Photographs By Old Raven, All photos taken by Old Raven

Did you know they are geologically related of old, my dear? The top half of Scotland above the diagonal rift came in from the west on a shifting tectonic plate many millions of years ago, all the way from the vicinity of Nova Scotia, and ground to a stop on the southern half. Everything about it is different from the south: the stone, the formations, the life it will support -- everything. Even the kind of Scotsman it will produce, as I firmly believe.

A Highlander for me.

stoirmeil;

I did not know that as I have never thought about the geology. Now that you have mentioned it no wonder there is such an affinity between Scotland and Canada.I know I should not do this but just one last little note for glaswegian. Up until the 1960s' there was more Scots-Gaelic spoken in Cape Breton that there was in Scotland. In certain parts it was the only language spoken.


Camac.

Absolutely true, Camac. But it has since suffered the same fate and has been fully replaced by English as the first language of all Cape Breton residents. Thankfully, our Province has put a lot of resources into reviving the language by promoting Gaelic classes for all ages after hours in select schools, as well as day time classes for the children to get them acquainted with the speech their parents let go. St. Andrews Elementary School in Antigonish Co. is one example of this, and the students had a float in the parade for the Antigonish Highland Games where they brandished posters with Gaelic phrases, greetings, etc., and sang Gaelic songs. There is also St. Anne's Gaelic College in the heart of the Cape Breton Highlands, where many aspects of traditional Gaelic culture are studied. Last, but certainly not least, Antigonish Co. has added a second language to all of their road signs on high traffic highways. This is probably the most important, as it is something we can see every day, though I'm sure one in 200 can properly pronounce the names (myself included, as I've only begun to understand the phonetic structures of the speech).

Well, all I can say is thank you so very much. Coming into this thread gives me both a huge boost to my ego, (which probably doesn't need the help), and joy at knowing others get to see the beauty I've been lucky enough to capture and share. I've said it before, the only art involved with nature photography is in trying to show it in its' best light. It's already there.

Valpal, any chance to to to the Island I'll take.

That being said, it turns out those photos DO have a bit of touching up. I didn't remember doing it, but going back on the office PC, (I use it primarily for photography now and photoshop work for clients. Day to day, we use the laptop.), I saw that they were doctored. I'm just now learning about colour manipulation, though I'm not sure how to keep these darker areas (river) from hazing out without contrasts turning the entire section black. I've read a bit about layering the photos, so you can take two identical (tripod) photos at different settings and paste them back together later. One photo for the trees and sky, another for the river and rocks. Maybe someday I'll have the time to try that out.





To give this photo some perspective, this is shot about 35-40 degrees from vertical, not horizontal. You can see a ledge below with trees growing on it. This is taken from the same height as the other shots looking over at the Cabot Trail highway. Those trees farther below.... I couldn't even guess how far down they are. Try not to get vertigo. There are no railings here, but there is a $5000 fine attached to taking one step off of the boardwalk built there.

These were taken at Uisge (OOSH-ka) Ban Falls, near Baddeck in Cape Breton. We took the kids and dogs out there for a hike on Monday. It was too nice of a day to stay inside, and we wanted to do something to celebrate some recent good news. It may look cold, but it wasn't in the least. The kids' snow pants were soaked by the time we got back to the car. The whole time we were walking on 2 to 3 feet of hard packed snow, so the bridge railings were only up to Seamus's waist. The dogs were there to deter the Coyotes (a girl was attacked and killed last year on the trail those photos above were taken from. The Skyline Trail.). Anyway, since you can't really see the upper falls without climbing gear (ice climbing gear this time of year. You could see where people had been climbing the lower falls.), and the lower falls were just one big chunk of ice, there weren't any photos of the falls worth sharing. I got some shots from behind a wall of ice, which were interesting.





I don't know what happened here. It must have happened when I transferred the image to the flash drive, because it's like this everywhere but the original on my desktop.



These are just to show how damn big the falls really are, and also the size of the gorge.

These are just some family fun photos.













What a goof!

Greetings, Old Raven!

It has been a long time since we heard from you. Or is it me? Cause I haven't been too active on here myself. I love CR, but so much going on in my life all the time I forget to visit.

Your photos are wonderful! I personally don't know how you live in snow. Been there and done that and I hated it! Well, I was fine as long as I could stay inside, but I sure hate driving in that stuff.

I was also impressed with how big your kids are now! Wow! What a shock! I bet they keep you busy. Great looking dogs to keep the coyotes away. Are they both German Shepherds?

Great seeing your new photos and know that you all are doing well.

Blessings!

Great photos oldraven! I would guess it is hard for some to believe that it could ever seem warm when there is snow on the ground, but for those of us who are longing for running water to appear again, this looks pretty darn toasty!

What a beautiful family!

Thanks for sharing!

Thanks to you both.

It really wasn't cold at all. The temperatures were between 6-10 (42-50) degrees that day. It was almost warm enough to get that heavy fog that comes from fast melting snow. I only had my jacket liner on, and Ange was wearing a simple hoodie. Plus, it was a 3km walk. Here at the house, there is no snow left in the yard, just the ditches. Then again, what I consider hot is probably sweater weather for you, Rose.

Seamus couldn't do much walking, though, due to the uneven surface. Coira had such a good time. We pretended it was a treasure hunt, and at every trail map, we would talk about 'clues'. She wasn't that impressed that her treasure ended up being a frozen waterfall, though. A natural treasure. She was expecting candy, I'm sure, since we do these hunts at home sometimes, with a map of the property and a box of treats at the end of the 'trail'. It took her about 30 seconds to get over that, though, and start enjoying herself at the destination. She was sliding down the banks on her but with Ange. Her little photo shoot gave us some gems. Most were of her making ridiculous faces.

Oh, and as for the dogs. Buffy is a pure-bred German Police, and Ozwald (Oz) is a Stafordshire mix. They were both good, but Oz shocked me with how well he behaved. He's a bit prone to chasing anything that might even think about moving. I was very proud of them.

Uisge Ban -- isn't that "White Water"?

These are lovely, but so cold . . . that one from behind the icicles is interesting. There's a beautiful rhythm in that first one looking upstream over the rocks and into the trees-- it looks like it should be an engraved frontispiece in an old book of poetry or fairy tales.

That boy's eyes are just astonishing. They haven't changed at all. Both those kids are going to be real heartbreakers -- you will have your hands full!

Thanks for the compliments, Stoirmeil.

Yes, that is White Water. It's too bad that I couldn't get up to take a proper photo. That one blurry photo of the upper falls only shows the top half of the 52' falls. It really is immense. This random googled photo shows just how big they are. http://www.pbase.com/smevo/image/47357347.jpg

It's funny, but it sounded like you were using the future tense there.

I'm starting to see my Dad in him now. Those eyes are recessive in both Angela and myself, but they're very much like my brother Jimmie's. Some days they're cold blue, others they're flat grey. In that photo above they're the grey. It seems the name Seamus was very appropriate (my Dad is a James, as is my nephew, who is James III).