Colosseum

Otherwise known as the Vancouver Public Library Main Branch.  Such a novelty going in there - so many great books to find that you would never know about otherwise!  Today they had a display on old books from the stacks that don't get out much because they're out of date and fragile.  I viewed such classics as 'Moose'- all about the animal and how to eat it.  'Sewing and Manufacturing Brassiers at Home' - turn your tata fetish into a home business ladies.  'Everyday Poisons' - DDT, Thalidamide and many other great products manufactured by humans that we ingest on purpose (circa 1952).

The funny thing about the last one was that it had all the same main messaging that we're still hearing today - corn is in everything because of economics, our food is too processed, our food has too many chemicals in the growing process, etc...  Funny - we STILL don't get it 60 years later.  Most intelligent species?  I think not.  We do have nice architecture though.

Callaghan Heaven

What better way to spend a bluebird day than striding around the Callaghan Valley on cross-country planks? No better way :) And as an added bonus, you get to admire the IMMENSE trees the whole way around the track. Fabulous!

Apres Ski

Content, happy snow lovers enjoying their due at the end of a sweet day of shredding. What a good looking bunch! Bottoms up :)

Ghost of Christmas Past

Last sign of Christmas...

Date Night, a.k.a "Homage to the Deer"

Dinner for 2:
1) Argentinian Syrah
2) Best Damn Homemade Shepherd's Pie Period:
Moroccan spiced venison (an exquisite doe shot by brother this fall) and vegetable filling with yam, potato and basil topping
3) Side of German red cabbage (think brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, clove, cinnamon and butter)

'Nuff said.

At At, At Night

After work waiting for the bus - using 'posterize' effect

Spooky Night Creep

It's not Hallowe'en, but it's the creepiest cherry tree you've ever seen (in January)...  I was seeing what would happend with low ISO, underexposure and over-flash at night pointed at a streetlight.  Hence.  I'm surprised no one stopped me while I was creeping around in the street taking photos in a long black jacket.

Ask And You Shall Receive

Remember the winter warm-up?  Well these ladybug mitts are the hand-knit fruits of Tanya's (a.k.a Sweatshop's) almost finished labour.  Just one more thumb to go!  You can't buy THESE babies in a store :)

White Pass

White Pass between Whitehorse, Yukon and Skagway, Alaska.  Avalanche weather conditions postponed our return from Skagway until the road was deemed safe.  The crazy thing is this is just 25 minutes from Skagway which is at sea level on the coast and had comparatively tropical conditions (10 C and no snow).

Hormel, Makers of Fine Chilli

That's right, in the U.S. of A. you can get yourself some semi-boned pigs feet in vinegar.  Okay, sure, but it still begs the question: what the heck would you make with those??!  They're pickled, so I can't imagine putting them in chilli or stir-fry or anything, and they're semi-boned.  That means for the value pack price of $4.29 you can have all the fun of finishing off deboning the pigs feet to put on a ___ or in a ___.   Someone help me out here, I think I'm missing something...

Hilltop Hoods

All covered up like robbers to brave the wind and work up a sweat cross country skiing.  Nowhere else would you don a puffy jacket and three more layers to do something as aerobic as cross country skiing...  As Steve puts it, "Activewear at -30 C isn't really 'activewear', you just wear as much as you can to stay warm!"

Ding! Ding! Your Town Pump

Takhini Gas.  Coolest gas station ever...  Assorted ungulate antlers adorn the outside of the log cabin style building.  Showers and video rentals?  Of course!  The North is tugging at my heart strings

Winter Warm-up

Tanya knits me a pair of wooly warm mitts while Eva does her part heating up the couch.  It's an all-round winter warm-up.

Ice Fog

When extreme cold and high humidity conditions occur, moisture in the air freezes into ice crystals which stay suspended in the air and create ice fog.  In Whitehorse, the Yukon River offers the humidity part of the equation and the -30 temps combine to create this phenomenon regularly, which can cause issues for aircrafts landing at the airport in the winter.  It sure looks nice once you're in town though!

Coloured Little Boxes

Coloured little boxes in Takhini North neighborhood.  Oil furnaces are puffing away here full-time to heat the 'hood.



Frozen Eyelashes

Out for a snowshoe today with Tanya and our eyelashes accumulate condensation from our breath that freezes because the air is so cold. This ain't no normal chilly winter day - it's CHILLY and it makes us look like we have circus makeup on!

C-c-c-cold!!

This is how you dress when it's -35 C!! 

This here parka is an old Yukon government issue parka picked up in a thrift store - a sweet find!  The hood has genuine fur bordering it so that frost won't accumulate on it.  Pretty handy in this weather :)

Plan B

What a bizarre day! I woke up, went to the airport, got on a plane to Whitehorse, flew all the way to Whitehorse, circled it, and then the plane turned around and flew all the way right back to Vancouver because the brake flaps on the wing were frozen in the -40 C weather and we couldn't land.  The pilot later said the weather dipped to -45 C shortly after our failed landing attempt.  Not much to be done when it's that cold out!!

Camille picked me up back at the Vancouver airport after my circle-tour and we walked her dogs with her mom and daughter.  5 month old Tara is my muse :)  Her camo bunting suit matches her eyes... I love that munchkin

House Elf

I'm off to the great white north tomorrow so I have acquired a stand-in to be me for 10 days. She comes in the form of broken-spanish-blonde-surfer-babe-Nat who acts as a house elf in trade for being me.  Lucky for me this house elf made dinner tonight while I packed my stuff! She's too busy cooking to look at the camera...

Snow Night

I took this photo late last night/early this morning. Beautiful :) Whoever says they don't like snow in Vancouver is a Scrooge.

Maja

I just discovered how to use the 'colour accent' feature on the camera which makes everything black and white except one colour.  So neat! You won't find photoshop on this blog... Who has time for that anyways?!

The Flame

Close-up of one of the legs of the Olympic flame at night.  It's lit up with blue tinted lights, and my uber-awesome camera doesn't even need a flash at night when I have no tripod because it's sweet :) Exciting!

Spring in Winter

Display of flowers outside Capers on 4th Avenue.  They always have such nice arrangements outside the store, but I have to say it's a little funny to see all these blooms when it's feeling so wintery and cold.  I can't imagine that the flowers last very long outside in this weather...

Brajas

The younger and the older, otherwise known as 'Chuckles' and 'Incognito'...  Today was the first day it was hard to pick only one picture to put up.  I walked with these guys down Spanish Banks and we found a sawed up sequoia tree which was pretty sweet. Alas, candid prevails (but it was hard to pick which one).

p.s. Marc you were right, sequoia is a subfamily of the cypress (cedar) family of trees

Chick With a Truck

First day out of the house in 3 days and I get to catch up and eat delicious (solid food) sushi with my friend Nicki from Revelstoke.  This truck is a fixture when it comes to Nicki.  Recent do-it-yourself modifications include cutting away rusty panel around the wheel well.  Sigh... What a babe!

4" Tropical

The longest living plant ever in my care.  This baby started out as a 4" tropical in Fall 2008 and has survived two moves and a re-potting under my supervision. Sweet!

Momma Knows Best

Foodstuffs in addition to pharmaceuticals my mom brought by this afternoon to help dominate the flu I've managed to acquire after 1 day back at work.

Leftover Party

[Tuesday January 4, 2010]

First hiccup: I missed posting this yesterday because of my transformation into the incredible flu-wielding human. Gross.

This photo is the belated birthday photo. My mom's birthday is January 1. As usual, we belatedly celebrate her birthday because that day ends up being impossible to coordinate (having a birthday on New Year's Day sucks...). In this case I also belatedly took the photo of the belated cake, which looked much more impressive as a whole!

Shelter From The Storm

Bus shelter window on the way to work this morning.

Typical Sunday

Sunday = sporting clay with Luc and Sunny. It also means contending with Hero's insatiable drive to snuffle/lick/beard the back of your head on the ride there in Sunny's truck. Some things never change!

New Year's Day

Downtown Vancouver and North Shore Mountains using 'miniature effect'. Not so sure that it looks miniature, but it does look neat. A chilly first day of 2011!