Vancouver Rain. Again.

October 17, 2014

Why does it seem to rain every time I go for a walk in Vancouver?  There has been precipitation on every day I have spent there on recent visits, even if it is sometimes just what the Irish would term a “grand, soft day.”

For those of us who live elsewhere, this could be looked at as fair recompense when the place is so unfairly blessed with topographic splendour. But maybe it is also a gift from the weather gods, an appeasement that permits us to remain contented with our own climates and locations. Maybe Vancouver rain is specially arranged for the visitor’s benefit, with the warm coastal sun scheduled to re-appear minutes after the departure of our flights eastward. If you, like me, are “looking forward” to a prairie winter, then it would be simply unbearable to think that Vancouver could ever get a string of autumn days of perfect crystal clarity, as well as those mild winter temperatures. Far better for us to always see this place in the rain, and to think that the residents must be miserable on account of the constant drizzle and mist, which are surely interrupted only by the occasional downpour.

Anyway, the rain does give vibrancy to the colours of plants and stones, even under such a flat grey sky. And I didn’t really mind getting a bit wet, since I was headed to the Vancouver Aquarium to commune with the jellyfish and comb jellies . . .

This appears Banksian (is Banksian an acceptable adjective?).

It would seem that it contains sewage at all times, then.

Japanese sea nettle Chrysaora pacifica at the Vancouver Aquarium

The comb jelly Pleurobrachia

© Graham Young, 2014