Year - 2023 · Size - 23 x 30 cm / 9 x 11¾ in · Medium - Ink, pen and watercolour on paper

Running out of time on my Canadian trip and heading for Vancouver, the day was hot and late in summer, wildfire smoke blanketing the sky. The mood was as low as the visibility. I drove into a town called Hope but didn't find any, so continued to Chilliwack in search of a carwash to return the camper clean. Chilliwack did nothing to lift the spirits — an oppressive industrial sort of place with people doing it hard everywhere you looked.

I had to find some nature. I looked at the map and headed for Cultus Lake. The lake itself was buzzing with the usual Canadian lake culture — people swimming, sunbathing, dining lakeside while jetskis and speedboats tore up the water. I took a long relieving dip and then grabbed my paints and went exploring.

At the back of the lake a wonderful campground sat amongst the Douglas fir forest, and behind that walking tracks led deeper in. The Douglas firs here were enormous. The ground storey was a carpet of ferns and green moss that continued up the tree trunks and over the lower limbs until it was hard to tell where the ground started and the tree finished — enchanting, like something out of a fairytale. I left the trail and dropped down into a steep private gully with a trickling creek running beneath suspended logs, and sat down to capture what I could of its beauty.