Gerbera Daisy

The flower that R bought me two weeks ago tomorrow is still going strong! I decided to take some photos of it tonight, since I found my mini tripod.

I'm excited to get my new camera and for spring to be here! For the moment, the second one is my desktop background, and hopefully that'll sustain me for a while.. or at least through the CRAZY DOWNPOUR happening tonight.

In other exciting news, these are on my feets, courtesy of my sister:

Adventures in Solitude

Adventures in Solitude: What Not to Wear to a Nude Potluck and other stories from Desolation Sound - Grant Lawrence

From Amazon: "From Captain George Vancouver to Muriel "Curve of Time" Blanchet to Jim "Spilsbury's Coast" Spilsbury, visitors to Desolation Sound have left behind a trail of books endowing the area with a romantic aura that helps to make it British Columbia's most popular marine park. In this hilarious and captivating book, CBC personality Grant Lawrence adds a whole new chapter to the saga of this storied piece of BC coastline."

The introduction to this book was really funny, and got me hooked. Unfortunately, the rest of the book didn't have the same humour as the introduction, but it was still good. It followed the Lawrence family through the purchase of their remote cabin in Desolation Sound, starting from their first miserable trip up staying in a molding tent. Lawrence was really good at telling the stories of some of the original families living in the area, along with some of the folk lore, and stories from Captain Vancouver's trip up the coast. The story followed Lawrence's life, starting with his love for the cabin, and then through his teenage years and hatred of going up, ending with his more recent years, with friends and their kids. It reminded me a bit of how I felt about my cabin, although the period of me hating it didn't last very long.

I'd recommend this book: it has a good story, lots of history, and reminded me of time spent at my cabin. Oh, and finished it in an evening. Pretty easy to read :)

Surprise!

On Friday, R gave me the 4th flower that he's ever given me in our 5-year plus relationship. He knows me very well: I prefer to get flowers at random occasions (such as finishing my insect collection) rather than for Valentine's day, or our anniversary. I'm just not that kinda girl. (What kind of girl am I? I have no idea.) He also surprised me with a lovely steak dinner at home, with candles!, Jesse Cook, and no TV. That's pretty impressive for us. We're usually the sit down at the coffee table and watch something. Other than movies, our dinner TV is pretty much the only TV that we watch.

Before dinner, I went for a walk with M&A on the beach, and I took this photo. It reminds me of something you'd see from in a plane..

Lines in the sand at Jericho Beach

 Even though it snowed yesterday, my Oxalis is quite happily blooming away.

Oxalis triangularis.

Winter Adventures

Last week (well, technically, the week ending today) was reading break for us UBC-ers. The group of us decided to head to my parent's cabin at Green Lake for a winter get-away. We were expecting snow and needing lots of wood to keep the fire going. What we weren't expecting? -35C weather. Up north, cold and clear nights mean really cold weather, but also the most beautiful contrast of sky/snow.

Ahh, the north.

Home, sweet chilly home

So beautiful!

Snowshoe tracks across the lake

 

The top of Bald Island - D, myself, R

While it was pretty chilly, the five of us did have a good time. Definitely had some amazing food, tons of marshmallows, and snowshoed to a few islands. We decided to cut our trip short by a bit, and three of us headed to Kamloops for a quick overnight, before heading back to the coast.

Now it's time to finish studying for an exam, while fighting the cold that just hit this afternoon. Lovely.

Graduation

Today I had my grad photos taken. I was freaking out, freaking out this morning. Getting them taken made me feel more ready for graduation though, and after they were done, I felt more relaxed and ready for the next step. I'm sad my sis wasn't there, but I think I pulled it off on my own. Just another sign that I'm ready for the world?

#21

Last night I got an email from an author I met this summer, who was revising his book "Hiking the Gulf Islands: An Outdoor Guide to BC's Enchanted Isles."

He told me that a photo of Pebble Beach on Galiano Island that I had taken over the summer working for NCC was being considered for the book. Although I am not being paid for the use of the photo in the book, I am receiving a complimentary copy.

Therefore, I am crossing #21 off the list.

One down. 24 to go.

Chinese New Year

Gung hei fat choy!

Today was the annual Chinese New Year parade in Vancouver. R and I went for the parade and then wandered around in Chinatown. It's been years since I've been down there, and it was kind of fun feeling like a tourist in our own city.

Cool dancers at the parade.

One of the many dragon dancers.

 After watching the parade for almost an hour and a half, we walked into a Chinese tea store, and ended up getting served teensy tiny cups of tea from a teapot that would make less than half of my regular mug. She got 8 cups out of it. It was an interesting little ritual, but I kind of prefer my tea black and in large quantities. From there, we wandered through several bulk stores and got some tea. It's so much cheaper than David's tea, but not quite the same..  We ended up wandering back to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden and park, which I haven't been to since the end of grade 7. It was a dreary day, but still beautiful!

The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese park.

From the garden, we ended up wandering to the old Woodward's. I have this picture on my phone, but I wanted a normal-sized version. Both my Dad and grandpa used to work at the old Woodward's, and Dad used to tell us stories about it. They make fantastic peanut butter.

The original Woodward's W on the left, and the new one on the right.

Lovely adventure in the misty rain aside, school is getting to be hectic.. but there is finally an end in sight! May 30th is my official graduate date! Let's just hope I have a job before then...