This week’s photo challenge was ‘summer‘ but since I’ve been in Canada, the weather hasn’t been very summery, still quite pleasant and not uncomfortable in short sleeves but kinda damp. This afternoon though we went on a ‘behind the scenes’ tour of the Vancouver Aquarium.  The afternoon was warm and it felt pretty summery around the pool…

…and this gal was keen as to get out and about in the sun….

…but the African penguins didn’t seem too impressed…

…and it’s always summer in the Amazon Room…

…with a big burst of colour in the anemone tank too…

Really enjoyed our afternoon at the Aquarium and can really recommend it to anyone looking to kill a few hours in Vancouver…

The daisy chain went something like this: The Retiring Sort liked one of my recent blog posts and, as I try to always do, I popped on over to have a look at that blog…from there I saw the link the the alternate weekly photo challenge on Where’s My Backpack? offering ‘Reflections’ as a theme int he absence of a timely ‘offocial’ challenge from WordPress (c’mon, folks, how hard can it be to pick a  word every Friday – or even prior to that for a pre-scheduled release?)

I had intended to pick a relevant image from the photo library at home but never got round to it after creating the initial draft post and so found myself on the road in search of something ‘reflections-y’…

Due to high demand and overbooking, my hotel did not have a room for me when I arrived on Saturday night (but had arranged a very nice room in another hotel all the way back over by the airport) and I had to wait til around 3PM for my room to be ready on Sunday. After having a walk-around the waterf ront and doing a little exploring, I retired to the hotel lobby to wait on the room. This was not unpleasant as it was very comfortable and I am working my way through an anthology of Ray Cummings Golden Age SF on my Nook at the moment (now that I have shrugged off the tyranny of Barnes and Noble  efforts to inflict its version of rights management on overseas customers) and the foyer couches are very comfortable.

As I read, I noticed the reflections in the pool just on the other side of the window – nothing spectacular but enough to meet the requirements of the reflections challenge…

…but still quite tranquil until…

…this chap showed up and started to muss up the reflections theme…

He seemed very friendly and sat quite happily preening himself for a good twenty minutes, during which I had to point out the difference to a nice lady who offered the comment “…that’s a nice duck…”! She hauled out her phone to take a picture and, now clearly offended, he flew off before she could line him up…

The End

I have a couple of quite cool ‘through‘ (yes, I know this is last week’s challenge but this has been the first opportunity I’ve had to sit down and do some writing) pictures at home but they are not much good to me half a world away…my work schedule in DC was quite intense with most days being twelve hours or longer so I was starting to worry that I might not be able to meet the challenge while on the road…on a break though, I was strolling down Prince Street in Alexandria and noticed the very narrow alleys between blocks of houses. You can just see some hint as to what lies beyond as you glance through each gap….

I always enjoy being around old quarters such as this, wondering what tales that each might tell…