Thursday, November 25, 2010

From -10C to +2C in Two Days!

Typical West Coast weather - we were freezing with temperatures plummeting and the wind making it even colder for three days! Then like a miracle we got up in the morning and it was warm and snowing and snowing and now raining and raining! Yep that's BC! 
The worse thing about the snowy cold weather is trying to get around the city.  Most people here go into complete panic mode when there is 4 centimeters of snow on the road and drive like idiots which encourages the rest of us to head to the public transit which doesn't work well in cold weather (yep you heard it right).   Everyone gets up early and tromps to the bus stops only to stand and wait and wait. The buses can't get around or are seriously behind and people stand in the wet and cold for an hour or  more usually to get to a sky train station to complete their journey to work or appointments. However once at the sky train station things can be a little dicey there as well. Fortunately we had the Olympics last year forcing the powers that be to come up with a way to make these trains work in cold weather just in case we needed them during the Olympics. As luck would have it that was not necessary and thankfully so, because today we, the tax payers who pay for this system,  were treated to the new Canada Lines problems. People got to experience what it was like to be stuck, in the train cars, in  the middle of the train bridge across the Fraser for over an hour because apparently the Canada Line can't run if it has an inch of snow on the tracks! Nice work you guys!! Oh well, by tomorrow it will just be a memory.
Needless to say there were a lot of angry people in the city today including my daughter whose trip to work, which is usually about twenty minutes,  took almost three hours!! 
There is one girl who was happy that it snowed today and that was our Miss Lucy. She loves to play snow soccer and was in fine form today! 
Ooops.... just one problem here ... that soccer ball belongs to the neighbors!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

New Family on the Block

A family of Hooded Mergansers have taken over the pond at Foreshore Park. I have never seen them there before this year.  They are very shy birds making it difficult to photograph them especially with the diva of all dogs along.  They are such a distinctive looking bird that they fascinate me and I am always trying to get a closer look.
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Sunday, November 21, 2010

Winter Has Arrived!

Most of us, here in the lower mainland, woke up to a winter wonderland on Saturday morning.  The weather had been so good for all of the fall  that it came as a surprise to realize that winter was upon us. Normally the days get colder and wetter as we move into late fall/early winter giving us a warning of what is soon to come, but this year it just seemed to pounce on us!

The temperatures have dipped into the minuses and  is expected to dip as low as -10C on Tuesday, but the days are sunny so it doesn't really seem too bad. The mountains, shimmering in their winter finery, are beautiful!
 This picture was taken just a block from our house. No matter how many times over the winter I will see this sight it never ceases to fill me with awe.

Sunday Morning on the Drive

My Sunday morning latte in the Italian district!
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network