Ahhh, Weather Forecasts!!!

All photos taken on February 21, 2024.

May 12, 2024 – Today is Mothers’ Day. Happy Mothers’ Day to all Mothers and Grandmothers.

While this post was written a while ago, I almost wish we could go back to the weather on that day, as while we now have nice spring weather, it has been tainted by wildfire smoke since yesterday morning. Like a true Canadian, it seems I am not happy with the weather I have at the moment. Wishing you clear air and a pleasant day, wherever you are.

Doing our best to choose the right day for this week’s forest walk, we settled on Wednesday, as the weatherman said it would be mainly sunny in the morning. What he did not say is that the morning fog would obscure said sunny day. Oh well.

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Father/Son Bike Ride – Part 5 – Home Run

All photos taken on December 16, 2023.

We both enjoyed our refreshment break at Ambit in Kensington. The flat white coffee was great and who can refuse a three cheese grilled cheese sandwich on white bread. I mean, c’mon now.

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Father/Son Bike Ride – Part 4 – Training Wheels

All photos taken on December 16, 2023.

Little did I know, but son B had been texting with Pat, trying to get a feel for how far he should push this old geezer. I was not feeling pushed at all yet, but he wanted a second opinion. We were always going to have options to take the bikes on transit to shed some boring parts or shorten the distance. Turns out we would spend about 24 minutes on transit. After all the contortions we went though, I wonder if it actually saved any time.

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Father/Son Bike Ride – Part 3 – River View

All photos taken on December 16, 2023.

Part 3 was the longest stretch of the ride at 24.5 km. (15 1/4 mile) ride from Pacific Spirit Regional Park along SW Marine Drive and into Burnaby. This ride included a lot of new sights and took 1 hour and 50 minutes to cover.

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Father/Son Bike Ride – Part 2 – Forest View

All photos taken on December 16, 2023.

Part 2 was a 7.9 km. (4 9/10 mile) ride through Pacific Spirit Regional Park from NW Marine Drive to SW Marine Drive (Patty and I had walked here numerous times, but never gone from edge to edge). This portion took only 36 minutes to accomplish.

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Transformative Rain

Slide shows made up of photos from April 13 (1st slide), April 30 (2nd slide) and May 7, 2024. (3rd slide). All other photos taken on May 7, 2024.

In the two previous posts, I lamented the slow progress of spring. April showers only happened at the end of the month and were mixed with snow. Moisture, yes, but hardly sufficient to kickstart our spring. At least we were not trapped under a heat dome at the end of April. Last year at the same time, daily highs were near 30C (86F) for a long period. This brought spring growth on quickly, but the lilac and fruit tree blossoms burned right off the trees.

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Father/Son Bike Ride – Part 1 – Beach View

All photos taken on December 16, 2023.

Way back on November 9, when we arrived, son B had given me a birthday card with a Table d’hôte menu in it for my 70th birthday. I don’t think I really studied it enough at the time to gain an appreciation of this thoughtful gift. It was a pretty comprehensive list of potential long distance father and son bike rides. Circumstances conspired to defer the execution of the gift, until the second last day we would spend in Vancouver. At long last, that day arrived.

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Harbour View

All photos taken on December 16, 2023.

With Benji’s training, we really managed to see a lot of new areas of the city. But, at the final session we would be in town for, we only had to walk down to Coal Harbour. Benji and I met B outside and walked down together along the dark Saturday morning streets. Patty would join us later.

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Being Called a Snowflake is a Compliment

All photos taken on February 14, 2024 (Valentine’s Day).

Like at the last hike, the parking lot at Amisk Wuche was also devoid of cars and we were the first tire tracks up the lane.

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A Very Different Forest

All photos taken on December 15, 2023.

Directly across NW Marine Drive, there was a set of stairs up into Pacific Spirit Regional Park. Even though this was part of the same park which we had already hiked 3 times on this trip, it somehow seemed quite different. The trees were spaced further apart and seemed shorter and there were a lot more deciduous trees.

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A Flurry of April Showers

All photos taken on April 30, 2024.

Many of you have heard me whining about how dry Spring 2024 has been. I kept looking for April showers that would bring May flowers. Well, it finally happened. Yesterday morning, we got a one hour shower that freshened things up, but did little to alleviate the current drought conditions.

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Time to Get Going!

All photos taken on April 13, 2024.

As most of my posts are time shifted, I thought I would interject a couple of more timely posts. At long last, we found the time to break out our trusty E-bikes and go for a spin around the town. The last time they had been ridden in earnest was December 16, 2023 during my father/son bike ride in Vancouver. They got extremely dirty during that process and I just packed them up in the car to get them home. Once there, I stuck them in the shed, realizing I would need to give them a good cleaning…some day. That happened about a week ago.

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Time to Get Growing

All photos taken on April 13, 2024.

As most of my posts are time shifted, I thought I would interject a couple of more timely posts. This one deals with the current state of my yard (or garden if you are from Europe). Yes, folks, at long last, our part of the world has come out of winter slumber. Now, we are in a current state of windy days, whether they be dry or wet.

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At Long Last, We Manage to Spot Them

All photos taken on February 14, 2024. (Valentine’s Day)

Our Valentine’s exploits on the day were pretty low key. The exchange of greeting cards before a great cappuccino and homemade buttermilk biscuits and fried tomatoes breakfast. Then we were off for our weekly forest walk.

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