Sunsets

It was a cold farmers market on Sunday.  We had a bit of snow on Friday night, and then the temperature dropped to below freezing and the wind howled, and it was miserably cold, at least cold for us.  At the market we were set up inside, but the doors were open most of the time, so despite having tights on under my jeans, plus multiple layers on top, and a scarf, I got cold.  A few times I went outside and found a protected sunny spot, (there wasn't much wind on Sunday) and was able to soak up a bit of heat from the sun.  

After the market was over and we were all packed up, we met a friend for lunch and then Larry headed home and I went to visit my mum.  The care home she is in is 5 or 10 minutes from the market, depending if the traffic lights are in my favour or not, and this past Sunday they were.  My mum always wants to go OUT.  Quite often we go the grocery store to pick up some of the extra things she likes to have.  Right now she is having a lot of trouble with one foot.  A large patch of skin cancer on it, plus a couple of smaller ones, and it is heavily bandaged.  Hard to get a shoe on it.  A couple of weeks ago I just pushed her for a walk in her wheelchair straight from the home.  The last couple of Sundays have been quite cold, so instead I suggested we just go for a drive.  Thankfully that was okay with her, as even to get her and the wheelchair in and out of the car once is a difficult chore for both of us. In the three years she has been in the care home, I can only really remember one time that I visited her and we didn't go out.

The Sunday before last I suggested we drive to Crescent Beach and watch the sun set.  It was hard to get her moving, so when we finally got there, the sun wasn't setting over the water as I thought it would , but because the days are so short, had already disappeared behind the houses on the last point.

We were parked in front of the dog swimming area, and the tide was right up.  There were no dogs there that day.  A lonely boat is chugging towards the marina. Vancouver would be off in the distance on that sliver of land on the right edge, with the north shore mountains in the background.

Yesterday we went for another drive.  This time we went back the way I had got there, and down to the beach.  This is the pier at White Rock.

White Rock got more snow than us, but even there, some of it had melted, especially close to the water.

See that breakwater at the end of the pier.  My dad used to fish around there in his little boat, and jig for cod.  Sometimes I went out with him.

There is some boat moorage on the right at the end of the pier, and now just a small dock on the left.  There used to be a large dock there that formed a square, it was called The Tank.  I took swimming lessons for a year or two there in the summer.  The lessons went rain or shine or jellyfish.  Yes, at times a bunch of jellyfish would pass through.  After all, we were swimming in the ocean.  I wasn't much of a swimmer, and was often the oldest one in my class.  I hated it, and was so glad when my mother switched me to tennis lessons when I was 12.  Tennis I was good at:)

The tide was going out.  There is a sandbar forming halfway along the pier.  It wasn't there in the previous picture.

We drove up the hill and got one last shot of the sun before it set.  What a view that house would have.  I wonder if they ever tire of the view, or don't notice it any more.  Probably not. You can just see the pier and the breakwater to the left of the house.

There was one more thing I wanted to drive past.  I had noticed this when I had gone to retrieve the truck at the end of the market from the parking under the community center.  This is part of the area where the summer markets are held.  Someone got pretty creative:)

My mum has a doctor's appointment this week, where he will cut away another small spot of skin cancer.  Just before Christmas she has an appointment with a plastic surgeon to take care of the mess on her left foot and ankle.