Through My Lens: Moon Over Coal Harbour
All right. Enough already with the whinging about the waning of summer. Let’s get outside.
I took this photo on a long walk one evening last week. Those are the condos of Coal Harbour and the Coal Harbour Marina.
Through My Lens: Sunset Beach Paddlers
It’s the middle of August already. There are only a few weeks left of what has been a fabulous summer in Vancouver.
Sigh.
What else is there to say?
Strawbabies
When I was in high school, the end of June meant the end of the school year and the start of strawberry season. My mother would throw the ice cream pails into the trunk of the car and off we went ― her and my siblings and I ― to one of the U-pick farms on nearby Westham Island. A few hours of picking (and snacking) later, we’d head home with our haul of luscious red berries. Mom would get to work making jam, while we would help her out by eating a handful of berries every time we wandered through the kitchen. My (then) baby brother called them strawbabies, and the name stuck.
BC berries are so tasty that I became a strawberry snob. To this day, I refuse to eat the pale and tasteless California strawberries that are sold in BC the rest of the year.
One final note: If there was ever any doubt that our climate is changing, the shifting of strawberry season by a whole month is enough evidence for me. Strawberry season now starts every year around the end of May and is already over by the last week of June.
Through My Lens: Granaries
I was catching up with my cousin’s wife the other day by email, and she told me that she and her husband (my cousin) are enjoying their topless Friday evenings.
Nope ― it’s not what it sounds like.
They’re cruising the Alberta countryside in their red convertible.
I was jealous. But not of the red convertible.
I was jealous because there is nothing quite as beautiful as the Alberta countryside in the summertime.
Team USA
There are an awful lot of Americans wandering around town this weekend.
How do I know they’re Americans?
Well, they are wearing a lot of Stars and Stripes. On their T-shirts. On their caps. Even on their footwear. That American flag is everywhere. And if they aren’t sporting a flag on their clothing, they’re dressed in red, white, and blue.
Why so many more American tourists in town than is usual for a July 4 holiday weekend?
It likely had to do with a certain soccer match that Vancouver hosted today at BC Place.
Yup, it’s a World Cup summer once again. Congratulations, USA!
To commemorate the victory of Team USA, here’s a photo of the biggest American flag I have ever seen. I photographed this one hanging on the building that houses the New York Stock Exchange on my last visit to New York.
West End Farmers Market
I know summer has well and truly arrived when the West End Farmers Market returns.
As it did today.
And it’ll be here, every Saturday, until the end of October.
Oh joy, oh bliss. Shopping at your local farmers market is the best way to maintain a 100-mile diet.
Besides the West End Farmers Market where I shop (located alongside Nelson Park), Vancouver has six other summer markets. (There are also two winter markets.) You can buy fresh produce, cheese, baked goods, meat, poultry, and fish, and artisan products such as olives or fruit jams or soap. Vancouverites spend $8 million a year at their farmers markets and support 265 local farmers and artisans in doing so.
The best part? Everything tastes like summer. Truly.
Go on. What are you waiting for?
Through My Lens: Lunch Break
It’s that time of year.
What time of year?
It’s the time of year when we Canadians maximize every second of our short summers by spending as much time as possible outdoors.
Did you know that studies have shown workers are more satisfied with their jobs if they eat their lunch sitting on a park bench instead of in a café or (shudder) at their desks?
This chap is Lunchbox Joe. He’s enjoying his break in Edmonton’s Sir Winston Churchill Square.
Get outside, people!
Happy Birthday, Bard on the Beach!
A few months ago, I posted a photo in honour of the Bard’s 450th birthday. Today, I’m posting in honour of Bard on the Beach’s 25th season, which concludes this week.
Every spring, the tents go up in Vanier Park at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge, and every fall, they come down. As far as summer Shakespeare festivals go, Bard on the Beach isn’t bad. It is the most expensive summer Shakespeare festival in Canada after the Stratford Festival in Ontario, but then, with four productions a year from mid-June to mid-September, it’s also the largest Canadian Shakespeare festival after Stratford.
Perhaps it is too large. Three years ago, the popular festival premiered its new, much larger main stage tent, which now has a capacity of almost 750. But the larger canopy was acoustically challenged, and the festival now has its actors wear mics, which irks me to no end. (Maybe it’s just me, but I like to know who is speaking while I’m watching live theatre, and that’s no longer possible when the voices are coming from a speaker above you instead of from the stage in front of you.)
Bard on the Beach used to be general admission, so you had to show up really early to get a decent seat. This was no different from any of Canada’s other summer Shakespeare festivals. What was different is you were always made to stand for a good chunk of time in what’s called the Bard Village ― a lobby area of sorts where vendors are eager to sell you wine or beer, snacks, or merchandise ranging from T-shirts and tote bags to, um, beach towels.
One year I was standing in this line, waiting (waiting, waiting…), when Christopher Gaze, artistic director of the company, stopped to chat to the couple standing right in front of me. He obviously knew them as they talked for a quite while ― I don’t remember what about ― but then the couple asked Christopher why the festival tents didn’t have assigned seating and why we had to wait so long before we were permitted to be seated.
Christopher looked around him, then said thoughtfully, “We want to create atmosphere.” The idea behind the wait, he explained, was to encourage you to chat with the people in front of you, or with the people behind you, and to give you time to make friends.
Balderdash, I thought, grumpily. You just want us to buy stuff.
(What I find particularly galling is that the Bard Village also sells pre-packaged picnics ― aka sandwiches and salads ― which is a total rip-off of Toronto’s Shakespeare in High Park. That festival creates atmosphere by charging pay-what-you-can for its general admission seating on a hillside and by letting you bring your own food. And your own picnic blanket. It’s the perfect venue for a summer picnic.)
But I digress. On this particular evening, I had an entire conversation with Christopher in my head. Maybe he heard me because Bard on the Beach now has reserved seating.
As for its theatre productions, I’ll just say this: I’ve seen some of the worst performances ever at Bard on the Beach, but I have also seen some of the absolute best Shakespeare ― the kind where you want the play to go on and on and on. And it’s the latter productions that keep me coming back. I never know what I’ll get.
Happy birthday, Bard on the Beach. Here’s to another 25 years!
Through My Lens: Fishing
Summer may be waning, but there are still photos to post.
I came across this woman fishing in Burrard Inlet early one morning several weeks ago.
Through My Lens: Second Beach Pool
Today is the last day of summer. We might be able to fool ourselves for a few more weeks, weather permitting, but the truth is the days are getting shorter and the leaves are starting to turn.
This is Second Beach Pool in Stanley Park. It’s located at a lovely spot along the seawall overlooking English Bay. Like all of Vancouver’s outdoor pools, today was the last day of its season.
Tomorrow, it will be empty and lonely.
There and Back Again 