Japanese Gardens - Sooke

This photo is of the Japanese Gardens at Royal Roads University campus at Hatley Castle Historic Site just outside of Victoria, BC.

I was there for 3 weeks during May, 2008, working on my degree, and the gardens are beautiful. I liked to stroll through the gardens as a stress-relief, and it appeared so serene that morning the moment grabbed me. The spring had been cool so everything was late blooming, and coming from the prairies the whole coastal beauty was amazing.

Morna Hussey

Badlands

This photo was taken just south of Drumheller, Alberta, on my way home to Vancouver Island from the 2008 AG in Québec City.

I had wanted to get some pictures of hoodoos on my way east, but the weather was quite grey, and I gave up on that. Coming back through the area, there was not a cloud in the sky, so I braved a number of winding gravel roads - my windshield had already been chipped on the Trans Canada highway somewhere in Saskatchewan - and found this hillside much more interesting than the stand alone hoodoos. Compared to the lush greens of Vancouver Island, this looked downright exotic to me.

Brigit O'Connell

Morning at the Pinnacle

The photo was taken at Cumberland Gap National Historical Park on the border between Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. The pinnacle itself is in Kentucky, USA.

Cumberland Gap is famous for being the place where the early settlers were able to cross the mountains from Virginia into Kentucky.

My plan was to drive up to the pinnacle and take a picture of the view in the morning sun, like I imagined those people must have seen it long ago. As is apparent, that didn't work out, but on reflection, this may be a more accurate representation of the settlers' experience as they went searching for a better future.

Ingunn Omholt