The Other Side

Let's catch up!  I've gone west (yes, again).  Have landed in North Vancouver.  Took myself on a walk today and was blown away by this view as I walked down the hill (along a wide sidewalk beside a busy thoroughfare, mind you).

Big mountains, lots of evergreen trees, low lying clouds...dampness.
Feels like home (my roots are showing).

The classic view in Deep Cove that I can never resist.

Views of extraordinary houses, expensive toys, affluence that I will never know.
But looking is free!

Coast to coast

Please pardon my absence in recent weeks 

L'Aboiteau, New Brunswick, Canada

but I've decamped  from the east coast 

and headed for a visit to the west...

leaving one shore for another 

floating through the world

Deep Cove, British Columbia, Canada

and enjoying the view.

Different strokes for different folks

Saw this fellow paddling to shore in Deep Cove, North Vancouver last winter.  Yes, that is what winter looks like
out there.

My mother once wrote in my autograph book 

when I was a little girl, 

"Love many, trust few, but always paddle your own canoe."

I would imagine that it applies equally to a kayak.

Bringin' home the bacon, one way or another.

Covering the Cove

Beautiful sight, lousy picture...what's a girl to do...

Employ every means of subterfuge that she has in her digital make-up kit.

A swipe of mineral powder to soften the lines,

(with a little help from pixlr)

a dash of sparkle, a shift in lighting,  some vaseline on the camera lens (figuratively speaking) and maybe we've turned a sow's ear into a silk purse?

Here's another view.  

A good vantage point awaits those willing to climb.

 The colours and lines are reminiscent of an abstract Mondrian painting, I find. Do you see iit?

 This version reminds me of my art school days, spending hours in the lab developing and printing my black and white 8 x 10s.

I had a most enjoyable walk to Deep Cove yesterday and amused myself with taking pix.

The weather has dried up at last.

This was the view  (zoomed in) from my bedroom window yesterday

 when the sun made a brief appearance in the late afternoon. 

The light is coming back!

The days are growing longer.

And yet, the weeks are flying by, don't you find?

Covert

One of my favourite neighbourhood jaunts when visiting home is to walk down to Deep Cove, which takes me about 25 minutes, going at a good clip.

It's pretty much required that you stop at the bottom of the street once you arrive to take a picture of the Deep Cove marina.

I was quite touched that they'd hung out a "Welcome Home" flag for me.

In spite of the sunshine, it was a frosty day, as evidenced by the hoary dock.

See what I mean?

The chill air and frosty ground didn't seem to bother these fellows, though.

But then, they were wearing their fur coats.

Whereas, this couple was not

and consequently appeared frozen as solid as stone.

Oh yes, that damn damp cold is nothing to sneeze at!

Postcards from Home

I'm here!  I've been on the go since I last checked in but I've now settled into the old homestead in North Vancouver so have some time to send out a postcard or two.  Today was gloriously sunny and I took one of my favourite walks, to Deep Cove, about a half hour's saunter from the house.

Hands up how many of you recognize this scene?  I photograph it every time I pay a visit home.  Unless it's pouring rain, that is, which is quite common.  Funny that I still think of Vancouver as home though I've been living out east for about 25 years.  When I see the mountains and the sea and feel the dampness in the air it just feels "homish" to me.  Alas, I am now but a visitor to these parts. 

Because I haven't lived here in so many years, there are things that I'm unfamiliar with mixed in with the comforting sights.  When I started off down the path in the picture above, I believed I was embarking on a shortcut home.  I've strolled along it before but today I discovered new connections to it that led me through a quite densely forested area, along a nicely paved path that I'd never explored.  As with many shortcuts we take in life, it proved full of unexpected detours and worrying sections where I wondered if I was still going in the right direction, or if someone was going to jump out and threaten me, or if I would even end up where I had hoped to be. 

But with shortcuts and detours along one's path, pleasant surprises can often pop out at you.  Although I emerged at a point that was still a good climb away from my destination, I was rewarded with another lovely, typically west coast view. 

*****

There you go, my dears--postcards from home.  There will be more, I promise.  I'll try to keep in touch with you a little more regularly now that I have a homebase with easy internet access.  However, I'm working from my mother's computer and it doesn't have all the bells and whistles I'm used to, making even the resizing of my ginormous photo files problematic.  Please don't give up on me!

I'll be back around to visit and check up on what you've been up to soon, soon.

Compare and Contrast

Apples and oranges?  The same but different?  No comparison?  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?  It is what it is.

Seen recently in Deep Cove, N. Vancouver BC, near to where my mother lives.

Seen recently by the Peticodiac River, near Moncton NB, close to where I live.

You Can Go Cove Again

I took another walk to the Cove. Today the little shops and eateries were open, as this honey of a hound is pointing out. "Honey Goodies" is the purveyor of those amazing donuts I mentioned the other day.

Equally tempting are the sweet cold confections being enthusiastically advertised by Gelato Boy. It was a bit too close to supper time to indulge in such a treat, which means I'll have to return. I want the size he has!

Less tempting was the invitation to drink bubble tea. Have you ever tried it? My sister raved about it and treated me to a very large one on a previous visit. They come in an amazing (or appalling?) range of flavours and aren't anything like tea. They're cold and sweet and filled with something disturbingly like tapioca. And it's not consistent...you're sipping away and then suddenly a quantity of small, round, rubbery lumps swim into your mouth. Too weird!

I prefer real tea, and if it could be served in a remarkable Ping Kwong Wong teapot, such as any of those I saw exhibited at the local art gallery, it would be nothing short of delightful. As was my latest jaunt to the Cove.

(do click on any of the scenes to "embiggen" them, as my pal,

The Sagittarian, would say)

Deep Cove Stone Heads

One of the things I enjoy doing on my visits "home" is to go to Deep Cove, about a half hour's walk away at a good pace. Today I walked there with my sister and our mother, so it was a much more leisurely stroll.

One of the rewards of the walk is the beautiful view of the marina, mountains and cove. (do click for a better view)

A water taxi collects people at this wharf to take them to their homes further up Indian Arm -- about as far as the elbow, I guess. (click to enlarge)

Other rewards are some amazing chocolate glazed donuts and good strong coffee which we greedily and happily consumed while sitting on a park bench, gazing at these stone heads in front of the Deep Cove Cultural Centre. The art gallery was closed today, which means I'll have an excellent reason to return...as if I needed one!