Oddities

Seen on a day trip to Gold River:

In the centre of the river a short way out of town, there's a bridge support. There's no sign of construction on either bank; there's no road heading that way; there's no sign to identify it.

At the dock parking lot; a two-wheeled truck stands, apparently unsupported.

Scree makes good rock-piling material; it has sharp corners and flat edges.

I think I posted another photo of this corner a couple of years ago. No left turn; plow straight into the rock face. Not photographed: heading the opposite way, a couple of turns later, a left turn sign where the road curves right. Going left would take you over the bank into the river far below. What were they thinking?

Unpredictable

Prickly. If I had to chose one word to describe the dry zone between the shore and the tree-and-grass line, prickly would have to be the one. It's a place where I walk carefully, watching where I step, occasionally stopping to knock spines out of my sandals, brush ants off my legs. It's where everything is hard-edged, sharp-pointed, splintery. Here, driftwood logs, tossed up long ago beyond the reach of all but the highest tides, slowly crumble into dust and slivers; small plants grow, dry out, twist, break, and die, leaving random sticks and straws helter-skelter.

It's a zone of fantastic shapes.

Log end, Oyster Bay Shoreline Park

Pixie-cup lichens along a crack in a log.

Typical mix: splinters, dead sticks, lichen, yarrow, peppergrass. And an old spike, part of an ancient, crumbling dock or float.

Large-headed sedge, Carex macrocephala. Even the leaf edges and tips are sharp. And the head is vicious!

More lichens.

And more. I have trouble making sense of this one. My eyes cross.

I just don't know... Book, as I found and left it, with an ant as only reader. Quote from the page: "... a place within the great scheme of things ..." "... unpredictable ..."

Crabs wearing hats

In the lower reaches of the beaches of Campbell River, the most common crabs are the brown or olive green kelp crabs. On this latest visit, I noticed something I don't remember seeing before. Most of the kelp crabs were wearing fragments of sea lettuce, but only on their heads.

Dressed for a party

Floppy sun hat version.

Very tiny, very stylish.

Do crabs have fashion designers? Or ad agencies?