twilight

wow, twilight at 3:15 - Can't wait for the days to start getting longer again

sunny and cold

Beautiful morning

Sunny but a little chilly.  The chaffer beetles are back in season - an invasive species that results in ruined lawns.

Tuesday's walk

Wednesday

Jian is always the ham

chaffer beetle damage

water evaporating off a fence

Sunny monday

sunny friday

a small victory

Ok, a very small victory.  The garbage can dude has stopped blocking the sidewalk with his cans.  Is this because I move them aside each week?  Maybe?

We slipped a walk to school in today before the storm moves in from the Pacific this afternoon (winds up to 90km/hr).

Wet Snow

Too dark, wet and miserable.  I don't mind rain, or snow, but both together is where I draw the line.  See you tomorrow.

Nice

Nice sunny morning after all that cold rain yesterday!  Oh and it was garbage day - and again with the cans on the sidewalk.

WTS = silly time - Jian can't resist being a ham!

The rain is on the way.

Long Shadows

After a long weekend, it seems winter has arrived.  A windstorm has taken down most of the rest of the leaves, and look, frost!  Plus the sun barely makes it above the horizon as we walk, making very long shadows.

Shaggy Mane and Trash Cans

Weijin spotted this one.

Rant: Every week, this dude puts his garbage cans on the side walk, right where there is a bottleneck because of a telephone pole.  Sometimes we have to walk on the road to avoid them.  I'm not really sure if he understands that a side walk is for walking on, and not just a nice flat place for his trash.  There are 3 cars in his driveway, including one of those huge quad cab double rear wheeled trucks - so maybe he doesn't walk very much.  

Bobcat and Owl

It started out an uneventful walk.  We noticed this blazing red tree at the end of one of the alleys we pass everyday.  After I dropped the girls off, and was walking back through the ravine, I noticed a medium sized dog walking ahead of me on the path.  But something wasn't quite right.  As I rounded the corner behind it, I was looking to see if it was with a person and was turning on my camera.  In an instant, I realized it was actually a cat - but much too big to be a house cat.  By the time I had my camera up to capture it, it had disappeared into the bushes.  At the same moment, an owl came swooping down across the path, and into a tree in the area where this bobcat was.  I didn't see the bobcat again, but I got a shot of the owl, who was very intent on watching it.

I've seen my fair share of wild animals - but I have never seen a wild cat of any kind, and I certainly wasn't expecting to see one so close to home.  Perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to blame the coyotes for all the missing house cats!

no rain

No rain today on our walk to school.  We dug out the mitts and winter clothes last night, after the red hands from yesterday.  Today's big topic of conversation: Jian's short, short list tryout for lonely at lunchbox theater.  We also talked about the lyrics of the Foster the People song "pumped up kicks" It really struck a chord with Weijin.

 

a rainy monday

To celebrate our 500 000th step to school this year so far, we have decided to start documenting something about our daily commute each day.  The girl's school is approximately 2km from our house.  Our route takes us through a ravine, through a beautiful green belt.  The leaves are carpeting our path as the days are getting shorter and shorter.  It's hard to go out in the rain sometimes - but we are not made of sugar!