Vancouver Diary 17

[QRM 30]

I figured I would share some magic places you can expect to see in Vancouver here is an example.

Welcome to light house point, notice how big that tree is the center and thats a baby, I have seen much bigger.

My wife and brother.

Yes a real theater in the forest - mysterious stuff.

My brother getting to know the locals

Elves living room.

[QRM 30]

Lynn Cannon North Vancouver

Yes you can drink the water.

[Harry 52]

Waiting for Spring...which appears to have been delayed

Linton,

thanks for all the pictures.

Just remember some folks in SA are on dial-up, and they have to wait for all those pictures to download before the page stabilizes for them to read. You may want to spread them a tad. We default to 15 posts per page, so you may want to make sure that we do not have too many indivdual pictures per any one single post.

[QRM 30]

Linton,

thanks for all the pictures.

Just remember some folks in SA are on dial-up, and they have to wait for all those pictures to download before the page stabilizes for them to read. You may want to spread them a tad. We default to 15 posts per page, so you may want to make sure that we do not have too many indivdual pictures per any one single post.

Sorry Harry, I'll keep them as max 15 pp in future.

They are highly compressed pics off facebook so should be no bigger than 100k each, but guess it can add up.

[Loerie 0]

Our day started off grey with rainy weather. The late afternoon turned out beautiful and we were glad to see the sun! We had blue skies with cloud banks 360 degrees on the horison. The sun has since disappeared again ...

At the school ground around 3pm.

Near the US border around 4pm.

[ebow3d 1]

Really beautiful forest, Linton. Nice pics.

[Tea 5]

Can not see the pictures. Are you using Flicr?

[Loerie 0]

Thanks for mentioning that Tea. Yes, I am using flickr for all the photos I post on sacanada ... Did someone else also have a problem to view them?

[QRM 30]

Thanks for mentioning that Tea. Yes, I am using flickr for all the photos I post on sacanada ... Did someone else also have a problem to view them?

I see them perfect on this computer without a flicker account.

Is flicker perhaps using flash, na - perhaps some plug in missing.

[Tea 5]

I see them perfect on this computer without a flicker account.

Is flicker perhaps using flash, na - perhaps some plug in missing.

We live in the Middle East, Flicr is banned here, so I think it might be the reason why we can not view the photos.

Tea

[Loerie 0]

Thanks, Linton. I will send you a pm, Tea.

We had our sunshine this morning, but the clouds have since moved in.

Taken at the South Surrey Athletic Park at 12h10.

[Loerie 0]

View from highway 99, as we drove in the direction of Vancouver today.

A view of Mount Baker in the U.S., on our way home. White Rock / South Surrey is the

green area on the right of the photo and Langley is more to the left - to give a rough idea.

[Loerie 0]

I took some more photos along 16th Ave in the south-west of Langley yesterday. 16th Avenue runs parallel with the US border and is 16 blocks north of the border - 0 Avenue runs right along the border. To me this farm / small holding always looks like it will fit in a western movie (except for the intersection of course ).

The next two photos were taken from the same spot a couple of hundred meters further along 16th Ave - the house and the view they have across the street. 16th Avenue is actually very busy with a lot of trucks using it as well, but overall the people have more patience on the roads here, and it is quite relaxing even though it is busy.

The above farms / small holdings, together with the farm in post #93, always catch my eye when I drive to Langley for my monthly grocery shopping at Superstore.

As you can see on these photos, we had cloudy weather yesterday during the morning (but nice clouds!). The Greater Vanvouer had blue skies and sunshine for the rest of the day. This morning it's cloudy again - for now anyway ....

Edited April 15, 2008 by Loerie

[Harry 52]

Global Warming hits Vancouver

Thank you , Big Al (Gore)!

The worst Spring in memory.

Maybe they can send his much belied polar bears here...just a thought.

[Loerie 0]

I took the dog for a walk at Crescent Beach in Crescent Heights this morning.

It is also in the "White Rock" area. With such a beautiful morning the chores at home could wait .

Taken to the north in the direction of Vancouver, although most of Vancouver lies more to the left of this photo.

If you look closely you can see high rises on the left of this photo. They are part of Burnaby if I am correct.

[Harry 52]

Set out the Deck Stuff today...here's hoping!

Bet you its starts raining for a week!

This has been the most utterly miserable cold season since we got to Canada.

Looks like we are going straight from Winter to Summer...if summer ever comes this year

[Harry 52]

BCTV made it official yesterday.

It was the coldest April in 33 Years in Vancouver.

On the same morning they reported that people are developing a new psychological condition...ecophobia. There are literally people suffering from anxiety attacks regarding "Global Warming"....I now officially put it where it belongs: liberal terrorism

I am truly gatvol of people trying to frighten me into paying more tax that they can use for liberal causes. They obviously now drive the apparently mentally lesser members of our society into panic attacks.

As it is, the places likely to flood during global warming are anyway good candidates for a long overdue cleaning. ...New York, Calcutta...ect etc etc...just kidding

...but it is irritating when these people scream like this because they cannot provde facts and they need to sweep unthinkng knee-jerk liberals up into a frenzy.....and I have to suffer the coldest April in 33 years.

[pretor 31]

BCTV made it official yesterday.

...but it is irritating when these people scream like this because they cannot provde facts and they need to sweep unthinkng knee-jerk liberals up into a frenzy.....and I have to suffer the coldest April in 33 years.

You'll enjoy this guy's take on the issue: Junk Science

[Harry 52]

Finally Hot Enough

Our summer finally arrived around the first week of July, and it was rather nice for the first four weeks weeks. This was good, as we had visitors from the USA for the fourth week. On the 25th we flew to Las Vegas where we rented a car to drive to Sedona in Arizona. We had swapped a week of time share at a "resort" in town. Our intention was to get as overheated as possible so that we would not miss heat for another year.

The plan basically worked. It was around 100F ( 38C) every day. It is also a very pretty part of the world. As a guy whose bloodline comes from the Onder-Karoo, I could relate to the scenery. It is a bit like Graaff-Reinet and Nieu-Bethesda on steroids, as the picture clearly shows. Where we Boere are used to soetdoring, aloes, ghaap and noors, the Arizonans have mesquite (Suidwesdoring), cacti and juniper trees on the higher ground, with the odd stunted pine and cedar/cypress types in between. They also have a shrub they call the wait-a-minute bush....their wag-'n-bietjiebos. Both parties have prickly pears - turksvye....aanmekaar soos pap. I checked...they DO eat the turksvye.

The red color is quite real at sunset. Unfortunately it attracts all manner of weirdos who sit on rocks and go "Ommmmmmm". There is supposedly a semi-psychic "vortex" right there....I think they are getting their brains addled by the heat and that they need to go sit in a dwarrelwind if they want to know what a vortex is. Alternatively I could stick them in a rotary washing machine for a wake-up call in life. As it is, one finds weird-looking idiots sitting on rocks meditating in the sunset holding their arms out to the sun......I must be on the wrong planet (sigh!).

On our return, we took the southern truck route to avoid the traffic jam at the Hoover Dam, and ended up at Bullhead City on the Colorado River just after lunchtime. This town is just 500 feet above sea level while it is still 200 miles from the Gulf of California. It is hot....VERY HOT! As we left town, the car's external shaded thermometer clicked up to 117F ( 47.5C). To be honest, the heat took our breaths away...it was indescribable. With the relative humidity at about 16% it dried one out very quickly. Some miles north of town, on our way up to Las Vegas, I took the second picture of a Spanish Dagger (the long leaved yucca) and a Joshua Tree (another kind of yucca)...which I have always preferred to call "Mosesboompies"...because they are lost in the desert and because it sounds somehow more descriptive to a Kamdeboo outjie like me anyway.

For the flight back we preferred using a reliable Canadian carrier, given the troubles the US Airlines had been having.

When we got back to Vancouver, we found that our petunias had practically died from too much rain. Apparently they had had rain almost all the time while we had been away. The day after we arrived, it was 100% sunshine.

I feel better now. The temperature may now hover between 22C and 28C to its heart's content.

[Ingrid Brunkhorst Hurrell 990]

Harry, have missed your photo-updates...always a pleasure to see. (Hint, hint...)

[Harry 52]

Fall '08

Ja, what can I say...the spring and summer that never were this year are over.....

Taken two weeks ago out our second storey window.

[Dedré 120]

oh WOW! It's beautiful... It's all grey here like the Transvaal in SA!

[Harry 52]

Christmas Eve 2008 in Deep Cove

We had the snow plough at our place the day before Xmas Eve. Then, after that, we had him only once, about ten days ago.

We are now relying on the guys who still managed to find snow tyres (before all of them disappeared in Vancouver around 12 Dec) to tramp a way out for us. That still strands guys like me with all season tyres because of the steep hill I have to go down with a busy bus route at the bottom and a blind intersection. I slid down there once before - refuse to try again. The wife took $2000 damage there last winter.

It has snowed pretty much incessantly since the weekend of 14 December 2008. I added up around 2 foot six inches at our place, but I am sure more actually fell. We had two falls of about a foot each, two of ten cm, and in the last day or so another 7 inches....and then more again. So that's over three foot....in a place that gets a fright if there are two inches of snow. Of course it settles and melts a bit in-between. So it never looked deeper than 2'6" or so.

Finally, I called the District Council this morning and made threatening sounds. I told them that people are going to die in this place if they don't get their plough up here. Within three hours there was a plough up here....AND HE GOT STUCK!!! HE could not believe what he saw. He also said the council was out of salt.

I had to go and help get the guy out....and HE FLED!! So I told him to stop wasting time ploughing the road in the level area and to go dump his last handful of salt on the slope.

Then I phoned the Council and told them how serious the situation is...and that their "lieutenant" had fled in the face of the "enemy". We need someone with tougher equipment. We need at least a "General' with a serious plough and salt....not an overgrown 4x4 with a salt hopper that gets stuck so the citizens have to rescue it. Fer cryin' out loud!

...die man se oë was soos pierings...en ek dog dis ons Boertjies wat bang is vir sneeu.

Below are the consequences of the snow...and that's before the last foot came down. We lost the left hand rear view mirror in that process.

At the bedroom deck door it looked like this after the first roughly 15 inches - after that it got insane and we started shovelling to get the weight reduced:

[Traveller 2]

Geniet die sneeu Harry. Binnebly gee jou dalk kans om daardie boek klaar te maak - dis nou na die skoonmaak.

[Freda en Kie 0]

Dit is op pad na 30 grade in Benoni SA, en DIE fotos wil my 'n truitjie gaan laat kry Harry!

Kan nie wag om 'Boertjie ini sneeu' te wees nie!!