In the late afternoon today, the sun was streaming into our office, filtered by the trees outside and plants in the window. My youngest daughter was using the inkjet printer for a school project, when I turned around to leave the room and was struck by this image on the wall opposite the window. Erika grabbed the camera and captured this ephemeral moment. Just a little PhotoShopping to increase contrast and to crop, and voilà!

“The giraffe, in their queer, inimitable, vegetative gracefulness…a family of rare, long-stemmed, speckled gigantic flowers slowly advancing.” – Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), Out of Africa

I had some fun with the digital camera in my indoor garden yesterday, and now I play with words in a state of insomnia…

Weather is on everyone’s mind these days. Not long ago I wrote about the Westcoast’s unusually long spell of snow and cold, followed by extremely heavy rains that caused flooding and mudslides (including a buried house and loss of a life, sadly). The temperatures have climbed, fooling the gardens into thinking it’s spring.

This afternoon, despite my flu/cold, I was tempted outdoors for a little while by our first sunshine in a while and a temperature of 14C (57F). I poked around the garden, noticing many little signs of life. The snowdrops are always the first to come up even through the snow, but I was amazed to already see a few early crocuses and a hellebore in bloom. The magnolia trees have fat flower buds, spring bulbs are sending up leaves and some of the shrubs have green leaf buds – my mother called these in Finnish hiirenkorvat or mouse ears.

What a thrill to wake up to the first snowfall this winter in the Vancouver area, below the mountains that is! I went snap happy with the digital camera, knowing how fleeting this can be. Already as I’m writing this in the afternoon, it has stopped snowing and it’s melting a bit. The forecast calls for more over the next few days, so we hope it stays a bit, though Vancouver drivers get in such a flurry (pun intended).

These photos were taken around home while it was snowing and the sky was heavy and grey, so the results are almost black and white – rather interesting, wouldn’t you say?

Below is a photo taken looking out a window with a white paper cutout snowflake appearing in dark silhouette against the bright outdoors. Youngest daughter Erika has made these unique Christmas decorations for many years, and they are always the last to be taken down in the New Year.