I write fiction almost every day, but I do get in a considerable amount of downtime on the weekends now, and last week I spent much of it outside. It was sunny and warm and glorious out, and so there was walking: 
Kelly and I were out for about a long stretch on Saturday, and Barb and I went out Sunday morning. We started at Jericho–you’ve already seen the terrier photo–and kept going until we got to the eagles nesting at the edge of Vanier Park. Here’s one, gnawing on a steak bone it found somewhere:
But you can’t just wait for the sun to appear, not on the Coast in the winter. Today it was dark and chilly but not quite raining when K and I set out toward downtown, through Strathcona. We went through the public part of Sun Yat-Sen, and had the place almost to ourselves, but for the ducks and about a dozen crows. Even the koi and turtles were hiding from the weather. We saw some early cherry blossoms and, as we continued past Gastown to Canada Place, a surf scoter*, which is just about the oddest-looking bird I’ve seen in person (as opposed to on TV).
I carry an Audubon bird book in my iPod nowadays, so we were able to identify it on the Skytrain home.
