Accommodation

Vancouver Apartments

Driving to Work

Pacific Ocean Accommodation

Fraser River Accommodation

Holiday Accommodation (Tin Wis)

Today's photos are of where city folk spend most of their time. As you see there is a noted absence of pubs because this is North America. Here it would be coffee shops instead. This is nothing to do with the adjustment the eye makes for seeing objects at various distances, although the operation would be needed for viewing these photos perhaps. Accommodation has overtones of "putting up with" which is also involved. We have to put up with our neighbours especially when crowded. As you can see we try to avoid overcrowding by living on the water or going on holiday...

Summerland Clay.

Cottage on the Lake, Summerland

Tree with Clay Cliff

House on Clay with Easel in the Window and Single Gate Post....
Great View of Okanagan Lake from there!

Clay Cliff with Two Trees

A few photos from Summerland. There are lots of clay cliffs, some collapse and block the highway, but only rarely... The odd house subsides off the edges from time to time...... These are a few examples of clay cliffs. There are signs on the road below: No Stopping!

Crescent Beach

Lonely? Troubled? or just Thinking?

Hide under the deck everyone! There's that big bad Eagle here again!

Coots. "Everyone stay close!"

Icicles on the diving board

His Majesty Eating the Coot

There must be many Crescent Beaches in the world, but this one in Summerland BC caught our interest yesterday. The sky was blue, there was a cold North wind blowing, (I had to blow on my fingers a few times whilst taking these photos) but it was cruel fun watching, as a flock of coots were trying to keep away from a hungry young Bald Eagle. He eventually caught a straggler, and consumed his catch on the deck with little black feathers flying in the wind. So; we all have to kill to eat, even nice people....we are a horrible lot. Meanwhile it was quiet in the park, and the icicles dangled peacefully from the diving board.

Back to Normal

Inge's Gift of Flowers for Valentine's Day

Back to normal after yesterday's partying. Our goodly Saint is packed away for another year. There are some memories in photos, however.

The Girls...Inge, Barbara, and Hanne.

The Boys...Kaj, Jens, and Michael. Out for Lunch Yesterday at Athens Creek.

Adam and Elise in Vancouver

Modern Machinery Required to run a Normal Life.

 Oh by the way, I like this telephone photo. Just shows how we depend so much on technology, machines, and electricity to just get through the day. However did they manage in the 19th Century? I was attracted to this photo because the girl in the foreground is choosing a mobile phone whilst standing right by three land-line telephones! The other girl just needs cash....

St. Valentine

Who was St. Valentine? You may well ask, as there were apparently quite a few, and some were martyred. It all started way back in Roman times, but really only got going in 1590 with Edmund Spenser's famous line: "She bathed with roses red and violets blue, and all the sweetest flowers, that in the forest grew". This was embellished in "Gammer Gurton's Garland" of 1784 Nursery Rhymes: " The Rose is red, the violet's blue, The honey's sweet, and so are you. Thou art my love and I am thine etc".
Since then amazingly St.V-Day has spread world wide, with just about every country developing its own variation. However, in Saudi Arabia last year the sale of anything red was forbidden as being "Anti-Christian" or something, leading to a black market in red roses and so on. Weird.

2008

2009

2010

2011

So today is supposed to be the day when the birds start mating, the roots of plants begin to grow, and Spring commences. In our own lives here, it is a day for getting together with good friends, sending electronic greetings, and having a singer come to entertain us with love songs....

Last Day of Holiday

We enjoyed our last evening in Chemainus attending a banquet dinner and theatre afterwards, returning home the following day through some rain but no snow or ice thank goodness!

Hanne sitting on our hotel deck enjoying the warm sun in Tofino

View from the top of "Radar Hill" near Tofino.

Lunch in Parksville (East Coast of the Island) on the way to the ferry.

Sand patterns on the beach in Parksville in the rain.

Old timber-pulling engine from the late 19th Century and our hotel in Chemainus in the background.

The drive through heavy traffic from the ferry terminal at Tswwassen was quite an eye-opener for me. Not having to keep my eyes on the road meant I could look through the side window. I have never seen so many heavy trucks, chicken farms, vegetable and fruit farms, sheds and barns, houses and condos, and car after car with only one person in each, in my whole life. There are so many people in the world! Then to reach the mountains and hardly see a soul for hundreds of miles! What a contrast!
This brings me to "anthropomorphic collective nouns" as sent to us by our friend Inge.
Here is a complete list you may enjoy. I'm not sure of the one for the crowds that populate our big cities more and more as time goes on. Any suggestions?

Vancouver Island Day Two

Sea Front in Tofino looking East

Some of our group negotiating the driftwood to get to the beach.
 You can see the edge of the low pressure system inching its way into the blue sky on the left of the scene.

Wickaninnish Beach. Our hostess/guide and our driver.
"Wickaninnish" was the name of the old Chief of the Tia-o-qui-aht people of Clayoquot Sound on Vancouver Island...

Requisites for the Perfect Surfing Life-style: Old Van, Surf Board (rear window), Wet suit, and curtains to change by and sleep behind. We saw also many surfers on bicycles carrying their boards....

Tin Wis Beach in the pouring rain on leaving the next morning...

On our second day we were taken the three kilometers to Tofino, and spent the morning strolling the sea-front taking photos. In the afternoon we enjoyed Wickaninnish Beach, which is popular for surf-boarding, and full of scenic driftwood.(More images to be seen with this link). The waves are bigger here, than at our MacKenzie Beach. The low pressure system gradually came in as forecast, the sun disappeared, and by evening it had started drizzling, but with three successive sunny days, and a high of 15 degrees Celsius, no-one was complaining!