Through My Lens: Golden Maple on Lost Lagoon
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a photo of our fall colours. And so, here’s one that I took a couple of weeks ago.
Through My Lens: In the Weeds
Here’s one last photo from our spectacularly warm fall, which I took just two weeks ago.
For obvious reasons, I’m calling this one “in the weeds.”
Vancouver in Hotumn
Ha. Here’s me, going on about our local weather. Again.
After the coldest, wettest spring I can remember, we’ve now had the hottest, driest autumn I can remember. Decades-old temperature records are dropping like flies. People are walking around in T-shirts and shorts, while still enjoying picnics on the beach and swims in English Bay.
This photo? I took it two weeks ago, at the start of our Thanksgiving weekend.
Weirdly, the leaves also seem to be slow to change colour, and those that are changing aren’t showing their usual vibrant reds and yellows. Apparently this can happen when trees are stressed because of drought: the leaves go straight from green to brown.
You read that right: drought. We’ve had no rain for more than 100 days. Metro Vancouver has asked residents to take shorter showers in addition to the usual summer water restrictions because the water reservoirs where our drinking water comes from are dangerously low.
I live in a rainforest. This is not normal.
Meteorologically speaking, what we’re experiencing is a prolonged high pressure system. A heat dome, in other words, but since the days are shorter, we’re getting temperatures in the mid-twenties instead of the high thirties.
And to think that I was moaning about how our way-too-short summer was already over at a family barbecue on Labour Day weekend. Instead, we got six more weeks of sunshine. I should feel guilty about it, since it’s all due to the climate crisis. But hey, I’ll happily take all the sunshine I can get.
Of course, we Vancouverites are never satisfied. The only thing everyone has been talking about for the past few days is this weekend’s forecast. It promises rain.
My gum boots are waiting.
Through My Lens: Golden Hour on Beach Avenue
Golden hour. Magic hour.
No matter what you call it, end-of-day light is enchanting.
Through My Lens: Autumn Ride
I like to think of this photo as a companion piece to a photo I took a year ago in almost the exact same spot. This is along the north side of False Creek.
Love these colours.
Through My Lens: Four Trees
Something shifted for me last week. It started on Thursday when the provincial health orders announced on November 7 for Metro Vancouver were extended to the entire province and until December 7. (And I have no illusions they won’t be extended again.)
And then, on Friday morning, our prime minister reverted to work-at-home and did his media appearance from the stoop of his home in Ottawa.
It feels like we’re right back where we were last March.
The second wave (or, as I like to call it, the Long Winter) that we’ve been talking about since last summer is starting to feel very, very real.
What does this mean for me personally? Pretty much the same as the last eight months: I will hunker down and do everything I can to stay healthy, both physically and mentally.
I’ll start by posting a series of photos from my recent daily walks. Because they make me happy. Maybe they’ll cheer you up too.
Here, then, are four trees I took notice of one Saturday afternoon about a month ago. I think they’re Douglas fir, but I could be wrong.
Enjoy.
Through My Lens: Paris in the Fall
Well. That was … a week. I can’t remember another time when the world held its collective breath for four days. The tension reminded me of double overtime during Game 7 of a Stanley Cup final. In this age of instant communication and fast results, we aren’t used to having to wait so long for an outcome.
Along with yesterday’s news about the US election results came an announcement from BC’s Provincial Health Officer of new orders limiting in-person social interactions. The restrictions — the latest effort to combat the rising number of Covid-19 cases — went into effect last night and will last for two weeks.
For the first time during this pandemic, the orders apply to only two health regions of the province: Metro Vancouver and the Sunshine Coast for Vancouver Coastal Health and all areas of Fraser Health (which includes the Fraser Valley).
One restriction in particular jumped out at me: travel in and out of these regions is limited to essential travel only.
It’s not like I was about to jump on a BC ferry, but these restrictions do not bode well for me seeing my friends and family who live on Vancouver Island anytime soon. It’s starting to look like making any kind of travel plans is still a long ways off.
Which means that this blog will continue to be powered by my travel memories.
Here then is a photo to acknowledge an anniversary that slipped past me while I was distracted by the goings-on south of the border.
Ten years ago this week, I arrived in Paris for the winter. It was a bit of a rough landing as my wallet was stolen out of my bag while on the London Tube a few days prior to my arrival. Getting money wired to me proved to be a challenge as all of my ID, including my passport, was gone.
And then, on top of all that, the home exchange I had arranged for the three months I planned to be in Paris fell through and I had to find another place to live for the last two months of my stay.
Let me tell you: that was four days where I was holding my breath.
In the end, everything got sorted and I had one of the best winters of my life. And I have to say, although I don’t think there is ever a bad time to be in Paris, autumn is particularly lovely. I took the above photo on my first long walk through the city — after I had started to breathe again.
Through My Lens: Harvest
I love me some hay bales. I also thought this was an appropriate photo for Thanksgiving, which is being celebrated across Canada this weekend — albeit much differently than in other years.
Last month, I made a quick trip to Alberta to visit family. Everywhere I drove, there were signs of the harvest. This was taken along Highway 2, just south of Red Deer. Highway 2 is Alberta’s busiest highway, but, most happily for me, there was a roadside turnout located at this very spot.
Surf Scoter
Ever seen a Surf Scoter? In Vancouver, November is peak season to see these diving ducks. Large rafts of them hang out in English Bay where they feed on clams and mussels.
To see the ducks so close to the shore, however, is a bit unusual. I got lucky one afternoon about a week ago.
Steller’s Jay
I was beyond thrilled to see my first ever Steller’s Jay a couple of weeks ago while on a long walk through Stanley Park.
About six of them darted back and forth from the trees to the seeds put out by a fellow birder and back to the trees again.
With migration season upon us, you never know who you might bump into while out for a walk in the woods.
There and Back Again 