The Thingbeard

I spent the winter and unusally cold spring working on vfx for The Thing and as OT wore on and the weather stayed bleak and grey, I decided to try and develop a beard worthy to take on The Thing itself. See file photo below.
And he was bronze- his great red-bronze beard, the heavy hair that matched it. The gnarled, corded hands gripping, relaxing, gripping and relaxing on the table planks were bronze. Even the deep-sunken eyes beneath heavy brows were bronzed. - description of Macready from the original story text.Clearly I had some difficulty with bronzed and heavy-haired bit, but vfx breeds nothing if not 'gnarled' and 'deep-sunken.' Then I read the text a bit further and found the resemblance went just as far for the creature: ...from a face ringed with writhing, loathsome nest of worms, blue, mobile worms that crawled where hair should grow-So today in preparation for a new job and the start of spring, the whole beast was shorn off, leaving only a few photos (the one above will likely be the cover of my acoustic guitar album should vfx fall through financially) and a tale or winter horror.
But in memory of the great facial hair of yesterday, you should check out this link and vote for your favorite :P

Spring Birds

The last few weekends we've had some good luck getting close to some special birds. These Harlequin Ducks are typically very shy and reclusive, but one day at low tide we were able to get within a few dozen feet of a group resting on some tidal rocks.
On the same walk we were wandering down one of the many forested paths of Stanley Park when we heard a tapping in the bush and stopped just in time to spot a Pileated Woodpecker foraging for grubs on some rotten stumps and logs. Better yet, it quickly turned out to be a pair out together and we watched them for several minutes before they flew off.
The first batches of goslings are just starting to be out and about, with several groups of slightly different ages all scampering around some shallow pools near Lost Lagoon. These ones were particularly cute, running around behind their parents and being generally charming.

Crowd Control

One Saturday a few weeks back, Kathryn and I were heading out for a morning walk and our neighborhood conspired to make things a bit more unusual than we were expecting. First off there was an apartment fire a few blocks away from us which was being put out though smoke was billowing all over the place. We've seen a few aparment fires and one at the docks in the last few years, so this wasn't in itself THAT surprising.
The fact that it coincided with the date of the Vancouver Sun Run and that there were 50000+ people now swarming through the exact area people were trying to fight a fire in did complicate things slightly.
Though in the end it was only a minor complication and its hats off all around to the Vancouver Fire Department for casually rerouting a torrent of runners out of their way and saving a building at the same time.
Kathryn read later that the fire was believed to have been caused by an elderly occupant leaving candles unattended, which once again serves as a warning to us all to be careful with open flames left alone in your home. Much like alligators, they can start off cute but they grow without warning and can make your apartment life awful.

The Sinister Facade of the Mute Swan

Lost Lagoon is a favorite bird watching spot for Kathryn and I as it has a nice rotation of migratory and resident waterfowl. Resting firmly in the latter category are a group of Mute Swans given to Vancouver by the Queen some years back. Apparently once the people can elect their own representatives and governments its alright for monarchs to just hand out foreign birds instead of ruling anyone.
They're very nice birds and as they're fed and pinioned by the city park they don't spread around or get themselves into trouble and manage to spend most of their time posing for holiday pictures and looking serene.
So I was doubly shocked when we saw this individual repeatedly dredging up a fish carcass of some sort (we assume it was a carp) and worrying it about repeatedly. For peaceful and regal looking birds, the rolling eye and thrashing neck of this one in particular are making me rethink their stately natures.
And as reputed vegetarians I find this behavior all the stranger.

Latvian Market

We got around the Baltic countries mostly with regional buses which typically had pretty long drives between cities, so we'd stock up on food before each one. Going between Riga and Vilnus we got some supplies at a series of old zeppelin hangars which had been converted into a huge marketplace.
There was a wide range of foods to eat there including some rather suspicious looking dried fish which we declined to be adventurous enough to eat.
We did end up with some nice cheese, butter and delicious dark Russian-style bread. Having completely neglected to bring any cutlery we managed to get our food ready with a nail file Kathryn happened to have in her bag and made some very tasty sandwiches on the bus.

Tidal Feeders

I have been somewhat wedged in the Overtime Machine and not had as much spare time for adventures and updates as I would like lately. All the same, last Sunday we had the great fortune to combine a day off with a sunny afternoon and took a nice long walk. The tide happened to be out and the tidal rocks along the sea wall were exposed with a selection of birds on them. This double-crested cormorant was rather shy, but big enough to get nice pictures of from a distance.
This little flock of Sanderlings were too busy foraging for their lunch in the surf to even bother with me and I could get quite close to them before they spooked.
We've seen Black Oystercatchers near us on the rocks several times before, but they have typically been quite far away and skittish. Since we were quite far from the crowds and being good we could get reasonably close to a group of half a dozen, but even when they were resting they always had an eye on me.
This was also one of my first chances to test out my new telephoto lens and I'm very pleased with how its been working out. Wish I'd had it in Africa but Kathryn will almost certainly let me take us back there before too long to test it out.

Spring Flowers

After a rather long, grey and rainy winter we finally had a nice sunny day for a very pleasant walk today, and at the risk of angering our family and friends in colder parts of Canada, thought we'd share a few wildflowers in our neighborhood and hopefully remind you all that spring is on the way.
All these flowers were in one spot in Stanley Park and within 10 feet of each other, but all showcase some nice variation. The tulip above even had a sleepy bee on it, covered in pollen and warming up for a big day of bumbling about.
The snowdrops shown above are very prolific throughout the park and are a pleasant sight wherever you go. The irises below were tucked in at the base of a tree in a little cluster and bravely starting out their spring.
Since neither of us are accomplished botanists I don't have too much to add regarding any of these flowers except that as today is the first day of spring, they were a very pleasant sign that winter is over and the warm weather we all love is just around the corner.