There’s a certain fascination with walking the same paths over and over, in all sorts of weather, and seeing different things each time. Exploits is made of two islands and ours is the one to the northeast. On this island, an old cart track runs the length of the island and is dotted with houses all along.

Here’s a photo of the nautical chart we have on the wall in the living room, showing the two islands:

Zooming in on the harbour allows you to see the paths, locations of houses, wharves, churches and so forth at the time the map was printed. The edition we have is 1959, but it’s a reproduction (with navigational modifications) of a British Admiralty chart from 1881/1902.

Once upon a time, we had a really nice old map of the islands on the wall, but one winter, someone broke into the house, took a sleeping bag, some cans of food and that map. It was obviously someone in need of them and we never begrudged them the sleeping bag, food, or the use of the map, but we sure would have liked the map back after.

Trying to take different shots of the same stretch of road over the decades is surprisingly easy, once you let go of what you always see. It is also a nice exercise in really looking at things, playing with photgraphic techniques and really testing out the capabilities of a camera.

In case you’re wondering where we are on that map, our house is in Squid Cove.