Snowy Surprise.

Yesterday morning I woke up to grey skies and a skiff of snow in the courtyard.

 Almost 24 hours later and there is a winter wonderland outside my condo.  This arrived overnight and was a delightful surprise.

 Looking at the waterfall pool in our courtyard.

 Snow on the palm trees.

 What a lovely lacy effect on the trees.

 Looking over the gate into the courtyard.

 Walking east along the Fraser River.

 More lacy trees.

 The yellow witch hazel covered in snow.

 The orange witch hazel buried in snow.

 This looks like a spider emerging from the snow.

 The curly willow making some interesting designs...maybe inspiration for some stippling designs.

 Beauty berry covered in snow.

 Melting snow on the berries.

 Snow melting in the sunshine.

 Pincushion daisies showing their sunny side.

 Cyclamen weathering the snow.

 Witch hazel emerging from the melting snow.

 Walking west along the boardwalk.  They say we'll get some more snow tonight or tomorrow.

Winter flowering forsythia.

 Love the contrast against the sky.

 Bravely trying to bloom.

Slowly melting in the sunny skies.

 Roses still putting forth blooms.

 Winter white!

The sun sets on 2011...

Here are some final photos from the last day of the year.  We had sun, hail, rain today all in a very short period of time.

The witch hazel is starting to show some of it's winter colour.

 They looked so delicate in the afternoon sun.

 Raindrops left over from the showers a few hours earlier clung to the beauty berries.

 They look so delicate and fragile.

 My winter wreath welcomes you to my home.

 One of the resident ducks just hanging out on the quay.

 What is that sea gull trying to do?  It is trying to steal the loon's dinner.

 He or she dove below the water to escape the gull and surfaced with this tasty bite.

 Winter flowering forsythia is starting to bloom.

 These bare branches put out a pretty delicate pink blossom.

 In my courtyard the roses are still putting out blooms.  White ones.

 Some pink.

 A red.

 Yet another red.

 As the sun sets on 2011 my wish is that you have a safe and healthy Happy New Year.

See you in 2012!

Rain, Snow, Sunshine on the West Coast

Last weekend was a rainy one but left some interesting patterns on the leaves.

 The previous day I wanted to take a photo of the beauty bush in Rita's garden, but my camera battery was dead.  Love the contrast of the purple and yellow.

 Yesterday I brought my camera to work and took a picture of this Arbutus tree located just outside of the admitting department.

 I took this picture just before the sun rose looking out the window of my office.  Wet snow was coming down.

 At days' end the snow was melting, but an icy rain had also come down and covered some of the bushes and cars.

 Today was sunny and cold, the maple tree tucked by the entrance of this condo has some beautiful yellow, oranges and reds.

 The beauty berry in the sunshine.

 A closer view, love the contrast of the yellow leaves behind.

 Sun dappling through the leaves.

 A view east along the Fraser River looking at the sky train crossing the bridge, behind is the Pattulo bridge and Golden Eagles mountains beyond.

 A couple of green leaves still hanging on.

 

 A large log boom floating up the river to be delivered to a mill.

 A Japanese Maple tree in all it's colourful glory.

The red of the witch hazel tree with a few green leaves still enjoying the sun.

 Buds starting to form on the witch hazel tree.

 Some more interesting buds.

 Life on the west coast, Palm Trees and skeleton trees side by side!

 Roses still blooming in November.

 The crow checking me out while I take it's picture and wondering if I'll forget my food package.

 The view into my condo, almost no leaves on the cherry trees, but a few still on the maple trees.

 My ornaments ready to be shipped off for the ornament exchange with Mary Lou Weidman's online group.  Can't wait to see which ones I get back.