2 January 2024 – The challenge is: how many icons can I jam into my first post of the new year? Icons that say, “Vancouver in winter,” but also speak to my own obsessions.

Off I go.

Start with: alley + street art + H-frame hydro poles + distant mountains fading into the misty drizzle.

Add: False Creek + Science World dome + Aquabus ferry + orange Port of Vancouver “giraffes” + (audio only, take my word for it) the 12-noon Gastown Steam Clock rendition of O Canada.

Add: a dance of lines & spaces.

Add: a surprise. If your eyes are open, there is always a surprise. (Though not always as dramatic, or unfortunate, as this one east of the Cambie bridge.)

Add: the gleam of rust in the rain. (Here, the sewer-pipe “train engine” over a Hinge Park creek.)

Add: winter tree trunk moss, garnished with fernlets.

As I walk back south on Ontario Street, I think: It lacks only a crow.

And then, just north of East 5th, there he is!

Yes, yes, I know. He is white, and painted, and riding a skateboard. But I say he is a crow, and it’s my blog.

My year has begun.