ONE YEAR AGO TODAY

A change of pace, Gregg saw these on his Facebook page and gave them to me.  Many of you already know that they have a 'year ago today' feature.  

It is hard to believe that it has been a whole year since we went on our Alaska trip.  We started in Vancouver and had a couple of days before everyone else arrived.  In a local ice-cream shop we met this delightful couple we shared a table with.  It was one of those encounters when you meet friendly strangers who make the holiday a little extra special.

These photos are a bit blurry but you can read my post again here, where I also share many other photos from our time in Vancouver.

Also, to everyone out there who is celebrating, I would like to wish you all A Very Happy Cinco de Mayo.

A FEW FLOWER PHOTOS TAKEN THIS YEAR, SO FAR...

These were found on our holiday in Vancouver last May. 

Allium 'Globemaster' about to bloom
Scientific name: Allium sativum
Family: Amaryllidaceae

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom."
~Anais Nin~

Horned Tulip

Scientific name: Tulipa acuminata

(Synonym Tulipa Turcica)

Lily Family - Liliaceae

Peony

Scientific name: Paeonia obovatavar. alba

Peony family - Paeoniaceae

Native to China and Siberia

"Tulips were a tray of jewels."

~E. M. Forster, Howards End~

Yellow Crown Imperial

Scientific name: Fritillaria imperialis 'Maxima Lutea'

Family Liliaceae

The flowers of a Texas Buckeye Tree

Scientific name: Aesculus glabra var. arguta

"Tis my faith that every flower enjoys the air it breathes!"

~William Wordsorth~ 

"Lines Written in the Early Spring," Lyrical Ballads 1798.

I will be back on Monday.  Thanks for stopping by.  I'm going to catch up on visiting your blogs over the next couple of days.  

Have a great weekend everyone.

ALASKA TRIP - MAY 2018 - BACK TO GRANVILLE ISLAND, SEASONS IN THE PARK AND CHANGING HOTELS

I will add this on every post, just to let anyone who doesn't know, that we are actually back home.  I am now sharing my journal from the beginning of May.  If you want to see all the posts written so far, you can click on the label below this post entitled, Alaska Trip-May 2018.

VANCOUVER - GRANVILLE MARKET - SEASONS IN THE PARK - CHANGING HOTELS.

MAY 8TH, 2018

5.57 p.m. we have changed hotels and are now in one nearer the cruise line. Today we went to Granville Island again, and Seasons in the Park, this time with our niece and nephew. 

Left the hotel, managed to stuff all our suitcases into the boot, thanks to our nephew's great organizational skills.  We dropped luggage off at the new hotel downtown, and the desk staff took care of it all until our room was ready. 

I was happy we were driving back to Granville Island.  We walked around the market again, and niece and nephew treated us to breakfast.  We all chose a pastry from the same bakery we discovered on our last trip.  No, not the chocolate cake.

After a fun time looking at many of the stalls, we walked outside to the water's edge.

This time we took a water taxi, deciding to have a nice long walk on the other side of False Creek. 

We met a lady who had grown up in Belfast, and she was with a young lady from Austria.  They both had their dogs and as one of them came up to us and demanded a fuss, it started off a nice conversation.  She said she could tell immediately that we were all dog lovers. 

The other dog, not the explorer, was a rescue and a little more reticent.  

When I asked the young lady if he would mind me petting him, she said not at all but please to be careful of one spot where he had hurt himself, as he is a little nervous about it.  He had a bit of a sore looking graze on the back of his neck.  I carefully stroked him, avoiding the sore area and was rewarded with a wag of his tail.  The lady from Ireland wanted to know all about us.  She said she enjoyed talking to people.  Eventually it was time to move on and we said our goodbyes. We walked further along and found another taxi boat for a ride back.

I noticed a young lady with a gyrfalcon perched on her arm.  She was from the local raptor association.  

I asked her if the falcon was a rescue, and she told me it belonged to a falconer who had become tired of the sport and turned him in.  A beautiful bird and she was happy for me to take several photos.  

We stopped to listen to a street entertainer on our way back to the car. While our family explored a little more, Gregg and I sat on a bench nearby and listened to this pretty music for at least half an hour.  We bought two of his CD's. 

A man overheard us talking about what we were going to do tomorrow, and recommended Squamish.  It sounded a lovely place and he highly recommended it.  (Unfortunately we never did get there but it is still on our list for a future trip.)

Niece and nephew came back and we returned to the car.  We weren't ready to go back to the hotel yet, and decided to drive over to the Queen Elizabeth Park.  

It gave us a chance to visit this iconic statue.... 

also admire all the colorful flowers again... 

look at that view and.... 

pop into the restaurant that we enjoyed so much before.

We are very happy with the hotel.  It is very comfortable and closer to where we need to be.  When we saw our room my eyes were immediately drawn to the pretty origami bird on the corner of our bed, a cute little welcome for any guest. 

And there we ended our day.  I turned the lights off, kept the curtains open and enjoyed another pretty view, this time of the city lights.

More daily adventures to come.

ALASKA TRIP 2018 - SUNDAY, MAY 6TH, 2018 - A MARKET AND A GARDEN

I will add this on every post, just to let anyone who doesn't know, that we are actually back home.  I am now sharing my journal from the beginning of May.  If you want to see all the posts written so far, you can click on the label below this post entitled : Alaska Trip May 2018.

Granville Public Market and Vandusen Botanical Garden
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Sunday, May 6th, 2018

Today we went to two places.

The first was Granville Island Public Market a friend of Gregg's recommended on Facebook. It was wonderful! The first place we walked by was a coffee kiosk and I got my morning coffee, made with a whole lot of love.

Next door was a chocolate shop and surprise!  I was drawn to it and bought a few fancy little chocolates....

which I had for breakfast, not my normal breakfast but hey, I am on holiday, it was on a whim...

like a bee to a honey pot.

Next to that was a bakery and Gregg bought a Napoleon, another whim.  

We walked around the market for a while. You can see more of it here. It reminded us of Pikes Place Market in Seattle. 

We walked outside to the river - False Creek - and watched small taxi boats and others go back and forth. 

I didn't have the right camera and there are no photos, but there were Cormorants flying high above the river, carrying nesting materials in their beaks. There were a few pigeons around also.  This I did get a photo of, he landed right in front of me.  A bit blurry but it's a memory of a funny little pigeon trying to attract the attention of another funny little pigeon.



It was warm today and I didn’t need a cardigan. Gregg didn’t bring any short sleeves so we may have to go shopping sometime. Not sure what the weather will be like in Alaska. 

After we walked back to the car we said this area reminded us of Cannery Row in Monterey, California. It had the same feel to it.

Underneath the bridge there were artists painting murals. 

The whole area was full of this kind of art and

there was one big parking area that had dozens of cement trucks painted very colorfully in different designs.  Tall towers nearby that looked like silos were also painted.

There were sculptures also along the street. We left this delightful area and thought our niece and nephew might enjoy it. We pick them up tomorrow afternoon. 

Gregg suggested we go to the VanDusen Botanical Garden a few miles away next. It is a lovely garden. The tulips were in bloom, past peak perhaps but still beautiful.  

There was a statue I was very curious about when we first entered the garden, of a couple who seemed to be sleeping on a bench.  It's title was “Departure”, a life size bronze sculpture by the American artist, George Lundeen. 

According to the artist, “The original piece came from a sketch I did in the Rome train station. There were a couple of kids across from me on the marble floor. It became the first life-size piece I ever did.” The work was completed in 1984.  You can see other works of his here.

The artist is a native of Nebraska, and was a Fulbright-Hayes Scholar studying in Florence, Italy. He established his studio in Loveland, Colorado in the mid 1970s where he continues to live and work. This beautiful bronze work was donated to VanDusen by the late Paul Heller of Vancouver.

We headed to the cafe/restaurant near the entrance. Neither of us was that hungry but knew we should eat something else other than our not so healthy breakfast. We decided on a cheese plate. It was for one person but was more than enough for two people. They were also offering afternoon teas which looked delicious, but far too much food even for one, and we knew we would be leaving a lot on the plate. Our cheese plate included two cheeses, Cheddar and Brie, slices of prosciutto and ham, little oblongs of bread, small individual pots of mustard, jam and tiny pickled pearl onions. We weren't sure what kind of jam as we didn't recognize the taste, but it was an excellent and light meal. 

I wasn’t too successful getting photos of birds. Well, one crow, or is that a raven?  I can never remember the difference.  Book comes out later.  I did see a hummingbird a couple of times, but it was way too fast, and knowing that we would have to wait a while before it came back we moved on.

In another spot a couple of photographers had their cameras trained on a hummingbird nest and were taking up a prime spot.  It was the only clear view, without any of the tree branches getting in the way.  The nest was protected by a wrap-around fence of chicken wire to prevent people getting too close.  These photographers must have gotten there early and were waiting for the perfect moment, the perfect light. There was no sign of them leaving.  I stayed as long as I could but there was again no chance to take a photo.  Other photographers came and went.  In every other direction tree branches full of leaves were in the way.  The two had staked their claim, planted their flag and had no intention of moving, patiently waiting for as long as it took for those baby hummers to pop their heads up. I mean, look at that lens!  A crowd had gathered and everyone was speaking in very hushed tones.  A man heard me ask what everyone was looking at when I first arrived, and started talking to me. He was a local and his wife was sitting patiently on the grass nearby. We moved away from the vicinity of the nest and he told me he was here the day before trying to get pictures of the baby hummers, was unsuccessful and was too late to get that special spot today. He did tell me about an osprey he had seen fishing on the nearby lake and had gotten decent photos. He asked me if I would like to take a look and seemed happy when I said yes please. Gregg had walked on ahead at this point and was taking his own photos.  It was a bit hard for me to look at the bird on the man's viewfinder without my reading glasses, but he magnified them and I could definitely see an osprey with a fish in its claws. I remarked that they were excellent, after he had also pointed out the feather patterns. It was a pleasure to talk to a bird enthusiast and I thoroughly enjoyed looking at his photos.  But it was time to continue our walk and I thanked him. Gregg had come back and I explained that we were vacationers and he asked from where.  It was another few minutes before we left.  Another very nice man, his wife too.  She remained seated on the grass but joined in a few times.  And off we went back to the hotel.

When we returned it was later than usual, and we had a good appetite. Tonight we could not resist the Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding, but added the Caesar Salad that we had last night.  (Sorry, no pictures.  We were too tired and too hungry, and it was a bit of a weak-willed day today.  Again we swapped each other’s plate half way through, and enjoyed sampling two meals instead of one.  When we go to our hotel restaurant, we have been lucky and it is usually before the crowds arrive, so I feel we can do this without raising eyebrows.)

We are very impressed with the place, the food is excellent and we like the staff.  As we are usually tired after a day of sight-seeing, it is very nice not to have to go too far.  All we have to do is enter the hotel, walk across the foyer and down the hall, then after we have had a nice leisurely meal, we retrace our steps, find the elevator and get up to our room. 

 

Tonight there was a function going on in the large room across the hall from the restaurant.  Both men and women were dressed in black, at least a hundred. To a person they looked very sharp and elegant, smiling and chatty.  Many of the ladies wore a simple strand of pearls. 

Tomorrow we head to the airport, and when I think of seeing our niece and nephew, whom we haven't seen in three years, I get a very, very happy feeling.