Life of Dave

Life of Dave

Monday, October 24, 2016

Autumn Colours

Every year I marvel at how quickly the leaves go from hanging around (literally) to clogging up the catch basins. In September it always seems impossible that they'll release their grips and cascade down from the trees. It seems like in no time at all the trees have been stripped bare to reveal a secret squirrel highway system obscured half the year by a curtain of leaves.

It's not like the squirrels have gotten bused in from out-of-province specifically for nut season, but I was certainly not aware of this many of them during summer. The trees in the office complex where I work are presently over-run with them. I happen to have a ring-side seat too because my desk is directly opposite a wall of windows on the second floor where I am often distracted by black, brown or grey flashes of fur zipping up, down and across tree branches, often leaping from tree to tree.

Needless to say, I don't have any squirrel photos; they're far too quick. Maybe they're shutter-smart. Which naturally leads me to leaf photos, which you don't have to be overly quick to capture. And mushroom photos. I am still in denial that those red ones are actually real. Don't they belong in a Disney Snow White cartoon, being carefully tended by a squadron of garden gnomes?

Oh yeah, and a doughnut.

I mean, a pumpkin. What screams Autumn more loudly than a creme-filled, orange-glazed seasonally appropriate doughnut?





Sunday, October 2, 2016

Motorcycle Toy Cruise

The weather cooperated this weekend for the annual Vancouver motorcycle cruise to donate toys to the Lower Mainland Christmas Bureau. It's been about 20 years since I last participated so since getting back on a motorcycle this season I marked the date on my calendar quite a number of months ago. I was expecting a big turn out, but not quite this big. We definitely numbered in the thousands this morning. It's was a blast! Lots of groups of people lined the road and waved as we passed, on our way from Coquitlam Centre mall to the PNE grounds. It took about an hour.

It looks deceptively unbusy, but this was not the main parking lot.
The line up awaiting release from the parking lot holding pen.
This shot starts to give a sense of how many bikes were there.