Sunday, December 28, 2008

Boxing Day +2

Woke up this morning and took the dogs for a walk--already the snow was pretty much gone. We met john and Louise for coffee and then the four of us went walking in the sunshine down to see the two kayaks abandoned on the beach (the one Paula salvaged and another). Both have been kicking around since the summer, but both have since been moved and are now clearly abandoned.
The weather has been terrific today. Lots of sun and mild temperatures--not even any wind. A bit of a breeze came up this afternoon--as usual--but it didn't get cold until the new front blocked out the sun mid-afternoon. When Paula and I got home from cleaning one of the cars we're responsible for (as members of the Victoria Car Share Co-op), I wandered down to Gyro Park to get some photos.


Olympic Mountains from a snow-free Gyro Park
The mountains aren't snow-free (although it may be difficult to tell from this distance), but the park is pretty much cleared. There's a lot of melt-water still trying to drain away, but there's considerably less than this morning (by about three quarters).


Wet, sure, but snow-free
The tides have been quite high (not perigeal tide high, but getting close), which makes it difficult for the park to drain. But as the tide goes out, the park empties. The park was originally a salt-marsh (home, I believe, to many harvest mice--which in some countries is how March goes out: like a salt-marsh harvest mouse), and is quite low. I suspect that if I took out a transit and stick, I'd discover that quite a bit of the park is below the high-tide line.


Frozen water in Gyro Park
There are those who are not unhappy with Gyro's slow draining. The photo above shows some of the undrained water in the park, which is appreciated by the local ducks (all fifty or sixty of them), and when frozen (as they are here), by the local kids who rarely get to slide about on frozen ponds. they were having a pretty great time.


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