music

Mural - Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

Thursday Challenge

Next Week: LIQUID (Splashes, Pouring, Dripping, Waves, Wet,...)

technology

Robot puppet/cirque performance, part of the entertainment during the Vancouver Convention Centre open-house - April 2009.

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Thursday Challenge

Next week:  MUSIC (Singing, Dancing, Playing, Instruments, iPods, Concerts,...)

creativity

"The Birds" by Myfanwy MacLeod

These two 18 foot tall sparrows (male and female) were installed after the Olympics at the Southeast False Creek Olympic Plaza in the Olympic Village, Vancouver, BC. The exhibit is part of the City’s Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program. Read more about them here. 

As this piece explains, the size of the birds in relation to their surroundings speaks of the danger of introducing species of wildlife into areas where they aren't native.

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FUN (Festival, Fair, Carnival, Party, Playground, Dancing, Laughing,...)

sports

Cyclists in Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC, Canada (May 8/10)

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: WEATHER (Sunny, Calm, Rainy, Snowy, Icy, Fog, Clouds, Thunderstorm, Lightening, Hail, Windy,...)

urban

Vancouver, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: METALLIC (Metal, Shiny, Mirror, Clothes, Cars, Jewelry,...)

work

Street performer at work in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympic Games

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: PLAY (Fun, Games, Toys, Sports, Video Games, Sports Equipment,...)

water

False Creek, looking toward the Burrard Street Bridge 
& English Bay, Vancouver, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next Week: WORK (Creative, Manual, Tools, Work Spaces, Uniform, Office Equipment,...)

food

Mural - Commercial Drive, Vancouver, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: FACE (Portrait, Self-Portrait, Happy Faces, Emotions,...)

high or low

You are not on a ship.

(Top view of a Vancouver Convention Centre balcony)

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: ACCIDENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY (Photos Taken Accidentally or Unintentionally, Mistakes with Exposure or Focus, Strange Photos)

writing

Sidewalk advert - Commercial Drive, Vancouver BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: TOYS (Cars, Dolls, Video Games, Puzzles, Balls, Board Games,...)

mural monday

It's been a while since I've had a mural monday. But if you like these audacious street paintings as much as I do, you'll want to wander over to my mural blog and feast your eyes. I'm currently doing a series on the murals of Vancouver's Commercial Drive (new postings every Monday and Thursday until the mural well runs dry).  

Here's a sample. Is it  gorgeous or what? Love the colors, love the location. Doesn't it just make you want to get out there and buy potatoes and green onions?

(Click on photo to enlarge)

holidaying in the heat

Family is visiting from out of town and we're enjoying a week of summer vacation at home. It just happens to be the hottest week (on record) in years. Today it was 38 C outdoors here (that's over 100 F and we have no AC). I'm happy not to be confined to my little sauna of an office.

Here are some of the places we've been:

Victoria B.C.

Butchart Gardens. Absolutely WOW!!

Sunken Gardens

Stunning color combinations everywhere!

Japanese Garden

Victoria waterfront:

Houseboats at Fisherman's Wharf

E. and me being water taxied back to the Inner Harbor

Sharing the waterway with float planes, ready for take-off.

My family (hubby, brother and wife, sister and husband) walking on the Victoria waterfront.

A family wedding

Held up at Eagle Crest Vacation Retreat in Sooke. Wonderful views in all directions!

Seen from one of the balconies.

The bridal procession. All the wedding party was in white except for the bride. She wore green!

This wedding was definitely a family affair. After exchanging their rings, the bride and groom give the groom's 10-year-old daughter a necklace. Now she can call her dad's new bride 'Mom.'

My lovely sis - mother of the bride.

My sis with her twins and new granddaughter.

Three sisters (of the grandma generation).

Vancouver

Granville Island - where we had coffee and shared a gooey slab of blueberry coffee cake - yum!


Friends who have bought and are renovating a house in the Mount Pleasant area took us on a walking tour of the neighborhood. On our way past the Davis House (166 - 10th Ave.), someone who lived in one of the units invited us to take a look at the courtyard - all done up with antiques and old fashioned memorabilia.

White Rock

Breakfast with sis-in-law, another sister, and my bro.

Looking down from the pier - tide's coming in.

This might be the first time I'm jealous of a starfish. Ooh, that water looked good!

big

Skyscraper - Coal Harbor, Vancouver, BC

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: TREES (Leaves, Branches, Bush, Forest, Pinecone, Seeds,...)

wet - dry

Coal Harbor Houseboats

See more Wet-Dry photos at Two4Tuesday

silly

Aluminum puppet with human elements
(Click on photo to enlarge)

This isn't a great photograph, but it was an amazing puppet - only 180 lbs. in weight, operated by string-pullers at the back. Notice the acrobat girl on the right, manipulating herself using the bright fabric. Photographed on Saturday at the Vancouver Convention Center open house.

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Thursday Challenge

Next week: SIGNS (Traffic, Building, Neon, Peace Signs, Graffiti, Religious,...)

vancouver convention centre - your very own tour

On Saturday we joined thousands of other Vancouverites at the open house of the new Vancouver Convention Center. It will be the media hub of the 2010 Olympics less than a year from now.

It is a large spectacular building in a spectacular setting on the waterfront right next to Canada Place.



An escalator takes you from the bottom to the second level and this globe display, from which you can look down on the lower level.


The ballrooms (this day one huge room; I assume they have movable dividers that make them into A,B,C and D), are five and one half stories and Ballroom D has a bank of windows looking over the water.


When we toured, around 11:30 Sat. a.m. a puppet/cirque performance was going on (complete with this huge aluminum puppet and about eight puppeteers behind the scenes pulling the strings).


Many of the walls are made of wood ends. These lumber-stacked walls are built from B.C. Hemlock and were assembled by a robot named Victoria in Saanich on Vancouver Island.



The building has six acres of rooftop gardens. These have been planted with wildflowers, grass, and will hopefully be the nesting ground for birds. The gardens recreate a Gulf Island beach habitat. The rooftop also has four beehives.



Outside the building there are wide walkways - most with designated lanes for cyclists and pedestrians. For those of us who have helped pay the $800+ million tab for this building (essentially everyone who pays taxes in this province), this access is a nice feature. Though we might never attend a conference inside, at least we can enjoy the public space around it.

My boys and I on the upper deck.

"Forty percent of the building is suspended over the water. The foundation has been designed to recreate a natural shoreline and will act as marine habitat for sea urchins, starfish and sea lettuce" (as per the visitor's program we were given).


Altogether a gorgeous building with many green features: the rooftop gardens, the fish-friendly foundation, a seawater heating and cooling system and a from-scratch kitchen philosophy.

Speaking of eating - the tour made us hungry. So on Benjie's recommendation, we walked a few blocks to the Steamworks Pub and had a very delicious lunch before strolling around Coal Harbor, then catching the Skytrain for home.

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Watch more of the cool weekend proceedings here: