Search for 'The Stick'

The seemingly endless search for 'The Perfect Stick' continues.......... all possibilities must be tried for size, shape, weight, taste and smell.

Biking Trails

It's amazing what you find half an hours hiking into forest - a mountain bike trail built into the slopes and trees.

A bit more snow

Our second lot of snow for the season arrived overnight. Not nearly as much as we had at the end of November, this was probably only a couple of centimetres and didn't actually cause any disruption. Infact, looking on the www.vancouver.com/webcam it doesn't look like downtown or the North Shore's lower slopes got any snow at all.

However, since we had snow Charlie and I had to go out and have a play in it.

A small house tucked up in the snowy trees

Charlie at Lynn Canyon Dec 15th

A few pictures of Charlie enjoying his walk today at Lynn Canyon.

Another winter storm

Since the beginning of November we have had storm after storm roll in from the pacific. The biggest storm was on the 15th November which knocked out power across most of the Lower Mainland, brought down hundreds upon hundreds of trees and stirred up the lakes so much they put a boil water advisory on the drinking water for 12 days.

Last night we experienced another winter storm. Not as serious as the one a month ago it nonetheless brought a good amount of wind & rain. The wind is a pain because it invariably knocks out the power (all over head power cables + lots of trees + wind = regular power cuts). However, the rain is more fun as it fills up the rivers & lakes.

This post shows some photographs of Lynn Canyon taken today (15th Dec). They show how much the rivers have increased in quantity and velocity since we visited the park with my parents in October (http://vancouverstuff.blogspot.com/2006/10/lynn-canyon.html).

Below is one of many newly fallen trees across a path in the park. It probably came down in last nights storm as the parks authority are usually pretty good at clearing the paths within a couple of days of them getting blocked.

Hockey Night

One of Sues requests while she was here was to go to an Ice Hockey match, since it is kind of the national sport. We had not been to one ourselves so were definitely up for it.

The big local team are the Vancouver Canucks. They are in the NHL (National Hockey League) which is across North America. A little bit like England and cricket (we invented it but aren't any good at it anymore) Canada has a similar problem with hockey. The Canucks nonetheless are in the top league and so their tickets are a fairly steep $65-$75 a game.

We then discovered the Vancouver Giants (www.vancouvergiants.com). They are in the WHL (Western Hockey League) which is the next one down from the NHL. They were playing while Sue was here and since none of us were hockey connoisseurs and the tickets were only $18 a head we settled for a WHL game in the Pacific Coliseum at the Pacific National Exhibition (www.pne.ca).

It was Friday Dec 1st and we saw them play the Prince George Cougars. The speed with which the game is played and at which they crash into the sides of the arena is certainly entertaining and I don't doubt we'll be back to watch another game with more of our visitors.

Incidently, the Giants won 5-2. :-)

A & D

Deep Cove

Today we visited Deep Cove, which is a 'village' on the easternmost edge of the Northshore, and sides onto the deep water inlet of Indian Arm. It enjoys stunning scenery and a lovely community small town atmosphere yet is still within half an hours drive of Vancouvers downtown. It is definately a location that we would have considered living in but unfortunately due to the steep geography of the village there are not many 'dog-friendly' houses with reasonable size flat gardens - it's great to visit though.

We got talking to a guy walking two australian shepherd dogs in the park. He recommended a cafe nearby for dinner which we will have to check out soon and for morning coffee and a snack he suggested Honey's. Let's just say we went, we ate and we'll be back.

The hills on the opposite side of the water are the village of Belcarra and the slopes behind Port Moody. Whilst these look near they are a good 30-45 minutes drive to reach due to the georgraphy and limited opportunities to cross the water.

Dog friendly city gone mad.....

The Mummy Cometh

Our current esteemed visitor is Mummy Waller. She had planned to come out to see us for her 60th birthday since we announced our emigration to Vancouver. So here she is.



Mum's arrival was heralded by severe storms which downed many trees, caused power outages (Canadian for power cut) and water turbidity. The last effect refers to the disturdance of water in local resevoirs due to heavy rainfall and land slippage making it muddy. Normal turbidity as it is called should be less than 1 NTU (Don't ask?) and ours went up to 90!! The basic result was a drink bottled or boiled water order city wide. What a welcome!

So the weather was less than delightful, mostly raining, but this changed to the snow for the second week and mum was able to see some of the beauty of where we live.

Mr C loves snow

Australian Shepherd dogs we have been told, were bred for herding cattle in the desert states of the US. However, Charlie is much more at home in a cold climate than warm.

Charlie is particularly enjoying the snowy weather we have had. He has never seen snow this deep and in the back garden his legs disappear completely and it's up above his belly. It has a similar effect on him to being wet, making him race around 'tucking his bum in' (those of you who know him will know what we mean) and barking wildly. Once the snow got deep enough he stopped being able to run and he has to leap from one place to another. He hasn't yet learnt not to try and catch snowballs and he has trouble carrying frozen sticks.

A & D

A bit of Snow!

OK, so we moved to Canada and everyone told us we would freeze but we said that Vancouver was a mild area and not any worse than the UK. After a record long hot summer winter has definately arrived. It is however better than any snow we can remember in the UK. It is simply stunning.

Check out some of the views around our winter wonderland.

Webcam

A fantastic webcam is set up in downtown Vancouver, looking across the water to us in North Vancouver. We live approximately three quarters of the way along, about halfway up the hill.

Log on and see what our weather is like, or see if we're shrouded in cloud !

www.vancouver.com/webcam

A bright November afternoon

My job with Homes & Land Magazine involves plenty of driving around the Lower Mainland meeting clients. Whilst on a rainy miserable day it feels like you could be driving anywhere, there are enough good days to remind me what a beautiful part of the country we live in.

These next few images were taken when I was on my way back from Harrison Mills - about an hour and a half south east of Vancouver. Although this is some distance from the city, the great thing is that lovely views like these can be enjoyed the whole way.

Above and below are views taken from Hwy 7 looking towards the town of Agassiz where the Trans-Canada Highway runs along the opposite side of the valley. The river is Harrison River which flows out of nearby Harrison Lake (source of Harrison Hot Springs we visited when we first arrived).

Below is an image taken again from Hwy 7 but from the otherside of Agassiz, almost at the junction with the Trans-Canada Highway. It is a closer view of the hills that ring the Fraser Valley and you can see that the first snowfalls have arrived on the higher peaks.

Mountain Rescue

On the morning of Hallowe'en I was taking Charlie for a walk and noticed a Mountain Rescue taking place on the hill at the end of our street. I could see a stretcher being lowered into the trees but I don't know what the outcome of it was. Although, as you can see from the picture, the weather was lovely, it had got down to about -4 overnight so the ground was very icy. There are many reasons why Mountain Rescue may have been called but that might have been a contributing factor.

A & D

Scenes of Autumn

Vancouver is beautiful at the best of times but it seems that each season is going to bring us new wonders for the eyes. Here are a few pics taken so far this autumn.

Here at the top of Grouse mountain it feels like heaven as the clouds hang around you.

From Downtown looking across at Lions Gate Bridge & Stanley Park as the leaves turn.

Magnificent golden Maple leaves amongst an evergreen forest at Lynn Canyon.

The still water of Capilano Lake. All is so beautiful & within 20 minutes of our home.

D & A

Adrian's Mum & Dad visit

My Mum and Dad visited for the first time this October. They stayed with us a few days and then travelled off to Whistler, then to Vancouver Island and then came back to ours for a few more days before flying home.

It was a good opportunity for them to see us in our new home and see that we are well settled.

The weather wasn't all that great for their visit, although we had some sunny days, but we did still manage to fit in Lonsdale Quay, Capilano Lake & Cleveland Dam, Princess Park (for doggy walking), Ambleside (dog) beach, Granville Island and Lynn Canyon Regional Park. Not to mention Save-on-Foods, Whole Foods, Canadian Superstore and a few other more mundane tasks !

It was great to see them and we look forward to their return next June, when hopefully the weather will be better and we can do some more outdoorsy things.

Lynn Canyon

We visited Lynn Canyon Regional Park for the first time while my Mum and Dad were staying. It is situated about a mile and a half from our home. Lynn Canyon has several miles of natural trails through the forest which you can walk through to the backdrop of bubbling Lynn Creek.

One of the best features of Lynn Canyon is that unlike the more famous Capilano Suspension Bridge, Lynn Canyon also has a suspension bridge but it's free and there's far less tourists !

Charlie fetching a stick in Lynn Creek.

A deep and tranquil pool

Charlie and I venturing across the bridge

Moss covered trees

Mum, Dad, Charlie and I at Lynn Canyon Regional Park.