by by the Fraser River estuary
Yesterday afternoon was one of sad goodbyes as we saw our daughter and granddaughters to the airport for their flight back home to London. Husband took the afternoon off work too, so we could do a little exploring of another region new to us, as we often do if we’re farther from home with the car.
So, after leaving the airport in Richmond, we headed to that city’s south arm of the great Fraser River and estuary. We parked next to the West Dyke Trail looking over the broad salt marsh. Taking umbrella and camera, we strolled south towards Garry Point Park located next to the old village of Steveston.
The weather was very overcast, drizzly, calm and warm. Have I mentioned that we’ve had the warmest January on record, after one of the coldest a year ago? It was too misty to clearly see the mountains north of Vancouver and on Vancouver Island. Even the photos of the extensive salt marsh along the dyke trail look colourless and lacking detail. However, here are a few of our favourite shots. I love the bullrushes and the dark silhouetted trees while husband captured some of the plentiful bird life in this protected region. A couple of freighters, a few tugboats and fishing boats passed by along the river.
We warmed up even more with delicious spicy Indian food in a modest little place in Steveston before returning home to an oddly quiet house.
January 30, 2010 in Being an Artist, Canada and BC by Marja-Leena
I’m sorry the time finally came for your family to leave. There’s something extra sad about saying good-bye to children because you know for sure they’ll be different very soon. Meanwhile, the photographs of the softly lighted shore are lovely. I especially like the tree filled with bird leaves.
Susan, we can look forward to seeing them again in July and we also do almost weekly iChats with them. So it’s not as bad as it was decades ago when we left our grandparents in Finland and did not see some of them ever again except for one grandfather some ten years later. Today travel and communications are much cheaper and faster, aren’t they?
There were a couple of these trees, weeping birches? in a Japanese garden and they were full of these gossipy birds, starlings perhaps, quite charming really.
Salt marshes can provide an impressive, if austere, backdrop even when they’ve been converted into salt pans. Our French house was quite near to Guerande, source of coarse cooking salt sold round the world. The area was both desolate, utilitarian yet individualistic, qualities which the car driver was unable to appreciate: the narrow roads often took unexpected 90 deg bends round the rectangular pans and it was best to follow them precisely. Small stands at the side of the road offered both rock salt and samphire and the latter is also available here in Wales. Samphire we like, rock salt we regard as a con: salt, on the whole, is salt. Tastes salty!
I like the misty and calm feeling of your pictures.
Ps. Here in Finland we have had a cold and very white January…
BB, interesting to learn about the salt marshes you have known! We buy French sea salt because it’s healthier, I wonder if that’s where it comes from? I had to look up ‘samphire’. Other than the Japanese ‘nori’ used in sushi, I don’t think I’ve eaten sea plants. I think the Fraser River estuary might not be so salty because of the huge volume of freshwater flows into the ocean, which is probably why the marsh full of bullrushes and grasses looked to me just like freshwater marshes. The First Nations peoples would have gathered a lot of sea life along the coast in the past, and some still do.
Leena, yes, the mists have their own gentle beauty. I have read about Finland’s very cold winter, also in many other areas of Europe including England. It has been surprising people who have gotten used to winters getting milder, just like we were shocked last winter.
I’m always a bit stunned when I see a post like this. Another example of an amazing place I have never been and it’s right in my backyard. I should really attempt crossing a bridge now and again.
Hi Wandering, another Vancouverite, I see! It really is amazing how many wonderful places there are to discover and explore around the Greater Vancouver area. We’ve lived here over 30 years and haven’t seen it all. We love to be ‘tourists’ at home.
Oh good. I’m glad to see my assumptions are even more out of date than I knew 🙂 Children, especially little ones, are a delight and a blessing.
Susan, oh, of course I’ll miss the little ones, for they do change fast! I’m just trying to tell myself that at least we’re not totally cut off for many months. They are indeed a delight and blessing! Do you have such delights in your life these days?
And I forgot to say that I love “bird leaves” 🙂
You seem to be experiencing global warming and we a colder winter than we have known for some years. Climate change is a better word, I suppose. I love that tree full of birds.
Joe, “climate change” does seem to fit better the erratic patterns we’ve been having, doesn’t it? With so much starting to grow here now, we’re fearful of a late killing frost. The birds seem to be having quite a gossip up there, we thought.