Deer Lake Park July 15, 2012

Just a block or two in off of Canada Way in Burnaby, you can find a little escape from the traffic and noise of the city. In one concentrated area you have the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, the Hart House Restaurant, the Burnaby Art Gallery, the Burnaby Village Museum and the scenic 5.7km boardwalk along Deer Lake. The well maintained board walk is wide enough for two way traffic, clusters of joggers training for the 'Sun Run' and happy-to-be-out dogs walking their humans.

The weather was gorgeous on Saturday - sunny, breezy, hot - the perfect summer weekend. And based on that, I decided to hit the Deer Lake boardwalk first thing Sunday morning before the temperature climbed and literally everyone and their dog was out there with me.

The sun never materialized on Sunday. I walked around a practically abandoned boardwalk in a cool light drizzle. The sky was white-grey and a challenge for me to meter. The lake is beautiful on bright sunny days, but it's dramatic and moody in shades of grey.

The start of the boardwalk

The lake was smothered in blooming lily pads

I didn't see these two tykes until mom swooped in to round them up

Another blooming lily

Nestled in a shaded dip in the lake

Lighting can create drama

drizzle drops collected on the pedals

The lake is choked with lily pads

Berries(?) along the boardwalk

 

 

Rounding the bend back to the start

A drive along the Fraser River

It seems that summer is having second thoughts about spending any time with us this year. Our weather has been anything but predictable. It's cold, it's windy and it won't.stop.raining.

But if we waited for perfect weather out here, we'd never leave the house. So, keeping an eye on the sky, my driving buddy and I decided to go for a morning drive - along our stretch of the Fraser River. Weather be damned, eh?
Grumpy clouds followed us nearly all the way out to Richmond before they started to break up and let brilliant sunshine come pouring through. 

he'd kill me if he knew I posted a shot of him

Looking back at New Westminster's rising skyline

threatening clouds adding mood to a shot

left for dead

corny but: "what are ewe looking at?"

abandoned

silt-laden river

neatly stacked shipping crates

Making due with what's around you

'Urbanized' wildlife has managed to adapt to its ever shrinking territory quite cleverly. Raccoons charm food right out of some home owners' hands. Skunks cheerfully waddle down alleys under the cover of dark getting to pick through the best trash this side of a landfill. Even skittish coyotes can find a plump house cat (sorry fluffy) from time to time as they succeed at the survival game in the human's arena.

This chilly wet and windy spring, the front brick planter of a local office building on *the* main intersection that runs right through New West has been turned into a nursery for a brood of Mallard ducklings and its attentative mama duck.

The locals - who've noticed either the ducklings or the endless line of people stopping to a. feed them. b. count them. c. take pictures with their cell phones. d. try and pick them up (not a good idea btw) - are buzzing with opinions, concerns, questions and plenty of suggestions of what 'we' should do with, or for them. Do we leave them alone? Do we box them up and relocate them? Where are the Wildlife People? We all want to make sure they're 'rescued' before harm comes to them!

They're cute and fuzzy. And seem to even be warming up to all the attention they're getting. The office staff in the building are keeping them supplied with fresh water in a silver cookie tin since there's no natural water supply in the planter. The little ducklings' needs are simple and they wedge themselves into the cookie tin and blissfully splash about under mom's watchful eye.

Best of luck to you little mama duck. You have adorable babies and we are all praying no harm comes to any of you for the duration of your stay with us in the "big bad city". // 6th&6th //

Thought I'd gathered up images from the end of April and the beginning of May.

It makes me happy that a lot of the images I think as 'keepers' are taken right in my 'back yard'. Like Luna sitting on the back fence - that was taken from my kitchen window. The film reel is sitting on a cabinet in my dining area and the cat Pixel is parked on his cat tree by the living room window. The gargoyles and tulip tree are on my route to work. The new park, the river and super moon were shot from the upper level of the New West Quay parkade. The new bridge pictures are the only shots taken a car drive away from home - but that was just across the Patullo into Surrey.

New Port Mann going up

A final section to go in on the new bridge

Luna surveying her realm

Sir Pixel holding court

Film reel

Yet another condominium being crammed into my little neighbourhood

Neighbourhood heritage home getting a spruced up

Meet a couple I'd like to call Gar and Goyle

Goyle from the front

Goyle looking stoic

And there's this little house just a block away

Their last few days before they fall

New Westminster's newest park

Train crossing at dusk

A Super Moon rose May 5th, 2012

The moon over Surrey

The Alex Fraser bridge

A tugboat float blissfully by

Industry never sleeps

Rising into the night