Christmas Collage

To celebrate the successful construction of the first gingerbread house I've made since I was a kid, I decided to create a still-life scene with my new Christmas tripod. Nothing says Christmas like gingerbread, Lego and a Cocker Spaniel in my humble opinion.

El Nino Ski Season

About a month ago I remember thinking that the local ski hills were off to a pretty good start compared with last year, but as of today it looks like their white wonderland has melted.

I was in North Van yesterday for awhile. In directly sunlit areas like the patio at which I was sipping my afternoon coffee, it was almost t-shirt weather. Twelve degrees Celsius on Dec. 11. It might as well have been Oct. 11. A nice respite from the month of torrential rain we've experienced, but none-the-less also a bit un-nerving in light of the recent climate discussions going in on Paris.

View of Grouse Mountain from East Van.

View of Grouse Mountain from North Van.

Downtown Christmas

Since Nordstrom is getting all the press lately I thought I'd post a photo of our good ol' tried-and-true Hudson's Bay store all decked out for the Christmas season.

Another iconic Vancouver building lit up for the evening is the home of Birks. I took this photo in 2011.

Lego Christmas 2015

We went a little nuts this weekend on Christmas-themed Lego. I guess it all started with a Lego search of Craigslist. I discovered that besides the annual Christmas-themed Lego that was released, there had also been a Black Friday-issued kit (of course!). I'm really not geared into shopping trends; I hadn't been aware of it prior to Black Friday.

But I must admit, the last few years I've tended to tune in a bit more to the Christmas shopping cycle, mostly for bigger items that may be on sale for Boxing Day. At least that's how it used to be. Lately however the sales seem to have crept forward to occur before Christmas. That's fine with me. I'll take the savings anytime.

So I guess that's how I came to be trolling the Craigsgeist. In the end I snagged a Lego Gingerbread house (which I later paired with a real gingerbread kit I found in the supermarket) and a fireside hearth scene complete with Santa (and a mischievous cat). A few special guests made the final cut as well, including the sled dogs and parka dude from a Lego helicopter kit I received a couple of Christmases ago.

And what Christmas vignette would be complete without a Mexican sombrero-bedecked hombre back from a recent goldpanning expedition? Yeah, OK, that last one's a bit of a stretch. But that's the beauty of Lego. It doesn't have to make sense!

Analysis for a Sunny Day

It's interesting to me how much less daylight there is in Prince George at this time of year than there is in Vancouver. I was in PG on Monday and Tuesday for work and happened to be sitting in the library working on a report when the sun slipped below the horizon. It was 3:37 pm. This afternoon I was again seated at my computer, this time in Vancouver composing a blog when I noticed the sun had just set. A quick internet search satisfied my curiosity by providing the knowledge that sunset occurred at 4:20 pm today in Vancouver; a 43 minute difference.

I noticed the PG sunrise occur at about 8:10 on Tuesday morning as one of the first rays of sunshine touched my computer screen. (Wait a minute! What's wrong with this picture that I'm at my computer at sunrise and at sunset?) Again the all-knowing Internet informed me that the sun rose in Vancouver today at 7:39 a.m.; a 31 minute difference.

Just for fun, I compared my self-timed, real-life observations of the sun's appearances in Prince George with published data concerning the travel of Vancouver's sun, on (or about) Nov. 24. I discovered that Vancouver experienced about 1 hour and 14 minutes more sunshine in the morning than Prince George on that particular date. And just to squeeze out the last few drops of analysis, considering that the average driving distance between Prince George and Vancouver is 772 km (according to Google Maps), one would gain about 6 seconds of daylight for every kilometer driven while heading south.

It's no wonder there is such a thing as a "Snowbird".

Hummingbirds

Unexpectedly I had the afternoon off today. So I decided to take my dog for a walk in the brilliant Fall sunshine rather than having to walk her after sunset as per our usual Fall/Winter weekday routine. As I was unloading stuff from the car adjacent to our front yard I could hear rapid clicking of what I knew to be a hummingbird. I looked in the direction of the sound but could not actually see the source.

A hummingbird is a pretty small target to isolate, especially when it's perched in a maze of brown leafless branches. I opened the gate, went in the yard and slowly approached our rhododendron bush, hoping the sound would continue long enough for me to see the bird. Of course the sound stopped just as I stopped, but amazingly enough I saw the bird about 10 feet in front of me balanced on a branch.

Our front yard hummingbird.

It's hard to imagine from this photo but the dark spot directly under the bird's beak flashes bright red when sunlight strikes it at the perfect angle.

Immediately after dutifully posing for this photo the bird buzzed away with its pal (or partner) who had just flown in to alight on a close-by branch. They were not close enough together to get them both in one shot. I wonder it these two are the same ones that built a nest on a tree branch just outside our bedroom window last February.

Ironically, just before I wrote this blog piece there was a segment on CBC radio about the song "Snowbird". These particular birds didn't fly south last winter. I assume they will hang around this winter also. Which reminds me: I have to re-fill the hummingbird feeder this evening.

p.s. Nov. 26, 2015

I refilled the hummingbird feeder before I left for work this morning because I was reminded by the clicking in the front yard that the hummingbirds were there; probably hungry, looking for breakfast.

Since the sun was barely up this morning as I took this shot, this was the only non-blurry photo I managed to get.

November in Vancouver

We've been experiencing such beautiful weather the last few days here in Vancouver that I thought I'd share some photos of scenes around town. We had a nasty stretch of really heavy rainfall previous to the sunshine. It's curious how sunshine improves one's mood. Not to say that rain isn't important; we certainly learned that during the recent summer drought.

This one's actually from a couple of weeks ago when I saw the first snowfall on the local mountains.

Fall colours in Charleston Park (the park with the giant jelly beans art installation).

I guess point-and-shoot cameras have their limitations. The definition of the yellow leaves against the dark shadowed portions of tree bark were what drew me to capture this image. I still like it, but it doesn't portray exactly how I saw it in person. If I was skilled as a painter I know how I'd fix it.

It's the contrast of the low winter sun illumination through the pampas grass against the dark background shadows that I like.

This heron was checking the new construction of the Dragon Boat docks along the south side of False Creek.

I never realized how much green is present in the feathers of an egret. I always thought they were mostly black.

Not to say that I condone graffiti, but I'm always drawn to what I consider reasonable reproductions of the Banksy style.

I'd be a cold ride on the False Creek Aquabus. It's a biting wind out on the water.

I'm always drawn to moon shots.

Despite the cost of that new roof, I can't help but admire the fluctuating light display encircling BC Place stadium.