SURPRISE!

Yesterday morning, I was sitting outside a certain coffee shop that rhymes with... far-ducks... and enjoying the warm sun on my face.  And then this morning we woke up to 8 inches of snow. What the far-duck?

So I dawned my wellington boots, scraped off the car, and drove (about 15 km/h) to Mount Doug Park to check out the beach in the snow.

Allan's Mom and her dog Rosie joined us for the walk.

Our house had more snow then at the park.  The tree is looking a little heavier then usual.

I felt bad for these little guys, out in the cold.

Dominican Vacation

We recently spent an amazing week in the Dominican Republic, staying at the beautiful NH Real Arena in Punta Cana.  We were there for a destination wedding, and they couldn't have picked a better spot.  Seeing as we were there with such a large group of really fun people, we didn't find any reason to leave the resort the whole time.

The only time we did venture out, was to take a boat trip to snorkel at a spot that was visible from the resort.  We could see this building, on stilts out in the water, from the boat.

I loved the colour of the water so much.

The timing was perfect for this shot.  As the guy in the boat lifted his arm to wave, a guy jumped into the water on the right, making it look like the boat guy threw something large into the water.  I only noticed this today as I went through my edited photos from the trip.

This is a panorama of the untouched jungle of palm trees.  One of the couples from our group had reportedly tried to walk down to this point, but was stopped by security as he left the rows of resorts, to reach the jungle.  The security officer told him it was too dangerous.  I wonder what the danger was...

The sand was so white that it didn't even burn our feet.

The pelicans were busily fishing during the day.  I caught this one as his head went into the wave.

This is a collage of all of the shots I took of the pelicans.

Frosty Mornings

 January in Victoria brings the hints that Spring is just around the corner.  My Snowbells made their appearance early in the month, and are in full force these days.  Can you believe it?  Bulbs appearing in January!  While we still have our share of rainy days, we're also seeing a lot of frosty mornings preceding clear, sunny, but chilly, days.  Combine those with a lawn that hasn't been mown in months, and I've got photographic fun.

These bushes were covered in beautiful blue and purple flowers late into the winter, until our first snowfall killed them off.

But they still look beautiful with a frosty covering.