The kinfolk!

 Some days start off with the promise of fun and continue to be that way all day ... our visit to Vancouver was one of those that delivered on its promise.

Here's Bruce as we start the day .. texting Bev while we wait on the ferry. 

The day was sunny, then overcast, sunny, then overcast .. you get the idea.  While we sat and had tea on the balcony, Kent must have put on and removed his hoodie a half dozen times.

Its an understatement when I say that life with two children has its challenges.  Parents are just rolling their eyes right now, I'm betting.  I watched Ilana and Kent patiently redirect Elsa who is making her own decisions on things important to her, like what to wear, what to play with now, what to eat and how to assert her somewhat limited independence.  A fan of all things Barbie and Dora, pink and purple are her favorite colors right now, however its best if you can wear one red shoe and one purple shoe.  Seahorses and coloring are fun and Parmesan cheese is yummy for lunch.

She was delightful to be around as was the happy baby Elina.  At one point when Kent was changing the baby before we went for a w-a-l-k to the p-a-r-k, I asked him about being with the family 24/7 and if he was enjoying it.  His response was "I love it.  I don't get a chance to just be with Ilana and the Kids when we're in Singapore, to do this everyday stuff."  And yes, Elsa is at the stage where spelling is still a way to speak code.

Elsa surprised Bruce by choosing to hold his hand as we went for our walk.

Bruce taught Elsa the art of mugging for the camera.
I'm pretty sure someone will regret it.

Learning the flying dismount!

Monkey Bars are cool!
I love how Elsa is the center of their universe at that moment.

Slides are more scary than fun just yet .. one day soon, she'll actually come down it!

Jailtime

While older sis was playing happily, Elina was getting to know her aunt.

The trip back home.  Looks like she picked up a bad case of boy cooties.
Don't laugh, its a real problem that will probably flare up again in Grade 3.

A short tour

Although it can be a pain in the butt for rushed travelers, the ferry ride has generally been a good experience for both Bruce and myself.   Even that time the high winds had everyone checking the location of the lifeboats and PFDs.

Yesterday's trip was smooth sailing with no untoward incidents, and because we had such a great place on the upper car deck, I was able to get some great pictures.  (Or at least ones that I can edit to make them appear great.  *wink*)

On the way into Horseshoe Bay on the mainland, I grabbed a few pics of the scenery.  I have a lot of the boats and such, but they might seem a bit boring.

This absolutely charming house sat on the edge of a hillock island.

Ferry heading off for one of the smaller islands

My brothers may find this amusing.  You remember playing "Hawk on a Fence Post" when we were driving around and each time you spotted one, you got to hit the player of your choice as long as you were the first to spot it.   This was the rural version of the Punchbuggy game and involvement is implicit by your mere presence in the vehicle.  I laughed when I saw this and wondered if the coastal kids play "Gull on a Piling."

The drive always takes us through across the Lion's Gate bridge, which I love, with its masses of cables and sense of drama.  I was inspired to apply a few filters to my picture ...

Gotta love the tinted windshield.

I started playing to get rid of the tinting and came up
with my favorite of the three versions.

Loved that sky!

 Okay, back on track now.  Upon exiting the Lion's Gate bridge, you pass through Stanley Park which is a really expansive park area on prime real estate, beautifully landscaped in some areas and left to nature in others.

At the other end of Stanley Park is the view of downtown Vancouver.  Isn't this just the epitome of a crystal city you might find extolled in science fiction books?  Look at all that glass!

I promised myself that I wouldn't make any more posts about rain in Nanaimo, but this was one of those exceptional days and I just had to share.  I'll probably break that rule a lot anyway .. we talk about weather in Canada and this is just as true in BC as it is in always-changing Alberta.



I needed to run out and do the most mundane of tasks .. pick up some alterations and some cream for my tea.  Yea, yea, I know .. don't shoot me .. I like cream in my tea.  Lemon just strikes me as bitter on bitter.  Cream takes the edge off.   Anyway ... I hadn't had any real tea since yesterday morning, so I thought I'd stop and get a steaming big cup of decaff Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce latté.  Which I hadn't had for a couple of months, so .. treat time. 

It wasn't coming down in buckets, but it was coming down hard.  Which is a relative term here.  Prairie rains can sting, but west coast rains are generally soft.

Here are some of the things I saw/did/heard/felt/experienced ...

• Driver's side door handle (on the inside with my window, door and mirror controls ) so wet from simply getting in and out that I seriously considered stopping at a drive-through to get a napkin to clean it up.  But then, I'd have to open that window and let more of the deluge in, so I passed on that.  Forgot about that collection of vintage 2009 McDonald's napkins that are stuffed into the glovebox for emergencies.  They really should design rain protections for those electronically stuffed door handles.
• Pants hem wet and slapping against my ankles. The alterations I was picking up include yoga pants whose leg length I'd ensured was longer than what I'm wearing today.  This plan may have flaws. I'll keep you posted.
• My beautiful pansy umbrella flipping inside out from the wind.  We've all been there.  Said umbrella not wanting to collapse properly afterword.  I fixed it, thankfully.  It will live to be rained upon another day.  Cheerily.   Those pansies have a job to do when I go out in the rain .. which is to drive back the dull greyness of the skies.
• Having to turn on my kitchen lights at 10:00am in order to see anything.
• Dropping my Starbucks snack on the floor in Chapter's.  *sigh*
• Rain spatters on my glasses.  A lot of them.  Umbrella plan was good in theory .. in practicality, not so much.
• Insta-fog inside the car.   Each time I got back into the car, its welcoming response was to fog up.  So turn up the heat and defoggers .. rear and front. 
• Rain sucking at my car tires, trying to pull me off course.  I was only doing 30kph in that school zone! 
• Sheets of water sliding down Rutherford hill.  
• A huge spray of water from the big puddle on the side of the road that almost hit a poor pedestrian walking near the plant nursery.
• Pine branches all over the road near the nursery.  I'll bet Bruce finds chunky water tomorrow when he goes out paddling.  You can always tell when we've had high wind from the amount of debris you run into when you're in a small water craft.
• Hair style by Mother Nature.  My hair looks a bit moppish most days .. curly and a bit frizzy, but generally under control.  When I arrived home today, it had frizzed out to three times its normal size.  Good times.  Now I know what to do for Halloween.
• Grocery bags (I picked up more than just cream) dripping rain on my entry floor and then kitchen counter.

So my trip outside was a bit like going to the dentist .. just something you have to do, not something you really wanted to put into a day perfect for plain old couch surfing.

On the other hand, that coffee was almost worth it.

Here's a picture, not of the rain because I'd hesitate to take my camera into that much Wet, but of a halcyon afternoon in the garden when the Japanese maples and mock orange were playing tag with the sunshine. 

Leaving the station

I currently have about 15 browser tabs open, as well as a graphics program.  That's because my entertainment is right here in front of me .. usually in words of some sort, sometimes in games, often in pictures or video.  Those little tabs are like train tracks departing my desktop station ... and they've taken me places today I've never dreamed. 

Here's what my day has been like:

I started out opening my mail to find that I had correspondence from Andrew Wheeler, the blogger behind Antik Musings, in response to an email I'd written him.  I won't go into the details of the mails, as most can be surmised by reading the column that my mail inspired, What Makes a Good Review.  From his page and linkbacks in comments, I discovered other sites that have since been bookmarked; so many bookmarks that I just took about five minutes to reorganize and categorize them.  (Can't be having bookmarks get out of hand and underfoot, but never there when you need them.)

In searching through the sites, I came upon this one from T.N. Tobias where authors discuss the need for likability in characters.  I brazenly huffed, in my review of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books, that books were supposed to "give me characters I can care about, despise or be intrigued with."  The TN Tobias post and subsequent viewpoints in commentary often concerned a more literary view of what the character does in order to make the story come alive, not necessarily so much for its own sake.  So now I wonder if I have a naive view of what it takes to make a good story.  Am I still pre-programmed to the happy ending and redeemable characters?  I think I need to know more before I blithely abandon my feelings about characters and what I expect from authors.  So my search to educate myself took me to farther pit stops on the internet, one that has been enlightening and delightful, if not always strictly on topic.  A note here .. I'm pretty sure that I'd make a horrible research assistant .. shiny things distract me.

So without further pre-amble, in no specified order, are things that caught my attention today.

Works of art created on Styrofoam cups. Cheeming Boey is the cartoonist.

The site of Jan Chipchase, whose office is literally the world.  "Today's Office" can be seen at Future Perfect.  When you click on the link on Mr. Chipchase's name, you'll find an interesting article on the Warren Ellis site that propelled me toward Future Perfect.

 

The Worlds Without End site where I played with the wallpapers behind their logo.  Shiny thing ...  'nuff said.

The King of Elfland's Second Cousin, which might actually teach me more about writing ...

An article about surprise scupltures appearing in different Scotland literary locales.  Please read the article .. its amazing.

The sculptor (wordsmith might be a more correct turn of phrase) is still unknown, but is speculated to be Su Blackwell.

2008-the-snow-queen-video from Su Blackwell on Vimeo.

indah-video from Su Blackwell on Vimeo.

Not sure of the song, but the imagery is amazing.

Websites of Wonder

As I mentioned, I've been reading more lately and this includes websites and web comics, on top of image searches for various things that lead me from one site to another .. a seemingly endless trail.  Its a good way to explore the world.

In the absence of anything interesting to tell you about in the goings on in my life, I'll share with you some of the sites that have fascinated me.

This site, The Antick Musings of G.B.H. Hornswoggler, Gent., is interesting for its name alone.  However, the icing here is that author, one Andrew Wheeler, has spent a couple of decades in the book biz, including some time at Science Fiction Book Club, which is why I recognize his name.  I followed a link about the author Steven Brust, who is one of my favorites.  You can download his Firefly novel from the link on his name.

This next link, for Jeff Vandermeer's Ecstatic Days, came about as a result of a comment I read about not needing to like characters in order to enjoy a book.  Like a spiralbound notebook used for too many things, the site seems to be much in need of some dog-eared page marking.  A task I don't mind taking on.

 

Lastly, the link to Tor Books which, while as yet uninvestigated, promises to hold hours and hours of entertainment.

Enjoy!

Let's hear it for the little guy ..

Delightful news ... Peter Dinklage has won an emmy for his work in HBO's Game of Thrones.

Now, I know I went on at length about the books yesterday, but that in no way diminishes the work of the actors and crew of the television series.  I was rooting for the show and pleased to see the man awarded who portrays one of my favorite characters.

Although the books assure us that the imp is an ugly little man, I don't think the same can be said for Mr. Dinklage.   I'd read the first four books before, but hadn't really paid attention to Tyrion Lannister.  This man's portrayal of Tywin Lannister's unloved youngest son changed that.

Bravo!

A Song of Ice and Fire

I've had occasion of late to be engrossed in books, as you might be able to tell from looking at my fingernails.  I can't help it .. I chew my nails when I read, no matter how much I admonish and remind myself not to do that when I first sit down with a novel.  It's a bad habit and yet, it's one I can't seem to break unless I stop reading.  When I go for long stints without a book, my nails grow out.  Not beautifully, but they get to the point where I have to file and shape them or risk permanent scarring when I scratch an itch.   I know you guys out there are doing the manly equivalent of tittering, but yes .. girls scratch themselves.  Just not their butts - at least not in public.

Anyway ... my computer has been fractious lately, which means I've had a lot of enforced downtown as I wait for my techhie Geoff to come sort out the issues.   It seems that 'issues' always occur on Friday mornings and I spend the weekend waiting for my knight in shining armour to come riding to the rescue with another piece of equally shiny hardware and accompanying invoice.

--- :: ---

 
I've just reread the entire George R.R. Martin "A Song of Ice and  Fire" collection because of the HBO television show "A Game of Thrones."  This last book has me alternately puzzled, pissed off and intrigued.

The story's scope is wide .. he's created a world that we can love; that is almost tangible in its feel.  We experience the heat of hard-baked dirt below our feet in the cities across the Narrow Seas, hear the sighing grass seas of the Dothraki plains and shiver in the pre-dawn chill above The Wall north of Winterfell.  The grey gloom of wartorn Riverlands, the high mountain passes of The Eyrie, and the bounty of Highgarden ... these all conjure up images.

For me, a writer has to first impact my sense of imagery to make an impression.  GRRM has done that.  In spades. So why am I unsettled by this last book?  Perhaps because of the second thing a book is supposed to do .. give me characters I can care about, despise or be intrigued with.  Our author has shown a flagrant capacity to kill or otherwise silence major characters just when their stories are good.  He brings back players that change the game of thrones only to toss their bloody body into a ditch just when you thought they were about to do something important.  He introduces characters and lets them die without us ever really feeling their role in the unfolding story .. he abandons main characters without a word .. what happened to Osha and Rickon?

I know this latest book was written in conjunction with the 4th book, as explained in the preface.  No clue why it took so long to come out, however, and Mr. Martin has been pretty mum on the subject.  Perhaps it had something to do with the television series. 

Back on topic though .. it seemed to me that I was being subjected to some distracted writing because he used the same phrases over and over.  "Much and more," "little and less," "kissed by fire," "I'm just a young girl," "a Lannister pays his debts," "you know nothing, Jon Snow."  Sometimes it just felt like a 'search and replace' function had been run. Also, I found his exuberant use of harsh language to be excessive through this last book and no more so than in the mouth of young Arya.  Its true that she is learning the art of developing alternate identities, but this tactic was roughly handled.  Mr. Martin is more adept than that.

I'm frankly confused by Mr. Martin's portrayal of women.  Or does he do this to all his characters and I'm just more closely in tune with how he treats women as objects?  Cersei Lanniser and the Sand Demons are interesting people, but they behave like men and are eventually called to task for it while men who commit more vile crimes somehow never have to atone.  Queen Margery showed a brief spark of promise, but turned out only to be a temporary literary foil for Cersei.  To this point, Sansa Stark exhibits little more personality than Hodor and uses about as much capacity for thought.  Catelyn Stark became much rounder due to Michelle Fairley's HBO portrayal than in the books, while her sister's monumental stupidity was played down.  Even Daenerys is, at the end of this 5th book, struggling to be important to her own story.

Mr. Martin seems to be in love with heraldry, but I have to tell you ... my eyes glaze over the descriptions and I find myself skipping ahead, because other than the Stark, Lannister, Targaryen and Baratheon colors which become a cliché, they just don't matter.

I have an issue with the entire world falling into a state of wanton and cruel debauchery in the wake of Robert Baratheon's death and the rise of the Five Kings.  I understand that life changes, but the knights of the Kingsguard don't all suddenly together abandon seventeen years of exemplifying all that is good and chivalrous in a kingdom.  The festering rot at the heart of the kingdom cannot possibly extend to every single man (and a great many women) within a three month span.  The bleakness and cynical outlook of the author in creating such a scenario had me wondering what was worth putting back together that people would fight for.


Is it the mark of a great writer to confuse us?  I admit that I love not knowing what's coming next, but there are things I simply cannot figure out.  About the time that I've determined what tale the books tell, Mr. Martin offs a character my theory revolved around.  And yet I keep on reading, to formulate a new plan .. only to have that dashed as well.

Five books in and I still don't really know what the hell these books are really about.  Unless it's "WTF Happened to the Starks?"

I'd be happy to hear your theories.

Fence painting

My back hurts, my feet are throbbing, I have a wee sunburn, and a blister on my finger that does not bode well  for extended journaling by hand.   Nothing that a handful of Advil and a hot shower can't fix. 

The good news ... the long side of the fence is done .. about twice as much as I thought we'd accomplish when we started today.  One more day ought to see us clear of our fence duties for this year.  Then we can move onto applying deer fencing, which is becoming more and more necessary as we catch those nuisances invading our yard and happily munching away on our trees, shrubs, and flowers.


The other good news .. pizza is on the way.

Dog days

There is something about September on the island that .. well, frankly .. it's what drew Bruce and I to come live here. The days are long and sultry, the ocean breezes play along the shoreline in the evening and cool you off enough to drift off peacefully.

The last two days have finally seen us hit the 30° mark in what has been an otherwise unremarkable summer except for its inability to get started properly.  Oh, its been pleasant, but its not been necessary to start shedding clothing as soon as breakfast is done.  We're getting a chance now to give our fan motors their annual workout.

Jamie called about the earthquake that happened near Port Hardy up in the northern part of the island today.  It was pretty much a non-event for us here.  Like you, the first we knew of it was on the news. 

But maybe it was the earthquake that freaked out Murray enough yesterday while Bruce was watching a movie.  He jumped straight up, then made a mad scramble for a safe spot.  Now, since  he was already on high ground, his back claws made purchase on the first tall item around ... my fifty year old floor lamp that came from Gram and Gramps' place in Three Hills.  It made for a hell of a crash, which freaked out Murray even more.  The only sweet thing was that he came running to me for safety.

Tomorrow, Round 3 of "Stain the Fence" .. a game we seem to be playing too often.  This will be the third time we've done the fences since installing them four years ago.  Here's hoping that this one does the trick.  And hey .. if you want to drop around and lend a hand ... I'll certainly make you an iced tea.

Lost Lake

The day was not one of those gorgeous August days that you think of as 'golden.'  It was 'nice,'  a day for getting outdoors and doing things without the worry of SPF factors.  Cécile and I both took our cameras along and ventured down Lost Lake Road.  Oh come on ... with a name like that, it just begs to be discovered.

Lost Lake Road starts out as Vandernoek, which is an endless source of amusement for Cécile and Richard because it translates rather naughtily into Dutch.  So she was quite happy to see what was down the street when we first turned onto it.  A bit further down, it turned into Lost Lake Road .. and quiiiiiite a ways after that, we found the tiny overgrown parking lot for Lost Lake.  At least, I think this is Lost Lake; it would stand to make sense, right?

The lake itself is quite small .. we tramped around it three times in an hour, stopping for photographs and once for Céc to chat with some birders who, it turns out, she knew quite well.

Overhanging the edge of the lake at the one end was an arbutus tree, its newly denuded bough etching a beautiful contrast against the greens of the surrounding cedar.

These trees are quite unique, as Canada's only broadleaf deciduous evergreen.  They shed their bark each year to reveal glossy cinnamon or green branches that are reported to be used for fine woodworking.  The Arbutus is a protected tree in Victoria once its reached a 50cm height, so there is a misconception that it is a protected species around the province.

This is a closer look at the peeling process on a smaller tree.  Some gardeners love them for their look and evergreen leaves, others find them just too messy.  The shapes of the trees are always unusual .. you rarely see a straight tree, although you may occasionally see a straight-ish one.  We have an arbutus at the back of our property, but its behind our cedar hedge, so the neighbors enjoy it more than we.

Here's another example of the terrific nature of street names in Nanaimo.  Big Whale Lookout .. you know, I'm not exactly sure they can see the water from there.  Here's the view from the corner of Big Whale and Lost Lake. 

While poking around, we ran across a wee street whose discovery delighted us ... Porpoise Place.

At the end of the street was a public access to something .. we didn't travel down it too far since I hadn't locked the car, but while we were on it, I snapped a shot of the house it travels past, simply because this is so West Coast Lifestyle. 

This picture has it all ....  deer fence to protect the shrubs, a riotous and freeflowing display of flowers and shrubs, a balcony rail (we love our balconies here) and a kayak.

Of course, there's no place like home.  Here is a collage of shots of my front step.

September again

A year has come and gone since I first started this blog ... it doesn't really seem like its been that long.   And conversely, it seems like its always been here.  I'm still not sure how many of my family know about the blog, but if you're reading .. thank you.  This is for you. Call me sometime, hey?

In the past year, I've certainly come to think of differently because of it.  I'll go out with family or friends or out for a walk and I'll grab my camera.  or I'll think of something I can add to the pages here.  I still don't formulate plans because of this, but I do keep it in the back of my mind.

This month's theme is a play on the back-to-school plaids I see advertised everywhere this time of year.  I have discovered some really great patterns on the web so I hope to bit more of this layered look.

I've also put together another "like" list. This time, its water pitchers.  My grandmother inadvertently instilled this love of water pitchers. Whenever you'd go to visit Gram and Gramps, she would have an old teal melamine water pitcher in the fridge filled with nectar of the gods .. apple juice.  Even when empty, that old jug smelled like a chunk of heaven.  A whiff of apple juice, even now, will take me whipping back through the decades to Gramma's kitchen table, legs swinging under the chair, eating toast freshly popped out of Grampa's fancy toaster, looking out the window at the neighbor's garden and enjoying a glass of apple juice while Gram bustled about the kitchen.  She always dressed well, but I think she was never more beautiful than in the morning while she was still wearing her dressing gown and slippers and having breakfast with us.