It's definitely fall when you can jump into a huge pile of leaves, We've had some cold weather for awhile... I've paddled and picketed through the recent rain. But this weekend, the weather warmed up, and all the leaves have started falling on the ground.
I started my Sunday off with a Gung Haggis Fat Choy dragon boat team practice. The day was warmer than expected. Good short sleeve
paddling weather. We are doing long slow distance paddling from
Science World to Granville Island. It's about a 2km distance. Much
more than a usual 500m dragon boat race. But after doing the recent
2km races for UBC Day of the Long Boat and Fort Langley Cranberry
Festival Canoe Regatta, everything is easy. We are going to paddle up to Remembrance Day, then take a break over Christmas... then start up maybe after Valentine's Day. Come out and join us on Sunday 1pm. We meet just south of Science World at the Dragon Zone clubhouse.
-photos Todd WongMarlene and Wendy have been a wonderful pair of lead strokes and really enjoy paddling with each other. Georgia joined us this year for her second year of paddling, and we've put her in more situations than she expected - including eating haggis, wearing a kilt, dragon boat sprint races, dragon boat barrel racing, tipping over in a voyageur canoe race. She's such a good sport.
Here's the huge pile of leaves... me in the leaf pile!
Leaves have been changing colour and
now are on the ground. The weather is
chilly, and the beaches are finally
empty of sun worshippers. We went for a walk around Kits Point and discovered a huge pile of maple and chestnut leaves. Some people had been raking the leaves and jumping from a tree into the leaves. CRAZY!
We walked around Kits Beach, up to Heritage Harbour, and often down behind the Kitsilano Yacht Club to Trafalgar St. We saw a Kingfisher sitting on a sail boat mast at the Yacht Club.
Only the seagulls really seemed to enjoy Kits Pool this summer. Once the strike went into it's 2nd week, the pool had become quickly unfit for swimming. By mid-August it was clear the city probably had no intention of draining it, and refilling it with clean water before Labour Day.
CUPE 1004 and CUPE 15 Outside and Inside workers are all back to work now. It's only CUPE 391 Library Workers still out. Talks went on this Monday afternoon... which is better than most of the summer when the Library Bargaining team went almost 5 weeks before replying to a union proposal. As a library worker... it's been a disappointing bittersweet summer, as the non-talks dragged on after our contract expired in December.
see my articles and pictures on the strike situation here:
