You're right: I didn't publish a post last week. A trip to the coast that was intended to be a quick little episode ended up absorbing the whole week. On Monday I left home without my computer, leaving it behind for my dear husband to use in my absence. That meant that I had neither the photographs nor the blog editing software that allows me to compose an entire post without having to be online. No matter, I thought, since I had intended to be home on Wednesday. But life threw me a small curve ball in the form of Jeep troubles. It began with a long hour spent in a creeping, slow traffic jam inching its way from the junction of highways 3 and 5 down the hill a kilometre or two into Hope, a stretch of highway that normally takes about a minute. The freeway west of Hope was closed because of a logging truck having lost its load at Herrling Island, closed for FIVE hours. The Jeep began to overheat in an alarming way, and I began to overheat in a similarly alarming way because I knew that one way to cool an overheating engine is to turn the heater on full blast. Just what I needed, tons of heat wafting over me as we sat nearly stationary in the summer sun. But the highway opened, and as I travelled at highway speeds the Jeep behaved itself, and I thought the incident closed.
Until my sister and I got into our vehicles on Wednesday morning, preparing to drive in convoy to Hamel's Fabrics in Chilliwack so we could have a look at fabrics for a quilt I'm planning to make for her. Her vehicle was fine. Mine was not. After I got a tow to a mechanic and spent most of the day in the mechanic's office, the problem turned out to be a garbage battery, plus something or other wrong with the cooling system. Sister went home and I had another couple of days in Vancouver. And my dear husband came to the rescue, borrowing a trailer from friends and driving all the way to North Vancouver to recover me and the Jeep. We loaded it up onto the trailer and were home by dinner time on Friday.
But in the meantime, my sister and I had a great visit with our parents.
I enjoyed the drive down to the coast, especially (as usual) the stretch of highway that follows the Similkameen from Nighthawk to Princeton. I stopped in Keremeos to buy cherries to bring to my parents. As I was preparing to leave, I caught sight of this tree, absolutely loaded with cherries, and had to take a snap. You can see how much smoke was in the air from forest fires.
Beside the parking lot were these lilies. And across the highway, by way of incredible contrast to the lushness of the orchards and gardens, an imposing, austere, perfect talus slope. This part of the Similkameen valley is an eye-popping landscape, full of improbable geological formations, especially ribbons of rock folded and pleated in the sides of the mountains (sorry, no photos this trip--it didn't occur to me).
My sister and I and my parents spent Monday night enjoying one another's company, and on Tuesday decided on a whim to trek over to Granville Island, nominally in search of florentines, a wonderful flour-less nut and praline and chocolate confection that is a family dessert favourite. Sadly, Mum is having a hard time finding them in North Van, so we were on a mission. We took transit the whole way: the bus stop is four doors down from my parents' home, and takes us to the sea bus, while the Granville Island bus picks up from the waterfront station on the other side, so it's a beautifully simple, low-aggro trip.
Thirty years after taking the sea bus for the first time, I still get a thrill at this moment of pulling away from the station.
As usual, the harbour was a busy, bustling place, with barges pulled behind tugs and dinghies pulled behind sailboats, the Grouse Mountain sky ride rising as if directly from the sailboat's mast.
I always like this hit of blue in the doors on these boat bays.
Not a speck of snow on the Lions, as you can see.
Not all the bustle is on the water: seaplanes and helicopters are constantly arriving and departing.
As the bus made its way south along Granville, I spotted this wonderful artwork on a bus shelter and just managed to get a shot of it as the bus moved away. If anyone can tell me anything about this work or the artist, I'd love to give credit for it here. I've been using my sketchbooks more since summer began, so any kind of hand-drawing tends to attract my eye.
From the bus going over the Granville Street bridge, we had such a great view of the Burrard Street bridge and this lovely roof garden that I couldn't resist attempting a photo through the window pane. Mere seconds later, English Bay came into sight.
Once on Granville Island, we could see that the tide was extremely low.
I liked this flower box arrangement. Great complementary colours.
Yet another great view, this time from our lunch table. I would have enjoyed my lunch more had I not managed, while dashing to the table my sister had staked out for our use, to pour a lot of oily Thai sauce down the front of my T-shirt, skirt, and leg. The T-shirt, alas, appears to be a write-off, despite Mum's best efforts at stain removal. The view took my mind off the mess.
The search for florentines was sort of successful, in that Mum found something sort of similar at this bakery.
And elsewhere in the market, the fruit was beautifully arranged.
But the prices, needless to say, were a lot higher than in Keremeos. One pays for the privilege of buying fruit, or any food for that matter, at Granville Island.
With lunch over and the florentine question settled, we indulged in gelato and watched this Australian street performer. He was a lot more patter than performance, but I liked the red, white, and blue of his clothes and the bunting around him.
We were starting to flag at this point, so decided to head back to the bus stop. On the way, I just had to dart into Maiwa Supply, one of my all-time favourite places. It's not a big shop, but for a fibre art enthusiast it's worth the pilgrimage, even from Greenwood. Among other things, it's got dyes and everything else one needs for dyeing, fabric paint, stencils, block printing supplies, wooden printing blocks from India, yarn, fabric, felt and felting supplies, knitting and crocheting supplies, batik supplies, and a superb collection of books, particularly about ethnic textiles. I can easily spend an hour (and a significant amount of money) in this little store. Today, however, I took away nothing but these photographs and the immense feeling of excitement and satisfaction I always feel after I spend time there.
As we ambled back to the bus stop, I was reminded that one of the lovely things about Granville Island is that this former industrial space now has a lot of cool green space. I love the vines growing up the concrete supports of the bridge, and the willows that have grown up around the stream that empties into the harbour on the other side of the road, at the boat basin.
The wildlife displays a certain sense of entitlement: this goose knew the traffic would stop, and ambled in an unhurried way across the road.
On our way back to the sea bus, walking with my dad along the overhead walkway that leads into the station, I was struck by the colour and pattern of trains and containers below.
And from the sea bus, I just had to take a few more harbour shots. I know I showed you these cranes after our trip to the coast in March, but they always grab me, with their stork-like shape and sheer massiveness. And they can look very different depending on the light.
This is an unusual angle from which to view the sails at Canada Place. The massed bulk of the towers behind them remind me of how much Vancouver has changed in the last fifty years.
On the other side, back in North Van, Dad spotted this cormorant and suggested that it was snap-worthy. I agreed. I'm pleased that the irridesence on its feathers came through in the photograph.
I'll tell you more about this trip next week, and get back to what's happening in the studio as well. For the moment, though, I'm happy both to be home safely, Jeep still intact, and to have had this time with my family. As we sat on the seabus, the four of us mused that since many years have passed since my sister and I acquired husbands and she had children, it must be decades since just us four have had time together, much less gone out on an adventure together. It was one of those excellent days that we'll have in our store of family memories forever.
Wonderful post - thanks for sharing the delights of your journey,- and the ishaps!
That SHOP, - oh, my.......
Posted by: Hildred Finch | 07/24/2015 at 02:48 PM
Oh, Hildred, if you haven't been to Maiwa Supply, please do put it on your to-do-in-Vancouver list: you'd love it. They have some weaving supplies and some books about weaving . . .
Posted by: Anne at Shintangle Studio | 07/24/2015 at 09:18 PM