An ominous sounding headline for me

Image via Wikipedia

Here in Vancouver BC, we’ve been having what I consider a nice fall, sunny days, not too much frost yet, and few wind storms. So I have been spending more time biking in leafy environs and enjoying the trees. Now this headline:

Asian Beetle Spells Death for Maples So Dear

Of course we have our own fir tree beetle infestation that is turning our rain forest into a pine needle wasteland. So the idea that beautiful maples are being chopped down because of another beetle leaves me with the dreadful idea that “our trees seem to be disappearing”. Not a nice thought for me! I wonder where I can find information about the bigger picture of the health of our large forests on Earth.

I am silly enough about trees that the other day I thought I was hearing a renaissance of birds in a small forested park in South East Vancouver. The sound seemed so nice. It’s not as if I could see and hear the numbers of birds like we used to have 50 years ago, but I felt that there were more of them than last year, for instance.

Trees and birds are one of the reasons I moved from Ontario to BC 9 years ago. So this is not a trivial situation for me!

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Yes I lived through a couple grim ice storms in Montreal and Ottawa.

So I know how it feels to walk and drive in these miserable circumstances. But I’m hopeful that here in Vancouver I won’t have to deal with the likes of the image below:

But the predictions included in this link are nearly as scary as the present global financial meltdown.

From COGITATION to Hues and Shadows

COGITATION Originally uploaded by E-Rocks

I found this photo on Flikr with a Vancouver tag ====>

I wondered what would turn out with some digital rendering using Picnik of course and here’s what I got ↓↓

I kinda like my Hues and Shadows better. What do you think?

More leaky condos in glamorous Vancouver

Pretty picture heh!

The dirty little truth is that many condo owners may be suffering from water damage these days and many have to spend up to $100K to get their windows replaced. In Vancouver, you can get a leaky condo one way or another!

Update 2009/12/6

As I walk and drive around Greater Vancouver, it is evident that whatever was wrong with condo building practices continues. Every week I can see another plastic shroud hiding another building refit! I guess it’s just part of Vancouver’s special environment now, like continuous construction!

Image via Wikipedia

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Looking across False Creek to Vancouver

Granville Island

Originally uploaded by cheukiecfu

This view typifies Vancouver with Granville Bridge hovering in the upper right.

An image from BC and another unique one from Delhi

From “Vancouver on Flickr” collection

Via LA Times (photo by Scott Kraft), a view from the Taj instead of a view of . . .

Sunset creating dome reflection

Sunset creating dome reflection

Originally uploaded by takusom

More English Bay sunset scenery!

Once again I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I looked at this lovely conventional but extremely well timed snap of an English Bay sunset and wondered what it could look like with some tweaking of color saturation and HDR-ing.

And here’s what I got ↓↓

Sprin-ter

We have been having an untypical cold snap this year witnessed by this odd combination, snow on the ground and fruit blossoms in the trees.

and some blue skies on alternate days!

Jet lag in Dalian

Image via Wikipedia

A few idle thoughts about living in China

One of the odd aspects of jet lag or changing hemispheres is that certain body cycles take a while to adjust to the new circadian cycle, which in my case, flying from Vancouver to Dalian, China, is about 15 hours lag. I am finding that my bowel cycles tend to wake me on Vancouver time or at about 3:00AM Dalian time. Not convenient! But that’s life in this jet age.

Another interesting thing is that they sell excellent grape tomatoes here and Jonagold apples. Also, bananas from the Philipines are plentyful and cheap. Seafood is also freely available but the better stuff is pricier.

Another small quirk about restaurants in Dalian is that tea is not always hot enough for me. In fact, I have to ask Yuan to make tea at meal times or just for refreshment. She does not automatically make lots of tea. But lots of local beer is consumed by men in China. Women do not enough sip the suds!!

One thing almost all Chinese men do everywhere, or almost is smoke. The Web cafes are especially smoky dens of nicotine excess. The funny thing is that expensive prostitutes sitting in 5 star hotel bars also smoke. In fact, it is rare to see a woman smoking in China.

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