Rusty farm equipment

The other day we stopped at Silver Rill, the local place to get fabulous fresh corn and I took note of some of the decor.  Scattered around the place is a lot of old farm machinery to give the country feel.

Up on the roof are two old tractor tricycles.  This was the oldest one.  Isn't it sweet?

Pretty soon I was using my macro setting to find rusty abstract designs in the machinery.  These are for Ruby Tuesday, with the green one as contrast.

You can see more Ruby Tuesday images here.  Have a happy day.

The circus is in town

Well, actually, it was in town.  Cirque du Soleil came to Victoria over the weekend and we went to see the show.  It was my first time seeing this world-famous company and it was everything I could have hoped for.  The show was a mesmerizing combination of music, dance, clowns and acrobatics--all with a very European flavour.  The title was Alegria, the Spanish word for joy, and it was a joyful thing to see.  I didn't really follow the story but it didn't matter at all. 

The performers (dancers, acrobats, and clowns) are so talented that they just carried the show.  It's amazing to see what they can do with their bodies.   Here are two young woman contortionists. We were lucky enough to be only three rows back from the front of the stage.  It was fabulous.

If you want to see more here's a link to their U-tube video.  And if you get a chance to attend a performance I think you won't be disappointed.

A vegetable painting project

I'm preparing to do a series of water colour paintings from a community garden, and I'm quite excited about it.   I met a woman who has been involved for a number of years with creating a community garden in a little park behind our favorite coffee shop.  The cafe and the City of Victoria helped out and the volunteers created a  garden in the inner city park that offers everyone an opportunity to see food being grown.  The produce and flowers are for anyone to enjoy and pick.  I love this idea.

Jackie suggested that I do some paintings of based on the garden and hang them in the coffee shop.  So that's just what I'm doing.  So far I've taken about 400 photographs of the garden and now I'm beginning to develop some paintings.  I think it will be very fun to work on this during the dark winter evenings, especially the images of sun kissed flowers and vegetables in the summer garden. These are a few of the images I'm going to work with.

City buildings; country buildings

Our last day in Vancouver was spent downtown and these are images of some of the newer buildings coated in reflective glass.  I admire the way these structures reflect each other.  Especially this one that mirrors the lovely 1930s Marine Building. 

By way of contrast, here's the little outhouse at Saturna Island, where we spent Saturday night and Sunday morning. 

Vancouver, a maritime city

I grew up in Vancouver, quite close to the ocean, and the sights and sounds of a working harbour are deeply embedded in my awareness.  Also the smells of diesel and the salt water tang.  So it's only natural that when we have a few free days here I gravitate to the working harbour.  These tugs are moored at Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver.   Cates tugboats have been around here for decades and they haven't changed a bit.

This view across the harbour from North Van shows the seabus heading towards a fully loaded Hyundai freighter, with the sails of the Pan Pacific Hotel to the right.  No matter how fancy the buildings get, the real soul of Vancouver remains its working harbour.

Vancouver rain to sunshine

Tuesday in Vancouver was a pouring rain day, like I'd remembered from my childhood.  The art exhibit was lovely but we didn't get to eat outside in their lovely restaurant--everything was puddles.

 What a contrast on Wednesday; a sparkling sunshiny day.  Here are few images from our exploration of Chinatown and one of the older parts of downtown. 

I used to work in the basement book department of the old Woodwards store.  It's been transformed into the downtown campus of Simon Fraser University, with retail and housing as well.  This is the huge "W" that rotated above the old store.