Day 253: Twenty times around the sun

...is a little under 12 billion miles. :-) That's how far Maria and I have travelled together, a few thousand of them on foot.

On an unrelated note, we were stunned by the sight of a couple of Anna's hummingbirds the other day, which prompted me to hang out at the same place I'd seen them back in the summer. I waited for today's fine weather to go looking for them again and I found two of them. I followed their calls to a thicket of bushes where I spotted one of them resting on a branch, quite low down. I snapped a few quick photos expecting it to fly off, spooked by my proximity. To my surprise it stayed put, and as I moved a little closer, I was amazed to see a second bird barely three feet from my nose! It was sitting quite still, breathing rapidly, and was even better positioned to catch the sunshine. I took as many photos as I could, and even recorded a couple of video clips before it decided it had had enough and flew off. Wow - hummingbirds in November?

I had to go read up on the hummingbirds and it turns out that the Anna's have expanded their range along the west coast of North America over the course of the last couple of hundred years, to the extent that they are now largely resident year-round in the Vancouver area. Seeing hummingbirds at all is something I love about this area: having resident hummingbirds is even more amazing. I'm going to keep an eye out for these birds over the winter and hope they find enough to keep them going.

Anna's hummingbird at rest

Day 252: Library of the future

Rain again today, but I was lucky in that my afternoon sojourn picked a point when the clouds were drawing breath before starting to drop more rain. I did the usual circuit, and walked past the north end of the Barber Learning Centre, which has windows showing the library's automated storage and retrieval system (ASRS). Rather than browsing the stacks, you find your book in the library catalogue and request it, picking it up at the desk within 10 minutes. The UBC library is the first in Canada to deploy such an automated system. As ever there are pros and cons: you lose the serendipity involved in stumbling across a book as you browse, but you gain the ability to get the book you want with minimal effort.

I'd taken a photo of this once before, a couple of years ago, so I had to make sure I captured a different perspective on it. Looking down, the drawer handles appeared to create interesting Moire patterns, and I pointed the camera through the glass (angling it downwards also got rid of the annoying reflections) and took a few shots. As ever, I was hoping to see the robotic system in use and hopefully capture it, but all was quiet in this aisle.

Automated Storage and Retrieval System

Day 251: A sun-day on Monday

An unexpectedly-sunny Monday. In fact Saturday, the one day that fine weather would have been much appreciated, was the only really rainy day in the last four. Strange how that happens. I went out in search of photos, and while I've had this one in mind for a while, I've been trying not to use it, preferring to seek out seasonal shots that I can't repeat later. But today it was the best I could do, even on a sunny day. I actually think it's turned out really well - I used the in-camera lens-distortion correction to make sure the straight lines were straight, and stood on a high wall to limit the backward-leaning building perspective effect. Nice afternoon light, and remarkably few students turns this into a very pleasing photo. I can tick that one off the list.

The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre

Day 250: BC Place

Today is the 99th Grey Cup game, something I'd not heard of before we moved to Vancouver. It's the Canadian Football League's championship match, a bit like the FA Cup in England, and they make a huge fuss of it. Which I think is quite amazing considering the league has only 8 teams. But it seems all very good-natured, unlike the hockey, and the BC Lions beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to be the first team to win it at home since, well, the BC Lions in 1994 :-) Which, coincidentally, was the last time the Canucks reached the Stanley Cup finals and we all know how that turned out...

As I mentioned a few days ago, I had sized up this shot on a bike ride around False Creek. Unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating today, and the lovely reflection I was hoping for was nowhere to be seen in the choppy waters. I had a hard time keeping the camera still in the strong, gusty wind (even on a tripod), so I took a lot of very-similar photos. But all it takes is one.

BC Place

Day 249: Dundarain

It's time to turn on the lights on the Christmas trees across the inlet in Dundarave, and the Tiddley Cove and Black Sheep Morris dancers were part of the celebration. Of course, it was raining. A lot. If only we had some of yesterday's fine weather.... But a little (or a lot of) rain doesn't stop Morris dancers :-) And there's always the pub to warm up and dry out in afterwards.

Turning Tiddlies

Day 248: That otter do it

I still can't believe my eyes: on a walk around part of the Stanley Park seawall, we saw a trio of river otters swimming alongside the wall. What a wonderful sight!

Otter trio

Day 247: It's all a matter of perspective

I've been wanting to get a picture of these painted cycle route signs for a while. I particularly like the way they light up in the flash of my bike lights, and I wondered about getting a night shot of one. In the end I just used a rainy day to walk a couple of blocks from home and wait for a gap in the (what was exclusively car) traffic to nip out into the road and get a picture. The neat thing about these signs is that they're painted with perspective in mind, so that when seen on a normal approach, it looks like a regular bicycle. When standing over it, as I did for this picture, you see how elongated it is. Cool, huh?

Cycle route

Day 246: Eight

It's eight months since I started this project. Today's photo is from a short wander through the neighbourhood. As ever I went out to take a picture of one thing and ended up with a picture of something else. I really liked the strong reflection of the tree in this puddle. I tried to make the sky bluer, thinking it might even make my "blue" photo, but no. I still need to find that one. Given the poor weather forecast I think I found something suitable for tomorrow too, something easy to get in the rain.

Looking through the puddle

Day 245: Leaf art

Day two of my week off work, and a dry spell between downpours which prompted me to get out on my bike and ride around False Creek. I headed down to Kits Beach and then followed the path along the water. Sunday is the Grey Cup final, and it's being played at BC Place, home of the BC Lions Canadian Football League team, who are in said final. From what I've seen on the news, the stadium will be decorated and lit up for the event, and as I rode around False Creek, I kept my eyes open for the best spot to get a photo of the stadium. And I found it, so maybe Sunday's photo will be from here... In the meantime, something from my first stop of the journey at Kits Beach. Some nice leaf art courtesy of the poplars, chestnuts and cottonwoods.

Shelved leaves

Day 244: Happy Birthday

To me :-) My driving licence expired today so I thought I should get myself down to one of the ICBC offices to renew it. I was in and out of the office within 5 minutes. Since I was downtown and I had some time before my bus ticket ran out, I wandered round taking a few city shots. I've taken so many photos with the Shangri-La building in it from our balcony, or from the beach, it made a nice change to get a different view of it. I tried a few angles, but in the end liked this one best, which highlights its triangular shape. Must be a nice view from up there...

Living on a knife edge

Day 243: Two for three??

That sounds like a very bad cricket score. I forgot to mention that yesterday also marked the two-thirds point in my photographic journey around the sun. That remaining third looks like an awfully long time... Despite spending the day at home, and having a nice fine morning to take pictures, the camera stayed in its bag all day. We bought an external flash unit to give my winter Morris photos a fighting chance, but playing about at home I couldn't find anything to really test it out on. And so it was getting late, the promised snow hadn't yet arrived and I still had a clear view of the North Shore mountains. I thought I would try a long exposure photo of the lit ski runs on Grouse, using a small aperture to get those nice starburst effects on the lights. I had only just closed the balcony door when the lights went out an I was left with, well, not much. I tried a few shots, and this one is pretty much the best, but really I'm not that chuffed with it. I think I'll try again at some point over the winter, probably from a different viewpoint though (say, Queen Elizabeth Park) to avoid shots that are too similar.

Grouse Mountain at night

Day 242: Two for two?

I know I'll be tempted to take more of these over the winter, but I can never resist getting a photo of morning sunlight on fresh snow. After taking this I settled down to watch the Norwich v Arsenal game with a bagel and coffee. Arsenal won, 2-1 - that means they've won the last two games I've watched. I doubt I'll be able to keep up that lucky streak ;-)

Morning light on fresh snow

Day 241: Winter comes to town

After last night's freezing cold and wet bike ride home, I wasn't entirely surprised to wake up to the sight of snow on our balcony this morning. I opted to take the bus into work, which was a huge mistake as the buses were crammed full and operating way behind schedule. I would have been quicker (and warmer!) cycling in as usual... But I digress :-)

I went out for my usual afternoon photographic sojourn, in search of inspiration. I thought I'd be able to get something nice and snowy and wintry-looking, but most of it had melted or had been shovelled away. I ended up walking behind the Museum of Anthropology (MoA), and noted some nice reflections of the museum in the pond. The clouds had broken up a bit, allowing some nice light to shine on the building, which I was grateful for. I'm still waiting on the right conditions to get photos of the totem poles there.

MoA reflection

Day 240: Rosebuds in the rain

Today started off nice and dry, a little chilly but it was still a nice bike ride into work. By the time I'd freed myself up from what I was working on to go take some pictures, the rain had returned and I took a wander out in the direction of the rose garden to see what I could see. I had an ironic picture in mind - there's a signboard pointing out all the mountains which aren't visible on days like today - but that didn't work out. Then I thought about looking at the roses, thinking there might be one or two that still looked fresh, especially if dotted with raindrops. I found one good pale pink rose, and next to it was a perfect new bud, with a line of raindrops along it. The wind did its best to thwart my photography efforts, but I managed to snap one in a moment of calm.

The bike ride home was a different matter: wet snow and freezing temperatures. I had to stop twice on the hills to try and let my fingers warm up a little. Plus my waterproof trousers don't seem to be.

Rosebud in the rain

Day 239: Red carpet treatment

What to photograph on a rainy day.... Most of the leaves have gone from the trees thanks to the recent chilly and blustery weather. Not that it matters on a day like today: leaves-on-trees photos don't look too good as the contrast is too low. But leaves on the ground is a different matter. I stumbled upon a patch of ground where maple leaves were laid down like a huge red carpet, obscuring the trail completely. Now that's overwhelmingly red :-)

Laying down the red carpet

Day 238: What a fun guy!

On Sunday I walked past the most amazing little group of fly agaric fungi clustered at the base of a tree. I knew I had to get back soon before they were past it, and/or they'd been kicked to bits. I decided that I had to take advantage of the fine weather yesterday, and I was surprised to see today dawn clear and sunny. At first, I thought I'd prefer cloudy conditions to limit the reflections off the fungi, but the low morning sun illuminated them perfectly. I had the polarizer and tripod with me, to make sure I could get sharp photos, and I spent about ten minutes sizing up and taking a few shots. It was a tough choice, but the pair of fully-opened toadstools in warm morning light won the day. I'm really very pleased with the results, and a definite convert to using a polarizer for these kinds of photos.

Today's number play: 2 to the power of 3 is 8.

A pair of poisonous parasols

Day 237: Moonday

Another Monday, and a fine sunny one at that. The standing joke in Vancouver is "What do you call a sunny day after two days of rain?" and the answer is "Monday", the joke being that Monday always brings fine weather. A more accurate answer would be "more rain", at least at this time of year. But I digress. As I walked into work from the bus stop (the strong winds put me off cycling today) I saw the moon sinking low in the western sky. Seeing as I am still in search of my "blue" photo, I thought I might be able to use the pale moon surrounded by blue sky. I sized up a shot, and immediately noticed an aeroplane flying on a trajectory that would take it right across the face of the moon. I waited until the plane was dead centre and took a series of photos. The first one worked just fine. A little bit of a crop and a small boost in the contrast and I present today's photo, titled "Fly me to the moon".

Full marks to anyone who spotted today's pun too: Monday is named for the moon.

Fly me to the moon

Day 236: Leaves in a line

Today's title is inspired by an old reason for train delays in Britain: leaves on the line. It became a bit of a standing joke among rail passengers, but the truth is that wet leaves on railway lines are just as bad as wet leaves on roads when it comes to grip: trains have a hard enough time stopping as it is without adding wet mush into the equation. Back to today's photo, one of the ornamental cherry trees we encountered on our wanderings had this nice almost-horizontal branch with leaves of varying colour dangling from it. Looked very pretty and I think makes for a lovely photo. Don't thank me, though - Maria spotted it. I just wielded the camera ;-)

Oh and before I forget, 2x3 is 6 of course :-)

Leaves in a line

Day 235: Rain from start to finish

A typical November day, with rain in the morning, more rain in the afternoon and just a touch more in the evening. It was the usual steady "light" rain, though it turned more to drizzle later. We braved the farmers' market, picking up a bowl of hot veggie chilli to warm us up again. On the way home, we drove past a few streets which looked really bright and cheery, thanks to all the yellow leaves on the trees and on the ground. Others were a mix of red and orange, equally picturesque but duller on a sodden day like today. Later, I walked back down the road to get a picture of one of these streets. I picked this one as it's quite close to home, but there are many other streets like it in Vancouver right now.

Autumnal street scene

Day 234: Remembrance day

Today is 11/11/11 (no matter how you write the date), Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, or Veterans' Day depending on where you live. A couple of years ago, we went for a walk on the beach and were treated to a flypast by a small squadron of light aircraft. They flew back and forth a few times in different formations. I remembered this just before 11 am, and wondered if I'd see it from our balcony. I ventured outside and waited in silence. At almost 11 on the dot, I saw navigation lights to the west which materialized into a large plane. It flew closer, and passed barely a kilometre to the west, at an altitude of probably no more than 500 m, dipping its wings in what I originally thought was the pilot keeping control in the blustery wind, but now I wonder if it was a salute. I snapped a dozen shots, staying outside to see if the smaller planes would make an appearance. They didn't: I'm guessing the weather was just too bad for them, with a stiff blustery wind from the east. (The weather got really interesting later: we had a downpour, hail, thunder and lightning followed by sunshine and blue skies and a couple of rainbows.)

I was still on the balcony a minute or two later when I saw the big plane flying back - it must have done a loop somewhere down by the airport - passing by even closer this time, filling the frame at full zoom. Today's photo is from that second pass. I recognized the aircraft as a Lockheed P-3 Orion, a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. I could see the aircraft's serial number on the tail fin and did a Google search for it. The results told me that this was, in fact, a Lockheed CP-140 Aurora which is a Canadian variant of the Orion using different electronics. I've always liked aircraft, so it was a real treat to see this one fly by so close.

Remembrance Day flypast

Day 233: Cold

Not a cold day outside, but a cold day inside. I've been fighting something on and off for the last couple of weeks and today it beat me and I took a day off work :-) The day brightened towards sunset and we went down to Kits Beach to catch some fresh air. The evening sky to the north and east was purple, which reflected in the water. I was sizing up some city shots when I snapped this photo of a girl on a rock, engrossed in her mobile phone. She may or may not have been texting, but I thought that "The Texter" was a good title. I thought she looked a bit like the "Girl in a Wetsuit" sculpture in Stanley Park.

The Texter

Day 232: A smaller pile of leaves

Yesterday's picture shows the sum of leaves from many trees: today's picture is of the leaves from just one tree, one of the many pretty little ornamental maple trees on campus. I spent several days in the spring trying to get nice leafy photos, but never got anything I liked (or simply got something I liked more :-), so it was nice to finally get a photo of these leaves. I took this picture because my eye was drawn to the circular hole in the sea of red and yellow - my guess is that it was caused by a squirrel burying acorns (there are many, many squirrels on campus).

Maple leaves galore

Day 231: A great big pile of leaves

Every autumn, the leaves around the Student Union building are hoovered up and dumped in a big pile, in the same open plaza used for the Storm the Wall event. These leaves are turned into mulch which forms the soft ground around the walls to be stormed - I recognize the aroma :-) Such a big leaf pile is an open invitation to take a running jump into it, and a few days ago a couple of students were doing just that, climbing up the container and jumping off into the leaves. Looked like a lot of fun.

Huge leaf pile

Day 230: Leaf litter

The clocks went back an hour yesterday, so now I have to make sure I get out to get my photo before 4 pm. I've not been very consistent about seeking out a photo before I lose the light, so I'm not sure how I'll be doing. Today I took the camera with me as I went for my afternoon coffee, and spent a few minutes taking pictures of leaves. Most of them didn't really work, but I liked this one.

Leaf litter

Day 229: Jug Island

The fine weather continued into Sunday and of course we wanted to get out somewhere. We went for Belcarra Regional Park, near Port Moody, a place we'd visited briefly once before. We took the northward-heading trail to a small beach with a view of Jug Island, about 50 m offshore. I thought we'd get a better view of Indian Arm from here, but I'd forgotten that the fjord narrows, and the headland there prevents a view right up the arm. We'll have to revisit the Diez Vistas trail on a good day to get that view again. The trail was largely unexciting - a 6-km round-trip through mostly dingy (if fungus-festooned) second-growth forest, with a short stretch of Gulf-Island-like hiking (complete with water view). But it was easy going; we saw a pileated woodpecker and it was just nice to be out and walking.

Jug Island

Day 228: First Beach

Usually when we go to Stanley Park, we walk from Second Beach around to Third Beach and beyond. Today we went the other direction, walking the sea front as far as Sunset Beach. We paused by the Inukshuk to finish our hot drinks and I sized up my photo of the day along the line of the beach with the West End highrises beyond.

First Beach

Day 227: Tinges of pink

Today is the last day of Bike to Work Week (at least for me) and the weather has been very kind considering it's November. It only rained on one day, and even then not during the commuting hours. I've been taking advantage of the fine weather and cycling in to work up the hills on the 8th Ave route, preferring to leave the longer seaside route for my homeward journey. Tonight I wanted to capture some of the evening light on the mountains, so I left work a few minutes earlier than usual and caught some very nice, if subtle, pink light on the North Shore mountains. The snow from the mid-week rain has melted a bit in the sun, so the pink isn't as strong as it could have been, but that doesn't matter. There will soon be plenty of snow for that.

A pink-tinged sunset

Day 226: Burying acorns

The squirrels have been busy of late, seeking out and burying acorns. One or two are quite bold and seem to be largely oblivious to the presence of the hordes of students walking between classes. I sidled up to this one that was intent on its acorn-hiding and managed to get within a couple of metres without spooking it. It had just finished burying an acorn, I was moving in a little closer for a better angle, and then a student zoomed by on a bike and startled it up the tree. I'll have to make do with this shot then.

Burying acorns

Day 225: Red sky in the morning...

A hint of sunrise in the east bloomed into a firey sky. I can tell if the eastern sky is clear because there's a downtown high-rise that reflects the light. I have a vague plan to position myself where I can catch that reflection, but I would have to get out of bed somewhat earlier than I do now. This morning's red sky might indeed be a portent of the weather as it's due to rain today...

Haven't made much of the numbers recently, but for the record 225 is 15x15.

Red sky in the morning

Day 224: The morning commute

Day two of Bike to Work Week. Another fine morning, so I forced myself to take the beach route. The cottonwoods and tulip poplars were lit up beautifully in the morning sunshine. In contrast to yesterday's choppy seas, today was a peaceful flat calm, the kind of day that kayaking was made for. I saw an eagle perched in one of the tree tops as I gasped my way up the hill. Wonder if it's the same one as yesterday...

Morning commute