Day 361: It's so fluffy!

After a grey start, the afternoon brightened up and the day ended with a fine sunset. The stormy clouds over the mountains puffed up into great towering cumulus. As the sun dipped low in the sky, the bottom of the clouds faded to an ominous dark grey, while the middle was bathed in a rosy pink glow. Higher up, the tallest clouds were still the brightest of white. The structure in the clouds and the contrast between them and the blue sky made for a beautiful sight. I had taken some photos earlier in the day, but they weren't a patch on this.

Roiling clouds at sunset

Day 354: Vancouver In The Rain

I think I saw this rock on my very first visit to Vancouver, before we'd experienced the shades of grey that rainy days bring. My boss even warned me how grey and rainy the winters are here. Maybe it's because I grew up in Britain, but for the most part the rain has never bothered me. Like the author of the text on the rock, sometimes it does get to you but then, yes, you stumble across something that thrives on our liquid sunshine, and suddenly it's not so bad. Like yesterday in Stanley Park. I think that the rain in May and June is more annoying, as by then, after enduring a grey winter, you feel you've earned a bit of warm sunshine.

Vancouver In The Rain

Day 347: Focus

I enjoy photographing Maria and her troop of Morris dancers, especially with the responsiveness of the SLR. Still, it takes a hundred or more photos to get a dozen or so worth showing. Today, and despite the grey skies, I was really pleased to get this photo showing the concentration on June's face as she launched into the next figure of the dance.

Focus

Day 340: Breezy

Wow - Vancouver is rarely windy, but this winter has been quite exceptional. I was woken up by the wind at 5:30 this morning: I thought it was thunder. Knowing what the waves would be like down by the water I dragged Maria to the beach to get sand-blasted. I was disappointed to find that the tide was low, and the waves were far away so I couldn't get the picture I had in mind. On our way back to the car, the wind was whipping up the sand into an ankle-blasting storm, and a family of three was making its way across the beach, heads bowed against the wind. With the city as backdrop it made the perfect second-best shot for today.

A bracing walk on the beach

Day 333: Times three

Today is the third and final triple-digit day on this photographic tour around the sun. Day 111 featured ice tricks while day 222 took in signs of autumn. I couldn't get the photo I wanted today - thanks to some idiots deciding that they can drive better than everyone else in the pouring rain only to find themselves needing assistance from the local constabulary and a tow-truck or two - so I settled for a doughnut. But not just any old doughnut - the official doughnut of the Vancouver Canucks! How about that?! I must admit to being somewhat puzzled, though - I would have thought that the official doughnut for a hockey team would at least be puck-shaped...

Canucks doughnut

Day 326: Canada's Place

As part of our endeavour to sample as much of the hot chocolate festival as possible, we found ourselves downtown searching for one of the places taking part, Leonidas. A bit of aimless wandering had us scratching our heads as to where exactly this place was, and fortunately we happened to walk past the tourist information centre. We went in and asked, and they knew exactly where we meant. As it turned out, we had walked more or less right past it, about the time I took this photo of the sails on Canada Place. We ended up at Bella Gelateria instead as it was closer (by all of 50 m) and enjoyed a truly sumptuous salt-caramel hot chocolate with their fantastic to-die-for banana bread. Delicious!

Canada Place

Day 319: Foggy

I first noticed the mist over the Burrard Inlet yesterday, and wondered if I could get a picture of it from down on the beach. The mist had largely drifted away by the time we went for our walk, and I found something quite different to photograph. Today, the mist hung around for longer and at about 4.30 pm I decided I had to head down to Kits Beach to capture it (despite failing earlier thanks to a dead camera battery). I trotted down to the beach (testing out the bare-foot running technique some more) and ended up down at the waterline on a small section of sandy beach. The mist was drifting through the trees of Stanley Park, with some making its way into the middle of downtown Vancouver. I was losing light rapidly and I snapped as many shots as I could as the sun sank until I got my favourite: the sun was still high enough to illuminate the top half of the mist, but low enough to have gone off the lower half, leading to a lovely pink-and-blue mist picture. With some trees poking out. Perfect.

Pink and blue mist over Stanley Park

Day 312: Rivulating

After a rich and delicious hot chocolate from Cocoa Nymph (it is the hot chocolate festival, after all), I took a spin down to Locarno Beach to grab a photo or two before the day disappeared into the gloom. The tide was quite low, and I took a photo of a heron hunched over at the waterline, a light pole in the distance and incoming waves in the foreground. All very nice, but walking further along the beach I came to a stretch where water running off the beach had created a complete dendritic drainage pattern. I can get heron pictures any day of the week, but I really liked this pattern.

Rivulets in the sand

Day 305: Spooky!

A large portion of today's daylight hours was spent within the confines of the giant warehouse that is Ikea in Coquitlam. With less than two hours of the day left, I bestirred myself to pick up the camera and find something to photograph. Our little green nightlight caught my eye. I let it recharge for a while before setting it on the floor, which required that I lie full length behind the camera to take the picture. I turned off the hallway lights, pushed the top of the nightlight and illuminated the area with ghostly green light. I quite like the glowing-green-orb effect. We bought this little fella from Ikea a few years ago, just because we thought it was cute :-)

Spooky spöka

Day 298: View over Vancouver

To our surprise, the clouds parted after last night's snow to reveal the bluest of blue skies. We didn't have much of the white stuff, but on our trip to the farmers' market we found that other parts of the city did. Having loaded up on market goodies, we drove up the hill into Queen Elizabeth park to take in the view. Pretty - though difficult to get a good clear shot of the city itself thanks to the intervening trees. But there was one spot on the wall that offered the best view, which I duly shuffled over to once the previous occupant had taken their photo. A lovely view of some of downtown and into East Van, with the snow-covered Grouse Mountain area acting as a gorgeous winter backdrop. We could see into the Capilano and Seymour river valleys, and even Lynn Peak looked lovely! I get so used to the view from our apartment that seeing the city and mountains from a different angle is a bit of a treat, especially on such a day as this.

Vancouver and its mountain backdrop

Day 291: Twelfth Night

I don't know if today is the actual Twelfth Night but it was as good a day as any to take down our Christmas tree. That and one of the Vancouver Morris Men is hosting a "Twelfth Night" party tonight. As usual, I'm quite sad to be taking down the tree - I get quite used to it brightening up the corner of the room (or taking up valuable space, depending on your point of view), and I've always liked leaving the tree lights on when all the other lights have been turned off. Oh well, until next Christmas!

Number play for today: 2 + 9 + 1 = 12 :-)

Dismantling the tree

Day 284: Reflecting on the year...

It's the last day of 2011, a year that seems to have sped by. Time for one last walk on the beach. We walked around the pond in Jericho Beach Park, stood on the bridge and admired the reflection of the trees in the water. I took more pictures as we walked as far as the pier (the afternoon light on the city was nice too), but this one just felt right.

In reflection

Day 277: The night before Christmas

Last night we caught the ferry over to Vancouver Island to spend Christmas with our friends Brenda and Ed and their daughter. On the way to their place we drove past this house all done up in its Christmas lights. I ventured out to get a photo of it tonight and was treated to Christmas tunes along with coordinated lights. I had to wait until all the lights were on to get this photo, and there were plenty of near misses!

Seasonal dwelling

Day 270: Midwinter sacrifice

Morris dancing in Dundarave again, this time for the lighting of the bonfire as part of the Festival of Lights. And guess what? No rain today! Yay! My second chance at seeing what our new flash unit can do, and I must admit I was much happier with the results this time. Having freshly-charged batteries made a difference, but even then, 100 shots later and the batteries were pretty much done. Next time I'll have two sets on hand.

Before the dancing got underway, June said a few words about midwinter rituals, one of which involved a sacrifice to bring back the sun. The Tiddlies (and a stray Sheep) formed a hexagonal lock with the longswords and placed over the head of the "victim". On the count of three, they all drew their swords from the lock, "severing" the victim's head from his body (well not really, but that's the idea). And who better to be sacrificed than one of the organizers of the festival :-)

Midwinter ceremonial sacrifice

Day 263: Lunar eclipse

My luck with lunar eclipses in Vancouver has been quite good, and I've managed to get photos of two previous eclipses. Despite the early start, I couldn't resist getting up for another photo, especially after having photographed the moonrise a few hours earlier. I got everything ready the night before and set the alarm for 5:30 am. I hauled myself out about 5:45 am and saw that it was still clear, the moon now only a thin crescent. I got dressed and set up the tripod and camera on the balcony by a little before 6 am, only to see that clouds had drifted in over the last 15 minutes. I took as many pictures as I could, shivering away on our frost-covered balcony, and within another 10 minutes there was no moon to be seen at all, with barely 20 minutes to go until totality. I was lucky to get what I did, and glad that I got up to see it. I could say that there's always next year but that's not true: the next total lunar eclipse isn't until 2014!

Lunar eclipse

Day 256: Green spots

Maria saw this house the other day and told me about it, thinking it would make a good subject. After we'd decided against going looking for the snowy owls, I gladly took advantage of it and wandered down the street to get a few shots. I didn't know what to expect but it really looks like the house has caught some sort of disease :-) I call it Christmas Light disease, and many houses around here catch it about this time of year, some of which seem to suffer quite badly... ;-)

Christmas Light disease

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 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 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 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