Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.
I have walked by a house under construction in the neighborhood* many times and only today noticed a sunflower growing on the boulevard in front of it. How weird.
* Why do I use American spellings? Conservation of letters, and it makes it easier to sell my writing to American markets, which makes no sense in context of this blog, but it just became a habit after awhile.
I still don’t know what these are, but they look pretty (and pendulous) in the fading sun.
Berries in Burns Bog.
I meant to post this yesterday but got distracted by other things–including weird errors on this blog. So here is a flowery field a day late.
This is the “picnic” area at Burnaby Lake, near the Cariboo Dam. I put that in quotes because until this summer this small grass field was mowed regularly and used by people and poopmonsters alike. At some point, perhaps due to budget concerns in these pandemic times, they stopped mowing the grass and in a few short months it turned into a healthy mix of weeds and tall grass. But it looks pretty for now.
Not quite ripe.
Pears on a neighborhood tree. Mmm, pears.
These were taken over the past few days, but I was too lazy/indolent to post them right away.
Fun fact about the first shot: I used Pixelmator Photo on my iPad to remove an out of focus telephone wire from the sky. Yes, this image is not true to life.
But it looks nice.
These will probably grow into horribly sour crab apples or something. I’m not a fruitologist, so don’t quote me on that.
Delicious* Rowan berries!
* If eaten uncooked, the parasorbic acid will actually cause indigestion or, if you’re especially lucky, kidney damage. Per Wikipedia. (I didn’t sample any.)
Burnaby Lake Turtle Nesting Area.
Turtles optional.
UPDATE, April 4, 2021: The injury took a long time to improve and then, after mostly disappearing, came suddenly back worse than before in December. My doctor identified it as plantar fasciitis. As of this update, the foot is much improved, but still not 100%. This is what you call a long term injury.
Today the weather was warm and sunny (after an initial forecast of mostly cloudy) and I couldn’t just sit inside while it was summer all over the place outside.
So, I went for a walk around Burnaby Lake, wearing my running stuff in case I started feeling extra zesty (more on this in a bit).
I felt pretty good heading out and indeed, my walking pace was a bit better than in recent months. That continued as I hit the 5K mark midway around the lake, still brimming with energy and feeling fine. I even started running off and on along the Southshore Trail.
The resurfacing of the Cottonwood Trail is coming along nicely and the notion that it will take until September to complete seems silly, as they are probably more than half done already (and were diligently working away when I walked through this afternoon). It will be spiffy for running when complete as this trail section has about a hundred billion exposed tree roots waiting for me and my feet.
There were more people out than perhaps expected, but it is summer and it was very nice out, with a breeze providing just enough cooling to keep it from feeling hot (it’s not really hot, but weather the last few weeks has been a little cooler than seasonal, so even 24C feels a bit toasty when you’re out in the sun).
I finished the loop just before 3 p.m. and as I exited the lake trail and crossed over to the river trail and the return home, I was still peppy. The peppiness finally began to fade around the 16 km mark, when my right hip began to feel a bit tweaked. It wasn’t bad and didn’t really slow me down. In fact, after a few minutes it worked itself and I continued to steam along. But then my left heel started to hurt. Weird.
It continued to hurt the remaining two km or so on the remainder of the walk and as I type this at 10:23 p.m., it is still sore. The right heel is fine.
I have no explanation for this, just guesses and crackpot theories:
It may be fine or better(ish) by morning, but it’s a sore note for what was otherwise a fine afternoon out. I was even delighted by unexpected wildlife, watching a crane hunt food and a turtle laying out on a log enjoying the sun.
Here’s a few photos before the hobbling started.
Just starting out, I thought this field of what is really just weeds looked interesting, but it didn’t turn out quite as I had expected. This field had previously been kept cut and served as a small park area. I’m not sure why it was decided to let it grow wild.
The classic shot of the lake from the bridge at Deer Lake Brook. I managed to tilt the view slightly, but was too lazy to fix it. Just pretend the earth was rotating too fast for me to compensate.
From the point just before the Cottonwood Trail, looking west.
The heron snatching a snack:
Close-up of heron from the shot above.
Pretty. Trapped.
Yellow blooms.
Nic and I went to Colony Farm Regional Park looking for birbs and getting steps.
We accomplished both. Since I am using an iPhone 8 for my photos and its zoom capabilities can be summed up as “lol” I have no pics of birds to share.
But I do have a snail.
Here are some of the things I deemed worthy of taking pictures of.
