First ocean swim of the year!

Not my photo but pretty close to the view we had....minus the clouds and the logs (they've taken the logs off most of the beach areas).

We generally get into the ocean early July but the cooler weather and inconvenient high tides put everything back this summer.  It was absolutely wonderful and the water was around 80 F. It was so great to actually swim again.  I guess it was about mid March when our pool closed down for safety reasons.

We certainly do have colourful money in Canada....

The Royal Canadian Mint launched commemorative coins Tuesday to honour Haida artist Bill Reid. (The Royal Canadian Mint)

The Royal Canadian Mint has launched a new toonie to commemorate the legacy of B.C. Haida artist Bill Reid, more than 20 years after his death.

The new $2 coin enters circulation Tuesday, on the 100th anniversary of Reid's birth.

"The mint is delighted to add the story of Bill Reid's pivotal role in raising awareness of Haida art, and the traditions and culture it represents to the long list of circulation coins celebrating what makes us proud to be Canadian," said Marie Lemay, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint in a written statement. 

The commemorative coin was set to be launched in B.C. earlier this year, but its release was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trailblazer of Northwest Coast art 

Reid's work is widely acknowledged for helping to bring global recognition and respect to Northwest Coast art.

Born in Victoria, B.C., in 1920 to a Haida mother and American father with Scottish-German roots, he began exploring his Haida heritage in his early 20s. Reid eventually became renowned for his detailed carvings, like Raven and the First Men — a cedar sculpture at the UBC Museum of Anthropology.

Linda posted this video recently on our imaginative banknotes....worth looking at:

https://lindaandcec.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-canadian-dollar.html

Fern's begonias are amazing!

Might have been a cold start to the year but the begonias loved it.
Fern MN

Another bench being painted in Palm Springs...love it!

I think the pink and yellow backgrounds are perfect.

Some humour

Play ball!

It's great to see baseball again and Blue Jays won the opener Friday against Tampa Bay. A great start! Jim could even watch some of the game. He's been just so super busy with these three online courses he is teaching for RMC. It was nice to see him being able to relaz a little.

 It seems almost like a normal game other than for the masks and empty stadiums but they do have crowd noise so it almost makes it normal...well, normal weird.

One positive thing is that the fake crowd noise isn't as loud as the real crowd noise so it's easier for the player to hear one of their team mates calling to catch the fly ball.

We have high hopes for them as they are a young and enthusiastic team. Go Jays!

The Desert Sun no longer printing in Palm Springs

I'm so glad we toured this printing press and really sorry to see this happening. Like all newspapers, The Desert Sun is losing ad revenue and even more so during the pandemic. Last November, we noticed that there were a lot fewer flyers.

About three dozen people will lose their jobs. The papers will now be printed in Phoenix. A sad day for Palm Springs.

https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/2020/07/22/desert-sun-move-printing-operations-september-julie-makinen-letter-from-the-editor/5490840002/?utm_source=desertsun-Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=daily_briefing&utm_term=list_article_thumb

Adrian Raeside nails it again....

Sunset on Spanish Banks Tuesday night

Photo by John Denniston

John took this photo just for me as he knows how much I love sunsets. We tease each other about this as he usually feels "just a sunset" isn't worth taking.  But, of course, this is a lot more than just a sunset...love it!

You can't beat sunflowers for lifting your spirits

It seems this festival is going ahead....might be something to take in.

Reading Alice Munro again...

This collection is in the middle of her writing career. I chose it because I think it is my favourite bookjacket of all the first editions we have of hers. We're not really into first editions but we ended up with them because she was a writer I always bought as soon as a new book came out. I'm a little surprised her first editions don't seem to have a lot of value given that she is the only Canadian to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

 Now, Harry Potter first editions seem to be worth a lot especially ones that have Joanne Rowling instead of J.K. Rowling....like up to $70,000.00 CDN. It's quite a fascinating world...the value of some books.

But, of course, it is the words inside and how they are put together that counts. I think everytime I go back to Alice Munro, I can barely believe how brilliant her stories are. I do keep trying to read Robert Thacker's biography "Alice Munro: Writing Her Lives" and maybe I'll get into it during the pandemic.  "There is always a starting point in reality," Alice Munro once replied to a question about how her stories occur to her. And the biography is very much about how events in her own life are the beginning points. It sounds pretty interesting but so far I'm always drawn back to the stories.

I wonder if she just might write one more story with a beginning point in the current pandemic. What a gift that would be to  us all. But, I know she isn't very well and she has given us so much.

Just out of interest I looked up the value of Louise Penny first editions. They don't seem to be worth much either. This is more understandable as I'm sure the print runs are very high numbers. I did buy quite a few but always gave them away and told the recipients to pass them along to people who wanted to read them.

And the newer Vancouver from David N. Phipps

Nothing much to post. Cloudy, cool and clouds of mosquitoes if you try and do anything. So a walk from 2019 with

Toni Williams Morrison

from Olympic Village to Davie and Pacific.

Paella in Palm Spings

We've had their paella and it's pretty good.

Guess they wouldn't deliver here :)

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Had a nice walk on Jericho Beach yesterday afternoon

We parked in the Brock House parking spots in the Jericho lot. You can only park until 3:30 weekdays but free and lots of spaces available.

The benches of Palm Springs

This is a great idea to paint these benches in PS. They are very welcome places to take a bit of a rest while waiting for a table at Las Casuelas and lots of other places. Supporting artists is always a good thing. I hope I will be able to see the finished product one of these days.

"Main Street Palm Springs, the city of Palm Springs’ Downtown and Uptown Business Association has received a grant from the Palm Springs Public Arts Commission to fund a new program that will call upon local artists to paint selected public benches on Palm Canyon Drive.

The artists will be compensated for their work by Public Arts Commission funds which come from contributions by local developers and are restricted to be used only for public arts projects.

A trial program for beautifying the benches was recently conducted where 10 benches were painted by local artist Tysen Knight. It was so well received that the program has been expanded and Knight will now oversee the transformation of the next 10 benches by nine local artists (one artist will paint two benches).

Palm Springs Public Arts Commission worked closely with Main Street Palm Springs on this civic improvement campaign. They issued a call for designs earlier this year and nine artists were selected. The benches are located at various locations on Palm Canyon Drive, and artists will paint the benches in the next few weeks."

Rest of the article here:
https://www.palmspringslife.com/palm-springs-public-arts-commission/?fbclid=IwAR3zj0wyAztNVUXQkP3d_fuxQKDBoqAnE_FRJgeTotKUlRL_2ZhdcX3M8xY

Some humour

Accordion shops reopen with restrictions to prevent panic-buying and hoarding.

Photography by David N. Phipps

This fellow goes on walks around Vancouver and posts cool photos he takes along the way. He always takes lots of photos and posts lots. These are from around Main Street. This is a big street mural area. There is a summer mural festival with a big street party. I guess the mural painting part of it will go ahead this year minus the street party. Here's a link for a downloadable map.

He posts on the FB group "I grew up in Vancouver".

https://www.vanmuralfest.ca/map-and-tours