The weather pundits had been predicting an unusually cold and snowy winter for the Vancouver area since the autumn but it hadn't materialized until now. Just after I'd sent my serious winter boots back to the Maritimes with Pierre when he left last week. See the small island, the far shore and the mountains obscured by the low lying clouds? Of course you don't!
The neighbours' pool sat like a square piece of turquoise jewellery in a silver setting.
A Snow Gull warmed his feet on a chimney top while enjoying the view.
When the clouds began to lift, they revealed the local version of the Eiffel Tower.
Yes, folks, it looks like winter has found me after all.
I love the photo of the pool with your neighbor s!
ReplyDeleteit's great to see this blue so blue in this landscape so white
thank you for these beautiful pictures and what a view!
cover yourself well above ^ ^
Make sure that's all dusted off before we get there.
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, that is a lot of snow for Vancouver! And for cars without snow tires!
ReplyDeleteThe pictures are really lovely. The turquoise pool looks really beautiful set against the white, but my favorites for sure were the Eiffel tower and the Snow Bird. Very witty and fun!
Stay warm!
Wow, it looks like there's still water in that pool? Why don't you form the West Coast branch of the Coney Island Polar Bear Club? My favorite photo is the top one, where you split the picture right in half with grey tones in the top and black and white houses in the bottom. And then when you look closely at the horizontal line in the middle you can just begin to make out the water and even a reflection. Lovely.
ReplyDeleteI'll never tire of your pics they're beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI love the larger picture of the "Snow Bird" on the Chimney! Looks like a greeting or holiday card. Such artistry! Your work always fascinates me... Thank your for the lovely inspiration this morning.
ReplyDeleteChristine
I wish I was there. I'd build a snow man doing "downward dog" for you to photograph through your bedroom window and a snow pig doing "the sphinx" on the front lawn for your mother to knit scarfs & toques. And with all those hills, I'd find the perfect location for a session of white grass extreme Savasana (relaxation)on the Crazy Carpet of Doom...
ReplyDeleteOh my, now you're hallucinating that you're in Paris ! An Eiffel Tower indeed ! Some people can have fun anywhere, with anything... I think you are one of them... pyroclastically so !
ReplyDeleteKarine,
ReplyDeleteIsn't that a wonderful blue?! We often use the pool to determine whether or not it's raining out. If we see circles made by raindrops falling on the water in it, we fetch our umbrellas before venturing out. Snow, though...no umbrella required.
DCW,
Oh, by the time you get here the daffodils should be blooming!
;-)
Audrey,
The sun came out the next day and melted some of the snow, but a thin white cover still remains and more flurries are forecast for the rest of the week. It seems Vancouver, or at least N.Van., has discovered the miracle of road salt. Even on frosty mornings the roads are white with the stuff. I was born on a day of a big blizzard in Vancouver so I guess it's my fate to be subjected to white winters. Except for that one I spent in Spain...sigh.
jann,
you discovered the hidden treasure in the first photo, of the barely discernible waterline and the small island. There's long been a Polar Bear Swim in Vancouver, and there's even a Penguin Swim on Jan.1st in Deep Cove (near where my mother lives ). We walked down to the Cove to witness it one year and it was pretty crazy. I'm glad the neighbours don't empty the pool until the summer as we need it to determine whether or not it's raining out.
Lucia,
Oh, thanks so much for the encouragement! I have lots of pix I haven't had time to post yet, so I'm glad you like what you see.
Mystic Meandering,
I'm very happy if my humble offerings provided you with some sort of inspiration this morning! I post things that somehow inspire me and can only hope that they might touch another in some similar way. Nice to know that they do.
Gros Pitou,
You have some very ambitious dreams about the little bit of snow that we actually have here. I hope there would be no yellow snow around the downward dog you'd build! A sphinx pig with a knit scarf would be adorable and fit in quite well with those lions that top so many gates and walls in the Vancouver area probably start a new fad, in fact. Extreme white grass savasana on the Crazy Carpet of Doom?! Somehow does not sound too relaxing to me!! Definitely the "dead pose" would be the end result for me.
BrOwen,
Your comment, as ever, leaves me postively pyroclastic. (I really should look up the meaning of the word, I suppose).
PS. BrO,
ReplyDeleteIf I'm hallucinating, how come you see it, too?
That Eiffel tower shot is stunning! Lovely winter snow shots too!
ReplyDeletelove the turquoise pendant amongst all the snowy white....who could get tired of this view??
ReplyDeleteOddly, even tho we are going to have a BBQ this evening as it is very hot here I JUST LOVE that snow! My WV is 'taste' as in your photos and commentary have so much taste! xx
ReplyDeleteThank you for this, as seen from here, dream very much !
ReplyDeleteLady, if I had such wonderful views from my window, I'm afraid I'd live out on the ledge and wouldn't bother coming in! I love the shot of the pool and especially your description of it! A lovely piece of turquoise jewelry indeed!I'm so glad your furnace is up and running. I can't imagine how you'd survive without heat with all the snow that abounds in your parts. Stay warm! :)
ReplyDeleteWell you can keep that, okay? We've had a bit but I'm done with it now. It's all yours. :)
ReplyDeleteLet it snow, let it snow, let it snow!
ReplyDeleteIt's rainin back here in your Eastern Paradise; but it's a dry rain! No snow for the Yamaha Long Track; so I'm still cruising them thar Caledonia hills on the Big Red Riding Hood suicide trike - trying to burn all the oil products I can. Gonna keep that there globular warming at full hurry-hard, so better get used to the white stuff! Haf ta ditch them there Birkeys for rubber boots! (Ne-uh-ha-har, me frozen western buccos!)
lady fi,
ReplyDeleteSo you see it, too? Proof positive that I am not hallucinating the Eiffel Tower in spite of some people's comments left here!
Catherine,
It's a view I never tire of and it will be sad to say goodbye to it when the house is sold in the spring. This could be my last visit "home."
Saj,
Isn't it funny how snow always looks so appealing in someone else's back yard...or better yet--country. Anyway, I'm happy if you found my pix to your taste. I trust your BBQ was tasty as well. I should have tried roasting chestnuts on that open fire we had going when the furnace wasn't working. Or at least hot dogs. Indoor BBQing: there's a thought!
Robert,
Always happy to supply you with dreams and memories of snowier times in your life.
Hilary,
You may be done with it, but I have serious doubts that "it" is done with you! Don't put that shovel away just yet.
Anonymous,
I got some crampons for my Birkies, so no worries. Stops me from skidding on my arse when I'm hurrying hard to yoga class and/ or Starbucks. I hear that dry rain of yours involves temperatures dropping into the minus twenties. Not counting the windchill factor that you must encounter on the Big Red Riding Hood Suicide Tricycle of Death, if you actually go fast enough on it to feel any wind, other than the kind left over from that vegetarian diet you're subjected to for the sake of the little woman. Don't cry for me, Anonymous; I'll be phoning to let ya know that the daffs are up any day now! Say, maybe you should think about skidooing across Canada and parking the machine in the garage here! It's such a shame to let the YamaLong Attack go to waste, now that the east coast is becoming the new west coast.
Any sign of that grocery store opening yet? Do you think they'll have a Starbucks and yoga studio out back? Tricycle safe, AnonyMo!
Bella,
ReplyDeleteSorry I almost missed your comment with all the fuss being kicked up by Anonymous. I'm happy you're still enjoying the view from here. I'm afraid/glad to say that there are still more to come. Variations on a theme, I guess. Ironically, we don't usually get a lot of snow in these parts (southwestern BC), but tons of it where I have my house back east in the maritimes--though they're having an unusually green, albeit frigid, winter this year...just when I came out west to avoid a snowy winter. sigh. Still, with a view like I have here, no complaints!
LOve it - feel as if I'm there looking out of the window - serious boots at the ready!
ReplyDeleteahhh that maddening turquoise... we haven't had snow this winter until... now, and today i can enjoy the view from window as well, very different than yours but the snow, ah the snow is everywhere the same (and sooo beautiful, sorry sorry :-)
ReplyDeleteDeborah,
ReplyDeleteGood idea to always have one's serious boots at the ready! As you see, I learned the hard way.
Roxana,
Maddening turquoise. My favourite colour, were I forced to choose a favourite colour. The pool is maddening in other ways in the hot summer days when cries of delight shreik forth from it with no neighbourly invitations to join in.
Yes, snow is beautiful to behold, though cold to hold. I was so disappointed as a child to discover that trying to make a snowman just left one's mittens and hands very wet and exceedingly cold. I guess I never got over that. But I can take pleasure in knowing that snow brings all sorts of delight to you. Better late than never for some; better never for others, et vive la différence!