Blogging

Shortly after I came out to British Columbia in early 2006 I had a case of severely high blood pressure. It wouldn't have been fair to an employer for me to work for them until I got my health situation sorted out. I was on medications to lower the blood pressure and it took until early 2007 to find the cause. I finally went to a naturopath who found that a microscopic parasite was the cause for all this.

While getting my health in order, I took up blogging to share my photography. This way I wasn't wasting time and others got to enjoy the photos, not just me and those close to me.

In May of this year I had a mini-stroke cause again by severely high blood pressure. I may end up gong to the naturopath again since the specialist and other MDs can't seem to find the cause. This has only been a problem out here. Before that in Ontario, the blood pressure was only marginally high, not severely high like in BC.

Knowledge is good because being forewarned is forearmed!

All that said, enjoy this blog and all the photos I share with you.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

critters

This past Saturday while checking out Vancouver's Stanley Park using a route I haven't taken for a while, I found this little squirrel near the small bridge to the south of Lost Lagoon. It's called a Douglas' Squirrel and is fully grown. This squirrel is much smaller than the grey or black squirrels, which aren't native to this area by the way, but the Douglas' Squirrel is. I was easily able to get it to come closer for a great photo but each time people would come along it would dart for cover then come back out once they had passed. These are three photos that worked out fine. The others just had blurrs on them, the blurr being the darting squirrel. Another area of the park where you'll find this squirrel is around Beaver Lake (really just a large pond with lots of waterlies). If you love animals and other creatures, check the park out some time when you're in the area! - V.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

beaches, summer flowers and sunsets

On Saturday afternoon (September 11th) I went into Vancouver to have a look at the annual flower planting at Denman and Davie Streets plus also have another look at English Bay Beach and Sunset Beach. The cloud pattern also got my interest as well. These are some of the photos that resulted.
Aside from the clouds, the first order of priority was to get some photos of the colourful annual flowers at the corners I mentioned. The flowers were still there last Saturday when I paid another visit to Vancouver (September 19) but I don't expect them to be there for too much longer since spring tulip bulbs will be replacing them.








If you can get a chance to see these flowers before they're gone, do so! Meantime, the cloud pattern above also got my attention and you'll see quite a number of photos with these clouds in them. I'm always looking for something different or out of the ordinary! This set of photos was taken along Beach Avenue above English Bay Beach and more at Sunset Beach as far as the base of Burrard Street Bridge. I do hope you enjoy them all.




The annual plants and flowers in this area was also worth seeing. They didn't look like much back in May but they certainly had grown quite a bit throuh the summer months. That's a close-up of a coleus plant above. Below you can see the cloud pattern above the fan palm which looks like a big bird in the sky to me. How about you?


Sunset Beach also had a few annual plants below and near the few fan palms seen there. That's a eucalytus plant above and in the photo below is a mix to eucalytus, Russian sage and other annual plants.
Then looking into English Bay from below the Burrard Street Bridge is this view of Bowen Island and the mountians surrounding Howe Sound not to mention all the boats on the water that day.





The series of photos above show the cloud pattern and view of English Bay. Then below that are more photos of the fan palms and the annual plants at Sunset Beach before we end with the coming sunset at English Bay Beach. Enjoy the photos and comment if you wish!!! - V.