Always lots of fun and stories….

Barbara Lowy had us over for drinks and wonderful appies yesterday afternoon.   We love being in this house that almost everyone in Vancouver would love to own…next door to our apartment.  We grew up admiring it.

 It was great to hear that she has had a lot of success placing Otto's archive with UBC…the perfect place for it.    We also learned that Charles Barber and the Vancouver City Opera will be mounting Mozart's "Lost Operas" next October.  These haven't been performed before.

When we got talking politics and reflecting that Margaret Trudeau has probably been told to keep out of the picture,  Barbara mentioned Margaret Trudeau was her student in a French class she was teaching in 1970 at Capilano College.  She left in October to be with Pierre during the October crisis and never returned.  I believe they were married the next year.

We're loving the rain at the moment along with everyone else but will soon be looking forward to these scenes...

Two great photos by Eric Norland in Palm Springs.

 Sunset last night.

Palm Springs sunrise this morning with Sturgeon Moon setting. 6:30AM

Worst storm in years?

We seemed to have been under a protective halo!  I couldn't believe all the photos of downed trees and to hear that Stanley Park was closed yesterday.  Yesterday afternoon the wind got up but only seemed to last for about an hour.  I went out for a walk in the late afternoon and then we met Linda and Cec and Donna and Neil for dinner at Minerva's in Kerrisdale then back to Donna and Neil's for wonderful peach pie….yum….thank you Donna and Neil!

It wasn't' windy and didn't rain all that time where we were to the point that Jim and I didn't even take jackets.  Linda and Cec had lost their power in Surrey and today Linda sent me a photo of a tree that had come down next door to them.  It didn't even seem like we have got that much rain but perhaps the "deluge" will come today.  Very calm and blue sky at the moment.

A few photos from my walk yesterday.

 Interesting passenger!

 Wonderful floral display at English Bay.

These clouds looked threatening but not much rain really.

Back to school section for teachers….

Enjoying a classic….

According to William Falkner,  the best novel of all time.   I don't read classics much these days probably because I read a lot of them doing an English degree and I'm greedy for contemporary literature.  Carol was reading this lately and I came across it while downloading some free classics on my Kindle so thought I would give it a try.  Wow…I am blown away so far!

Itty Bitty Book Review: "The Nature of the Beast"

"The Nature of the Beast" by Louise Penny

I enjoyed this very much…Louise Penny does it again!  And I particularly enjoyed reading it on my Kindle.  Not really a criticism but I did think that the idea was a little far fetched but then I read the author's notes and it's based on a true story!  Fact if stranger than fiction.

Love this!

It is really genius  to find a somewhat gentle humour in a distressing issue.  Good on Radside!

Happy 35th Birthday Kate Soles and Matt Turnell!

Is it really 35 years since we received an early morning call from Roger and Kerry to hear that their first child,  Matt,  had been born and then a late night call from Derek and Mary to tell us their first child,  Kate,  had been born!  We're not that old, are  we?

Jim and Dick play King's Links...

A great day out for them…they really enjoyed it.  Thank you, Richard!

Happy Hour

I really liked this article Susan posted on a United Church who increased their membership.  One of their techniques was advertising their service as  "Happy Hour  11am" .  Good on them!

http://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/how-a-forward-thinking-minister-has-built-a-vibrant-growing-and-important-calgary-community

And we're looking forward to Happy Hours in Palm Springs!

Some great viewing...

Now that we have finished Scott and Bailey on Netflix (which we really enjoyed) we're looking for other things.  Jim found this site with lots of good stuff.  We've been watching the Encyclopedia Britannica's short stories.  Last night we watched Synge's "The Wells of the Saints" and Hemingway's "My Old Man" which we had seen before a long time ago.  Excellent.  If you can hook your computer up to your TV it makes for very nice viewing.

http://www.afana.org/yust.htm

So nice not to be back to school…!

Louise Penny's new novel released today on my Kindle

Great thing about a Kindle you can get a new novel immediately when it's released.  Since I got the first 10 novels she wrote from the library,  I think I will be treating myself to her new releases via Kindle.

I am loving it so far and particularly this passage about autumn…also, my favourite time of the year.

"It was mid-September.  Summer was gone and autumn  was on the doorstep.  Leaves were just turning.  Brilliant reds and yellows and amber maples dotted the gardens and forest.  Some leaves had already fallen onto the grass of the village green.  It was the perfect time of year when late summer flowers were still blooming and the leaves were turning,  and the grass was still green,  but the nights were chilly and sweaters were out and fires were beginning to be lit.  So that the hearths at night resembled the forests in the day,  all giddy and bright and cheerful."

And Erna,  you will enjoy the humour as I do!   I expect you're reading it on your Kindle already.

Interesting interview with Time magazine.

http://time.com/3982217/louise-penny-mystery-author-interview/

Las Margaritas….

Excellent as usual and our favourite server was there so perfect.  We sat in a corner we hadn't sat it before and saw a few new things.

Blue shutters….I may just have to paint this….

My kind of cycling photo….from John's blog.

August 16th, 2015 — This bicycle was photographed at Canada Place in Vancouver but I’m pretty sure it’s been to the Tour de France. Note the full corked wine bottle in the rear water bottle holder. If there’d been a baguette in the front water bottle holder I’d be absolutely positive.
-John Denniston photo.

Morning swim

I went to Second Beach Pool for a swim and along the way along the seawall I noticed that someone had been doing quite a few rock balancing works of art.  The guy who has been doing these hasn't been here this year.  It's not him because they aren't as amazing….he was a real expert!  I've been missing them and so it was great to see some.  I didn't get very good photos.

Movie night with sunset...

We watched Rohinton Mistry's "Such a Long Journey" tonight along with a beautiful sunset.  I had read A Fine Balance but don't remember this one.  Excellent movie!

Itty Bitty Book Review: "Paris Requiem"

"Paris Requiem" by Lisa Appignanesi

I was of course immediately attracted to this book because of the Paris connection.  It takes place in 1899…".La Belle Epoque".   A very engaging mystery and lots of historical detail of the time. I look forward to reading more of her work.

Identifying trees….harder than it looks.

I hope Susan can help me out since she's been big into trees these days.

The first two are easy….the bark and then leaves of a maple.

The next two are the bark and leaves of?

And then these next two might be wild cherry or choke cherry but I don't think I've seen any berries.

And now for the leaves on the ground:

Top:  maple
Middle:  ?
Bottom:  cherry?

Mussel Mania tonight at the Sandbar on Granville Island

We took the little ferry over and Richard came back with us to fix our tech stuff….thanks so much, Richard!  We're all set now.  The mussels were great as usual and super to see Richard.  He enjoyed coming over on the little ferry…not something he does much.

 We enjoyed listening to the buskers before dinner.

 Just arrived in time to see these sunflowers being delivered to the market.

 My Thai mussels…Jim and Richard had the Provencale…lots of chorizo as usual.

Richard wearing his Austin City Limits T-Shirt we brought back for him a number of years ago now.

It was quite a tech day for us as Jim went to the Vancouver Library's Inspiration Lab to convert an old VHS  tape to a DVD.  First experience doing this and all went well.  It's great what you can do in this space…recording studio,  create ebooks,  etc…all for free.

http://www.vpl.ca/programs/cat/C1051

Raeside cartoon today...

Great night at The Sylvia

We really like this twosome who play Celtic music…the woman is a great fiddler of these tunes even though she is Swedish.  The fellow who plays the guitar and sings is British.  Wonderful sunset and great  tang of the ocean walking home.  Susan and Alan,  you would have loved it.

Ive been having problems uploading videos but this seemed to work on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyFQx3jz3eE

Itty Bitty Book Review: "A God in Ruins"

"A God in Ruins" by Kate Atkinson

An excellent read and I guess if you're as good a writer as Atkinson,  you can do what you like with plot and character and get away with it.  It did seem she had a lot of fun with the reader and also with some of her characters.  Good thing as there did seem to be an incredible amount of research into the London Blitz and the bombing of Germany and her writing was pretty amazing.

Since the book pretty much goes up to the present,  I'm surprised she didn't get in any jabs about the European Union which of course is mainly responsible for the lapse of European wars  but which has created its own myriad of problems.

Reading Life after Life and this one makes me even more keen on my SFU course starting in September with Lealle Ruhl,  who is a fabulous teacher.  The title is:  A New World Order: Redefining Global Security.

This is the course description:

Can we make the 21st century one of peace and security?  What are some of the challenges we face in redefining global security?  Using the analytical framework of peace and conflict studies we will explore three interconnected themes in modern political life.

We will start with a look at the global and domestic politics of food.  We will then examine international terrorism,  contrasting orthodox terrorism studies with a critical terrorism studies perspective.  Finally we will focus on how to establish social justice through non-violent social change.

Goodness gracious me….how things have changed!

Canada's election is actually getting some international press….criticism of Harper in both The New York Times and The Guardian.

http://globalnews.ca/news/2169258/stephen-harper-criticized-in-international-newspapers/?hootPostID=91a91894860cdfe4c5c05af22f9f3e09

This is quite a change from our first trip to Europe when the only news we heard about Canada in two months was an "international leap frog contest".  It was a strange experience to feel you were from a country that didn't exist for the rest of the world.

Christmas in August...

It was a really fun meeting at our ATC group yesterday.   I enjoyed talking to Jo who was telling me of her experiences living in a small village in Spain in the late 60's. Vicki,  who has a place in La Quinta,  and I got talking about the Salton Sea.  She hadn't been out to Bombay Beach and experienced The Ski Inn….a must!   And of course it's always fun to see Susan.

I see Anthony Bourdain visited Bombay Beach and the Ski Inn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCRlWY0qL-0

My treasures from yesterday:

Jo also made us all a "colouring ATC" (bottom left) since it was recently National Colouring Day…neat idea.

And Penelope always brings something of interest.

Who knew you could make cool art with finger and hand prints!  It was really fun to look through this. And then Jo and I got talking about finger painting….so,  the trick is to spray starch the paper so the acrylic paints will move easily and also put a few drops of dish detergent so cleaning up your "fingers" is easier.  I just might give it a try.  I loved finger painting in kindergarten.

And lastly,  my "Ships at Sunset" were a big hit.  I often feel I don't have much to contribute to this group…everyone else is so talented!

Interesting comment from Susan today on the California article

The drip technology was invented in Israel, where they have learned to cope with little water over centuries. Glad to see that California is finally on board with these and other measures.

Let's hope it doesn't take us as long!

-Susan

Yes,  let us hope that we get moving on some initiatives like this as well.  All around the city I notice trees in distress from not getting enough water.  It's like an early fall with the leaves turning brown.  Apparently,  most trees will recover but they can't go through too many seasons like this.  

Artist Trading Card day….

I wasn't sure I could get something ready but did this series this morning…"Ships at Sunset".

Another wonderful sunset….

We felt lucky for our day out yesterday since the rain held off and it really brightened up in the late afternoon to the point where we almost went for a swim.  We haven't missed many days swimming this summer.  So great to just walk across the street and there are always some of our beach friends there to chat with.

Encouraging article in the New York Times...

How California Is Winning the Drought

JON MCNAUGHT

• 343

By CHARLES FISHMAN

AUGUST 14, 2015

FOR California, there hasn’t ever been a summer quite like the summer of 2015. The state and its 39 million residents are about to enter the fifth year of a drought. It has been the driest four-year period in California history — and the hottest, too.

Yet by almost every measure except precipitation, California is doing fine. Not just fine: California is doing fabulously.

In 2014, the state’s economy grew 27 percent faster than the country’s economy as a whole — the state has grown faster than the nation every year of the drought.

California has won back every job lost in the Great Recession and set new employment records. In the past year, California created 462,000 jobs — nearly 9,000 a week. No other state came close….rest of the article below.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/opinion/sunday/how-california-is-winning-the-drought.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1&referrer

A fun day out with Linda and Cec at Surrey's Heritage Interurban Experience

 We started with lunch at a great pub…these are my cod and salmon pakoras and a few fries stolen from Jim.

 Linda enjoying her Asian entree.

Jim and I in the "speeder"

 We're now having a ride in a restored tram that did the Steveston run.  My father worked as a conductor on these trams during the 40's and early 50's.   We also could take a tram from Central Park (close to where we lived in Vancouber) to go downtown until the early 50's.  An early "Sky Train".
*The fellow posing with us does the Robbie Burns later.

Cec bemused looking at Jim trying out the very beautifully restored "pump car"

Me at the controls of the tram.

We all just loved this experience and the volunteers who knew so much and were so much fun were great.  We learned a lot about history that we had all experienced and meant a lot to us.  Just before we left the tram,  one of the volunteers sang "Will ye nay come back again…"  in a wonderful tenor voice and Scottish accent.  The icing on the cake….Robbie Burns on the tram.

Then back to Linda and Cec's for great coffee and dessert…you do spoil us,  Linda!
Thanks so much for a great day…we always have so much fun together.