Last weekend he was busy with supervising some of his grad students, on site at the B.C. research forest. For him it isn't an uninteresting guidance, he is fully integrated, fascinated, immersed and excited by any kind of biological surveys and research initiatives. But the concentration required for these things isn't quite relaxation, so he took time off mid-week to take the ferry to Vancouver Island.

Drove along to the Juan de Fuca trail, not far from the West Coast trail, but newer. He had done the West Coast trail many years ago. That had been quite the adventure. The trail had been a gruelling experience, all the more so that he had embarked on it past the season, and there was no one else about, the weather had closed in and by the time he finished he was marooned in unending rainfall until someone on the other shore saw him and took a boat over to convey him back.

Nothing quite excites him and relaxes his mind like being in a wilderness setting. And, mid-week last week that's just where he was. Within Juan de Fuca Provincial Park, and settled into a camping spot for a few days. It's in these kinds of settings that he settles into nature, observes everything around him and appreciates what life has to offer of true value and meaning beyond ourselves.


Close to where he camped there was a tidal pool and he relaxed by observing what went on in that pool, identifying the aquatic creatures and watching their behaviour, a natural enough thing for anyone fascinated with nature, and all the more so when that anyone is a biologist. We get to experience these things second-hand, through his enthusiastic narratives, compelling and of huge interest to us. In our younger days we used to accompany him on some of his forays.




The colour, form, purpose and variety of nature's creatures are nothing short of astounding. He found a shell midden and within its area a multitude of intriguing sea life. Their activity riveting and instructive in the complex devising of nature's purpose and presence all around us, awaiting our witness. The drama of witnessing a hidden octopus begin to roil the waters as he watched, sending the shells floating about crazily, then whipping its tentacles back into its hiding space was rather different.




There are so many times when I recall our adventures with our children when they were young and so were we. As a child myself I recall how I yearned to be in natural surroundings, as a child of the urban inner city. When I was older and met my husband when we had both just entered our teen years we discovered a like fascination with nature between us, as yet another binding element of our budding relationship. Our youngest son's full embrace of nature is then perhaps not quite surprising.