The Year in Review - The TED Event - Vancouver - Spring 2014

 The TED Event was held in the convention centre near Waterfront Station in downtown Vancouver this past spring.  Here are some photos taken near the event venue this spring.

 The fishing net was a focal point of the event.  Here are a few photos of that taken from various angles.

I hope you have enjoyed the photos.  The weather at the time was certainly improving fast as you can see!  :-)  - Volker

signs of spring

Its now well into March and here on the west coast of Canada (Vancouver/BC) there are signs of spring everywhere if you look closely.  I took a shot of an Azalea shrub in full bloom this morning.  It is located on West Hastings Street at Burrard where I took the photo in the previous post.

We're struggling to reach 8 degrees Celsius while places in eastern Canada will see summer-like temperatures like Montreal, Quebec at 22 and Halifax, Nova Scotia at 24 degrees Celsius.  Oh well, with the clearing skies here, we get to enjoy the view of the snow-capped mountains in the distance against a blue sky.  And at the moment, the mountains is where the snow is staying!  What's the weather like where you are?

~ Volker

city lights

I took this photo in downtown Vancouver the other week after I left work.  This view shows the traffic and the look of the downtown at West Hastings Street at Burrard Street at sunset with darkness approaching.  What attracted me here was the reflections on the buildings, the lights and the dimming light.

With the weather getting warmer there will be more photo opportunities as we get into spring.  I walked past St.Paul's Hospital on Burrard Street late this afternoon on an errand to see that some of the early flowering trees are in bloom.  The crocuses and snowdrops are in flower as well.  There is more to look forward to.

~ Volker.

Fly Agaric

In the fall of 2007 I posted some photos of the Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria) and other wild mushrooms. This fungus looks pretty but its poisonous, so enjoy the looks of it but keep your hands of it and keep it out of the kitchen. I've decided to use the first image as my latest header photo since the one with the goldenrod and the honeybee has been there for a while (2007). That one was taken at White Rock, British Columbia. The Fly Agaric series of photos was taken at Hastings Park in Vancouver in the autumn of 2007. Enjoy them once again! - V

Davie Village Community Garden

A visit to Vancouver today gave me enough time to visit the Davie Village Community Garden. This is an assortment of photos I took while there. These include shots of foxgloves and poppies in bloom, a bumblesbee, a butterfly (cabbage butterfly, I believe). Enjoy!!! - V

flowers and bees

I was in Vancouver's West End a week ago this past Sunday. The photo above is just one of many I took while checking out the Davie Community Garden at Burrard and Davie Streets. I love having birds, or in this case, insects, to help gauge the size of things compared to what we know. There will be more images from my Vancouver visit soon and also more from the Balcarra to Sasamat Lake hike. Meantime, take care!!! - V

olympic venues

I did mention the crowds we had during the winter games here in Vancouver in my last post. Well, here is a series of photos I took near the olympic village and ScienceWorld turned SochiWorld for the games. ScienceWorld served as Russia's venue for promoting their winter games at Sochi, Russia. The line-ups were at least 2 hours but better than some other venues where the longest wait was 7 hours. The silver dome is ScienceWorld turned SochiWorld. Enjoy the photos! Feel free to comment or to ask questions. - V

colour - autumn and otherwise

During the last weekend of September I was in Vancouver to check out the autumn colour in Stanley Park. These are some of the photos that resulted from that visit. While the first two photos have nothing to do with fall colours, I found the design and colour of this highrise condo building along West Pender Street interesting. There are shops on the ground level and then condos above. This building is a few blocks east of where West Pender meets West Georgia Street. There are a number of buildings of interest in the area. Check it out if you're in the area.

The maples along West Georgia Street were starting to show some of their colours. This is in the block as we near Stanley Park.

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.

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.