Nikki's Photography

Here is our sweet Truly, sadly no longer with us, as she was a few years into her rehabilitation after being bitten through the pituitary gland by a large dog when she was only 5 weeks old. She was never quite a normal dog, always looked like a perpetual puppy, and she was quirky but she was Truly Sweet for nine years longer than others might have allowed her to live. In this 1999 photo she and George Xarchos, who is now about 13 years old, are checking each other out with the same curious postures.

Red-headed house finch, North Saanich, BC

Thunderbird Park, Royal BC Museum, Victoria, BC

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Victoria, BC harbour, Parliament Building in lights

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Severe and spooky Summer storm in Calgary, Alberta

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I have yet to see a tornado in Texas since we moved there, yet here is the first one I’ve ever seen, about to touch down in Airdrie, near Calgary Alberta while we’re on holidays. Watching it form is surreal, and though it’s not far away I don’t feel in any danger. It formed a perfect funnel then I watched it pull back again, spawning a skinny long string-like tornado, then dissolve. The associated clouds are ominous and dark in contrast to the sunny neighborhood where I’m standing. I learned later this afternoon that the tornado touched down in a farmer’s feild for a few moments.

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Arbutus trees, first thumbnail, only grow in the Pacific Northwest, here on Salt Spring Island, B.C. and in parts of China, nowhere else in the world. They are popular carve-your-name-in-the-trunk trees because the bark heals into a soft well-defined scar. A few trees on the island have been abused like this. Still, they couldn’t take the beautiful away! Groups of three and four Fluted Swallowtails spiraled in and out of the sunlight as I walked down the mountain road on Salt Spring Island. Fortunately one briefly settled on a fir tree.

“Rude Awakening”…making way for new, large condominiums along White Ave. in Edmonton, Alberta

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Dragonfly, Airdrie, Alberta

Raccoon family and below, Canada Goose gosling, Ottawa, ON

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Insect gall on Eastern Cottonwood leaf, Ottawa, ON

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Niagara Falls, New York USA and Ontario, Canada

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Morning light shining through hazy forest, Sarsparilla Trail, Ottawa, ON