Good news! We had fluffy white clouds today with a side of baby blue sky. It was a great sight to behold. Also, I’ve been told it’s very near time to plant seeds. Perhaps I’ll get some sweet peas out this year. I missed the window of opportunity for that the last few years. We have an extra day of February this year, so I could be able to squeeze the seed growing in.

This sunny day also illuminated that it’s past time to clean off the balcony. It’s collected an assortment of leaves and I think some moss. Soon time for a big spring clean.

This is day 4 or 5 of having “the crud”. I think it’s too long to long to be considered a cold at this point. I woke up this morning surrounded by the kitties after dreaming of following oil down a hallway to find a Japanese man clutching his chest telling me he was experiencing anxiety. Whoa. I think I’d better do some deep cleaning of the bedroom after all these germ-ridden strange dreams.

Anyway, enough about the sickness. Tomorrow is a new day and I’ll be at work first thing. In fact, I’ll even take photos in the morning in the city. If that won’t get me out of bed tomorrow morning, nothing will.

I love it when the dancing girls bust out the fans and the shiny costumes for the parade.

I love the look of concentration on their faces as they remember their steps…

And even if they’re a little blurry and not in focus, they’re as pretty as ever.

Even when the parade is over and they are walking with their mom and sister to join in the festivities with their pals, they’ll still smile nicely for the camera.

These dancing girls are better than the Toddler and Tiara girls any time.

Here are all my photos from the Chinese New Year parade here! Now with more dragons.

Not only is the Year of the Dragon zodiac sign, but it’s the year of the Water Dragon. According to this website, this means the water will calm the dragon down, so that it’s not quite as tough as he usually is. Hooray! A friendly dragon? I’m in! I loved How To Train Your Dragon.

Despite the off-and-on rain, there were plenty of people out watching the parade. I think last year’s parade was more rainy than this one. There was actually some dry periods today.

Woohoo! See the two sisters wearing the matching jackets? They’re the Chinese version of my cousins, Andrea and Melissa. Aunt Sharon used to dress them up matchy-matchy when they were little. Adorable.

I was pleased to see the parade master today. HOWEVER, I don’t think this is the same guy as the one who has led the parade the last few times I’ve been! I wonder what happened?

I’m usually edgy until I get the photo of the parade leader. After that, I can relax and take photos of the people around me.

I loved this little granny photo. She was waiting patiently for the dragon.

You would think this guy would be happier about the news above his head. One day off from taxes? YESSSSS! Thank you, Water Dragon!

Everybody loves the Water Dragon.

Wait, was there a parade? Yes there was. I’ll post those photos later. And I went to the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens as well. I’ll post those ones later, too. I pushed my way through all sorts of places in Chinatown and enjoyed every minute of it. So far, I’m liking this Chinese Zodiac sign.

I found the car decorated with a heart tonight after a lovely dinner with my buddy, Iris. I didn’t do this! Someone left this in the snow for us. I left it on the hood of the car as I took the car to go meet Mike. I wouldn’t dream of brushing that off. Who did this? No idea! Mystery! Kinda like that time someone left us big watermelons in the pumpkin patch. Those watermelons were delicious.

I hope you all enjoy hearing all about cold weather and snow. My blog is not usually a weather blog, but it has been these last two days. For the first time I can remember, we experienced very cold weather. Now, I’m from Calgary, and they get extremely cold weather – like 30 or 40 below zero. It’s so cold you can feel the hair in your nose freeze when you take that first breath outside. Today was not that cold, but it was minus 7 degrees Celsius. That’s cold for these parts. Sadly, no full-blown snow day, but we did get teensy little snowflakes off and on all day.

I’m pretty sure this is a West Coast thing because we never took umbrellas with us in the snow in Calgary – and it snowed a lot. But in Vancouver, you take an umbrella with you and use it in the snow, but only in the city. It could be out of habit, you just take one with you in the winter. It does seem a little funny to me. Wimps. Heh.

Also in the snow today? Seagulls. Many of them visited the balcony this afternoon after Ada gave one some old bread from the freezer.

Those dirty old seagulls gathered round for free grub in moments.

They didn’t even care how close I got to them while the squawked at each other for crappy old dry bread.

The prediction for tomorrow? Sounds like more of the same. More very chilly weather, teensy snowflakes and no chance of getting snowed out of downtown. DARN. Oh well. We’ll always have the heart on the hood. That’s almost as good as a snow day.

We all waited with baited breath for the gigantic dump of snow scheduled to appear. It never arrived. However, at least one person’s boss thought there was a snow storm in Coquitlam today. There wasn’t one, but my co-worker overheard someone on the train this morning calling in late to work, “due to all the snow in Coquitlam.” Heh. The things you overhear on public transit. That list is LLLLOOONNNNGGGGG…

While the skies didn’t open up with the white stuff, I went for a quick trip to the library on my lunch hour. It’s a good walk and it saves me from buying a bunch of books that may or may not get re-read. If I really love the book, then I’ll buy it. I’m getting a little more clever these days. But not that clever. I was ecstatic when I thought I spotted the legendary City Owl in Vancouver. When I checked my camera bag for my long lens, it was not here. DRAT! I left it at home. NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I used my stock lens, and it slowly dawned on me…I don’t think that’s a real bird. It’s not moving at all.

Upon closer inspection, I believe it’s one of those crappy plastic owls.

Lunchbag letdown. I should check tomorrow just to make sure, though. With my long lens. I’d better always have that with me from now on.

The snow came back for a short time in the city today. However, out in Mission, they are ROLLING in it. It’s crazy out in that way. We got some snow for a few hours, but it was gone by the time the work day was over.

We got some snow out on the work balcony. Close up, it didn’t even look real. It looked more like white cotton candy.

This scene reminded me of Calgary in the spring. I don’t think they’re getting any blooms out there quite yet, but I definitely remember seeing scenes like this in late April/early May in Cowtown.

I’m not sure why, but Ada wanted me to take her photo by the snowy bushes. She was really excited about it and asked me a couple of times. I wasn’t sure that I heard her right the first time. Really? You want me to take a photo of you in the bush? Okay. Who am I to judge?

I don’t mean to sound like the snow blog, but it is scheduled to snow off and on all week long. Sadly, it also looks like it’s going to be raining this weekend, which is a huge bummer because now that I’ve seen John Biehler’s photos of the snowy owls in Delta, I’m dying to go out there and take photos along with all these people. It may not happen for me this year. I should give it a try, though. It’s kind of an anomaly. And they do look amazing.

This is the first sunset I’ve noticed in a very long time. I usually a) sleep through them or b) miss them because I take a bus that goes west. The sky was pink and blue when I left the house this morning, so I stopped and admired it. It passed quickly, though. The pinks were pretty much turning to light yellow in about 5 or 6 minutes, so my timing for the pretty colours were good today.

Tiny trees in the distance – that’s the side of Burnaby Mountain.

A lovely gradient of morning colours. I especially like the blue at the top.

This is a larch tree. You can tell by the floppy bit on the top. Someone told me that a larch tree flops over at the top because he’s sad he’s not a pine tree. That would mean he’s sad because he’s not a pinus. Heh. I learned that from a gardening class at Van Dusen gardens.

I just tried to verify the “floppy top on the larch” on the internets, but couldn’t find an example, so I’m not sure if this is a larch after all. Good thing I never pursued that career in wilderness tour guiding.

*I stole this title from a flickr friend who commented,”Terrific Urban Series” on my photos. That sounds SO fancy! So yes, this is my urban series. It’s like I just started art school or something. Also, thank you, Gemma Geluz.

There was still some light left tonight as I left the office around 5:00. I was so pleased with the last sliver of light, I got my camera out and took photos for about 15 minutes until the sun set.

I spotted this groovy hipster in some excellent white Doc Martens.

Even though I’m not a fan of the ever-lingering skinny jeans trend or wispy haircuts on men, this guy pulled it off and topped his all black outfit with his all-white boots. Well done, sir!

I also found a few reflections in the glass buildings around me.

The big building in this photo used to have a pac-man and ghost made of post-it notes in the window, but it looks like someone took it down. DRAT. However, the designs in the glass are nice. I like those wavy ones that look like animal prints of some kind.

Welcome back, sun! I have missed you – especially in the mornings. A few more photos here if you like that sort of dusky, Vancouver look.

I hadn’t planned on going to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens today, but when I had the opportunity to re-submit my photo for this month’s calendar, I jumped at the chance. I didn’t realize until after I sent in my photo that Chinese New Year is THIS month. It’s early this year. I thought I’d get a photo of a dragon for the calendar, being it’s going to be the Year of the Dragon and all. No such luck. Chinatown isn’t all decked out for their New Year yet. I guess I’m used to Christmas decorations being out 3 months in advance. I guess Chinatown doesn’t roll that way. I’ll just have to go back in a couple of weeks to see all the dragons in the street.

But that’s okay! It was a rainy, miserable day, and hardly anyone was in the garden. Even though it was pouring rain, there were plenty of places to remain under cover to keep the camera dry. It was peaceful. I’m so glad I can go any old time I want to.

The garden is pretty, even in the rain.

Thankfully I did get a photo that I can use for the calendar. It should be very suitable for January and the festivities that will ensue in a few short weeks.

In other news, I am making a cake for a get-together tomorrow night. Mike asked for a white cake, with chocolate icing. NO DECORATIONS. I am finding this task very difficult. Mike made it even more difficult by tempting me with this, “Well, if you need to put stuff on it, go ahead.” No. I. Won’t. But I did stop by a fancy food store today to pick up some fancy cocoa and found some “chocolate spaghetti” from Belgium. That’s not decoration. That’s more chocolate sprinkled on chocolate frosting! Ha! I WIN!

I hope this cake tastes great. Spaghetti and all. I’ll show you my un-decorated cake tomorrow.

We last saw the whole team making a quick get away from the violent potato gang…

Dave: Woohoo! Take that, you bully spuds!

Carol: Yah! See you later, taters!

Mike: Phew! that was close. Thank goodness for Oscar and Donner. I know we complain about their sharp nails, but I’ll never complain again.

Editor’s note: I am proud to let you know that No Potatoes Were Harmed® during the making of this Advent calendar.

Dave: Okay…our next stop will be very relaxing. There will only be pretty lights and happy people all around us. As it’s the longest night of the year, we’ll be heading over to the Solstice Festival at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden.

Carol and Mike: Wow! Ohhh! Ahhh!

Dave: So much bokeh! And look, a pretty shrine. People have written notes about peace on earth and harmony with the Potato Gangs.

Carol: Dreamy. I love this.

Dave: The Solstice has been celebrated since ancient times – many cultures put out lanterns and other lights around their homes on this darkest day of the year. This means we’ll start to have more daylight again soon. Hooray!

Mike: This event is really well attended. People love the Solstice Festival!

Carol: Oh man. I just saw the best sweater ever. I need to learn how to knit like THIS!

Dave: I love that, too. Do you think you could make me one?

Carol: Yup. No problem. Your sweater will be tiny. Good practice for me!

Mike: I love this sign above the gardens.

Dave: Yup. The potato gang memory is far behind us now.

Carol: We’re so close to Christmas I can almost taste it. I am chock-a-block full of Christmas spirit now.

Dave: Now, we’ll be heading out on another long trip, but in the meantime, be sure to go through the solstice festival photos here.