Kitsilano

My journey to Kits Beach last Saturday afternoon began with a trip into Vancouver on the SkyTrain to Burrard Station. Then it was a walk up Burrard Street, over the Burrard bridge and then to Kits Beach by way of a side street not far from the Molson Brewery. The photo above was taken on Elsje's Point in Kitsilano.

This was the first sailboat I encountered. It, along with the other two, was washed up on shore by wind and waves in the gale force wind storm of a couple of days before. It would have been great to get some shots of the storm in progress at the time but I was working. Believe it or not, it was sunny at the time with clouds to the north and to the south with a clear stretch of blue sky between on the day of the storm.

I had a good look at the hull and even found some blue mussels adhearing to the rudder and more on the hull just above the rudder itself.

It wasn't all a case of looking at boats washed ashore but also at attractions, such as seaweed. There are plenty of rocks to be found along the shore or near it covered in rockweed.

The above photo looks back toward the first sailboat seen with part of Vancouver's West End and Yaletown in the background.

Aside from watching the wave action along shore, I found lots of seashells, such as blue mussel, clam, barnicle and snail shells. Then I also too a series of shots of a pair of crows looking for nesting material. After all, this is the season! This is just one of the best from that series of photos.

The second sailboat seems to have attracted the most interest. Its a beautifully designed boat and I love the colours. Here are just a few photos of this sailboat.

A chain led back from the boat to the anker further ashore. As you can see the shaft that the chain attaches to is bent about 20 degrees, The next image has the anker in the foreground with the boat off in the distance.

It did attract attention as you can see of me taking a photo of photographers taking shots of the boat. It even had a fan for generating some electrical power. Sounds green, doesn't it?

The third sailboat of lesser interest than the second but still worth taking a few photos of. Despite the affects of the wind storm, it does look like these boats will sail again. There's no major damage as far as I can see. After a good cleaning and painting, they'll be good as new!

Also, there was plenty of other activity other than people walking along the beach. There was a beach volleyball game happening and people walking or riding their bikes along the path along the beach.

Then to close, I was attracted by the design and colour of these houses near the beach. The sycamore trees, in particular the bark, was also something that caught my interest.

Whether it was the knotty trunk or looking up into the crown of the tree, I thought it worthy of a few shots.

Even seeing mostly green in the landscape has its interest. And then there are plenty of late cherry trees in bloom now. Many of these trees have pink flowers but there are white ones as well. The flowers below are from a cherry tree filled with white blossoms. Enjoy the photos, and comments are always welcomed! - V.

Canada Day at Jericho Beach

Wednesday was Canada Day! I spent the afternoon in Vancouver and decided to leave the laundry for the weekend, Saturday likely. Now when I got to town I didn't realize that the wind was as strong as it was. The above photos is a view of Vancouver's West End with Sunset Beach in the foreground. The photo was taken from the west side of the Burrard Bridge. You'll see in later photos I took that day just how strong the wind was.

From Burrard Street I walked to Kitsilano. This took me past Kitsilano Beach as the sign above indicates. The lawns are dried up in a lot of places due to the lack of rain. The little bit of rain we had recently was needed but didn't do enough to help the situation. The beach was crowded as you can easily see. This is normal on a hot day. The beach was also sheltered from the strong winds, an added plus!

Along Point Grey Road I saw these lavenders in full bloom in front of one of the upscale homes along the street. And below, the photos shows the typical style of the older homes in this area.

Then I arrived at Jericho Beach where you really could feel the full force of the strong wind. I spent some time near the Jericho Sailing School taking photos of the windsurfers doing their thing on the water, wind, waves and all. I watched guys have their sails knocked over and have to get up again, all while taking these shots with grit in my teeth and sand in my hair and trying to keep the camera steady, which was a challenge! So where can you go windsurfing or sailing and have the mountains as a beautiful backdrop?

I caught a seagull soaring above the pier by the sailing school while people below at the end of the pier were fishing for crabs (dungeness) and other things of the sea! The guy that caught these crabs (below) measured them and tossed them back since they were undersized. Most went willingly but one crab hung on with one of its claws. Once the claw was freed it was tossed as well. The photo below the one of the crabs in a trap is of two little ling cod that were caught by a fisherman. His partner was laughing and presumably once he got over his imbaressment, he tossed them back too.

The above photo looks toward the sailing school and towntown Vancouver. Note the sand blowing about! Despite the strong wind, it was an excellent time to fly a kite!!!

Above, the photo looks westward with Locarno Beach in the foreground and Point Grey Beach in the far distance. And if you haven't had enough of it, here is another phot of a windsurfer doing his thing with the mountains as a backdrop. Then we end this post with another pic of a seagull just one of a set of five taken on some rocks between Jericho Beach and the sailing school. I hope you had a great day as well!!! More to come! - V.