towel

Here Sadik wearing a towel after a shower poses for us. The image is by photographer Luis Rafael. I guess most of you across the United States and southern Canada could use a shower with all the extreme heat you've been having. It feels like a wall of super heat and humidity! I know, I lived in southwestern Ontario most of my life and dealt with it every summer. Do what ever you can to cool off and stay comfortable! - V

here's to summer!

Well, its not officially summer yet, tha'st about a week or so away, but some have the honour of having such weather all year round while those of us further north (or south!) have to make due with a much shorter season. Make the most of it, guys! Summer's gone all to fast.

Check out what Yorsh has at Os Meus Garotos. You should get enough summer ideas there! - V

nick II

Well, I thought I'd tease you guys some more with another photo of Nick M from All American Guys! And no, I don't think its Nick Manzoni though the resemblance is uncanny. There's a bit of an age difference. You'll just have to find out from the folks at AAG!

Either way, he does resemble my own bf (Brad) in some way, like the dark hair and the awesome abs and general good looks! Speaking of Brad, I was kept up early in the night thinking of him and then again this morning. What a way to start and end a night's sleep! I think of him often and perhaps I was on his mind too....

After I get my laundry done I'll be out for another walk up to nearby Queens Park. Its sunny and warm (finally), of course, some places in North America are getting too much heat it would appear from the weather reports. We shouldn't complain too much. For most of us, summer is far too short anyway!

Have an awesome day, guys!!!! - V

news

Exciting news was received today. Brad has traveled three-quarters of the way across Canada from the east coast (Nova Scotia) and is one time zone away. After he visits family in Alberta he will be Vancouver bound. More I will not say at this point. You'll all just have to wait!

The weather continues to be sunny and hot during the day. Its expected to get hotter on Sunday, the day of the pride parade, but that's good since summer doesn't last long enough anyway. The plans are to attend the parade Sunday. More news on that later.

Meantime, enjoy your weekend what ever you choose to do with your time. I hope its fun and safe! More later! - V

hot weather and grooming

The other day I decided to shave my underarms and balls with the hot weather we're having. I also trimmed my pubic hair. I also shave my body hair but leave the hair on my legs and forearms. Its in part to stay cooler and esthetically pleasing in such weather or at any time of the year, something I've been doing for over 20 years. It also keep hair from collecting in corners and along the baseboard in the apartment, especially the bathroom. I'm the one that has to clean up, at least for now! A haircut is next in line. That's likely happening this weekend after some delays.

The pride parade is on Sunday which I intend to go to once again. Expect some awesome photos from the event plus from what ever is happening at English Bay and Sunset Beaches. So, whats new in your world??? - V

hot

Its day four of hot, sunny weather here on the west coast, the lower mainland and southern Vancouver Island anyway! Some people started complaining about the hot temperatures the first day but it could be a lot hotter as those in southern Ontario and Quebec know all too well.

And having lived in southwestern Ontario most of my life, I've certainly seen it a lot hotter. The hottest temperature I've experienced was during a summer a year or so before I came out west. The humidex was at 44 degrees in the midst of a heatwave. It was hot in the shade and boiling in the sun! I slept in the basement. It was cooler there and when outside in the evening, I would sit in the shade and do what I could to keep the flowers and other plants watered. The lawn was left to go dormant for the summer and would revive in the autumn when the rains came back.

One exception I made was to water a patch of lawn in the backyard. This was for the benefit of the many robins in the area who needed worms to eat in order to stay alive. I also provided some water in a container for all the birds, and even animals, of the area. They require a source of fresh water as much as us humans do!

Now with this fine weather here, I'm finally able to get up to Sasamat Lake northwest of Port Moody and will be leaving home shortly. Expect some awesome photos once they're uploaded and edited. Have a great weekend, guys!!! - V

humidity

The humidity is building and night time temperatures are getting warmer. Its currently 22 degrees Celsius and expected to drop to the upper teens overnight. The temperature for Thursday is forecast to be 28 with a humidix around 32. Its expected to be a bit cooler over the weekend at around 24 or 25 but the humidex will be climbing. Well, the temperatures had been cooler than normal with dull, grey, overcast skies, so we've got what we were asking for, perhaps just a bit too much.

Someone I know just came back from a vacation in Saskatchewan, you know, the Canadian prairies where they've been having severe thunderstorms and tornadoes lately? The light show at night (lightning) was compared to the neon lights of Vegas. Flooding was everywhere and severe in places. There is another front building in western Alberta with the jet stream between there and Saskatchewan. Looks like another light show coming, and with that, those funnels called tornadoes! Interesting weather across the country I'd say!

With the weather being what it is, I plan a hike around Sasamat Lake and over a mountain trail to Belcarra for Saturday. The mountain route will take me past a swamp! That's on the north side of Burrard Inlet. Sunday will likely take me on a walk along the seawall on English Bay. My camera will be along both days, so photos will be posted in this case!

Enjoy the hot weather but stay sensible and find ways to keep cool!!! More news coming soon. - V

a real summer

Well, the hot weather people have long been looking for after weeks of dull, grey overcast skies has finally arrived. I've even heard one person complaining about the heat and its only been Tuesday that we've been through. There's more coming! It early morning, closing on 7 am and its 16 degrees Celsius with the humidity at 82 percent. As the day progresses and it gets hotter, the humidity level falls but from past experience, it doesn't seem to fall much below 50 percent. The forecast high today is for hot, sunny weather at 28 degrees Celsius with a humidex at perhaps 30 degrees. I'll find out on the weekend how much people are enjoying this weather when I get a chance to see the activity at the beaches. This should be an indicator if there are, as usually is, a lot of people enjoying the sun, fresh air and water! - V

thoughts of summer

We can think of warmer weather, such as summer, where less clothing, or even minimal or none, is the rule. Well, this is certainly the case at the beach! The past summer is not all that far behind us and the one to come is't all that far either ahead. Since we're in the middle between the two, we have the memories of a season passed and the promiss of one to come. Let these photos give you some inspiration as many of you (in the northern hemiphere at any rate) as in the throws of winter! Enjoy these!!! - V.

Hollyburn Mountain trails

Saturday afternoon (August 1st) I decided to tackle a few trails on Hollyburn Mountain, this after a couple of years delay due to health reasons. The weather was hot, very hot, and in after thought would have been better tackled in September when temperatures would be a little cooler but I'm glad I did the hike. I took quite a number of photos and what you see here is just a selection, starting with the photo above showing Eyremount Drive in West Vancouver. Burnaby Mountain is far off in the distance. The photo below gives us a view of the Lions Gate Bridge far below the British Properties subdivision.

The trail I finally began on was the Millstream Trail. This is the bottom of Millstream Road above with the start of the trail behind me. Below is a map of some of the trails in the region at the start of the Millstream Trail.

From the Millstream Trail I continued on up the mountain using the Baden Powell Trail, pictured above. There was a clearing just below the Skyline Trail (see below). This photo looks east. Soon after taking photos at just below the Skyline Trail, I quickly took off my t-shirt. It was far too hot otherwise. Wearing shorts would have been better but I was stuck with the jeans I was wearing along with the backpack with other things I needed such as my camera equipment, water and other supplies. I quickly ran out of water, so I'll have to bring along more of it next time plus a light snack for energy. The small chocolate bar I brought along was starting to melt, so it had to be consumed quickly before becoming a sticky mess!

Trail markers are found often, so there is no need of getting lost. The Baden Powell Trail continues up the mountain as shown below.

The Baden Powell Trail follows along the east side of Lawson Creek as you assend the mountain (see the photo of Lawson Creek above).

There is a little unnamed lake (I would call it a pond!) before you arrive at the Blue Gentian Lake Trail (see above). The water is filled with waterlilies, as you see below.

Blue Gentian Lake at just about the 800 meter level is larger but still looks like a pond to me. Its certainly a peaceful place to have a picnic before descending down the mountain using the Brothers Creek Trail as an example.

Just follow the trail markers and its all quite easy. The climb up and the descent down gives the heart a good workout, too!

Here are some photos of Brothers Creek. I love the power of the water so much that I plan to come again later in the year such as the autumn and winter. The spring run-off must be something to watch as well.

A few waterfalls can be seen, and if not, you certainly can hear them! A section of the creek is shown below looking upstream. There is all sorts of plantlife to be found, such as the tree fungi in the last photo. The return to Millstream Road I used the Crossover Trail from Brothers Creek Trail to join up with the Baden Powell Trail where I descended down the mountain to where I had started at Millstream Road at an altitude of 366 meters approximately. After the hike up and down, I walked back to the bus stop to wait for my ride back to Park Royal Mall in West Vancouver. I hope you've enjoyed this little journey on Hollyburn Mountain and perhaps, if you live locally, you might consider seeing the trails first-hand. - V.

beach volleyball

The weather has been hot and sunny, just the kind of thing we need to get people out to the beach swimming, sunning and playing beach volleyball. What an excellent way to burn those calories with an awesome workout, get a tan and show off those muscles all at the same time. Plus there's the fun of being out with others and having a great time! I was in Vancouver again Sunday afternoon for a walk along the Seaside walk along the north shore of False Creek. The main beach at English Bay is where I ended my walk and these photos resulted from a shoot at the beach of guys playing a game of volleyball. A number of beaches along English Bay are set up for the game and other activities. If you live in the area, have a look or join in!

There's a lot of activity in the first two photos aside from the game. There are people taking in the sun, having conversations, and the lifeguards taking a patrol along the water's edge. I thought some of you might appreciate a close-up of the above scene, so have a close look at the pic below. That's a guy in some colourful underwear on the right but who cares if it isn't a speedo or some other piece of swimwear, it fills the need and looks great!

Above the beach along Beach Avenue, there was plenty of activity both Saturday and Sunday with people out riding their bikes, jogging, skatebording and rollerblading! I hope you're enjoying your summer too!!! - V.

weekend

Here we are in the midst of another warm spell that should last through the weekend. The temperatures are to near 30 degrees with blue skies and perhaps some light wispy clouds to complete the scene. The weather was somewhat cooler during the week (late teens to low 20s), and from what I'm told is more the usual summer weather they get here with warm periods between. When it does get hot, it can get a bit uncomfortable in our apartments or homes since many have no airconditioning. Since I don't, my computer has the tendency of crashing from overheating, which it did again about 9 pm after about an hour online. When the cooler weather returns, it'll run for hours without issues and certainly without problems through autumn and winter into spring.

I received an email from Brad in response to mine sent out this morning. There's been another death in the family. I know all too well what that's all about after gone through three such passings in my immediate family and others outside of the family. For the moment all I can offer is my mind and spirit since being there physically is not a possibility at the moment. All I suggested was opening up to me to release the frustrations. There should be plenty of those as I can attest from my own experiences. You can lean on someone strong since there's not much point leaning on someone that's not! My heart is with him in these hard times but as we all do, he shall pull through.

In other news, it was payday today and time to pay the bills to get myself out of debt after a long illness back in 2006 into 2007. We do what we must in order to get through life. We take care of ourselves so that we in turn can take care of others. Practically speaking, if we don't take care of ourselves, we're not much good to anyone else, that's my view anyway.

I'll have more pics when time and weather conditions permit. I'll be out in Vancouver on Saturday to take more photos and likely out again Sunday. Enjoy your weekend regardless of the weather conditions you may find yourself in. Make the most of each hour and day! - V.

banner or masthead photos and other stuff

Now that we are officially into the summer season here in the northern hemisphere this means more sunny, hot weather for us here along the west coast (British Columbia). We had some much needed rain during the latter part of the week but now the warmer weather and sunshine have returned. I had plans to go into Vancouver yesterday but a cloud cover was moving in, so I delayed that until today. Instead, I went down to the Fraser River to take a few photos despite the cloud cover. Once I download the photos from my camera, I'll post some of them. In the meantime, this is a post minus photos!

Someone sent me a question regarding the banner or masthead photo, so eventhough I've answered the question in my comments, I thought I would expand on those comments a bit. In September 2007 I took a Saturday to visit Gibson's Landing. That meant a bus trip from Surrey where I lived at the time, into downtown Vancouver, then over the Lions Gate Bridge and on to Horseshoe Bay. From there it was by ferry across Howe Sound to Langdale and then another bus ride to Cibson's Landing on a bus heading for Sechelt further up the Sunshine Coast. All the while on the ferry I was taking lots of photos with my Sony digital camera and more once I got into Gibson's. Some of the best shots were posted early on when I first started this blog. Those photos (other than the ones posted) were lost when my old hard drive died. I hope to retrieve the files at some point but its not a priority at the moment. I was in the process of backing up files onto disk at the time when the hard drive gave up the ghost. Such is life!

Anyway, I digress. If you look at the banner or masthead photo at the top of this webpage, I cropped it from a larger photo I took as the ship was crossing the sound. I believe that is Keats Island which is between Collingwood Channel and Shoal Channel as we head toward Langdale. We had just passed the north side of Bowen Island, so at this point we are about two-thirds of the way across. As I remember it, Gibson's Landing is just right off the frame and Langdale a bit further. Although I took the bus from Langdale to Gibson's, I had decided to walk back to the ferry port. This was a bit of a chore dodging the odd car coming down the narrow road but this afforded me a few views of Howe Sound on the way.

There are other banner photos saved but I have decided to keep this one up for a while. By the way, if you haven't guessed it, "saltwater blood" refers to my friend Brad and "spirit mountain" to me. Brad seems to have saltwater in his veins with the love of the sea and the outdoors he has. The words expressed in the introduction are rather fitting in that we are actually discovering more and more about ourselves as time moves forward. Brad has had to come to terms with his sexuality (as I did also in the past) and quite a number of other issues, such as his grandfather's passing last summer just being one of the others. I've encountered death several times during my lifetime but for Brad it is likely the first time. Time is a healing factor as we all know. The other issue we have both had to tackle is what our relationship means and how it should be expressed. This too takes time and I believe shouldn't be forced but develop naturally. We determine our place in life and the role we are to play in it. Some have the courage to do so while many do not. As Shakespeare once said in one of his plays, "life is a stage and we play our part" (or something to that effect), but you know what I'm saying!

Brad is a Gemini (sign) and they require time to think about what is the best course of action while I'm a Leo (sign), and while I too spend time to think about my forthcoming actions and plans in life, my emotions come from the heart. I put my whole being into a friendship especially when the effort is worth it in my eyes. The last photo I saw of Brad (not that long ago) looks real hot but I'd love to see him in the flesh. so we can share our experiences directly. He loves to sail, so that's something I'd love to experience with him, and at the same time he can experience my love of nature which is expressed through my photography. Again, give it time!

Before I ramble on and on, I'll close for now but I'll have more on all this later. In the meantime, keep coming back and enjoy the photos and the commentary! - V.

from Sunset Beach to English Bay Beach

On Sunday I more or less retraced my steps from the previous day by walking the seaside walk on the north side of False Creek in Vancouver again. Just as the day before, it was gorgeous weather with warm temperatures and plenty of sunshine. I took a number of photos but for this post, Sunset Beach and English Bay Beach are the main focus. These present the promiss of a summer yet to come and only about a week away, or less. I couldn't help but to include some photos of the fan palms and the developing annual plantings found at both beaches.

There were lots of people enjoying each other's company, sunning, swimming or some playing beach volleyball. A couple of guys were out playing wearing only their colourful underwear (first pic below) and one of them is still playing in the second photo. At a distance they would have passed as swimwear anyway, unless one was up close to get a good look. I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Summer's not that far away!!! - V.

False Creek on a Saturday

Yesterday (Saturday), I decided to take a walk along False Creek starting at the winter olympic village currently still under construction but well advanced. From there I took the seaside walk on the north side ending at 2nd beach in Stanley Park (the walkway continues, I just decided to end the walk there!). These are some of the photos I took along the way. The first two photos were taken from a higher vantage point. As you can see by the clarity of the pics, it can get rather humid in these parts. This area is part of the temperate rainforest for good reason!

A couple of barges were brought in a while ago to bring construction material closer to where the work was being carried out. The top pic shows the olympic village in the background and the lower photo has ScienceWorld and highrise condos in the background.

At the winter olympic village (2010) still under construction many of the plantings have been completed. These plantings are suited to dry conditions as you can see.

Since it was a Saturday, some work was going on (see above). Thats Yaletown in the background in the photo below with another interesting planting in the foreground. There is another view below that of Yaletown as seen from the village.

Plenty of people were out walking, running or cycling. Above is a cyclist checking out what I was photographing with a closer view of the cyclist below. I'm looking at getting a bike myself, probably next year. Its been years since I rode one but I still know how. Its not been that long ago!

On the north side of False Creek you can get another excellent vantage point to view the village.

The seaside walk on the north side of False Creek had plenty of activity too and it was the first time on that route for me. I've taken plenty of walks along the southern route. Thats another scene of Yaletown in the photo above and those below.

I followed along behind this hot dude above (and pic below) for a bit before I continued on along the seaside route. Should we be in shape, yes, and can we be devilishly handsome, yes to that as well!

Above is another view along the walk in Yaletown. To my right off the photo, a wedding party was being photographed, a beautiful day for both a wedding and taking photos! In hindsight I should have taken atleast one photo of the photographer at work. What do you think?

The last photo, take a close look at what appears below the railing. There's a whole string under the railing that I haven't photographed but I plan to next time and post the results. As I approached Sunset Beach while continuing along the route westward, I noticed a guy taking photos from just behind a planting along the walk. He wasn't taking photos of the plants but was taking pics of the scene on the north side of the walk: people in various stages of dress! Some were even nude! One guy was wearing a bow around his penis and not much else. Some had tattoos, etc., but there was nothing particularly interesting to take photos of, for me at any rate. As I mentioned at the beginning, I ended my walk at the 2nd beach (I was getting tired by that point!) and so continued on off that walk and along the west side of Lost Lagoon and then back into town to complete my last errand before heading home on the SkyTrain. I hope you've enjoyed this little tour and the photos! More to come!!! - V.