Breathing Space: French Beach -- west coast of Vancouver Island British Columbia

Every summer Ruthie and I go camping for a week and have a wonderful time just being in nature and doing a few things such as:

rock collecting

sending out a message in a bottle

rock art

campfires

hikes

beach days

sand castles

writing in the sand

wave jumping

ocean swimming

Here are some photos of our Breathing Space week in nature at French Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia last July 2012. 

 Ruthie took this photo looking up a Douglas Fir tree. Always love adding her photos into this 'Breathing Space' blog. :)

 The trail from out campside down to the beach.

 Wonderful contrast of a leaf floating in a dark stream.

 We could not just sit and be with these rocks. We had to stack them and make art with them!!!

 God always makes the best art and inspires me every time. 

 Huge sea  anenomies (sp?) and barnacles the size of a child's hand - huge! So much richness of sea life on the west coast to see in the tide pools. Hours of looking into these worlds!

 We decied to make a line of rocks from the top of the beach to the shore this day.

 Endless fun by the fire. Especially on the last night when we burned all the remaining fire wood! The park ranger stopped by to make sure "everything was OK". !!! Everything was fine. We just had a super big fire!!!!

My current fav picture of us! We took five pictures to get this. All of the first five, I held the camera and half of my face is cut out of all of them, then Ruthie told me she could do it better and took this one first try!!!

 Beach art, making inukshucks on logs. Little stone status. Can be challenging balancing them!

 Ruthie joined forces with another familiy and made the sand casttle of a a life time. Here she is with the little boy building a barrier to stop the ocean from coming in and destroying their wonderful creation!

 Sand Casttle extravaganza closer up!

 OK, we got a bit obsessed with the rock art! What can I say. I had to make some art that week!!!

 Just in love with how the west coast rainforest meets the beach. So much beauty in the details.

 I love how when yoiu are in nature and camping you don't have to do  anything.  Just be there and the earth, air, water, nature around  you supports you, embraces you, calms you, heals you, gives you exactly what you need just by being there.

 These last two pictures are  from a day trip we took a little further north up the west coast from French beach. It's called Mystic beach and for about a 40 minute hike we got there and enjoyed amazing weather, sand, a rope swing, picnic by the sea and...

this beautiful fresh water waterfall falling straight from above onto the beach and then flowing into the ocean. Yes we stood under it and had a shower! wonderful!

Breathing Space: Goldstream Park on Vancouver Island

These are some snap shots from a family hike we took in August at GoldStream Park located  just outside of Victoria, Vancouver Island, BC. 

Loving the lushness of this forest!

Ruthie leading the way.

Looking up at the trees - thanks for the reminder James! The day seems to always get better when you look up and enjoy the beauty of the trees!

Down the stairs to a surprise below!

A beautiful pool and waterfall awaited us. I went in the pool in the back and swam to the waterfall. I could not belive how wonderfully warm the water was!

Ruthie wading around the dam.

Enjoying the waterfall.

Ruthie on the otherside of the little lake, enjoying nature.

The water was so clear!

Back up the stairs. Good exersice!

Nothing like walking down a forest path.

Until next time Goldenstream. Bless, bless!

Breathing Space: Galiano Island, British Columbia

Every summer my daugther Ruthie, now 9, and I go camping together. I've been making a point to go somwhere new each year so she can begin to see and explore the natural beauty we have around us here in beautiful British Columbia. 

This year for a week in July we chose to camp on Galiano Island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia where the forest meets the ocean and a small piece of heaven exists. It's a 45 minute ferry ride from Vancouver straight to the island.

Lots of little beaches we found to play and look for marine life especially when the tide was down.

Oh Deer! On a group hike with Ruthie and another camping family we came across this beautifully  made drift wood deer. It's life size and made completely out of found wood on the beach!

The dock near the campground was one of the best places to look for fish, sea stars, sea urchins and all sorts of marine life. They even had a floating nature house with free events for kids on the weekends.

Ruthie outside the Galiano Soap Works Store where we found lots of treasure including nice smelling candles, body oils and -of course- beautiful hand made soaps!

The patio outside the Soapworks store. Just love patios with flowers.

Inside the main 'Market' the one store where you could get groceries on the island. It was so beautifully set up like an art gallery for fruits and vegetables. a joy to peruse.

Ruthie snuggled into the sandstone scupltures at Bell Park on the tip of the Island. So much fun climbing the rocks on the sea shore!

Our home for the week. Camp Deb & Ruthie. Snuggled in the trees with our campfire, clothelines, and tarp kitchen. Don't need much else.

Oddly enough this picture looks like a painting or as though it's been photshopped in some way. Truth is, I don't know how to use photoshop and it has not been altered at all. It was a really brilliant sunset that night and Ruthie and I were on our way to go enjoy it with some friends a Shell Beach - best place on Galiano Island to watch the sun set if you ask me. Anyways, we snapped this picture on our walk there and it had this etheral painterly feel at the time.

Tide up at Shell Beach. So many great memories of sun sets and wading around in the water. Looks tropical with the turquoise water!

Ruthie wading in the cool ocean water with her new little friend in the background.

Walking the peninsula near Montague Harbor campground on my birthday ( July 8th). This has, for the last many years, been my desired way to celebrate my birthday : on a hike in nature. Ruthie was off on a playdate with some new campground friends and I took an hour to just enjoy the trees, the path, the ocean and my own company.

Always have loved the sandstone strata geology in the Gulf Islands.