Tuesday 19th November 2013, day 132 - Wonderful Autumnal Weather

"Come, faeries, take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the dishevelled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame!"
 - William Butler Yeats, 'The Land of Heart's Desire'

While this world isn't dull, I do like faeries, and the wind, sea and mountain references are very appropriate. I'm a girl of simple pleasures, and have been filled with childlike glee all day simply because of the weather. It's been one of those glorious late-autumn days where the sky is a cloudless azure, the air is cold and the wind is strong.

Clouds have obscured the mountaintops for the past couple of days and there's a bit more snow on them now, both the rocky ridges of Grouse Mountain and the softer tree-covered summit of Cypress Mountain. As I'm writing this, I've been watching through my window the gradual shift in colours as the sun has set, and can't decide which effect was more beautiful. At first, both the dark green trees and the white snow were a lovely shade of pink. Then, a while later, the sky instead was pink, but a softer shade, and the snow back to a cool bluey-white. Now the snow is sort of pearly against an indigo sky.

Putting on my thermal leggings, an extra pair of socks, and the thermal hat I had bought in Tofino (not to mention gloves, scarf and windproof coat with attached fleece) I took myself and my camera down to the beach I found a couple of weeks ago. I started grinning as soon as I entered the park. White horses played all over the Burrard Inlet and English Bay, and were even visible far out past Lighthouse Point. The waves curled in with regularity and under the constant roar of the windswept water I heard the soft lapping of each individual breaker as it washed up over the sand. Zephyrus sent the crows and gulls soaring with no effort on their part. I took a few photographs, but then just sat and watched and listened.

After forty-five minutes sat on a rock by the sea in a wind that makes the air temperature feel like three degrees Celcius, I decided to get up and move. The weak warmth of the early afternoon sun on my face was welcome as I made my way back to the house. Once more indoors, I switched on the little heater in my room for a few minutes before going down to the kitchen for peppermint tea and a warm lunch.