Men's walking group

What a great walk, sunny no mountains and good company & no snow like some parts of our country. 13 of us did 12 k according to our michines. Next week we can drive to Sherman rd in Duncan and try out the North cowichan trail. This is new for us, Its an old rail road so slight grade's no big hills,and for any new walkers we meet and leave at the Legion each Monday morning at 8:30 am. Also we are planing to hike Cable Bay in Nanaimo, having lunch at the Crow & Gate on the 14 Apr getting back to the Legion by 2pm that day. Okay? Tks for the pictures DeNNis.

Men's Walking Group

Map and photos from todays walk along Galloping Goose Trail and detour to see carvings and such on Hepworth Rd.  Another perfect day for a stroll through the countryside.  -  DeNNis.

Parked our cars where the Galloping Goose Trail crosses Renfrew Rd.(Red box at left). Walked down to McGee Creek Trestle (Blue flag on right), then down across Shawnigan Lk Rd to view the carvings on Hepworth Rd (red box on right), then back through Shawnigan Lk Provincial Park and back up to the Goose to return to our vehicles.  GPS said 11.6Km.

On McGee Creek Trestle. Notice the moss on the top of the upright post -

 - A little bit of Natures Art Work.

Looking downstream from the trestle.

What have we here?  Strays from the Womens Walking Group - waiting for the rest.

Thanks for taking the photo, Margaret.  Got the whole "Bakers dozen".

Another - in a tree.

One of several carvings on Hepworth Rd. This one on the roof.

Quite a collection of carvings and antiques.

Probably expensive for this gas because the parking meter is probably going while filling up.

Looking across the lake from Shawnigan Lake Provincial Park.

Womens Walking Group

A lovely sunny Monday morning for the walkers as they began along Wilmot road towards Cowichan Bay. Signs of spring were spotted here and there. Pictures of the flowers were taken by Margaret. Then back to the coffee shop at Koksilah. Next Monday the 31st. we will walk the Trans Canada Trail. Meet at the Legion at 10 am.   V.M.

Men's Walking Group

A little late again - but here are some of my photos from our Goldstream "ups and downs".  A great walk, great weather and good company  - as usual.  -  DeNNis.

Not a lot of info on this map.  Started at the parking lot - down the highway - across the river - then up the mountain side - lots of ups and downs - almost to the trestle above Niagara Falls - then back down to the highway. Interesting to note the parking lot elevation is about 30 meters (98 feet) above sea level - highest recorded elevation on our walk about 149 meters (485 feet).

Nature walk portion of our hike.  

Paparazi causing congestion on bridge across river.  Here we start up the mountain side.

Bunched up at the start - but spreading out as we go.

An indication of the size of some of the old trees.

Fortunately someone brought their trusty pocket knife carve out some helpful openings.

We found a flat area large enough to spread out for a photo-op.

One of a few bridges - trail somewhat wet in places.

Mother Nature can make art out of anything.

Natural trail barrier - "Please stay on path."

Mother Nature gives you that warm, fuzzy (green) feeling.

Ed wanted to explore the old mine shaft -

- but he would have got his feet wet.

Enough  Ups  - starting the final stretch DOWN.

Bridge at  the top of Niagara Falls.

Niagara Falls - Lots of people enjoying the view.

Mens waking group

Hi All Our walks seem to be getting longer every week, last week 12 k this week 10 around Goldstreem park. Good walk but it took a bit longer then I planed. Anyway we did it and made it back to the cars. ha. If anyone has pictures that would be great. Next week local walk on west side Shawnigan Lk. Those who got raffle tickets from me last week maybe you can remimber to bring them back next week. Thanks a lot.

Men's Walking Group

A couple days tardy - but here are my maps-photos from our Brentwood walk on Monday 17th.

Between the two maps it should give a fair idea of  our route.  From the ferry we turned right onto Brentwood Drive and did a huge figure 8.  We had to go quite a distance up Stellys Crossroad so we could cut through the Stellys High School grounds back over to Wallace Drive to get to our favourite watering hole, the Bleue Coyote Grill. Map number two snuck down to the bottom.

Here comes the Ferry.

The old Bamberton Site as seen from the ferry.

Thought I should throw in a little wake from the ferry.

Tons of boats in the various areas of the Brentwoood Bay area.

Some residents Camilia in full bloom.

Room for a pair of Mallards amongst the boats.

The original Brentwood College Chapel.

Yes - the wild life was real.  The same cannot be said about the rockwork behind him - it was a type of fibreglass.

AT LAST!!  It's lunch time.

OOPS!!  This map has a mind of it's own - keeps moving around on me.  As usual follow the red arrowheads on the yellow-brick-road.

As you can see, it was certainly welcomed and enjoyed by all.

Men's walking group

That was a great walk today to Brentwood and we did put on the miles, 10 of us did 12k in Brentwood after getting of the ferry. We seen a lot of the village and some of the farm land on the east side. Lunch at the Bleue Cyote pub was the best and the company was super, but no green beer, boo, boo'.hopefully some one will put up some pictures. Next week we will plan on a walk in Goldstream, Normal walk getting back to the Legion by 12 noon. Okay, Tks

Photography Group

Hello All,

Below are 2 images, the first is the original and then an edited version. A lot more editing could be done but this was a less then 2 minute effort in Picasa.

Unedited image

Edited in Picasa

Two weeks ago in photography we talked about composition, leading lines, rule of thirds and other considerations to produce an image that is pleasing to the eye, has impact and stands out from the flood of photographs that digital cameras give us. NOTE: I did not include the attachments in this post, but check your emails. In this email are 2 attachments. Your homework assignment is to edit these images to make them better and give them somewhat of a WOW factor. You will need to install them into your favourite editing program(Picasa, Windows Photo Gallery or something else). We can talk about what good editing programs are out there, either free or purchased.

There is a lot of information out there about how to photograph birds. Here is a link to one of the sites:

http://digital-photography-school.com/8-tips-for-photographing-birds

We will get back to the technical stuff about cameras later, but the above is the fun stuff. We can maybe plan a field trip for April 1 weather permitting using all the great tricks we will learn from the above about shooting birds.

Ed