Ralph Mills PhD
Historical archaeologist, oboe and tenor saxophone player, photographer, runner (slow), 35 years vegan, gardener. Researches nineteenth century miniatures, working class mantelpieces, figurinai, and old railway wagons. Four cats. Saanich, BC 🇨🇦
- 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!
- Welcome home Dad! #cats
- A morning spent happily removing invasive Scotch Broom at Whitty’s Spit, Metchosin, Vancouver Island with other CRD Parks volunteers.
- Trifle for breakfast!
- 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
- Changed/improved the scenery a little up in Mill Hill Regional Park this morning by removing invasive Scotch Broom, plus a twig of the day! #fungifriends #Saanich #habitatrestoration
- A long time ago I attended Enfield Primary School, in Adelaide, South Australia. I'm in the centre of the back row of this 1960 photograph of my class, all of whom are in the latter half of their 70s now, but who in those days had dreams to look forward to. #south_australia #enfield
- In the gloom of the forests beside Lake Cowichan it was pouring with rain. On a group fungus foray you can't linger too long over photos otherwise you get left behind! And of course I make trouble for myself by wanting to capture the smallest fungi using my iPhone! #fungifriends
- Working on my photos from the fungus foray the other weekend. The heavy rain and lack of light meant that my results are even more amateurish than usual. But in the meantime, I found these just down the garden... #fungifriends
- It’s black cat day. There are three in this photo.
- Cowichan Lake Fungus Foray day 2. The specimens on display. 165 species identified. Quite the haul. I haven’t had time to look at my photos yet but will post one or two soon…#FungusFriends
- Evening 1 of the Cowichan Fungus Foray. We wandered in the dark damp forest shining our UV flashlights at various unsuspecting fungi and lichens. Being an archaeologist rather than a mycologist I oohed and aahed and then found some plastic beads (21st century) that fluoresced nicely! #fungifriends
- Went for a stroll around Osoyoos this afternoon, in the breezy #Okanagan valley, looking across the lake to Nk'mip Desert, the so-called "Pocket Desert" (i.e. all that is left), home to, amongst other rare plants and animals, Burrowing Owls and Pallid Bats (a splendid name).
- Jerusalem artichoke showing off in my vegetable patch this afternoon. It’s about 3 m tall!
- “Farewell to Spring” (Clarkia amoena) a little confused in a corner of my garden today, bidding farewell to late summer!
- This is my revenge for being called “carrot top” (amongst other pejorative terms) when a child (I had red hair in those far-off days when I had hair!). #gardening
- Fungus foray this morning. Not many specimens as it’s been so dry. But found some of my little favourites!
- Reposted by Ralph Mills PhDRIP Jane Goodall. I feel like it's shortchanging her legacy to focus only on her work with chimpanzees when her compassion extended to ALL animals. One of the best ways you can honor & continue her legacy is to incorporate more plant based meals into your life. ❤️ news.janegoodall.org/2017/04/28/w...
- I wonder how many of those who are celebrating the life of Jane Goodall today were also inspired by her veganism. She professed that it is paradoxical and unethical to declare a love for animals while abusing, killing and eating them. It is also unsustainable and environmentally disastrous.
- For the first time in several years I remembered to buy a birthday card for my sister in time to mail it to her in the UK. I had written in it and addressed the envelope when the Canadian postal workers went on strike. Will she believe my excuse this time?
- My monster! #gardening Never managed to grow a carrot this hefty before.
- Obligatory vacation sunset pic…
- Last stayed at the Alders Beach Resort on Vancouver Island some 30 years ago. The chalet is still here. Looks like the same chair is still here also! And some of the same paintwork…
- The view for the next few days!
- I’ve spent the morning in the garden. At some point I accidentally switched on All Trails and it recorded my route. I managed to cover some 0.5 km in 15 minutes. Worryingly it also shows me apparently hopping over the fence into next doors’ garden and breaking into their house! #gardening #exercise
- A sea lion expresses what it feels about my presence in a small boat, bobbing up and down off the south east coast of Vancouver Island yesterday. It didn't seem impressed! #vancouverisland #racerocks
- Not being a birder, nor having super equipment, I'm rather proud of this photo, especially as it was moving fast and zig-zagging about! I think it's a sanderling. Mystic Beach, Vancouver Island.
- We played English horn (cor anglais) trios yesterday. What fun! It’s a great sound that should be heard more often. #double-reed-fun
- At the end of another hot day, sitting in the quiet garden in my mosquito-proof shelter, sipping a whisky and watching the light sensitive lamps coming on, one by one. Sigh. #peace
- I am about to build two more sets of book shelves (from scratch). That will make 8 altogether. I’m hoping that they will enable me to empty the last two boxes of #books!
