November scenes

While some of my friends are enjoying summer-time heat in Mexico and Palm Springs, my brother Brian in Alberta is waiting for the ice on the lake near his home to get thick enough for skating. In Vancouver, meanwhile, a happy medium, with temperatures at 16 C on Thursday, leaves still falling, and a healthy dose of rain to keep our greenery green. Here are a few scenes taken near my home on Thursday afternoon:

In Palm Springs, this lawn bowling green would be green. In Alberta, it would be white. In Dunbar, it's gold from the fallen leaves. 

And, here is the groundskeeper shovelling -- not raking -- the leaves to keep the grass underneath healthy. It's beautiful grass, fine as a carpet, so maybe a rake would be too hard on it.

I'm sure the park people hate this little depression that results in a lake whenever we've had a lot of rain (45 millimetres since Tuesday, another 70 on the way!), but the kid in me thinks it's wonderful. When it freezes, it is a sweet little skating rink, so shallow it can't possibly be dangerous. In the foreground is the zipline for kids, where I once saw a child in a winged fairy costume flying along.

The red berries on this fence-line cotoneaster make a beautiful fall display.

Somebody's garden-plot dream gone to flower and seed, providing a splash of colour among the empty boxes. This is in one of two empty lots almost kitty-corner from each other along Dunbar. The owner/developer gets a tax break for offering the public gardening space while awaiting permits for development. Eventually both sites will be condo buildings.