Steven's visit and the various animals that ensued

 Kathryn's brother Steven was in town over a weekend recently and while showing him the sights, we managed to fit in several animal related photos worth sharing. With only a few days in town and an existing familiarity for much of the city, we spent most of the time at Granville Island or English Bay with a little visit to the aquarium tucked in. First off is the obligatory "Everyone Loves the Cat" photo in which all guests must smile as though pleased with the animal while he is digging his claws into their arm.

 The dolphins, belugas, and otters get all the mainstream love, but my favorite things at the aquarium are always the weird little fish tucked into corners that nobody notices. Like this Warty Frogfish, which I did not even know was a thing. Modern marine biologists have yet to quantify how much this creature sounds like Gilbert Gottfried, but hopefully someone is doing their doctorate on the topic right now.

 The baby geese are all hatched and their parents are both fearless and belligerent, but it was still surprising to see this sizeable family step into the busy traffic of Granville Island and stroll across the street. I even had a trace of my faith in humanity restored as all the drivers stopped and let the entire family cross.

Prepping the balcony garden

Every spring there is a big plant sale at the VanDusen garden, and every few years we manage to make our way down to take advantage of it (and fight old ladies over the last kale). This year we went with our gardening aficionado friends Ginna and Travis, and even managed to snag a friend with a ride of theirs, making it far more pleasant than taking the bus.

We were quite early so there was plenty to see and choose from. Kathryn was even sweet enough to pose with all her new acquisitions for a little photo in the checkout line. I unfortunately underestimated how much space we had available on the balcony so she didn't get as much as she might have if I wasn't along, but we still have a lot of nice new things in our little garden. All told we now have tomatoes, rosemary, fuchsias, tomatoes, miniature rose, kale, and a sundew now adorning our apartment.

Kathryn has been making so many nice little pots in her ceramics course that I wanted to be sure to highlight at least one of them with a plant. Neither of us are huge cactus fans, but they had a goodly assortment of succulents, so I picked one out to perch on the living room window and put some of her hard work to good use.