Lions Gate Bridge

A few weekends ago I took a walk up to the Lions Gate Bridge. The route takes me through Stanley Park. Its just a road, not very impressive, until you get to the bridge. These are some of the photos I took as a result. The scenes start with the approach to the bridge and then the lions that greet you once you get to your destination.

The 3-lane bridge was built across the first narrows on Burrard Inlet to allow British Properties to access their holdings on the north shore. Construction started March 31, 1937 and took one and one half years to complete at a cost of $5,873,837.17. The design work was done by Monsarrat and Pratley of Montreal, the company that later was responsible for designing the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge in Halifax, Nova Scotia, a bridge built of similar design. Opened to traffic on November 14, 1938, the bridge was officially opened by King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on May 29, 1939. On January 20, 1955 the Guiness family sold the bridge to the province of British Columbia. The tolls were taken off the bridge in 1963. It is currently owned by the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and maintained by Mainroad Contracting Limited. For more information about the bridge check out the Wikipedia entry on the subject.

You can see Stanley Park from above, such as a view of the seawall in the photo above, and also see downtown Vancouver (below).

There is a small bridge across the highway (Hwy 99 and 1A) built in a similar Art Deco style as the approaches to the Lions Gate Bridge. The Art Deco style was popular during the time in the 1930s. The white flowers are English Daisies!

I hope you've enjoyed these photos. There are more to come in future. - V.

tulips - present and past

Tulips are just one of my favourite spring flowers, especially those with colour and a lot of punch, such as the ones you see below. The first set of photos were taken late afternoon on Sunday, May 3rd when it would appear, the tulips were probably at their best colourwise. It was an overcast afternoon by the time I got to the English Bay beach seen in the photo above but I did manage to get some good photos as the wind was picking up with rain threatening.

These two pics of the colourful flowers (yellow with red) were found in the raised beds containing the fan palms as you approach the beach. I love the underplanting of forget-me-nots!

The red tulips underplanted with forget-me-nots are my favourite of the two colours shown. The planting above was on Denman at Davie Streets. I really love the photo below. I got down on my knees for that shot but since my right knee has been acting up for some weeks prior (crazy weather I guess?), it was a bit of a chore to get back up though certainly worth it! You draw your own conclusions.

On May 10th, Mother's Day, the yellow tulips were still going strong but were on the downward side of their life as flowers. The weather was warm, just the sun was lacking but as you can see, lots of people were out walking, riding their bikes, skateboarding or whatever.

As you can see, by Mother's Day, the red tulips were nearly at the end of their life cycle as flowers this spring. These photos were taken a week after the first set. Quite a difference! The tulips were fading but the forget-me-nots were going strong, rather fitting that it was Mother's Day, don't you think? Hope you've enjoyed this colourful look into one of my favourite spring flowers, the beloved tulip! - V.

Spring on Burnaby Mountain

This past Monday (Easter Monday) I was up on the western end of Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, British Columbia to see how far along the Japanese Cherry Trees were. Well, they are in flower now but will be better this weekend or next. They are likely delayed due to the elevation as the ones in Vancouver are a week or so ahead in flowering. I plan to make another visit this weekend, weather permitting.

While we're on the subject of cherry trees, the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival is in full swing and is presenting its second annual Bike the Blossoms on Saturday (tomorrow) from 10 am till 4 pm. The start is at Vancouver's Van Dusen Botanical Gardens plus a number of other start points. The 23 km circular route is fairly easy and has farmer's markets and eateries along the route. If you live in the Greater Vancouver area, for more information check out their website at http://www.vcbf.ca/bike-the-blossoms for the details and to register.

Bees of all sorts are important pollinators, so bumblebees were busy collecting nectar at the spring heather that blooms in beds near the Horizon Restaurant at the western end of Burnaby Mountain (see centre of photo above).

The view from this end of the mountain is fantastic. The image above shows Capital Hill in the centre, downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park behind that and the Coast Mountains to the right. There is yet another view below.

Above, there is Capital Hill and a better view of the Coast Mountains to the right with a closer view of Capital Hill below. Both Burnaby Mountain and Capital Hill are sedimentary in nature. They were left by the retreating glaciers and so are different in structure from that of the Coast Mountains.

Then the photo below shows a rain shower in progress in North Vancouver as seen from the mountain (centre background).

I also saw a guy trying out his parasail technique on Burnaby Mountain as well. The wind varied and would die suddenly for no reason before building again. It was after watching him for a while that I noticed a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) fly overhead east-northeast toward Burrard Inlet and the mountains. There are a lot of updrafts allowing for soaring! I've seen about five eagles so far this year as opposed to 17 of them last year.

The image above shows a close-up view of Hastings Street in Burnaby looking west and the one below shows Metrotown, also in Burnaby.

The photo above and the one below show typical trails on the mountain. The Trans-Canada Trail crosses Burnaby Mountain. I hope you've enjoyed the photos, and if you don't live in the area, perhaps you'll take the time to visit us one day to see all this first-hand.

Vancouver's False Creek - South Shore Part II

With Part II we continue. The weather was great for a walk last Sunday along the south shore of False Creek as the sun and blue skies would indicate. Many people took advantage of the pleasant break in the overcast, rainy weather to walk, ride their bikes or skateboard. The view above is from the east side of the Cambie Street bridge looking east toward Science World and the highrise condos behind. The image below was taken from the same side of the bridge looking toward Yaletown with one of the stadiums behind, one of the sites of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games (opening ceremonies I believe). The photo below that shows a view of the Cambie bridge looking north.

There are signs of spring everywhere, including this hill with a forsythia shrub blooming halfway up, and then there is this pond in Charleson Park along the south shore of False Creek. Then there are some early rhododendrons in bloom as well.

The photo above shows a hill on the eastern end of Granville Island and the image below looks east-northeast from near the island. You can see the dome of Science World in the distance.

The flower buds on some trees are thick and ready to open soon. Magnolia trees should be in bloom very soon.

Planters of spring flowers can be seen on Granville Island and elsewhere. Below is a view of the Armory on Burrard Street just south of the Burrard bridge. The Molson Brewery is just behind that between the Armory and False Creek.

Banners are up for the forthcoming Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival. Some of the first cherry trees are already in bloom in Vancouver as seen this week, a week of rainy, overcast weather. Mother Nature gave us an April Fools joke Wednesday (April 1st) with snow most of the day though it didn't stay except in higher altitudes. When taking the SkyTrain into town to work that day, I even saw a bald eagle even with the train as we entered New Westminster station. The mix of rain and snow didn't seem to be a bother. Anyway, check out the website regarding the cherry blossom festival.

The photo above shows the view from the east side of the Burrard bridge and then the images below show views on the Burrard bridge and the street itself.

I thought I'd end the post with a view looking up at one of the major hotel towers in downtown Vancouver. You can see that hotel (the Sheraton on Burrard Street at Nelson) in the photo above and a close view in the image below. I hope you've enjoyed the photos. If you live in the area, perhaps it'll bring back memories or if you don't, perhaps you might want to visit to see the Greater Vancouver area first-hand! Have a great weekend, as this one appears to be better than the last!!! With Easter next weekend, perhaps even better weather is at hand!