December 22, 2007

This merry time of year

Wet snow on a berry-laden tree

The holidays are upon us and to ring it in, Mother Nature sprinkled some snow over our humble city this morning! I never saw it falling and woke up to rain, but I got outside to photograph it a bit. Nothing too special to share this time as per the snow but I thought the above image was quite festive. It’s very, very wet out there but gorgeous especially when the sun peeks out. So, a White pre-Christmas… good enough for me right now! And yesterday was the Winter Solstice, which means days will now be getting longer. For the shortest day of the year, it was a pretty good one!

It was a year ago today when I posted my first holiday message complete with a photo of a grumpy little fish. This year, Jake gets some furry white cotton on his stocking that I pulled off an old elf-doll I made as a kid. Jake is, of course, just as pissed off to have his view blocked by something bright red. (It’s plain on the back side.)

IMG_4511_2.jpg

Continue reading This merry time of year »

December 18, 2007

Poll: British Columbians oppose ALR land removal

Christmas shopping on my lunch break meant I’m doing a Tuesday lunch blog instead!


24 Hours (Vancouver) reported today that a majority of British Columbians oppose the treaty that would remove land from the Agricultural Land Reserve in Delta, to be used in Deltaport’s expansion. I’m very glad about this news. The writer made a point that the Government’s priorities are “out of step” with British Columbians.

I can’t find the article on the website at the moment but you can download today’s paper through the above link.

Back to work!

December 13, 2007

Cell phone companies, banks big paper wasters

I guess I should switch to an electronic statement from my cell phone provider, but that still won’t prevent the ad mail they send me. The last one I got used some pretty heavy (thick) paper to deliver me a message I’d already received before. Tonight an unaddressed Telus mailer arrived with some crap about cell phone gifts and other stuff, which is fine and all, but inside was tucked a large (16″ x 20″ maybe?), folded up, foul-smelling poster with cheesy coloured fake starfish on it and a silver backing. What am I supposed to do with that? Put it on my wall? Use it as gift wrap? Throw paint at it? It has no meaning and while its Telus branding is slightly evident, they could have at least done something that would spread their brand to people rather than recycling or, god forbid, trash bins.

Continue reading Cell phone companies, banks big paper wasters »

December 10, 2007

Zigzag bus route needs a tug to pick up the slack

In planning my trip to the Island this past weekend, I looked up how to bus to the Tsawwassen Ferry Terminal. What I got looked like a maze that would take me as long to traverse as travelling via transit all the way to North Vancouver. In retrospect it is reminiscient of the kind of path taken by a small troll-in-a-wind-up-car toy my mom so aptly named Fuzzy Logic. It just could not make up its mind which direction to travel, and afforded us many giggles.

There is, however, little to giggle about here when one considers the possibility of travelling this route. It was no question that this wasn’t how I was going to spend my Saturday morning.

A twisting bus route through the grid of Surrey

Continue reading Zigzag bus route needs a tug to pick up the slack »

December 3, 2007

Good old Canadian winter

Mom walking toward the beach

December strolled in with an icy white cape.

“The Great White North” became a great white north, indeed, as Mother Nature dumped snow across the country. Here in Vancouver, the snow has nearly disappeared as quicky as it had shown up, in most areas. Where I live in Surrey now still had roughly 4 very wet inches this morning, out of the 6 or so that accumulated until snow changed to rain early yesterday evening.

Doggy pawprints in the snow

Saturday afternoon I made my way to North Vancouver for a dentist appointment: a well-timed one, you could say. I ended up spending the night at the old roost and enjoyed the snowy weather from the indoors and out. It’s rather unusual that snow falls before I get the snowflakes up on the windows, but it made it all the more special the next morning! In typical Deep Cove fashion, we only collected about 2.5 inches. It was enough, however, to light up the darkness after midnight to the point where I could see the island and far shore out where streetlights don’t shine! My parents and I went “walking in a winter wonderland” in the park in the morning, which was magical. The best part of the day visually was driving home through one of Surrey’s parks. Amazing!

Trees blanketed with snow

I’m hoping for a White Christmas — we’ll see about that unusual event — but in the meantime I have paper snowflakes to make.

Take a look at a few photos my mother posted.

11pm: It’s now raining harder than I can remember, blown on by the wind. I have a candle lit just in case! Yikes!

A paper snowflake echoes the outside