John Harvey Photo

July 2018

Go to Slide Show Smaller Images So many Activities in one month


Happy Canada Day!

Road To Granville Island Closed
We live a 5 minute walk from Granville island so going to the Island for Canada Day is the easiest thing to do.  The Island is owned federally (The CMHC) so they organize activities for the day and actually shut down the island to cars for the morning.  It's rare that you can walk down the middle of the road so I took a picture.


With most kids events in Vancouver, if you get there early, you want to head to the face paint area.  Obviously the lines are shortest at the start of the day and if the line isn't long the artists may have more time to add flourishes.  If you get your face paint first, hopefully the rest of your day has nice painted faces in them.  I did some research to find the face paint tent, but it turned out the parade walked right by where the kids were queued up.

Sitting On Benches With Flags Bird Stilt Walkers Kids Watching Parade

The Island did a nice job with the painters - lots of seats and talented artists.  The kids were thrilled with the work done.

Claira Getting Face Paint Nara Getting Butterfly Face Paint With Sparkles Claira With Full Face Butterfly

Nara And Claira With Face Paint
There a lot of things to do on the island - artist open houses, arts and crafts project and lots of food stalls. 


The kids wanted to do arts and crafts projects so we focused in that area.  They had tents setup for a button making place and another tent setup for a bird making project.  They had an outdoor musical instrument zoo the kids enjoyed.

Claira Making ButtonClaira On Bike Frame XylophoneKids With Cotton Candy

A Month of Time Lapses

The long summer evenings are inspiring for photography.  I went out to Terra Nova to take a time lapse of the sunset.  I did a few things wrong - I shot every 16 seconds when I should have shot more frequently.  I started the exposure way to bright so I lost the detail in the sun.  I lost some frames when I didn't pay attention to the exposure time.  I should have brought bug spray.

The month of July turned out to be a great month for time lapses.  I took three different time lapses of forest fires (Good Creek Fire , Driving Toward the Mount Enas Fire, and Close to the Mount Enas Fire) from the truck I was driving.  I also took a time lapse of setting up the tent in our camp site at Rathtrevor. 
 

Terra Nova Playground

European Skipper On Leaf
It's a holiday weekend, and you want to enjoy the sun?  Better go to Terra Nova early because it is going to get busy.

 
Terra Nova has two ziplines side by side, but they still get busy with all of the kids that come to visit.  Most kids are pretty good about bringing the swing back and keep the line moving fast, but sometimes a little help is needed.

Claira On ZiplineClaira Portrait On ZiplineNara On ZiplineNara Portrait On Zipline

The park has an obstacle course that targets older kids - younger kids can't reach all of the hand holds.  Claira is still a bit too young, but she can do most of it.  Nara owns the obstacle course.

Nara SwingingClaira On Obstical Course

Yew Lake

We hiked around Yew lake a three years ago with the kids and even further back as a short hike.  Nature Vancouver does a series of hikes every two weeks surveying the changing plants.  I figured it would be a nice hike to do again with the kids.

Slender Bog OrchidSwamp Laurel
The hike is short (perhaps 2.5km), well signed and has a high quality trail.  It's close to a stream or lake for most of the hike and while the elevation doesn't change very much, you pass through lots of different niches where different plants grow.  At the start of the hike I saw Slender Bog orchid growing in a few places - after that first 100 meters, I never saw it again.


Bee With HeatherFive Leaf Dwarf BrambleYellow Pond Lily

Glacial Remnant Reflected In Pond
Plants don't hold much interest for the kids, but they do like the small bodies of water and the stuff around the water.

Kids At Yew Lake

When we got to the lake, we had a snack and let the wildlife come to use.    A pair of Red Breasted Sapsuckers chased each other through the trees, briefly stopping by us.  Dragonflies flew past and occasional set down.

Red Breasted Sapsucker In TreeDragonfly On Trail
 
Trail Beside Wetlands
After a snack the kids were in a better place and we walked back to the car.  A good short day is better than a long bad day.

Corpse Flower Opening at Bloedel Conservatory

Kids With Titan ArumBlanca Umbrella Cockatoo At Bloedel Conservatory

The Bloedel Conservatory has been growing a Corpse flower - Titan arum or Amorphophallus titanum - for about six years.  Apparently the first bloom normally happens in year seven to ten but can happen as early as three years.  It's hard to tell exactly which day it will become super stinky and the magenta colored frill will open so we visited just before our camping trip.  The Conservatory was pretty empty and we got a nice show from Blanca, one of the resident big birds.  On the Monday morning that we left for our camping trip, we found out the corpse flower had opened.  Hopefully it opens again in the next three to five years so we don't have to wait to long to actually smell the flower!


Pre Camping Trip

Claira Under Front Yard Tree

This years camping trip requires a truck.  My car can only fit three bicycles and with all the stuff for camping, we are starting to have make sacrifices to get the necessities to the camp site.  New this year on the "necessity" list is a solid foam mattress because my wife doesn't like our air mattress.  Rather than just come over for a day to get the truck, we made it an overnight trip and enjoyed a morning at the local beach.

Clam Worm In Small Cup

The "only a few times a year" low tide at Cordova Bay beach is amazing.  Our days low tide wasn't that low tide, but it was low enough that we got a nice warm ocean and softer sand to build sand castles.  The digging uncovered a worm which the kids wanted to capture and examine.

Building Sand CastleKids Walking With Grandma In Shallow Bay

Post Camping Decompression

Dad Grinding Rocks
We went camping in the Okanagan and wound up coming back with a bunch of smokey camping equipment and rocks from a rock hounding trip.  The gear came out to get some air and the rocks came out so we could see what really had found on our trip.

Post Camping Truck Clean

Rock Collection From Camping

We were in Victoria for the weekend so the kids went to the local playground to try out the new gear and try to find some blackberries.  The blackberries were just starting to be ripe (maybe one berry in 20) so it was hard to find the few sweet ones.

Claira On Disk SwingNara Gathered Black BerriesClaira On Zipline At Mc MinnNara On Zipline At Mc Minn

I also had a productive walk around Outerbridge park.
 
House Wren On Stone
I must admit - I often don't know what I took a picture of until weeks later.  This was a small brown jobbie - not something I recognized.  Turns out this bird (House Wren) is at it's northern limit here but it exists all the way down to Brazil!

House Wren Cleaning Nest Box


Dark Eyed Junco
Another brown jobbie - this turned out to be a Juvenile Darked Eyed Junko.  He was quite patent, eating near the stones while I walked by. I though he was a sparrow but more research says juvenile.

Beacon Hill Children's Farm

Lorquins Admiral
We were in Victoria after camping and had a morning free so we went to the Beacon Hill Children's farm to visit the goats.  I like butterflies and notice a butterfly land in the goat enclosure so I took a picture.  I wasn't the only person that noticed - a kid came running over and scooped the butterfly up in her hands.  I didn't see what happened to the butterfly after that.


For some reason, the kids found one goat - not the smallest one, but only a few months old - and followed it around for most of the time.  Getting photos at the petting zoo is tricky - ideally you want something with a face of a person and a goat, but rarely do they both look at you.

Claira Happy With GoatClaira Made New Friend
 
Nara Drive By GoatNara With Goat
 

 


Claira On Zipline
Person: Claira
Altitude: 1m (3 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment, zipline
Red Breasted Sapsucker In Tree
Species: Sphyrapicus ruber (Red-breasted Sapsucker)
Altitude: 920m (3018 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park
Kids Walking With Grandma In Shallow Bay
Dragonfly On Trail
Species: Leucorrhinia intacta (Dot-tailed whiteface)
Altitude: 922m (3024 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park, dragonfly
Kids At Yew Lake
Person: Claira, Nara
Altitude: 922m (3024 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park, lake
Road To Granville Island Closed
Person: Claira, Nara
Tags: bridge, Granville Island, road
Claira Made New Friend
Person: Claira
Altitude: 35m (114 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Beacon Hill Children's Farm, petting zoo
Nara With Goat
Person: Nara
Altitude: 14m (45 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Beacon Hill Children's Farm, petting zoo
Nara On Zipline
Person: Nara
Altitude: 2m (6 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment, zipline
Dark Eyed Junco
Species: Junco hyemalis (Dark-eyed Junco)
Altitude: 40m (131 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Outerbridge Park
Claira On Disk Swing
Person: Claira
Tags: McMinn Park, swing
Kids With Cotton Candy
Person: Claira, Nara
Tags: candy, Granville Island
House Wren On Stone
Species: Troglodytes aedon (House Wren)
Altitude: 41m (134 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: bird, Outerbridge Park, rock
Claira With Full Face Butterfly
Person: Claira
Altitude: 4m (13 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: face paint
Dad Grinding Rocks
Person: Lloyd
Tags: rock, tool
Kids With Titan Arum
Person: Claira, Nara
Nara And Claira With Face Paint
Person: Claira, Nara
Altitude: 4m (13 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: face paint
Nara Swinging
Person: Nara
Tags: monkey bars, Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment
Glacial Remnant Reflected In Pond
Altitude: 929m (3047 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: alpine, Cypress Provincial Park, pond
European Skipper On Leaf
Species: Thymelicus lineola (European Skipper)
Altitude: 6m (19 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: insect, Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment
House Wren Cleaning Nest Box
Species: Troglodytes aedon (House Wren)
Altitude: 39m (127 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: bird, house
Lorquins Admiral
Species: Limenitis lorquini (Lorquin's Admiral)
Altitude: 14m (45 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: butterfly, insect
Sitting On Benches With Flags
Person: Claira, Nara
Tags: flag, Granville Island
Post Camping Truck Clean
Tags: truck
Trail Beside Wetlands
Altitude: 920m (3018 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park, trail
Claira On Zipline At Mc Minn
Person: Claira
Tags: McMinn Park, playground, zipline
Clam Worm In Small Cup
Altitude: 11m (36 feet)
Location: Go To...
Slender Bog Orchid
Species: Platanthera stricta (slender bog orchid)
Altitude: 922m (3024 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park, flower
Nara On Zipline At Mc Minn
Person: Nara
Tags: McMinn Park, playground, zipline
Claira Making Button
Person: Claira
Altitude: 14m (45 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: art, Granville Island
Nara Drive By Goat
Person: Nara
Altitude: 14m (45 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Beacon Hill Children's Farm, petting zoo
Nara Gathered Black Berries
Tags: blackberries
Nara Getting Butterfly Face Paint With Sparkles
Altitude: 4m (13 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: face paint
Claira Happy With Goat
Person: Claira
Altitude: 14m (45 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Beacon Hill Children's Farm, petting zoo
Claira On Obstical Course
Person: Claira
Location: Go To...
Tags: playground, Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment
Kids Watching Parade
Altitude: 11m (36 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Granville Island, parade, stilt
Bee With Heather
Species: Phyllodoce empetriformis (Pink Mountain-Heather)
Altitude: 929m (3047 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park, flower
Bird Stilt Walkers
Altitude: 11m (36 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: bird, Granville Island, stilt
Blanca Umbrella Cockatoo At Bloedel Conservatory
Claira Under Front Yard Tree
Person: Claira
Building Sand Castle
Altitude: 10m (32 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: castle, Cordova Bay, sand
Claira Getting Face Paint
Altitude: 4m (13 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: face paint
Yellow Pond Lily
Species: Nuphar lutea (yellow pond-lily)
Altitude: 934m (3064 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park, flower, pond
Nara Portrait On Zipline
Person: Nara
Altitude: 2m (6 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment, zipline
Claira Portrait On Zipline
Person: Claira
Altitude: 2m (6 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment, zipline
Swamp Laurel
Species: Kalmia polifolia (Swamp Laurel)
Altitude: 934m (3064 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park
Five Leaf Dwarf Bramble
Species: Rubus pedatus (Five-leaf Dwarf Bramble)
Altitude: 918m (3011 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park
Claira On Bike Frame Xylophone
Person: Claira
Altitude: 9m (29 feet)
Location: Go To...
Tags: Granville Island, musical instrument
Rock Collection From Camping
Tags: rock
Tags: Cypress Provincial Park(10), Granville Island(7), Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment(7), zipline(6), Beacon Hill Children's Farm(4), face paint(4)
People: Claira(17), Nara(12), Lloyd(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2023 to 2005 > July 2018

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