Mud, sunshine

John took his mountain bike into Pacific Spirit Park near our place today, and returned so splattered with mud that he spent half an hour sluicing down his bike and washing his riding gear. When he finally came upstairs for lunch, I thought something horrible had happened to his face. The plague? Then I realized the black spots were mud. In his earnest ablutions, the only thing he'd missed was his face.

It's a sign that the winter rains have begun in earnest, but up until now, this has been an autumn for the books. The fall colours have been more beautiful than I ever remember, and probably because I'm taking pictures now, I've been noticing how the sunshine lights up the trees as if they're glowing from within. During my walks, I often stop in my tracks and wish I could gather the whole scene together and put it in my blog for everyone who can't see it first-hand.

Failing that, here are some of things I've enjoyed in the last couple of weeks, beginning with John's muddy face.

It took John nearly as long to wash his bike and riding gear as it did to go on his ride today, but he forgot something.

A few days ago, we had a beautiful sunny afternoon. I took advantage of it to walk down to the ocean, and caught this glowing tree en route.

Everything was shining that afternoon -- clouds, water, ships.

An avenue of red-leaved trees were catching the sunshine too.

Another view of the water and the North Shore mountains, a bit further along from the first photo. The park was quiet that afternoon, but it's popular with families and dog walkers.

Whatever the red tree is, it turned this street scene into a picture. Notice the blue port-a-potty far down the sidewalk. Port-a-potties are part of Vancouver's outdoor furniture now -- every block has one or two to accommodate the builders of the many houses under construction.

Autumn leaves and red toadstools made a nice combination on a boulevard.

On a walk home from the north side of False Creek one day, I took this picture of the painted silos at a cement plant on Granville Island. 

A man was shepherding three dogs down this beautiful Vancouver street. Nobody was paying any attention to the colours around them.

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This is an outdoor swimming pool beside a rental apartment building on the south end of the Burrard Bridge. The vines covering the concrete wall around the pool have turned it into a thing of beauty.

Another picture from my False Creek walk. The tide was so high that day that it reminded me of Venice. 

People have been planting palm trees in Vancouver for awhile now, and some are getting quite gigantically high. They're giving streets like this a tropical air.

These  red toadstools  with their white bumps are probably poisonous, but they are very pretty.

This row of golden trees has caught my attention every year. I try to make sure I walk this route several times every fall.

It was getting toward dusk as I headed up the hill home, but the sun was raising a glow over the city, the mountains and the clouds behind it. I hoped the camera could catch a bit of  what I was seeing.