Ah, idyllic nature. Spent most of the day wandering around here with a couple of fellow pedagogues, taking photos. It's a large park, down by the Fraser River, just east of town. We were there because one of our little group is an avid birder, and this is a place that often has interesting specimens flying around. Sadly, not much today. Still, a nice stroll.

One more thing - this idyllic spot used to be a farm, manned by convicts who were growing food for the poor folks living in the psychiatric hospital just across the road and up the hill. The cons are gone now (obviously) and so are most of the patients across the road. Turned lose, ostensibly in an effort to return them to "normal" life (but really to save the provincial government a bundle of money), many of them now wander Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, failing utterly to cope with a world they never had a chance in. Unless, of course, they're dead already.

The photographer giveth, and the photographer taketh away.