Watching Spring Unfold

I've made a new blouse, this time with short sleeves. It's my attempt to imagine that one day the weather will warm up, although I must admit it seems like a long time ago that my arms were exposed. Make that six months, with no real end in sight. On the other hand, I do remember some warm days when we arrived, so it's not entirely a pipe dream. Right?

On Monday, when the sky made an appearance, I decided to go to Fabricana to check out their fabric. Taking the Canada Line, I first exited at King Edward to go to Queen Elizabeth Park to see how Spring was looking there. We'll get to that in a moment, but first I wanted to share how my sweet husband helped me out on the sewing front. Because the material is girly, and the shirt pattern is not so much, I decided I wanted to change the front pocket to a rounded bottom, however, my attempts to figure that out went wanting. Somehow I managed the collar change on my own. When B got home from work, I explained my dilemma, and here's what he came up with.

I just had to chuckle when he added the sew line to the template, however, I, of all people, should know he does nothing half way. Tuesday morning, in spite of a somewhat dire weather forecast, I went to Dress Sew for buttons and interfacing before I sat down to sew. The impetus for all this indoor activity was the weather forecast---ten days of rain.  Not very exciting news for me, however, when I have sewing projects to do, I notice it a whole lot less. The following two days were spent sewing, both the blouse which I complicated by adding two rows of top stitching everywhere, and a little A-line skirt. Those little cherries look, oh so cheerful, don't they?

Returning to the pre-sewing day, do I ever have some lovely photos to share. In fact, everything is so beautiful that I am seriously struggling with what to post! Let's start with the cherry trees that are so wonderful that I am finding it difficult to adequately describe them. Perhaps the pictures will do that work for me?

David Lam Park, two blocks away, has an extensive display of blooming trees that are attracting photographers every single day.

How about that great blue sky? If you could have seen how the rest of the week looked, no doubt you would appreciate it even more. Dull and gray, with way too much rain.

What were only tiny buds just days ago, are now bigger buds that are interesting in their own right.

When last I visited QEP, there was snow on the ground. This visit, however, the temperature was considerably warmer, with blooming bulbs in many colors.  No one would expect you to remember that the park is on the site of a former rock quarry, used for building roads in the early days of Vancouver.  I'm shortchanging the visit, but I did want to show the photograph below, taken in the lower garden which really shows the terrain well.
Good golly, there is the tiniest bit of sunshine outside! Woo hoo!

But I digress. One thing super exciting during my visit there was an Anna's hummingbird sighting, in one of my new favorite plants as a bonus. I wanted to show you the super green body that is nearly the same color as the leaves.

Here's a pretty good one.

Don't let these two fool you--it took me about 15 shots to get a couple of good ones, however, the couple that were there doing the same, took probably one hundred or more, so I feel very fortunate to have gotten a few good ones. What the heck, here's one more from that visit. I'm having a new appreciation for Hyacinths; their fragrance is heavenly.

Not only are there cherry trees in parks and neighborhoods, they are on the streets of the city as well.

 And on the top of buildings!

I'm including the above for two reasons: the tree on the building top is pretty cool, but the building behind will be even more cool when it is complete. I've written about the "Vancouver House" before, but one of our neighbors most recently drew our attention to a Netflix documentary series called, Abstract: The Art of Design,  which follows eight different designers, one of whom is the architect on the VH. We watched many of the episodes and I can't recommend it enough if design is one of your interests. Think back a little while when you saw construction workers across the street from us, working in the snow. Those are the guys making the architect's dream possible.

It must have been late Wednesday afternoon, when the rain quit for a little while, that from the balcony I saw that more of the Magnolia trees were blooming, meaning you know who had to get out of the house for a bit to have a look see.  Good move as there was much to be seen within easy walking distance.

You can just imagine, what with this kind of scene every place I turn, that staying indoors is definitely a struggle for me. I am just so loving seeing the day-to-day changes occurring in the plant life, part of the reason I wanted to come here. My dreams are coming true!

Daffodils have been in bloom now for weeks, however, it seems as if the tulips take more time, although they too, are only days away.

Seemingly every day I'm seeing unfamiliar blooms, so many, in fact, that it might cause some consternation should I post them all. Leaving them out is killing me though!

How cute are those little ones? I'll tell you, very cute! As is this beautiful pot of flowers.

I'd like to draw your attention to those sprigs on the left because I'm finding them quite fascinating, whatever they are. More trees not long for staying bare.

Should you be curious, these last five shots are taken along the sea walk, so convenient for us.

Checking my watch, I discovered that it was time to head home for dinner preparations so I headed that way. Much to my delight, I ran into Venus walking her dog. Not for a moment should you feel bad that most of my time is spent alone. Luckily, I'm okay in my own company. Nevertheless, having someone to chat with (aside from Bruce, much as I love him), is not to be taken for granted, thus, we had a nice chat on the sidewalk outside the building. To put a face with her name, I took a photograph to remember her by.

She was still in hair and makeup from the day's shooting of an episode of Arrow. Our conversation included me asking her did she meet the Rock during filming of Skyscraper, the film he shot here, in which she has a small cameo. Nope. That said, she recently filmed a movie with Liam Nissan and she has the photographs of the two of them on her phone to prove it! Actually, she only has a cameo in that as well, however, she is in a scene with him and she said he is both nice, as well as modest. So, that was fun.

Because I stayed home, for the most part, the better part of three days, I got out early today, walking more than five miles seeing so many, many, beautiful things that my heart is about to burst! Let me know if I'm inundating you with too much. Should I not hear from anyone, I'll take that as the go-ahead to post with abandon!

yours truly,

Gail