UPDATE: apparently this was a two-alarm fire (really?! but look at all that smoke!) at Big O Tires, an automotive repair centre. That makes sense, the black smoke could be from tires. And now, an hour later, not a whiff of smoke is coming so I guess it wasn’t as bad as it can get.

Supposed Spires looked like this.  Not great pictures but such was the day.

Before I got to these though, I had to walk through the park on 41st, between Fraser and Knight.  There was a single cherry there, a huge Yoshino (or Akebono).

Next up, beautiful Accolades which aren’t exactly rare but it’s rare to see any left at this time of the year as they normally bloom in March.  I stumbled upon a few still open flowers.

Next up are Akebonos, or Yoshinos.  Not sure which cultivar were these as I didn’t pay much attention.  They were just a bit past full bloom.  This was the biggest tree on the block.

Beautiful cherries.  Very common around here, though.  The second picture is Accolade, by the way.  I sneaked it in.

Next trees are supposed to be pretty rare, though.  Tai Haku cherries.  Incredible display in Marpole, on 66th or was it 67th?

And some more.  I think these might be the most beautiful cherries in Vancouver.

Aren’t these just amazing?

And finally, Shirotae – Mount Fuji cherry.  These big, white double flowers looked great in full bloom, and the tree was overcome with flowers.

Yoshino cherries – all over town.  This huge one is from VanDusen botanical garden. 

The next one is from a residential street between the garden and the Queen Elizabeth park.  You can see the closeup of flowers.

The last one is near my building.

Weeping Higan Cherries  – in VanDusen botanical garden, should be in full bloom around now (on Saturday they looked like they were a few days short of fully blooming.

Shirotae (Mount Fuji) cherries – the ones with white double flowers. They are currently blooming at Granville and Georgia, in front of Sears. They are beautiful! Their leaves come at the same time as flowers which makes the combination look even better – green and white. And actually there are three or four of these right in front of my building, just starting to bloom!  If you look carefully at that picture of Yoshinos, you can see a tree with some green leaves, not yet in bloom – that is the same Shirotae, and today they have begun to bloom.

Takasago cherries – I probably saw them too but didn’t distinguish them from Yoshinos. These should also be in bloom around now and should be frequent in Vancouver.

Taihaku cherries – supposedly very rare in Vancouver. Judging by the picture on the website,they should be blooming now and the one tree that should be easily accessible is one close to the Burrard bridge, on the south side. I’d like to take a look.

Sargent cherries – there are some in full bloom on East 43rd Avenue, between Inverness and Knight streets.  I have not seen those. I did see a single Sargent cherry in the VanDusen garden, also in bloom right now but that one is much more white than these and is presumably not common in this region.

Umineko cherries – near the Queen Elizabeth Park’s duck pond. These were in full bloom over the weekend and are also white-greenish. While they look similar, they aren`t the same as ones on Georgia street.  The major distinction is that Umineko has single flowers while Shirotae has double flowers.

The second is the same thing. Have to decide which one to keep as official.

The next one is sunset at False Creek, at Science world (and no, I won`t be calling it Telus World of Science, ever).

Next one is again the same thing, but with more view of many cranes where the Olympic village for the 2010 Olympics is being built. I voted against, just so we`re in the clear.

And we have another picture in that area, as I was walking towards Best Buy. It was deep into fall and I was foolish enough to leave house way too late and too thinly dressed. Instead of sun I got sunset and then freezing as I was walking too much. This scene looked much better in real life.

Back to my apartment, here’s the view from my window on one weekend afternoon in early October (8th).

Then there`s one early morning before work when it`s all foggy. This is typical of October and November, especially around Halloween. This was on October 25.

And there was even snow, lots of it. December 7th.

Then today at lunch time I had to run back home as I forgot to bring some motherboards I was about to sell via Craigslist.  It wasn’t raining any longer but it was cold and windy and cloudy.  An hour later, and now while still cold and very windy (office building door stays open due to wind!) – the sun is shining and the sky is at least partially blue!

What the hell?!

Despite forecasts, the weather was not all that nice. It was cold and cloudy and it even rained a little bit on occasion.

It was still an enjoyable 2 hours as the trolley took us from Sun Yat-Sen gardens through various Vancouver neighbourhoods. They claim they’ll take you to parts of the city you probably don’t know about, and to a certain extent that’s true though it was surprising which those parts turned out to be. First we went through nearby Slocan – where I’d really not go normally as it’s in the core of Vancouver Eastside. Then we went past the Ice Cream Factory and the japanese food store I was familiar with. The real treat cherry blossom wise was the Gravely Street, at the corner of Windermere. There is an the entire block there with old, huge Yoshino trees which were in full bloom at the time. This is also a well-known attraction as there were always people there whenever I’d happen to pass by during the blossom season (it’s also advertised on the festival’s website but I assume people really know about it from before anyhow).

The other highlight of the tour were not so much cherries as the actual neighbourhood – west side, to be precise. We went to a few areas I’ve never been and I was astounded at the view; we were on the side of a hill, somewhere above Kitsilano, in the area of “rich people” houses. It looked nothing like the Vancouver I know. Which made me happy because the thing I like about Vancouver the most is the huge variety of neighbourhoods – many of which look like they’re in a completely different city as the terrain is different, architecture is different, layout is different, even nationality of people is often different. Anyhow, I was reminded how good some of these houses looked – I haven’t been much in the area in a long time – but I was mostly impressed by the “outlook” nature of the area.
Other than at Gravely street, we haven’t actually seen any particularly impressive display of cherries. We have however seen some beautiful magnolia blossoms; magnolias are new darlings of city planners and from what I’ve seen, give it a few years and many streets will look amazing. I am partial to pink ones over white ones, however those have just started to be planted in numbers.

We also saw some plums though most of them were done with bloom by this time. I like plums because even though they are arguably not as pretty as cherries when in bloom, their flowers are very fragrant and it’s a beautiful fragrance. They definitely have the edge over mostly smell-less cherries (at least the Yoshinos).