3 September 2024 – Yesterday, Monday, was the pivot.

Holiday Monday, Labour Day, and good-bye to summer. One season ends; a new one begins — kiddies go back to school, organizations launch fall schedules, our clothing is suddenly no longer / once again appropriate.

I do myself a Monday loop down around my end of False Creek. Me plus half the city. We are at play!

Cyclists stop to buy yerba mate from a tricycle-based vendor…

a lone kayaker veers toward the Creekside Paddling Centre…

a busker sets up shop outside Science World…

but, oh, not everybody has a holiday.

These two are hard at work…

turning the white railing white again.

Over at Plaza of Nations, Batch (a pop-up shipping container bar) is closed for the day…

but right opposite, on the other side of the Seawall pathway, Alien E-Bike Rentals is open for business.

Locals may depend on their own bikes, or their own two feet, but visitors like what the six-language website tells them: rent a bike for two, or three, or even five hours, and loop your way around the whole Seawall.

Any day, the basketball courts in Coopers’ Park resound with the thunk of bouncing balls.

Sometimes — as in, a moment from now — they also ring with yelps of triumph, when someone sinks his shot. Look slightly above & to the left of the net. See? That ball is on its way.

It’s not just humans, pivoting from one season to another. We only do it because nature leads the way.

As I climb the incline ramp at the north end of Cambie Bridge, I look between the levels, and there it is…

colour! Our very own Trooping of the Colour.

It’s not yet officially fall, here in Canada. That arrives with the Fall Equinox, this year at 8:43 a.m. on Sunday, 22 September.

So: officially, no. But viscerally, in our bones, in our blood, in the quickened rhythm of our day? Oh yes.

Fall is here.