waterfront

Holland Park bluff walk

Fairly often, I’ll take this walk along the outer edge of Holland Park in Victoria, BC (Wikipedia link). There are a couple of routes, but the best is what I call the lung buster. About half way through, there’s a quick climb up from sea level to the top of the bluff via a mix of stairs and path (about 15-20m elevation). Feels good when you’ve finished and you’ve caught your breath again.

Anyway, the view is always changing. These shots are from the top of the bluff looking south-east on a winter morning.

And a few minutes later,

And 2016 is off and running

Lovely start to New Year’s Day.

Pacific Grace

S.A.L.T (Sail and Life Training Society) teaches life skills for youth, through week-long trips on their two tall ships. The Pacific Grace (below), one of their ships, is seen here returning to Victoria Harbour. She and her sister ship, Pacific Swift, are quite a sight with all their sails raised and catching the wind.

Wildlife along the David Foster Walkway in Victoria BC

Several times a week I’ll take a walk around part of the Victoria Harbour. The path I take is called the David Foster Walkway, and it goes from the US ferry terminals downtown, around to Fisherman’s Wharf.

This spring, I started watching a family of otters feed, but one day, I saw these little critters out and about. I guess this racoon family felt rather safe digging for breakfast in the harbour mud. Very cute to see.

I am Groot (dancing)

If you saw the movie Guardians of the Galaxy, you might remember Groot.

He was the first thing I thought of when I looked up and saw this. It looked like Groot doing a bit of a dance along the grass.

What an imagination, eh?

The black wall

We saw this view across the Juan de Fuca Strait, on the way down to watch the parades the other day. Boy, was it ominous.

Lucky for us, it was heading sideways, and although it did cloud up a bit, the worst of it went elsewhere.

Whew!

Christmas is officially here

I can’t remember who said it originally, but it resonated with me as well: “It’s not Christmas until I’ve seen ads for Chia pets and the Clapper”. Well, I’ve seen them both now, so 😉

The other side of the coin is the Christmas community celebrations. Last night in Victoria we had the Lighted Truck Parade and the Lighted Ship Parade.

There were a lot more trucks than ships, but with either, it’s impressive how much effort some folks put in to make it a success for the community. Kudos to them!

My ship prize goes to the tropical Santa:

Stand out

For better or worse, in every group, there’s at least one member that stands out from the rest.

If you can be the good one, do that.

Head on

Ever notice how birds always face the weather head on. One reason is that the air flows over their feathers and keeps the feathers flat, trapping warmer air under the feathers to keep the birds warm.

Standing the other way, with their backs to the wind, just results in ruffled feathers and colder birds.

There’s a lesson about life to be learned there….

Paddleboarding in Juan de Fuca

I saw this person out on a paddleboard a couple of hundred meters off Clover Point in Victoria. He/she seemed to struggle a bit coming out of Ross Bay, but once out into the strait, it looked like the paddling got easier. Could have been the tidal currents around the point, I guess.

The air temperature was in the single digits and I expect the water was too. The paddler was all suited up in a floater suit and tethered to the board. Safe enough, I guess, but it had to be uncomfortable.

Seems like a dangerous, lonely sport at this time of year. But, to each his own, as they say.

donsca

Living life one day at a time.