NaBloPoMo and a trip to the mainland

Well, who would have thought it?  November is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) - and here I thought it was just National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  Google it - if you are a blogger,  it appears November is the month to celebrate our art and show our commitment by posting a blog every day. There's even badges and prizes and support sites for those that like that kind of stuff.  Strictly speaking,  the 'rules' talk about 'writing' a post every day.   While my blog is more photography than actual writing these days, I'm proud to have made it to day four.  My entries for this month aren't reflecting the chronology of my last month of not posting but more a reflection of how much time I had to edit a file of photos, and what particular  file appealed to me.

Two weeks ago I made a quick trip to the mainland.  I try to go over every October to see friends and family in case winter weather deters me from visiting for a while - I don't drive on snowy or icy roads. While there, I visited some friends I hadn't seen for a while and admired the flowers still blooming in their garden:

October flowers and a pepper

I also loved this wagon full of pumpkins and squash sitting by their door:

The next day I was meeting some family and friends for lunch and arrived at the restaurant with lots of time to spare,  so I visited nearby Deas Island Park.  It is one of my favourite parks - an oasis of pleasure in the midst of  Metropolitan Mayhem.  Wedged between the Fraser River and a lagoon, with trails through forest and meadow, it affords views that shift from nature to industry to cityscape to mountains.

Despite its proximity to urban areas, the park is always quiet - the few people I saw were, like me, quietly enjoying a moment's reprieve from the noise of the city.  This man, in his french beret, pulled out his camera to capture many of the same images as I.

And this woman with her aging mother reminded me of the several times I had brought my own mother here in the last years of her life. We'd walk the paths, she with her walker or, later, in a wheelchair, and rest at a picnic table where we'd share a thermos of tea and a snack.

Nearby, a maple called to me to photograph its fancy dress - the beautiful fall colours that are pure joy to behold even if they do tell us that winter is not far away. Gazing at the tree, I tell myself to live in the moment and not think about the dark drab days to come.

Today, for the first time this fall, I had to turn on the heat in my house.   And darn it, darkness came shortly after 5:00 tonight!  So winter is weighing heavily on my mind - it is not my favourite season. Yet when I look around me, there are still many flowers, and the trees are full of colour, and my grass is still growing and badly in need of a cut.  So I  remind myself it is still fall, and here on the island it will soon be spring - in just a couple of months we'll be seeing the first of the spring flowers popping up through the dirt. Winter, I shall ignore thee!