Another rainy/shiney day in N. Van.

A sure sign of spring, in Jeff's mind at least, is the lovely, stinky skunk cabbage.  It smells quite skunkish, but is really very beautiful - hey, so is the skunk, come to think of it!  It is well known that bears coming out of hibernation eat these - they dig up and eat the starchy roots, and also the leaves and flowers. 

This unusual tree has an official name, but I like it's nick-name best - the monkey-puzzle tree.  They say that even a monkey is puzzled about how to climb it.  This one grows just around the corner from Jeff and Kerry's place.

This morning Jeff went to the police auction in Vancouver.  We had previewed it yesterday and decided we wouldn't go, since there was nothing we wanted - and were too cheap to pay the $10 registration fee.  Jeff came home without a bike - said they went for the price of new ones!  No bargains!  After lunch we helped him with some container gardening - repotting, really.  They have a small garden, but do lots of container gardening.

This is the salmon berry flower - they grow in abundance around here!  The berry is edible and looks like a raspberry - may be red or salmon coloured.

After our gardening, we went for a walk in the Lynn Headwaters Park - just up the street from here.  There's a trail called the Varley trail, named for Frederick Varley, one of the Group of Seven artists.  He used to live in Lynn Valley.   Here, the "tree hugger" is at work!

The woods here are called a temperate rain forest, and there is a great deal of moss on everything.  Jeff says this is a "moss-tache".

This is a good example of a tree that grew over a "nurse log", the roots went around the log, and now the log is rotting away.

This part of Lynn Creek is a favorite swimming hole of Jeff and Kerry's on a HOT day - the water never gets very warm!

Here is a nurse stump, another place where trees grow.

This old truck has been around for a year or two judging by the trees growing up through the middle.

Some lovely little yellow violets.

Don't you wonder how this came about?

Kerry, we miss you - it just doesn't seem right to be doing these walks without you.  I hope you had a fabulous day in London and saw lots.  I'm waiting for your pics - how about a blog?

Tonight we watched a segment of Planet Earth on Jeff's laptop - what an amazing video! - as we ate banana splits.  :-)