Mount Baker

Sometimes you are annoyed by the impossibility to take the right pictures. You are probably in a car that doesn’t stop. Or doesn’t stop at the right spot. Or everybody seems to be in a hurry so you take a shot and yes, later you see it is blurred… Or your camera has its limits….

OK; Mount Baker. The first time it was mentioned to me I was on the island of Saturna. Saturna is one of the southern Gulf Islands.These Gulf Islands are located between Vancouver and Vancouver Island. The Gulf Islands are volcanic islands. You cannot get closer to being in paradise. Unspoiled nature. Fantastic views. Being there almost alone…. Whenever you get a chance, go there!

I was walking there with my friends… then suddenly at the end of our walk John pointed something out to me. Look, do you see Mount Baker… No I didn’t and then I did. When you look out over the sea you see a blue haze, And a bit higher up some white clouds. All nicely on one level. But then suddenly you get hooked by the view of a volcano. Peering out above the ring of clouds you see something white.

The shock of seeing something so unexpected. I was fascinated by this mountain from that moment. And after all these years I still am.

The rest of my time there I was on the look out for Mount Baker. And I was rewarded by some impressive views. Vancouver with Mount Baker in the background.

   

Finally a shot from the car driving along the highway. The last sight of this impressive and enchanting Mount Baker. I will never forget you…..

An old polder landscape….

We had to get up early for our annual outing…..  

For me, going on a bus trip still has the enchantment it had when we went on our school trips. Excitement, the need to sing, the smell of fresh sandwiches;  longing to eat them straight away.

Where would we go today?  We were guessing for a long time. Is it the code of all school trips and company outings that you only know what to wear, but not where you are going?

Off course it was important where you were going, but somehow I best liked the bus trip itself. I love looking out of the windows to the passing world. Watching the landscape flow by from high up; at least much higher up that from a normal car. Watching people in cities wrestling through the traffic or going about their business in any other way.

This morning, a long time ago,  there was a little haze on the meadows. Just enough to make the landscape a bit distant, quiet and unreal. The pictures were taken through the coloured windscreens of the bus. So the tone is a bit artificial. And don’t ask me why some are more orange and others are more blue.

The old and new windmills, the greenhouses, the birds, the cows in meadows. A typical Dutch polder landscape. The cool air, the sun is low. It is almost autumn……