Day 345: Look east

Another 111 days from 123 and 234. Funnily enough, 111 days ago was 11/11/11. The usual story - dull day, didn't get out - but this time I had a bit of spare time at the end of the day and used it to take a different route home, heading along Fourth Ave instead. I got off at a stop with a superb view along Fourth Avenue - on the best days about this time of year, the snowy face of Mt Cheam over 100 km to the east rises above the city. The only time I saw that view, I was a passenger in someone else's car, and I've waited in vain for those weather conditions to repeat. I grabbed my photo and wandered down to the Jericho Beach pond and watched the beavers in the fading light.

Eastwards view along Fourth Ave

Day 344: Many paths

I've used three approaches to getting up Grouse Mountain: the gondola, the Grouse Grind and the adjacent BCMC trail. Cleary, riding the gondola is the easiest, but there's no doubt that the BCMC trail is far nicer than the staircase that is the Grind. As the saying goes, "One journey, many paths", which is a comment on life and how there are many ways to lead it. Last night's fresh snowfall meant I could get a picture of the entire mountainside blanketed in white. I like the way that the snow really shows up the deep gulleys and drainage systems on the mountain; not a pleasant place to end up. A surprise was how the snow also highlights the swath of smaller trees marking the path taken by the gondola.

Click through to Flickr to see a couple of notes about where the hiking trails are.

Grouse ascents

Day 217: A sunny morning in the city

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, but I only took the wide-angle lens with me. As I cycled up Eighth Avenue, I stopped by Trimble Park to look back at the city. The trees were lit up perfectly by the morning sun and I vowed to capture that scene today with the telephoto lens. And so today I stopped at the same spot and took that picture, and though it's turned out quite well, I don't think it's as good as it was yesterday. Never mind. Golden Ears looks nice, doesn't it? :-)

Morning sunshine on Vancouver

Day 126: Red

Today's pic is of a bright red fire hydrant, one of many I cycle past on my way to/from work. A couple of weeks ago the sight of these hydrants gleaming in the sun inspired me to attempt a colour theme as a way to add some purpose to the picture taking. Starting with red, I figured I might as well go through the colours of the rainbow: ROYGBIV. I was taught the mnemonic at school that "Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain" as a way to remember the order of the colours. Funnily enough, tonight we're going to see Shakespeare's Richard III at Bard on the Beach, the very same Richard as in the rainbow ditty.

Way back in 1982 I bought a copy of the Rush album Signals, which has a bright red fire hydrant on the cover. That colour and type of hydrant defined North America to me, so I was a little disappointed (!) when we moved to Maryland in 2000 to find that the local hydrants were painted a now-fading yellow. Rarely do I remember finding red hydrants in the US, but Vancouver is full of them and now they've become part of every day life, to the point where I barely notice them any more.

I stopped at this particular hydrant because it was surrounded by freshly-mown grass and the red-green contrast ensured a bright picture on this dull day. I noticed something white on the top, which I initially thought was a white shoelace. On closer inspection I saw that in fact it was pair of iPod headphones. Somehow the way they were draped made it look like that hydrant was wearing them, so I rearranged them a little to put the earbuds in the right place. Coupled with the kinda face-like profile of the hydrant, now it really looked like it was listening to music :-)

Fire hydrant enjoying some fine music