Photo of the day

Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi)

Yesterday’s daring ascent of Mount Doug was one thing, but it was the late night video editing that really challenged my endurance and skills. Getting the video completed and uploaded was epic.

First, the bluetooth connection for my mouse started to act up. A call to Apple and, finally, a drive to Staples, the nearest computer store, to grab a wired USB mouse, just before they closed.

Then a software glitch. Another call to Apple. The only thing soft, it turned out, was my “internal memory.” Production values contracted as time dragged on.

Alpine larch ( (Larix lyallii)

Finally, I clicked the upload button. Because I’d recorded it in Ultra High Definition (4K), it took an hour to upload. Around 10pm, I was ready to embed it in the post. Turns out I’d misspelled my own name.

Which brings me to the lovely larch.

Larch are possibly my favourite tree. Forty-four-years-ago I lived in a larch forest in the Purcell Mountains of southeastern British Columbia. In the spring, the delicate new flush of  needles are the most beautiful shade of emerald green. Accompanying cone flowers are vibrant purple, like little thistles.

As you can see in the accompanying photos, needles turn a brilliant yellow/orange in the autumn, before they fall. The larch is rare among conifers in that it is a deciduous tree.

The snapshot at right is the view from my old cabin on the banks of Lavington Creek over to the “big cabin” at the Meadow (elev. 1168m/3,832 ft.), shot with my Kodak Brownie in the fall of 1974. Right there and then I fell in love with the larch.

I began messing around with bonsai in 1990. A year or so later, I happened upon some Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi) at a small nursery on northern Vancouver Island. I bought a half-dozen babies. 25-years later, the largest specimen boasts a trunk girth over 8 inches. It is the mother of my remaining larch bonsai, via air layers. Those trees are now nearly-bonsai in their own right. Give them another half-century or so and they’ll really be something. You can view one of them, in spring and fall finery in my flora gallery.

The larch branch in the feature photo sports this year’s matured cones. Perhaps next year, I’ll follow my plan to grow some more offspring from seeds. The highest leader branch will be air-layered to produce another clone from the Great Mother. Ultimately, I want to create a larch forest. A couple of years ago, I bought a beautiful tray-style pot — originally from a fine Japanese kiln — for that purpose.

Bonsai, like video production, teaches patience.

Today’s self-imposed challenge was this: In the garden, make a photograph using one camera and one lens, chosen before the shoot. But just one shot. Make like you have one exposure left on a roll of film rather than the 32-gigabyte media card in the digital camera. Post the result, for better or worse.