Archive for the ‘Photos’ Category

A perfect May Day

May 1st, 11 / 0 Comments

We woke up this morning to sunshine in the form of a 2 year old demanding that we “get up, it’s morning, wake up now please, it’s time to wake up!” We rolled out of bed and stumbled to the living room, being pulled the whole way by a very awake little girl who wanted to watch videos, please. She had, after all, slept in till 7:45, so why were we being so lethargic?

Videos were watched as we, the so-called adults in the house, tried to clear our heads and figure out what to do with a sunny Sunday morning. We scrapped our original plan to catch a ferry to the Sunshine Coast and check out the MuddBunnies racing at the Sunshine Coaster DH, opting instead to either visit the petting zoo / farm on the north shore or take a bike ride with the girl and her chariot.

When faced with the options of checking out animals at the farm or going bike riding the forest, Lyra responded with an adamant and forceful cry of “Go for a bike ride!” so our plans were set. First order of business, however, was naptime. For everyone. For two hours. Lyra napped in her room, Adam napped on one half of the L-shaped couch, I napped on the other half of said couch, and Sera the cat napped on my head.

With that out of the way, the whole family (minus Sera) piled into the car with our bikes and trailer to head to the Lower Seymour Conservation Forest, with a short coffee stop along the way. The winding forest trails in the LSCR are perfect for a couple of mountain bikes towing a double trailer, and the paved road trail into the woods allows for plenty of opportunities to go very, very fast. Lyra likes to go very, very fast.

We stopped somewhere down the paved trail past Rice Lake at a deserted little picnic spot. There was sunlight shining down through the break in the trees above us and a little creek called Balloon Creek right next to it. It was, in a word, idyllic.

We ran in circles and played chase with Lyra; we climbed down to the creek and threw leaves into it to see how far they could flow with the water; we swatted at mosquitoes too young to know how to bite us. The air was clean and the sun warm on our faces.

The three of us – Father, Mother, Daughter – lay down together laughing in the grass and looked up at the beautiful blue sky. As we watched, a bald eagle glided above us, and we agreed – at least Adam and I did – that we couldn’t imagine being, or living, anywhere else right now. We just assumed the same of Lyra, since she’s only two and has never lived anywhere else. We were together, surrounded by forest and mountains, with eagles looking down on us, and nothing could be more perfect.


Lyra seemed to agree, since the idea of getting back into the trailer and heading back to the car was one she was violently opposed to. When we told her that we’d get sushi with Uncle Jordy, she was more willing to leave. There’s nothing like bribing a toddler with the promise of her favourite uncle as motivation to move.

Fortunately for all of us, it was a promise we were able to keep. We turned our bikes around and raced at top speed back to the car. I may have mentioned before that Lyra likes going very, very fast, but to be fair, she comes by it naturally. We were back at the car in no time, and off to pick up her favourite uncle and get some fabulous North Vancouver sushi for dinner.

We topped off the evening with bubble tea for dessert, and called it a day – a perfect day. It seems that all we need for a perfect day are the following:

  1. Sunshine
  2. Casual, agile plans
  3. Good coffee
  4. Bikes
  5. Mountains, forests, and life around us
  6. Family
  7. Sushi
  8. Bubble tea

What makes your day perfect?

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Am I dreaming?

Jan 21st, 11 / 0 Comments

A dream I once hadI may have dreamed this scene at some point. When I first took the picture, the moment had that other-worldly memory to it, like it had happened before.

I also know it’s a common scene played out in movies and television all the time – the dream of a child just at the edge of your perception, running away from you, and the feeling that it’s vitally important for you to catch her, to keep up, to see where she’s going or protect her from harm. It’s almost archetypal.

But there I was, following my daughter as she ran through Park & Tilford Garden ahead of me, wondering if I had done this before in a dream, and if it would happen again. I’m glad to have captured the moment and the memory in a photo.

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It’s not just a phone

Jan 19th, 11 / 1 Comment

I’ve been taking photos – a lot of photos – with my cellphone. The SLR snob in me is a bit annoyed, but the practical side of me has to face facts: with a 2 and a half year old in my life, carrying around ten pounds of camera gear just isn’t an option the way it used to be.

Last year I got a new Android Nexus One to replace my ancient cellphone. It’s nearly as powerful as my 5 year old laptop, and I’ve discovered that with a good camera app (namely, Vignette for Android) it’s a pretty powerful photographic tool. I’ve captured some shots with this phone that I’m very happy with… even proud of.

These are a few of my favourites:

It’s not so friendly, if you ask me…

I turned the last corner on a lovely walk from my home to the mall down the road and saw this building and its inviting sign. Behind the run-down fence covered in mildew and rust was the least appealing series of row houses that I had seen in a long time…. I felt sad for the people who lived behind that fence.

Friendship Place

Wading in the shallows at Rocky Point, Port Moody

My daughter, Lyra, is almost fearless. A warm autumn day and clear skies brought us out for a walk at Rocky Point park in Port Moody, where we discovered a ramp down to the water. In seconds she had waded in far enough to fill up her rubber boots, but she didn’t care – splashing around made her happy. When she’s happy, I’m happy. I’m glad I got a photo of this moment.

Wading in the shallows at rocky point

Kitsilano sunshine in spring

On my lunch break at the David Suzuki Foundation, when the weather is nice, my team will get sandwiches from the local Safeway and sit in the grass behind the store to eat them. Third Avenue is a piece of what makes Kitsilano beautiful – overhanging trees that throw dappled shadows on the road in the early spring, cherry blossom snow for that brief time in April when they’re blooming and magical, and on the occasional Vancouver snowfall they shine like the mountains themselves. It seems to me that this is sometimes overlooked next to Kitsilano’s more obvious charms – the beach and its view of the city and mountains, the shopping, the culture. This simple overhang of tree branches is my favourite thing about Kits.

My lunch spot behind Safeway in Kitsilano

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Moving day

Sep 24th, 10 / 0 Comments

We’re moving. It’s been nearly five years since we moved into this place – that’s the second longest amount of time I’ve lived anywhere in my entire life (the record is seven years, if you’re curious). I can remember a time when I moved every six to eighteen months.

I love moving. I don’t mean the process – the packing, the loading and unloading of trucks, the transferring of utilities and services, and all the expenses that come along with it is all basically annoying but necessary. What I love is being somewhere new; arranging furniture and rooms, discovering great places in the new neighbourhood, and the feeling of adventure that comes with being somewhere unfamiliar.

This apartment, though, has been the home of a lot of firsts. Lyra’s life so far has been lived in this place, so every single one of her firsts is connected to this home. This was the first place Adam and I lived for longer than a year (we had a lot of apartments that lasted one year or less). It’s the first view we’ve ever had, and we will miss that view – although new condos are being built as we speak that will change that view for whomever moves in when we go. We lived here long enough to get to know the best restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, laundromats, parks, hiking and mountain bike trails. We know all the shortcuts and the transit schedules.

This is the first place we’ve been long enough to really be able to say it’s home.

So we’ve been getting ready to move to Port Moody. It’s not that far away, but it’s another city suburb of Vancouver. We have a lot of reasons for choosing Port Moody – it’s close to family and friends, it’s close to great mountain bike & hiking trails, it’s still transit accessible for both of our workplaces, and it’s a considerably less expensive neighbourhood to live in. Daycare costs are dropping by nearly half, and we’re moving into a 3 bedroom townhouse that’s only 100$ more a month than our 1.5 bedroom apartment. There are friends we’ll miss in North Van, but we’re really not that far away – it’s not like we’re moving to Ontario. There are more positives to this move than there are negatives (and I’ve weighed them over many times).

There are things I’ll miss, but I’m ready to move on.

Photo a day project: August 2006

The Lions of Vancouver

Pre-dawn snow

storm-sky

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The older I get, the faster time moves

Aug 13th, 10 / 2 Comments

Maybe it’s a matter of perspective – the longer I’m alive, it seems, the faster time goes by. I remember summers seeming infinitely long when I was little. Now that I’m in my thirties, it seems to me that the season is rushing past before I can even get outside to enjoy it. I suppose it didn’t help that June was so miserable, cold and rainy this year that it felt like a Vancouver February, but I don’t think that’s entirely it. As far as I can tell, as I get older I gain a sense of time perspective that I didn’t have as a child. When you’re only seven years old, a year is a very, very long time. When you reach 27 it seems a lot shorter because you’ve had so many more of them to live through.

It makes me wonder if I’ll feel like a year is a day, if I manage to live to 90.

Time really is relative, and our perception of it is the only thing that matters.

On top of all this revelation that I’m not a kid anymore is the shock that hits my system when I look at Lyra. She turned two years old last month. I can’t remember what she looked like as a newborn – my perception of who she is is based entirely on what she looks like now. If I look at pictures I can see it, but seeing her grow every day removes the feeling that time is passing and she’s changing. Every so often it hits me, though: I see her lying in her bed and taking up way more of it than I remember; I watch her playing on a slide or copying other girls she sees on monkey bars; or she comes out with a fully formed sentence instead of toddler-speak; she’s not a baby anymore. Everyone who’s had kids tells you it goes fast, and it does. It really, truly does.

I remember this face:

Lyra the Elephant

But when I think about my little girl I don’t see that face… I see this one:

Lyra's birthday weekend

Give it a few more months, and that won’t be the face in my mind anymore either.

Time ticks away merrily, and I don’t notice till it’s passed. I’m okay with that, but it’s always a surprise somehow when I notice how much Lyra has changed. Gradual change just can’t be observed when you’re watching every possible second. It’s easier, I think, to notice the changes when you’re not so close.

But let’s be honest… I wouldn’t miss this for anything.

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Starting something new

Aug 6th, 10 / 0 Comments

Enjoying summer

Get outside!

There isn’t much to see here yet. It’s summer, and there’s too much to do outside to find time to sit at a computer and write. There will be more to come.

Today, however, I am going to go outside and enjoy the sunlight. I hope you are too.

The end of a kind of era

Jun 24th, 10 / 6 Comments

This has been a tough week for us.

It is my sad duty to report that Dayle’s long and infamous life has come to an unfortunate conclusion. Early this week, he showed some strange symptoms – he couldn’t breathe properly, and he was extremely distressed. In a day’s time he had deteriorated severely. After a night at the veterinary hospital, we came to the conclusion (with the vet’s support) that it was time to let him go. There was no coming back from his condition.

By now Dayle has probably made himself comfortable in his new kingdom, with new slaves to plot the ultimate demise of. Captain America seems a little deflated, and Sera has been cautiously sitting in all the places that Dayle used to chase her away from. She seems to wonder why he’s not there.

Lyra always considered both Dayle and Sera as the same cat, I think. She’s always called Dayle by his name, and Sera Dayle. Not all cats are Dayle to Lyra… just our cats. In that sense, he’s still around in a very weird way.

The apartment feels emptier without his huge personality and presence. It’s strange not have heard him singing, or felt him jumping on our heads in bed at night. It will get easier, but for now there is a huge hole in our lives. We miss our ex-pharaoh demon asshole cat. We’ll be telling tales of his escapades for years to come.

The last photo of Dayle I took:

Dayle is sick. I am sad.

Dayle in his prime:

Photo a day project: April 2006

Sera & Dayle Napping

Photo a day project: January 2006

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The Olympic rush subsides

Feb 28th, 10 / 1 Comment

I like watching the Olympic sporting events. This is the first time I’ve lived in the host city for the Olympics and been able to experience them in such a direct way.

That isn’t to say that I bought tickets and went out to the events. I didn’t. There’s no room in my budget right now for that sort of thing, so I watched what I could (which was a lot) from the comfort of my own living room. Every workday, though, I was on a bus heading through the chaos. The mornings were fine — better than fine, even, since so many people were afraid to commute downtown the roads and buses were practically empty. The evenings on my way home were busier, sometimes excessively, but the atmosphere was one of celebration and friendliness, so I never really minded being a little late getting home.

Vancouver 2010 by night

I love watching the sports on tv, though. Women’s downhill, with so many wipeouts at such high speeds, reinforced my longtime fear of getting back on skis. (I fell when I was sixteen and terrified myself, and haven’t been skiing since.) Curling (yes, curling) had some crazy tense moments. Seeing the men’s moguls gold medal win was exciting. Watching the women’s gold medal game made me want to get out and join a team, even though I can’t even stand up on hockey skates. And today’s Canada-USA men’s hockey game was so intense and stressful and amazing to watch that I can’t really express it appropriately. It was maybe the best hockey game I’ve ever watched, and the winning moment felt like a triumph for the country somehow, and an amazing end to the whole show. Let’s not discuss the actual closing ceremonies (except that part where they raised the fourth pillar and let Catriona Le May Doan light it with her torch properly. That was classy. Oh yeah and Neil Young, I like him too.)

Considering I live in the host city, I didn’t really get out to many events. The logistics of navigating downtown with a toddler who wants to walk everywhere herself in those crowds was just too overwhelming to contemplate, and going without the family (which I did for one whirlwind night, and took photos of,) just wasn’t as satisfying somehow. There was certainly no chance we could get into the multi-hour lineups for some of the venues with Lyra to contend with, and in some ways that was a disappointing thing to come to terms with. In the end, though, it wasn’t that big of a deal. I don’t feel like I needed to get out to those events to be able to say that I was here during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. I definitely don’t feel like I missed out because I have a kid and didn’t do my best to work around that fact. If it had really mattered that much to me, I would have made it happen.

Now that the games are over, the city will revert back to its normal self. I think some folks might have MegaPartyWhiplash after this. It’s definitely going to be strange to NOT have the games hanging over our heads all the time… I sometimes feel like that’s all people have talked about since I moved here. Now that it’s over, we get to enjoy the aftermath, which is probably not going to be very pretty. But hey, the highway to Whistler looks good now, and we got a new Skytrain line to the airport, so yay us. I can’t imagine what the longterm financial costs will be. Oh well, it’s not like I could afford a house here anyway.

But right now, after the games have ended and we’re all reeling from various victories and stories of winning against all the odds and so on, things feel pretty good. It was a fun ride, Vancouver, and thanks for coming out to play with the world for a couple of weeks.

Vancouver 2010 by night

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Exciting times at Brazza Coffee & Gelato

Sep 11th, 09 / 7 Comments

Adam’s mother is visiting us. I picked her up today at the airport, and we went to grab a late lunch at Brazza, the coffee shop near my apartment. We were just thinking about packing up to leave (or possibly get Gelato) and I was walking around the shop with Lyra. She enjoys walking.

I was looking out the window when I noticed a car about to pull out running in to the parked car behind it. As I watched, the driver realized that she had hit the car behind her and pulled forward quickly. Unfortunately, she then hit the car in front of her. She switched back into reverse quickly, and ran into the car behind her again. Then things got weird.

The driver switched back into drive and basically put her foot to the floor. She accelerated fast enough that her car ran into the little convertible in front of her a second time, this time hard enough to push it forward and out of her way. The convertible smashed into the car parked in front of it, and then rolled back into its own parking space as the car that was causing all the commotion was no longer in its way.

Post-accident outside BrazzaIt wasn’t in the way because she had driven up on the the sidewalk, still gunning the engine, and smashed into the patio at the Yaas Bazaar. I can’t really say how long she was there, wedged into the patio, but the entire time she was still pushing her foot to the floor on the gas pedal. A cloud of smoke and the smell of burning rubber was intense, and I started to worry that she would back up again and smash through the window of Brazza. I picked Lyra up and went towards the back of the shop, which was starting to fill up with smoke.

Someone got worried that the car was going to explode and told everyone to go out the back door, so we did, (but seriously, cars don’t explode except in the movies, unless something happens to light the gas tank on fire.)

Once the car had stopped and the engine was off, I went back through to the front of the store to see the aftermath. And boy howdy was it something else. She managed to take out three cars besides her own, plus a bike rack. If Kate (coffee shop staffer) had been working, her bike would have been wrecked, since the rack was wedged between the car and the Yaas Bazaar patio.

Fortunately there was no one sitting on the patio itself. The people sitting outside Brazza narrowly avoided getting hit, and it was also fortunate that no one was walking on that section of sidewalk at that moment. As it turned out, no one was hurt, although the driver was definitely in shock.

If we had decided to leave a minute earlier, we could have been on the sidewalk when it happened. Crazy to think of.

Since I saw the whole thing from inside Brazza, I went up to the police officer and wrote up a witness report. I also pulled out the point & shoot digital camera that I had on me at the time and snapped a few pictures.

It certainly made for an exciting afternoon. I wish I had my real camera with me rather than the point and shoot, but what can you do? Carrying the baby bag around means I don’t get the carry the big camera as much anymore. But at least I got something.

Post-accident outside Brazza

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Camping and growing with Lyra

Jun 14th, 09 / 0 Comments

We went camping last weekend in Tofino, BC, on the far west coast of Vancouver Island. It’s almost as far west in BC as you can get. This was Lyra’s first camping trip, and she loved it. We were in a tent, and it was chilly, but the bedsharing definitely worked in our favour for it. Lyra was cozy in my sleeping bag with me. She very much enjoyed the beach and watching the waves and stuff. You can check out all the photos I posted from the trip on Flickr, but here are a few I particularly liked.

Sunset over Sproat Lake

Lyra & Adam

Lyra in the sand

Kite flying with Ian

Long Beach sunset

This guy is dancing like a superstar!

Jenny & Lyra at the beach watching waves

Today I took a couple of videos of Lyra playing around in the living room, showing off some of her new tricks: pulling herself up on tables, and standing around.

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