Beaver Lake

We biked in the late afternoon yesterday to Stanley Park's Beaver Lake.  It was a peaceful ride with just enough breeze to keep us cool and comfortable.  Once there, Bill locked the bikes and we walked around the lake, better described as a swamp, albeit a lovely one.  

Herons stood motionless for long periods, 

but were rewarded every once in a while by..

modest catches, so tiny, I wondered if they could be tasted at all.

Beaver Lake is beautiful but in danger of filling in completely with sediment.  This story and video in the Vancouver Sun talks of a plan to.. 

restore it to "lake" status. 

Sometimes, mankind's interference with nature..

creates other problems down the road, but hopefully, 

dredging the lake of sediment will work well for..

wildlife in the area.  Anyone able to identify this duck?  (apologies for the poor photo) 

Birds were singing all around me, but photography was a huge challenge.  The best I could manage was this fern.  Then I heard..

"Oh look.  There's a snake!"  I had a momentary flash of hope,

but then realized Bill's impish humour had caught me yet again :) 

"Rather stiff snake."

My sole bird catch of the day..

was this little creeper.

It was the first I had seen this summer.  Yay! 

It was nearing 8:00 p.m. by the time we left, but a warm light..

and blue skies..

made our ride past Malkin Bowl..

 a beautiful one.

I took just a few photos of the flowers and plants around us..

while Bill and Black Jack communed.

Riding homeward, some tiny inuksuit (I've just learned that is the plural of inukshuk) along.. 

English Bay caught Bill's eye..

so we made our final stop of the ride just a little before the Burrard Bridge.  (The Granville Bridge is the lower one behind.  The two bridges often appear to melt into one.)

There's Bill, doing his best imitation of an inukshuk!

That was our world yesterday.

To peek into the lives of other people around the world, you may want to check out 

Our World Tuesday!  

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