Monday morning is so much easier to face...

...after spending at least half of a sunny weekend outdoors & then working on garden tasks (e.g., setting up a grow-light system) while indoors.

Hellebores and Chinook jargon along the False Creek seawall

Snowdrops (Galanthus) at Stanley Park

Lost Lagoon and beyond -- The North Shore mountains

What seasonal flora did you enjoy and what favourite places did you explore this past weekend?

Winter's early arrival

Too soon, too cold. Sigh. Sigh again. (It's therapeutic.)

The grey, chilly frozen days are here ...

Recommended reading & viewing on some topics (other than the weather) in this post:

• Bark
• Berries (& birds)
  &
• Sighs

Wordless Wednesday: Autumn Leaves

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Recommended reading:
The Science of Autumn Color

Sundays on the seawall

Though it can be hard (especially last week when plants, pots, & plans exceeded available space), I try to remind myself of the advantages of a  very small  balcony garden. Here's one: it allows time for long, meandering walks because you don't have to rake leaves.

And here are some moments from the the past three Sunday seawall walks when I looked, wondered and enjoyed.

This arrangement made me wonder: did nature create it or some passer-by with a compulsion to tidy the unruly masses of leaves on the path?

Click to read more ...

Orange beautiful*

*Post title inspired by -- well, pretty much copied from but with all credit given to  -- this gorgeous site & blog.

"In like a lion, out like a lamb" (and vice versa) is the well-known saying applied to March's weather. I'm trying to think of an equivalent to describe last month. If you read drafts of this post I published accidentally (oops), you'll know I tried marmalade cats and Bengal tigers. The first of October was sunny and warm and I recall purring contentedly in the kitchen while roasting eggplants; the 30th and 31st included every kind of weather: bold, strong, and untamed, if not quite ferocious at the end. But perhaps colour is the most accurate, and for me, memorable way to describe October in and October out: in with tasty reds & aubergines and out with glowing oranges.