Nightfall on English Bay

We had no camera with us as we slipped onto the water under a cloudless twilight, still pink in the west toward Vancouver Island and intensifying to a midnight blue over the city. The photo above, like the one at the foot of this post, was taken more than an hour after our moonlit paddle had concluded — after the kayaks were carried back to the house and the boats, our gear, and we had been properly showered. Only then did I return to the beach to capture what remained of the drama of the nightscape; and by then its crystalline perfection had melted to a lovely, if less breathtaking softness. The glassy surface of the water had become pocked by the slightest whisper of wind and a gauzy haze obscured the late-rising moon in the east. So you’ll just have to close your eyes and imagine.

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Salmon at Work (Part One)

Thanks to the planning, sweat, and diligence of a neighborhood volunteer group known as the Spanish Banks Streamkeepers, coho salmon are spawning in Spanish Banks Creek for the first time in more than fifty years.

Spanish Banks Creek, just down the beach from us in Vancouver, originates in Pacific Spirit Park, overlooking English Bay and the Straight of Georgia. The creek once ended in 90 meters of choked, narrow, subterranean culvert running beneath the N.W. Marine Drive roadway, the Spanish Banks parking lot, and the beach itself. Now, the creek-bed has been restored and the salmon are returning.