31 May 2022 — We’re in Camosun Bog, that magic enclave within Pacific Spirit Regional Park, delighted that the promised drizzle has become peek-a-boo sunshine. Our plan is to loop around the 300-metre boardwalk a couple of times, and then follow our feet onto trails that connect into the surrounding forest.
We pause at the Bog’s minute pond; walk alongside great carpets of sphagnum moss; read cheerfully instructive signboards about labrador tea/salal/huckleberry/blueberry/salmonberry/sun dew/ & more; and, at the very end of our first lap, we look for the tree with the carving.
The Tree With The Carving.
The one I noticed and showed you in April, “a thunderbird, perhaps?” I said. A carving someone had wedged in among some branches, making it impossible for my photo to capture the entire piece.
This time I can’t capture anything, because it isn’t there. Gone! Lost!
No. Not lost. Just tumbled to the ground, there by the tree trunk, behind the fence.
My friend fishes it out, holds it up. Still in perfect condition.
To make good news even better, I can finally pay tribute to the person who carved it, and give it the name he chose for it himself.
Jim Jules, Eagle Head, 2015, Nootka (now Nuu-chah-nulth) design. Later I look him up and, no, he is not an important carver, he does not seem to have a website of his own, and his works do not sell for impressive amounts of money. But he has a name, and a talent, and he creates works that honour his people — and this particular work now honours the Camosun Bog.
We restore the eagle to his perch in the tree, and continue our walk.
Onto side trails now, beyond the Bog, where buttercups spill through split-rail fencing…
moss-furred trees climb skyward…
a winding path guides our feet through the mixed deciduous-coniferous forest…
the high canopy sifts dappled sunlight onto our heads…
a web of sinewy roots embrace their nurse log…
and giant stumps wear their scars like medals, veterans of fire and logging.
Eventually we’re back in the Bog, and, just before heading out to city streets …
we spend a last moment with Jim Jules and the Eagle Head.
WALKING WOMAN 
Lynette d'Arty-Cross
/ 31 May 2022What a lovely walk, and thanks for sharing the artist’s name with us. He definitely is talented.
icelandpenny
/ 7 June 2022yes, that gave me a lot of pleasure
dianaed14
/ 1 June 2022so good that you restored Eagle Head to its intended position. As always, enjoyed this walk.
susan Corbin
/ 3 June 2022We happen to be on one of your cherished islands and find it like so many other places becoming littered with large ugly houses built by the usual, tasteless rich people. There was a time when committees would not allow such houses that were not kept in keeping with the older houses around them. Seems if you have enough money and clout in Guernsey you can put anything anywhere you want. So happy I’m old, won’t be able to grumble much longer. Thanks for your positive blog… Susan xoxo