Homeless in Vancouver: Fiery sunrise and rainbow—colourful start to the day!

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      My Tuesday morning (November 8) started off with a real hue and cry.

      Right off the bat at 7 a.m., as I exited the gloom of an alley onto Alder Street, I saw that the east-facing facades of the distant glass towers of downtown Vancouver were brilliantly lit from without by the light of an unseen but obviously spectacular sunrise.

      I parked my bike and trailer long enough to get a few photographs of the view and then hurried south to West Broadway in order to get a look at the eastern sky.

      Sunrise seen from the rooftop parking lot of Toys "R" Us at 7:09 a.m.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine

      From the northwest corner of of West Broadway and Spruce I could see that the eastern-most edge of the dense cloud cover was edged with fiery orange.

      I dashed to the rooftop parking lot of the Toys “R” Us store, just kitty-corner in the 1100 block and was rewarded with a glorious view of frozen fire stretching across the entire sky.

      Sunrise seen from the rooftop parking lot of Toys "R" Us at 7:09 a.m.

      I snapped off 18 photos of the reflected sunrise to combine later into a large panoramic composite.

      Counting myself very lucky, I pocketed my camera and turned around to gather my bike and trailer…just as a rainbow began to coalesce in the western sky.

      The rainbow as it appeared in the western sky at 7:13 a.m.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine

      My concern, as I watched the quarter-bow of light form in front of me, was that it would fade before I could get my camera out to take a photograph but I managed.

      And instead of fading, the rainbow continued to grow in vibrancy and size.

      The composite panoramic composite (holes and all) of the full rainbow at 7:14 a.m.
      Stanley Q. Woodvine

      I watched breathlessly as—inside of a minute—the rainbow literally drew itself north-to-south across the sky, until it formed a broad arc resting on two, distantly spaced points of the horizon.

      It was a grand thing to see—there was even a hint of a double rainbow!

      After hurriedly snapping another 30 or so photos to composite later, I headed out of the parking lot, back down to ground level and onward to my morning coffee in the 1400 block of West Broadway.

      The rainbow kept me company, just over my right shoulder, all the way to the western end of the 1300 block. It disappeared without so much as a “pop” just as I reached the intersection with Hemlock Street! 

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer. Follow Stanley on Twitter at @sqwabb.

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