My ipad travel blog

Monday, January 6, 2014

A New Year in Vancouver

When the days got shorter I decided to try to get out and walk earlier and catch sunrises. As the days grew shorter these sunrises got later so that it was almost 8:00 often when I was starting out. Often these walks took me up to Queen Elizabeth Park. Although I only live about eight blocks from the park I really hadn't spent all that much time in the park so it has been interesting to see the changes through the seasons. Anyway too many walks and not enough time to take you on them all so today I thought I would just look at New Year's Day. I decided to start the day with a walk since for once New Year's Day was starting out with a lovely sunrise.

Here are a few of my favourite images from my walk. It was so beautifully quiet on the first morning of the new year. Just crossing into the park I could see the sun really coming into the sky.

A week earlier the ponds in the park had been icy and partly frozen but today the ducks weren't having any difficulty swimming around.

And of course on top of Queen Elizabeth Park you get a spectacular view of the city.

Looking east I tried to capture the colours of the sunrise-never easy.

At the top of Queen Elizabeth Park is a restaurant, Seasons, and there is an outdoor area to sit which is only accessible through the restaurant and I noticed the interesting affect of the reflections. Don't you love the chandeliers. This week's resolution is to go have lunch or coffee at Seasons and take a photo from the inside! Unfortunately the restaurant isn't open when I do early morning walks or coffee may I note!

I kind of like this shot with the monkey puzzle tree!

There were quite a few low cost housing units adjacent to the park that were mainly taken down by a developer but nothing new has gone up for two years so temporarily we have another park. There were rather ugly buildings but provided low cost housing of which there is not enough in this expensive city.

This time of year I always look for signs of Spring. On my way home I found a camellia bush in bloom!

Since year 2000 friends and I have a tradition of going for a walk at Spanish Banks on New Year's Day regardless of the weather. We thought that we were quite lucky this year as it wasn't raining nor really cold. Here are a few photos of that walk. This is a favourite little cove of mine

The combination of cloud, trees, mountains, ocean, and people enjoying the day make this a special place

There is a dog beach here and no one enjoys the beach more than dogs! And I enjoy watching their antics!!!

I didn't see anyone playing volleyball!!!

After that we went and had a late lunch! Happy 2014

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

late October in Vancouver

I was just reading another blog with beautiful photographs and this made me think that I hadn't written in this blog for awhile. I haven't been out of town since Whistler but part of what I decided retirement needed to be was to be a tourist in your own city. And when you live in Vancouver that can be rather fun...
I have walked and walked through the city, often in my own amazing neighbourhood and in other interesting neighbourhoods. the above photo was taken when a friend and I walked from an event at the Vancouver International Writers' Festival at Granville Island to the Olympic Village Canada Line Station.

The colours were amazing this fall! This is one of my friend's favourite picture snapped that day.

That was a day of great reflections...

The colours have been amazing and the beauty of Vancouver is they last a long time. Apparently more and more varieties of Japanese maples have been well planted and they have brilliant colours.

Many of my walks take place in my own greater neighbourhood between Cambie and Main Street between Queen Elizabeth Park and City Hall. It is an interesting neighbourhood that has interesting nooks and crannies as well as some lovingly restored homes but also some really ugly architecture that I choose to ignore.
Some of my favourite streets are between Ontario and Main between 20th and King Edward. The streets are older and narrower and some of the houses are tiny and often have interesting features.

This is on the west side on Ontario near me. You can donate or borrow a book!

The neighbourhood seemed to go all out for Halloween as I noted in a previous post. Even that book box was decorated.

Another favourite neighbourhood is Steveston Village that I have written about before and I love the Prickly Pear Garden Shop.

it may have been almost Halloween but flowers were still blooming at my house and my lawn furniture still out.

Another fun adventure I had was helping a friend's k/1class with their older buddies carve pumpkins.

I love Halloween and had a happy morning with another friend's first graders and then came home and got ready for Halloween at my house.

I was supposed to leave at 6:30 for Spanish class but hadn't had any trick or treaters yet so I decided to read my Spanish text and go an hour late. Probably 60 kids came before I left.