Skywatch Friday ~ Last Friday in March

Hello and welcome to Friday's Skywatch post,

It has been raining so very heavily now for what seems like forever. It makes it difficult to go anywhere. But today it stopped raining and the sun came out. I couldn't get away early but in the late evening I went to the grocery store for a few items and snapped these night photos.

It was much warmer than it has been in a long while and it felt so good. You can see some of the apple blossoms are out in full force but haven't started to blossom on other trees.  I'm hoping it will be sunny more frequently soon so I can get out and enjoy the blossoms more fully and during the day too.

A few years ago I learned that many of the city's cherry trees were gifts from Japan.  In the early 1930s the mayors of Kobe and Yokohama in Japan gifted 500 Ojochin variety cherry trees to the City of Vancouver, British Columbia.  The trees were meant to honour the Japanese-Canadian veterans of WW1.  A few years later, Bunjiro and Kimi Uyeda, a local business owner and philanthropist couple, donated another 100 cherry trees to the city's park board.  The citizens and visitors alike have been enjoying the blossoms ever since. Today we enjoy thousands of cherry trees all over the city and they are in full bloom from late March to about the end of Apri with some areas starting earlier and some starting later.  Right now there is a Cherry Blossom Festival going on. I've never attended myself because it's often still cold and blustery and it's also a very busy time for me in general.  But the moment the sun shines and I have a few spare moments I get out and take some photos.

You can tell the weather was warmer as people are walking around without heavy jackets. It was so nice not to feel the chill when I went out. I don't need heat but I do like the temperature to be a bit higher than frigid, lol. I snapped this photo of the pretty tree with Christmas lights. The tree will likely remain lit all year long. 

During Covid, the city put seating in many streets all around town so people could visit outdoors instead of in their homes. After things got back to more or less normal, the city decided to continue with these outdoor seating areas and they've become a nice place to rest or visit, or both. Sometimes they have live free music. I noticed they added several tables and chairs on the opposite side of the street (the side on which I'm standing to take a photo).

On Wednesday the sun came out and brightened the day a bit. I managed to capture a bit of blue in the sky.

Thanks for joining me on Skywatch Friday.

A Gorgeous Day

Hello friends and fellow bloggers,

Here in my part of the world we will soon transition to Spring and planting season or growing season.  While I'm not so much into planning, I absolutely do love all the new growth, greenery and colour that will be in abundance.

I took these photos on Thursday for Skywatch Friday.  

It was a glorious, sunny day and a harbinger of better days to come though we're going to get a lot of rain, maybe even some snow this weekend.  We need it for our water table.

Happy Friday to each of you. Thank you for visiting my blog.

A Few Days in March ~ Skywatch Friday

Hello friends and fellow bloggers.

I hope Spring is treating you well so far. It's been roller coaster weather where I live with mostly gloomy skies, cooler weather and the odd beautiful sunny day.  I'm sharing a few days this past week so you can see what I mean.

March 27, 2024

March 26, 2024

And about 30 minutes later on the same day.

March 23, 2024

 

One of the many things keeping me busy this week is patio renovation. The construction job is behind schedule over all and my patio in particular. This week they were to replace the pavers on the patio membrane. After which they will build the retaining wall and fill it with soil. I don't know yet about whether they will hire someone to replant the gardens or if we will have to re-do it ourselves. When I bought the place it came with a fully planted garden that had trees. Now I may have to replace all those plants myself but we will have guidelines this time from a landscape architect's report about what can and cannot be planted. 

No matter what the strata council decides, I'm still paying for the replanting in addition to the payments for the construction. It's just that I would prefer not to have to do all the work myself as it's not that easy hauling plants up from the ground level. I talked to the strata manager yesterday and he couldn't tell me what the timeline is for completion so I don't even know whether anything will be ready for enjoyment this summer. We are expected to have very hot weather this summer and so the timing of that will likely coincide with when the garden will finally be ready.  Once it is ready to go, we will need to power wash the pavers and make them look nice again.

Last but not least, I wish each of you and your loved ones, a blessed Easter weekend if you celebrate.

 I'm joining in with Skywatch Friday this week. Thank you for stopping by.