Cherry Blossom in Vancouver

Spring season in Vancouver is beautiful, especially in April when the cherry trees are in bloom. There are over 37,000 cherry blossom trees planted in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. Due to the cold weather, cherry blossom was late this year. Still the city was as lovely as a fairyland when we saw the cherry blossom trees everywhere!

Burrard Station, Vancouver Downtown – April 2, 2011

Denman St and Georgia St, Vancouver Downtown – April 2, 2011

Richmond Minoru Park (where I also found two little squirrels) – April 6, 2011

UBC Asian Centre – April 8, 2011

Outside Forest Sciences Centre at UBC – April 8, 2011

Lower Mall at UBC – April 8, 2011

Marine Crescent and W 50th Ave, Vancouver – April 9, 2011 (where Cherry Blossom Bed and Breakfast is located)
Unlike the above photos, these were taken in a residential area on the quiet streets. It would be a sweet dream to live in a neighbourhood surrounded by cherry blossom trees!

Change of Cover Photo

It's time for a new blog cover since Winter Olympic was finished long time ago! Vancouver 2010 was a dramatic year for me - my life was full of ripples. I just want simple life with happiness! Okay, now start with new life with new image of natural beauty.

Farewell to Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate

When I visited Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate (牛頭角下邨) again last December, the buildings included my primary school (柏德學校) were empty and surrounded by fences. Some of the units with windows removed already … making them look like caves or pigeon hole. All the blocks will soon be demolished!

Luckily I found a website with tons of valuable photos of Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate in the old days - http://ntk.johnchoy.com/. This amazing slide show has photos in colour in the first section, black and white photos in the second section. It reflects the typical lifestyle of the residents in the past. They were not rich but happy; they were not living in a high-tech society but a self-sufficient, harmony society. The photos include old-style general store, cha chaan teng (Hong Kong style café), BBQ restaurant, hardware store, fabric store where Chinese wedding dresses were available, acupuncture clinic, noodle house, clothing store, fruit market, shoe store, dai pai dong (open-air food stall), Chinese pharmacy and old-style barber shop. It also has photos of different families living in this community such as seniors, family with kids, middle age couple, grandma with grandchild and male adults. It really brings me back the memory of my childhood since I lived just across Lower Ngau Tau Kok Estate.

Photos of Snow in Vancouver - Nov 20 & 25

Nov 20, 2010 - the scene in the morning at Blundell Mall in Richmond after one night of snow storm


Nov 20, 2010 - Richmond International Buddhist Temple. Since the lens of my cellphone was partially blocked by a piece of paper, the right side of this photo was dim and dark. But it comes out unexpectedly nice and professional!

The above three photos are also from the same buddhist temple. If I don't tell you it was in Richmond BC, you may think it was from an oriental place!

Nov 20, 2010 - this photo was taken afer 2 pm when I was in Canada Line. Now you can see the snow in Vancouver (east of Cambie) was pretty much melt already.

The above two photos were taken in the morning of Nov 25, 2010 while it was still snowing. The location was at a parkade close to my company. The edge of the parkade was covered with thin layer of snow. All the photos below were taken on Nov 25 on UBC campus.

Wow! The whole basketball court was covered by snow!

This shows how the black ice looks like. It can be very slippery which makes people difficult to walk and drive.

Wow! Cars partially covered by thin layer of snow, very beautiful!

Photo of UBC Hawthorn Place in the snow

The building is Forest Sciences Centre where I'm working.

What would you think of with this photo? White Christmas? Not yet, it's only Nov 25 ... another month to come!

Snow comes early in Vancouver this year!!!

Last Saturday (Nov 20), I was still in bed at 7:00 in the morning. Suddenly I heard my mom yelling "Snow! Snow!". Then I looked out from the window. HOLY! The whole backyard was covered by snow! It must be snowing the whole night, fortunately it stopped in the morning since I got to drive in two hours. My mom and brother spent an hour to shovel the driveway. Driving wasn't too bad since the weather wasn't cold enough to turn the snow into black ice yet.

Then yesterday morning (Nov 25), snow came back again! Already two times in November, wasn't it too early? During Winter Olympic we begged for more snow on Cypress Mountain, and now when we don't need it the whole mountain was covered by snow!

I believe it was my second time to drive in snow. Feeling was ... nervous for sure, then a bit scary but also little fun and excitment. Yeah! I managed to drive in the snow except my car was once slightly sliding with a right turn (like a big curve). Wow! Still safe though! The lowest temperature was this Tuesday night (Nov 23) with -10°C. The coldest in 25 years ~~~""FREEZING''''~~~ No wonder many roads were either frosty or icy. Even daytime it was between -3°C and -6°C. When I placed a cup of hot water close to my office window, it turned to cold water in less than an hour, like just taken out from the fridge!

Double Rainbow – My Secret Rainbow

I just watched the Hong Kong movie “Echoes of the rainbow” last month during Vancouver International Film Festival. Double rainbow was mentioned in the movie which I thought it’s just a legend. Until November 5th on my way home after work, I was driving on the highway … WOW! I saw a HUGE RAINBOW! Not far away from it, there’s another dim rainbow. Ah … now I got the idea of double rainbow. It was very amazing since I’ve never seen one before.

Based on Wikipedia, a dim secondary rainbow is seen outside the primary bow. Secondary rainbows are caused by a double reflection of sunlight inside the raindrops, and appear at an angle of 50–53°. As a result of the second reflection, the colours of a secondary rainbow are inverted compared to the primary bow, with blue on the outside and red on the inside. The secondary rainbow is fainter than the primary because more light escapes from two reflections compared to one and because the rainbow itself is spread over a greater area of the sky.

Top photo - taken in Vancouver on Nov 5, 2010. Can you see the secondary rainbow there? Bottom photo - taken in Richmond on Nov 5, 2010 - It's interesting to know that the colours of secondary rainbow are inverted with red inside and blue outside.

Softly sighs the rainbow
Misty songs of old
Flowing by the skyline
My secret lullaby

Softly sighs the rainbow
Stories seldom told
Flowing by the skyline
My love songs that never rhyme

I...Stand alone below lingering by my secret rainbow
Ah...My secret rainbow