Ouch!

Either I or Google or both were having an off day, and this published two days ahead of schedule. I tried to pull it back and re-publish — without success as it turns out.

Ooooh, my aching legs! Yesterday, I decided to plant spring bulbs. I had meant to to do this little thing for four years now, but, come October, I always forget my good intentions. This year I had it on Google Calendar for Oct 01, and the folks over there were nice enough to remind me via email. What a great bunch!

But to get the bulbs in, about 90 in all, I had to clear many patches of petunias that had grown willy nilly all over the garden that I had planted earlier this summer. This has confirmed my intention that there will be no petunias next year; if I have to plant something else to fill in around the perennials that will be the backbone of next year's garden, I'll find another more compact plant. Not that petunias aren't pretty, but I think they need to be in their own bed.

So ... I did an awful lot of bending and squatting for several hours yesterday, and today my old muscles are paying a dear price. (Actually, it's not today when you read this but two days ago. We have gone to the cottage for a few days to celebrate Thanksgiving. I hope that we get a bit of sunlight to light those autumn colours, but the forecast doesn't look promising, and it is tending to rain umpteen times daily lately.)

I also performed the final (I think and trust) mowing of the lawn. Growth has been slow lately, so I don't think I'll have to mow again until about May.

Enjoy the weekend wherever you may be, but especially if you are Canadian and consuming a copious quantity of turkey. Personally, I plan make like a Thanksgiving turkey and get stuffed. But I would never tell you to get stuffed. How could you think such a thing of dear AC?




That's the garden as it stands now. You can see that it's in decline, but in fairness, I have also hacked out many petunias (or parts thereof). Visible in the rear of the front garden are the three Echinacea that I hope will bloom their little hearts out next year: along with other perennials that you can't see in the photo.

(Previous pictures of garden beginings and flourishings)

A Walk in the Park, Part 2

Today, I wish to drag ye reluctant hikers on part two of our epic walk along the seawall of Stanley Park. I hadn't intended to bedazzle you with a multi-part series, but my account of our marathon march was turning into a marathon post, so I decided to split it into two or even three parts, preferring to leave longer works for printed pages between covers.

We left the account with us somewhere along Burrard Inlet approaching Lion's Gate Bridge, and we were next planning to go up to Prospect Point (top red circle on the map). By this time, we had walked to the park, and along the bottom edge (see arrow #1).



As I said, since this was quite a journey for us, we often sat to rest and enjoy the view. In the next two photos we found a bench with a good view of the bridge. Cuppa remained on seated, enjoying the view while I snapped a few pictures: the first of her and looking toward the bridge; the second back in the direction from which we had walked, partly because there was some changing of leaf colour occurring.





Another trudge later, we crossed under the Lion's Gate Bridge.



At this point, just past the bridge, the horizons were beginning to expand to the open sea.



Just past the bridge, UP in the park, is the outlook that I have mentioned called Prospect Point. In theory we were heading there as it offers a fine view, overlooking this very scene. However, we were having trouble finding a way up, so we kept walking ...



... and walking ... to and past Siwash Rock ...



... unable to find a way up. Can you see our problem?



In the end we were forced to walk almost two kilometres past Prospect Point (top circle on the map below) all the way to Third Beach (second circle on the map). Part 2 of the trek is shown on the green line numbered two.



We climbed up from Third Beach, found a refreshment stand, and took this photo looking down toward the water.



It was decision time. We could leave the seawall and follow the trails back up to Prospect Point or continue along the seawall toward home. Plod onwards and upwards would add a few hours and about three kilometres, some uphill, to our quest. However, since we had visited Prospect Point in our previous visit to the park, two year ago, we were anxious get there again. We were also keen to finish the ramble around sunset, so we had time to kill ... to say nothing of our legs and feet.

... to be continued

A Walk in the Park, Part 1

As you can see in this reprise of the photo from the previous post, the girls withing a kilometre or two of Stanley Park, which at ~400ha/~1000ac is the largest urban park in North America.



The Seawall (the yellow route around the periphery of the park which is green on the map below) is at least 8km/5mi in length. Additionally, there are approximately 200km/125mi of trails (the brown lines on the map) in this park which is estimated to hold more than a half million trees. (Click on the map to see it twice as large.)



We had roamed Stanley Park a number of times when we visited Vancouver two years ago, but I had it in my head to walk the whole, seawall perimeter. I also would have liked to cycle it, but when push came to shove on the one full day that we had for exploring this recreational paradise, we opted to go by shanks mare (i.e. walk). Maybe we can cycle it next time, should there be one.

We left the apartment ~10 o'clock on that very hot morning, shopped for lunch provisions, which I, the pack mule, was designated to carry on my back. Oddly enough, said back held up extremely well that day, not getting sore as it often does on even much shorter walks. The trouble was that it was so hot at the outset, that I was almost willing to give up our plan to hike the entire seawall. When we stopped by Lost Lagoon for this pictures, for example, I was really feeling the heat and despairing of our plans.



However, once we had struggled to the shadier northern and western side after lunch and more exposed to sea breezes, it became ... a breeze ... so to speak. In fact, it was very pleasant over there. So, after lunching by the seawall while overlooking downtown Vancouver and the harbour on the other side and then purchasing souvenirs at the native operated Legends of the Moon gift shop, we were ready to go for it.

That's just what we did. We took our time, stopped often to relax, enjoy the view, and absorb our surroundings. In this section we were walking along Burrard Inlet (the top of the map) to Prospect Point (top red circle). The following photo, with the Lion's gate Bridge and North Vancouver in the background to the right is as good a sample view as any.


... to be continued

The Seawall

Aside from visiting with the girls, what we wanted to do most on this trip was to spend time on the seawall and in Stanley Park. By seawall, I mean the paths that are constructed near the shoreline (or seawall) for many miles. There always seems to be abundant Vancouverites and visitors walking along these paths. After all, isn't walking by the sea a wonderful thing?

Hopefully, this first, annotated photograph (below) sets the scene for you. I have labelled the girls' (I know they're ladies, but to us they're the girls and the other two are the kids) apartment in this shot from the nearby Burrard Bridge. Their apartment faces west, and Sunset Beach lies just out side their front door. The seawall path (see red line) more or less trends north towards English Bay and Stanley Park. For your convenience, it clicks through to a somewhat larger version.



We enjoyed our first stroll on our first evening after we had settled into the apartment and refueled after eating very little all day as one does one's best to avoid airplane food.



Althegal (above) was wearing her crazy Batman cape that she loves dearly and seldom leaves at home. We were still near home at this point by Sunset Beach. After we had walked for awhile, I took the picture of the three women (below) by English Bay. Just as a side note, I tend to refer to the whole strip from the apartment to Stanley Park as English Bay even though that is not technically correct.



After stopping off at the nearby Starbucks, which are rather ubiquitous in that fair city, we settled ourselves on a log back at the bay (below) to watch the water, the ships, and the lowering sun.



I won't try to write a blow-by-blow account of all of our various excursions and sittings along the seawall except to say that we got there often, beginning early the next morning. Therefore, I present the following photos more or less in chronological order with little commentary.

Below: after visiting Pufferpooper's shul in the morning, we spent some time huddling on Sunset Beach on Saturday afternoon. On one of the few cool intervals, we huddled by one of the many logs. The girls' apartment is the last complete one on the left, with some yellow along the centre.











I did say that the Seawall is well used, there almost always being many people strolling along. It's interesting to watch and listen to hear the many languages being spoken. The next two photos were taken at sunset of which we saw a few, and the third photo is the actual sunset.







The final photo on the eve of our departure.

No Place Like Home

Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.
John Howard Payne

It goes without saying that travel and holidays are great. We experience something different and/or find ourselves relaxing and/or spend time with family/friends. For us it was wonderful to visit with Althegal and Pufferpooper, to sit and walk and watch the sunsets English Bay, to hike the seawall in Stanley Park, to drive through the mountains, and to visit Osoyoos. But it's also special to return and enjoy and do my own thing in my own time in the comforts of my own home.

Soon after touch down at the airport, I heard someone screaming "hi" and saw an exuberant, joyful little girl running towards me at full speed. I wish I had a picture, but I have a memory that I will cherish.

The following pictures will have to do, and I think they do very well.

Seagull and Ships at English Bay

You will, no doubt, agonizingly recall my camera dilemma when contemplating the recent trip to Vancouver: whether to take the DSLR along with the point and shoot or not, and whether to upgrade the point and shoot. You may also recall my decision: to just take the point and shoot and not upgrade. Take it we did and have more than 500 photos to show for our troubles.

Here is one that I liked, taken on our first morning whilst walking along the Seawall by English Bay: a seagull seemingly between two ships anchored offshore (as they could hardly be anchored onshore). The original (albeit somewhat post-processed) photo comes first, followed by two of my feeble attempts at creativity. In the first attempt at artistry (second photo, below), I try to make it look more like a painting. What kind, I know not. The final image is a more outlandish take.






I know that I am not posting about itinerary or events yet. I may or may not; you must wait with bated breath see how the spirit moves ole AC. In the event, Cuppa has begun to post our doings over at her blog space. She has written three posts so far: our arrival (in a post entitled Nice to be Home), our first walk along the Seawall (After Dinner Stroll), and our second stroll along the Seawall (Early Morning Coffee).

Meanwhile D1, Thesha, also has travel plans; she's making a similar pilgrimage to the left coast in a few weeks. She has purchased a new camera. We're definitely a camera-obsessed family, but she really needed one. Really.

On Sneezing and Coughing

He was a very nice and helpful guy. We were in a store talking about what to see in Vancouver. He took us to a computer where he Google Mapped the place that he was recommending. He sneezed, politely covering with his hand. He then put this same hand on the mouse and navigated happily.

I don't know how many times I have seen this happen recently. It's bad. Don't do it.

We were once taught to cover our coughs and sneezes with our hands, but we now know that we spread and pick up germs mainly through these same hands. I once had a dental hygienist cough into her hand and then stick it into my mouth. Yuck.

I sneeze and cough into my sleeve these days when I can't find a tissue in time.

Go ye and do likewise.

The foregoing was a public service announcement brought to you by AC who is now home ... where it is cool and rainy ... after being in sunny and dry British Columbia. Thank you.