was crowded the day we were there, probably from a combination of holidays and people weary of being housebound by COVID.

The resort had COVID protocols in place that everyone seemed to be respecting. The day was warm with a blanket of recent snow on the slopes... a near-perfect start to the season.

Bouquet of Memories

No, not a scene from Yellow Submarine...

Today's image is inspired by a towering sculpture at Victoria's International Airport. The artist is Illarion Gallant who has a number of impressive art installations throughout the region. 

The name of the piece is "Bouquet of Memories". Gallant invited students and staff of a neighbourhood school to write a paragraph of their favourite memory. The collection of memories is sealed in a capsule inside the seedpod of one of the colourful poppies in the sculpture.

Blue

 

Colourful chopper seen near Oceanside...

Haunted

Every day she waves at me

That small girl that only I can see

I wish she would stay over there

I don't like her hungry stare

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This alley in Bastion Square is next to Victoria's now defunct Maritime Museum. The building once served as Victoria's old courthouse/jail, and is generally considered a centre of supernatural activity.

Haunted Victoria

There's a light over at the Frankenstein place...

Victoria has a reputation for being one of the most haunted places on earth. Maybe it's for that reason that it has been tapped by Hollywood as a filming location for horror movies over the years. Two popular filming locations are Craigdarroch Castle seen above, and Hatley Castle seen at the bottom of this post.

Craigdarroch Castle -- more of a large manor really -- is often used by local theatre groups to stage Halloween productions. It shows up prominently in The Boy, a horror/suspense movie filmed here in 2016. You can watch it right now on Netflix.

Some of the exterior shots for The Boy were filmed at nearby Hatley Castle. Hatley Castle has also stood in for the Mutant Academy in the X-Men and Deadpool movies, and Lex Luthor's manor in the TV series Smallville.  It was also a film location for The Changeling, another very creepy ghost story, back in the early 80s.

Victoria's Hatley Castle....

War of the Worlds

When worlds collide...

"Across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us."

-- War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells

A horse with no mane...

Assembled horse deep in thought...

These equestrian wooden sculptures can be found on Mayne Island across from the Japanese Gardens.

Driftwood horses on the gallop...

La Conner cute

The residents of La Conner even park artfully...

On our recent trip to Oregon, we stopped in at La Conner WA. We discovered this picturesque community two years ago.

If you are an art lover, La Conner is your town. The main street features numerous shops selling art in quality from pricey fine to mass produced 'lifestyle' and everything in between. We have some of it sitting in our home as I write this.

All stair rails, veranda and posts...

Brentwood Bay

Off in the distance the Malahat Mountain overlooks Brentwood Bay...

Brentwood Bay on the Saanich Peninsula to the north of Saanich on Vancouver Island seems to be resisting the tendency to high-density development that is afflicting the other south island communities. So far it has maintained its quaint seaside charm. For that reason, it's a popular place for my wife and I to go out for breakfast on a sunny weekend morning.

As sea breezes waft in through the window, you can enjoy the comings and going of ferries, sailing boats and paddle craft.

Decaying

Disappearing into the forest...

An abandoned home, overlooking a bay near Jordan River, is slowly succumbing to the inexorable advance of the surrounding trees and moss.

Empty nest...

Atomic City ID

Nothing happens on Main Street of Atomic City...

Atomic City in Idaho is definitely off the grid. It's about 20 miles off the main interstate at the end of a non-descript gravel road.

I wanted to see it because I was intrigued by its retro-future name.

It's nearly a ghost town now, home to just 30 people. It features a small stock car race track which appears to be still active, but, except for a couple of grizzled old characters -- one of them sporting two artificial legs -- it seemed deserted in the middle of the day.

The only bar in town is long shuttered...

No longer serving cold ones...

The Haunting

"Whatever walked there... walked alone..."

This Halloween season Netflix has been streaming The Haunting of Hill House, a one-shot 10-part series inspired by Shirley Jackson's creepy 1959 book.

In the series, Hill House looks very similar to local landmark Hatley Castle. Hatley Castle is familiar to some movie fans as the Mutant Academy in the X-Men and Deadpool movies.

Of course, any castle has to have its share of ghosts and Hatley Castle is no exception. I spent numerous nights sleeping in the castle back in the day when it was a military academy. I had my share of creepy encounters during those nights, but only one that I would consider to be truly supernatural. One was enough...

The Overlook of the Wallawas

Apropro of the upcoming Halloween season, this decrepit and deserted hall near our campsite made me think of the Overlook Hotel from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining even though it looked nothing like it.

I think it was the shuttered windows and shadowed recesses that lent it a slightly sinister atmosphere.