Ralph Mills PhD

A heron stands on a rocky beach.

Today's heron:

A seal lying on a rock, mirrored by a seal-shaped rock in the background.

Rock imitating seal...or vice versa!

A chalet at dusk, lights shining through its windows, smoke drifting from its chimney, seen across a tumble of storm-tossed logs, against a background of dark trees.

Friday evening

A patch of grass, and a path leading down to a sandy shore, with the British Columbia mainland in the distance.

Far from the madding crowd: View from the back porch this evening! Staying at The Alders, on the east coast of Vancouver Island, north of Courtenay.

An equally long time ago I lost the piano part, but the piece had vanished from the catalogues. Once the WWW arrived I regularly searched online for a replacement part. After more than three decades of searching I at last found it, at www.goodsheetmusic.com in the UK. And yesterday it arrived! 2/2

The cover of a piece of music for oboe and piano: "Reverie" by John Longmire, published in 1962 by Boosey and Hawkes. The music is a little battered around its edges, and has been repaired with tape.

>50 years ago I was working on an urban archaeological site where our accommodation was an old school slated for demolition. A passing oboist who had had to give up for heath reasons heard me practicing and very kindly gifted me a wonderful pile of #oboe music It included this piece by Longmire. 1/2

A small decaying log covered in Birdsnest fungi, one of my favourites.

Close up of some birdsnest fungi.

Spent this sunny and warm morning helping to remove invasive Scotch Broom from sensitive sand habitats at Island View Beach, Vancouver Island. Hidden by the Broom, a fine collection of Birdsnest fungi. #fungifriends.

One of the Dvorak symphonies does that, with only a couple of bars either side to change instruments. Dry reed blues…

Minus one for the mention of Indiana Jones; plus one for not using the word “ treasure!” A good read!

Oboe day at UVIC yesterday = >20 #oboes and 6 cors anglais. What an amazing collective sound! Plus a masterclass and many words of wisdom. Great fun!

Ran 7km today despite oboe day (good fun) yesterday and too much rum last night. Progressing cm by cm!

My philosophy is: if I, who hated PE at school and never ran for anything other than a bus, can do it, so can anyone! YOU can do it!!

Thank you!

Horrifying that the world record for someone my age (77) is something like 40 minutes. But then I tell myself that the elite athletes have been running all their lives, while I started when I was 65 and am lackadaisical about training...

Started running (if you can call it that) again this week and have managed a 5.5 k and a 6.5k without collapsing. So there's hope! Aiming for a gentle 10k by the end of the month. #running #slowrunning

I need motivation to run, so I've signed up for a 10k race at the end of April. It's several years since I last ran in a race, six months since I last ran, so I'm going to have to work hard to get back into form. My goal is to finish in under an hour, but I'm older and creakier than before.

Rescued the first lizard of the year today! #cats

So this morning the annual tradition of sitting in a queue of 20,000 people on the Parks Canada web site at exactly 8:00 and not being able to reserve a camp site at Pacific Rim. Ho hum… It would have probably rained!

Three cats, their eyes glowing, looking out through a window.

Welcome home Dad! #cats

Looking across the Georgia Straight past Haystock Islets toward the Washington coast from Whitty’s Spit, with a split rail fence in the foreground.

A morning spent happily removing invasive Scotch Broom at Whitty’s Spit, Metchosin, Vancouver Island with other CRD Parks volunteers.

Would be fun drawing those sections though: a whole roll of
Permatrace?

My 2025 triumph was to successfully graft cuttings from my favourite (but dying) plum tree onto new root stock. First time I’ve tried grafting. Thanks of course to all those online experts who showed me how!

Trifle for breakfast!

“Let’s do a round of names, and today’s ice-breaker question is…”

My diet, though the only reduction I’ve noticed after following it devotedly for many years is number of brain cells!

Wonderful!

My right hand little finger hasn't been the same since I played first oboe in Brahms Third Symphony in 2010! It adopted a slight bend...

A tiny orange-pink toadstool poking out of deep moss.

A yellow-brown toadstool amongst at least two types of mosses.

Birds Nest fungus almost hidden in moss.

A tiny toadstool almost hidden by moss.

Playing with the magnifier feature on my iPhone in between removing invasive Scotch Broom in Francis/King Regional Park yesterday. The mosses are wonderful at the moment, and amongst them are tiny toadstools! #fungifriends

A cluster of tiny toadstools beside the Tod Inlet trail, Vancouver Island.

#fungusfriday #fungifriends

Forest trees surrounding and reflected in a small pool

#ForestFriday