Spring Flowers

In Vancouver...spring has sprung.

All of the trees have flowered and the bulbs are coming up.

The most striking are the cherry blossom trees, which don't last very long, but are gorgeous


I took some pictures on my way home from work on my bicycle.


Since it is the Easter long weekend, I thought it would be a good time to do a Spring blog.

There seems to be much more flowers and greenery than there ever is in NB

I think this must be because of the mild temperatures.

Nothing ever really gets killed off during the winter, so everything has longer to grow and blossom.

Because of this, everything gets bigger faster.

All of the rain we get can't hurt either.

When I got home, I took the pooches out and then decided to take a run along the sea wall.

I think living with all the rain we get, makes you extra grateful for the sun. This seems to encourage me go outside and be active when the sun is out.

There are also a seemingly high number of outdoor water fountains, like the water fall shown here.

Perhaps because the rain keeps them full and the mild temperatures make them easy to maintain.

Now that I was in the Spring spirit, I decided it would be a good time to use the buy-one-get-one-free admission to the Van Dusen botanical gardens that we had in our Vancouver entertainment booklet.

So on Good Friday, we set out for the garden.

For 10 bucks we were in. There is also a very posh looking restaurant that it might be nice to go to sometime as well.

Here is the history of the garden, for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing.
In 1910, this site was an isolated acreage of stumps and bush. It was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway and was leased by the Shaughnessy Golf Club from 1911 until 1960 when the golf club moved to a new location. The railway proposed a subdivision, but was opposed by many citizens. In 1966, the VanDusen Botanical Garden Association was formed to assist the Vancouver Park Board with saving the site.
This effort was successful and the land was purchased with shared funding from the City of Vancouver, the Government of British Columbia and the Vancouver Foundation with a donation by W. J. VanDusen, after whom the Garden was named.

Development started in 1971 and VanDusen Botanical Garden officially opened to the public on August 30, 1975.

Besides all of the flowers, trees and shrubs, the garden is full of fountains, ponds, sculptures, fish, ducks, geese and well-placed benches for taking it all in.


Looks like a beautiful sunny day! How about that!



These turtles seem to be enjoying the sun, just like we were.











Another sculpture...this one looks familiar.


















Daffodils...
















Striking Rhododendrons.
There is also a maze in the garden. In it's centre, the "prize" is a monkey puzzle tree. I will show you a close up of the tree in a minute.

Of course, being with Mathematical Mike, the maze became a competition.

There is apparently a fool-proof algorithm for traversing the maze, but we seemed to make as many wrong turns and took as long as everyone else

Here I am at the entrance to the maze.

There is a little hill with these raised seats so that you get the full effect of its design.


Here is the monkey puzzle tree. It is covered with all these little triangular spikes that wind around each branch.

Each leaf overlaps the other for a jigsaw puzzle look.

I can see why they chose this tree for the maze. Get it, puzzle...maze? Clever.




And, it wouldn't be a park in Vancouver, without some Asian influence.





Here is Mike in the "Great Garden".

We were kind of taken aback by the lush look of the grass for this time of year.

It does look like it used to be a golf course, doesn't it?

And look at Mike in his short sleeves in March. I think it was 22 degrees that day


It was hard to choose what pictures to post, because there were so many things to take pictures of.

I'm sure this place will be even more gorgeous, in the months to come.

On our way back, Chris gave us a call and asked if we'd like to take the dogs to Pacific Spirit Park.

We stopped and got a quick lunch at La Crepe. La Crepe is this chain of fast food restaurants in Vancouver which sell these delicious paper-thin crepes with every combination of tasty treat you can imagine wrapped inside. From ham and cheese, to apple-cinnamon, to my favourite; nutella. Then we picked up the dogs and Chris and Rain in the trusty Matrix, and were off.


Here are Chris and Rain with their adoptive daughter, Tala at Pacific Spirit Park.

We must have walked around Pacific Spirit for another couple of hours. I sure got my exercise that day!

We dropped them back home and then we came home and I got our little patio ready for the summer. We sat and had a drink and tested it out in the sun and then we go ready to go out for dinner.

We had a nice dinner at the Cactus club and then Chris called us because he and Rain had gone out for dinner with Sayo and JD and the girls had to call it an early night, so they decided to join us.

On Saturday, we just took it easy. We did a bunch of chores and took in a movie and some McDonalds.

Sunday, I took advantage of another nice day and went for a nice long run on the sea wall. Mike and I went to our favourite East Indian restaurant for Easter Dinner and then headed home.

Also, I want to thank Mom and Dad for the nice Easter Present they sent me. A gorgeous pewter Earring and Necklace set which I have already worn. Also some yummy chocolate for Mike and I! Thanks!