Which path would you take?

I don’t think I make a conscious decision between the hard path or the easy but instead which is more appropriate. Actually, I would choose the one that seems more interesting – you see, I like to smell the roses (the petals are delicious too). This doesn’t imply meaningless dreamy wandering, though it has a place, rather appreciable complexities can be found in almost anything. Cable television is one of the few things I can think of lacking in appreciable complexity – unless, of course, your interested in memes and similar studies.

The point?

My blog has not seen a post in about a year. Not through a lack of interest though. In the past year I have found many more species of mushroom (hundreds?) and have greatly improved my ability to identify species. I really enjoy not only finding fungi’s but also observing and analyzing the immediate area’s flora, soil, moisture, elevation, etc… then record these findings and try to draw some conclusions. This requires a lot of time and effort and since it’s only a personal pursuit the time I can spend on it is limited.

Of the time I have, my first intent is to spend time in the woods. Organising and sharing any data collected has to be secondary. The recording-organising-publishing process requires a lot of time so over the past year I’ve been working with different technologies (GIS, databases, etc…) in an attempt to streamline. I’ve made good progress and should soon have something that will satisfy my needs. I’m not going into any details today because I would like to bring it to an initial point from my own vision. I’m using all open source software and whatever I produce will follow the same principals. Once the first version is out I’m happy with any criticisms and, hopefully, collaboration – if anyone finds it interesting and useful that is.

As much as I loved the Comox Valley, I had to move. I’m now in Victoria BC and though it offers more opportunities for employment and such getting out into the woods requires a little more effort. In Cumberland the forest edge was about 200 m from my home. Now the closest area, Thetis Lake, is about 6 km and my preferred area, Matheson Lake, is about 30 km away. I only use a bicycle for transportation so no quick jaunts in the evening except to Thetis. I think this will work out fine. Since I can only make a trip once (and sometimes twice) a week I will spend more time developing the data on my computer. Maybe make some money too, I could use a GPS receiver and some new tyres.

There are many other cool areas I’ll explore later in the spring and beyond like Sooke and Leechtown. Check out http://www.gallopinggoosetrail.com for some southern Vancouver Island biking info. I have some other great links but will post them at another time.

jt

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