Seasons in Vancouver

One wonderful thing about Vancouver - proper seasons! Summer, Autumn (sorry, Fall), Winter and Spring come in full force and witnessing the change in the city is just stunning. I've been getting lazier as a photographer, but I've found a few highlights and hopefully it will convey to you just how amazing real seasons are!! I really love the flora here, and have bored a lot of people discussing plants, but really it would be so nice to have a garden where wonderful lush plants can thrive with decent soil and lots of rain (this city is a former rain-forest). The azaleas are prolific!! Never seen anything like it in dry, sandy-soiled west Aus.

These photos are in a set on flickr. Click here to see the full set (and high res versions, if you so desire).

Fall:

Stunning, stunning change of leaves. The best of course were the maples!! The first two are outside my first apartment in Burnaby, the others in Vancouver (Main and around 30th) and downtown. It alternated between very grey and nice and sunny during this time. It could rain at any moment, so it was best to take an umbrella everywhere.






Perhaps it was all the clouds, but the sunsets and sunrises in the fall were amazing. Sunset seen from Gilmore skytrain station, sunrise from my apartment in Burnaby, The big mountain behind which the sun was rising at that time of year is Mt Baker in Washington state, USA. See how the fog rolls in as the sun comes up. I couldn't sleep and was so happy to capture this brilliant sequence.










Waiting for the snow to start, down at Kitsilano beach. You can see the clouds hovering over the north shore mountains (Cypress mnt is to the left, above West Van, 2nd pic). Still sunny in the city, but pretty cool.




Winter:

It was a one-in-10-year winter in Vancouver. See the front my new place in South Granville on a day it started snowing... and the following morning (still dark).




Snow in downtown is unusual (generally, I've been told, if it snows it has melted by the next day). The other shots are from around my place, where the footpaths were not cleared and cars stayed for days (weeks!), getting buried deeper and deeper.







Spring:

The true sign of spring: blossoms. Blossoms everywhere! They were so beautiful. Haro St in the West End, and 7th and 8th between Cypress and Maple Sts, Yew St, and really all over Kitsilano. Plum and magnolias I recognised, I presume the rest are cherry, perhaps almond, peach etc.






All through the spring there are also a constant blooming of bulbs, like tulips, here from Deep Cove and English Bay.




The best is still seeing snow on the mountains though. I took this shot showing the snow and the blossoms on Cypress St, near the old trainline (hence the crossing sign) - yep, can't get away from things being named cypress.



Summer (just the beginning...):

Well it's not really even summer yet, though it's warm (high teens to mid 20s) and the days are lovely. A little windy, but very nice.