This from The Washington Post the other day

I've included a few of the books recommended but I really am posting this because I just loved Emma Roulette's painting!

(Emma Roulette for The Post) Feel-good books to brighten your summer If you find yourself longing for a happy ending, here are some of the most uplifting reads of the year so far. By Angela Haupt ●  Read more »

Many couldn’t visit Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day last year because of covid. This woman did it for them. She went to visit her grandfather’s grave, but ended up at the cemetery for six hours to honor soldiers she’d never met. She’ll do it again this year. By Cathy Free ●  Read more »

 

I think this will be quite something to see in progress and when it's finished

You gotto love Douglas Coupland...always doing interesting stuff.

 Artist Douglas Coupland has created some innovative and large-scale art in and around Vancouver over the last decade, but he's about to do something he's never done before: Have his artwork featured on an entire Vancouver apartment highrise.

Coupland has created a massive piece of public art which will be painted along the side of Reliance Properties' The Berkeley at the corner of Denman and Davie overlooking English Bay.

The property management company commissioned Coupland to create the artwork for the building, which is currently undergoing extensive – and headline-making – upgrades.

“This would be the first time that an entire building serves as my canvas,” says Coupland in a media release.

Coupland has ambitious plans for the ambitious project: “The overall effect of this public artwork will be as an anchor point of where the city meets the ocean, and it will make a person feel like they are at the heart of something. The building will redefine English Bay’s skyline and become a mandatory tourist stop for photos. I want people to daydream about living at The Berkeley," said the artist and writer.

We got our email notices for our second dose this morning!

 We're booked June 17 at 3:15 & 3:30 at the UBC place we got the first one so just a couple of blocks away.

That was a good way to start the day!

Enjoying our baseball!

 We've had a lot of fun watching our baseball and the Blue Jays aren't doing too badly and some of the players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who is just 22 years old is doing fabulous...lots of home runs which are always fun to watch.

And it was really exciting to see Alek Manoah make his Major League Pitching debut. 

His Mom was certainly excited and provided a lot of entertainment! 

For all those haters of "Vancouver House"

 John took this photo and there is a little bit of grass:) 

I know a lot of people really dislike this building but I rather like it.

May 5th, 2021 — A little green space created on the roof of Vancouver House as seen from the Howe Street on ramp to the Granville Street Bridge..

Photo by John Denniston

Dogs are so amazing....who would have thought?

"In the last one month, two groups of researchers have reported separate findings on sniffer dogs detecting coronavirus infection in humans with remarkable accuracy. The role of detection dogs has been the subject of a number of studies and experiments during the pandemic — and even before, with dogs trained to detect various other diseases, as well as drugs and explosives.

So, are dogs the future in coronavirus testing? The evidence so far indicates they can be useful in identifying potentially infected people in crowds — but those identified would still need to undergo conventional tests such as RT-PCR."

I can certainly understand that they couldn't trust dogs completely but it seems like it could be a great screening device. Certtainly better than the few questions you are asked now and your temperature taken.

Nothing surprises me about what dogs can be trained to do and they love working. I picked up this story along the way

In New York’s Lower Hudson Valley up through Northern New Jersey, Fagen, a seven-year-old Belgian Malinois, and Dia, a three-year-old Labrador retriever, are sniffing their way through a meadow, the authorities in tow. With their noses to the earth, they’re hunting down a dangerous troublemaker: Scotch broom, an innocent-looking yellow-flowered invasive plant that destroys grasslands, poisons animals and fuels forest fires.

“Imagine a plant only an inch tall amongst other plants in places as vast as Harriman State Park or Bear Mountain,” says Joshua Beese, referring to two of the region’s sprawling protected natural areas. “It’s easy to miss, but not to the dogs. They can find invasive seeds hidden under bushes — places you wouldn’t think of going. You’d have to crawl on your hands and knees. And the dogs cover a lot of territory.”

Beese is the Conservation Dogs Program trainer and handler for the New York New Jersey Trail Conference, a volunteer organization that builds, maintains and protects public trails. He also handles Fagen and Dia, both of whom live with Beese and spend two-to-three hours on the trails with him during mild weather days.

At the seedling stage, invasive plants like Scotch broom are notoriously difficult for humans to spot. But dogs can locate hard-to-find flora and fauna more effectively and efficiently than virtually any human, method or machine in existence. Their handlers then share that information with park managers, trail professionals and the many volunteers who work to rid the area of the intruders.

By: Michele C. Hollow

May 4, 2021

Fish and chips at The Galley at Jericho yesterday

 

• It was quite a perfect day for dining outside but glad to see there is indoor dining now. It's always a bit tricky if you have to dine outside. And it's great for restaurants that have really suffered during the pandemic. 

More "Blast from the past"

Well, you know there isn't much going on when I repost from the past. This may become a very regular thing.  On this blog post I also posted photos of a bunch of paintings I had done on various pieces of furniture. The furniture was mostly items our neighbour, Chris, picked up scrounging at the Oak Bay Dump. People from all over Victoria used to come there for the "throw outs" to the point you had to have a sticker on your car to prove you were a resident.

FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 2003

Update on books I've been reading. 

"The Gingerbread Woman" by Jennifer Johnston 
I haven't read much of her lately and felt this wasn't too bad , some good moments, but not great. I think "The Christmas Tree" was the best book she's written. 

"The Good Soldier" by Ford Madox Ford 
An amazing book...some wonderful ironies. Very funny and tragic. 

"Oryx and Crake" by Margaret Atwood 
I didn't approach this one with a lot of pleasure because I figured it would be a rather grim tale...it is. The usual self-indulgent humour but also intelligent and timely issues. I don't think it really works because you can't summon up any sympathy for any of the characters. She does know how to tell a story...I was motivated to keep reading to the end to see what happened. 

"To the Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf 
Oh, yes. Absolutely brilliant. Very interesting to re-read it after all these years. Life experience makes it much more meaningful. 

"The Red Tent" by Anita Diamant 
Apparently all the rage in women's book clubs. I enjoyed it - quite a realistic interpretation of biblical times, I think. 

"Small Wonder" by Barbara Kingsolver (book of essays) 

A couple of quotes: 

From the essay "Small Wonder" 
...but maybe being perfectly happy is not the point, while the truer measure of humanity is the distance we must travel in our lives, time and again, "twist two extremes of passion - joy and grief" as Shakespeare put it. 

From the essay "Going to Japan" 
"I remember my Japanese friend's insistence of forgiveness as the highest satisfaction, and I understand it really for the first time: What a rich wisdom it would be, and how much more bountiful a harvest, to gain pleasure not from achieving person perfection but from understanding the inevitability of imperfection and pardoning those who also fall short of it."

Some humour from my BC Retired Teachers' Association magazine

I particularly relate to #2 

So we're into our 13th month of this pandemic...

These various quotes made me laugh!

1. So let me get this straight, there’s no cure for a virus that can be killed by sanitizer and hand soap?

2. Is it too early to put up the Christmas tree yet? I have run out of things to do.

3. When this virus thing is over with, I still want some of you to stay away from me.

4. If these last months have taught us anything, it’s that stupidity travels faster than any virus on the planet, particularly among politicians and bureaucrats.

5. Just wait a second – so what you're telling me is that my chance of surviving all this is directly linked to the common sense of others? You’re kidding, right?

6. People are scared of getting fined or arrested for congregating in crowds, as if catching a deadly disease and dying a horrible death wasn’t enough of a deterrent.

7. If you believe all this will end and we will get back to normal just because we reopen everything, raise your hand. Now slap yourself with it.

8. Another Saturday night in the house and I just realized the trash goes out more than me.

9. Whoever decided a liquor store is more essential than a hair salon is obviously a bald-headed alcoholic.

10. Remember when you were little and all your underwear had the days of the week on them. Those would be helpful right now.

11. Remember all those times when you wished the weekend would last forever? Well, wish granted. Happy now?

12. It may take a village to raise a child, but I swear it’s going to take a whole vineyard to home school one.

13. Did a big load of pajamas so I would have enough clean work clothes for this week.

14. Anyone who thinks children will socially distance at school has never met children.

 

Socially distanced sunset viewing

 Yesterday evening I just took a photo of the sunset then picked up a message from Richard about how nice the sunset was and this photo:

These are the photos I took.

London's new Sky Pool

 I would love to be swimming in any pool but this would be amazingly cool!

From CNN Travel:

(CNN) — For some, flailing around in a clear box suspended 115 feet above the streets of London is the stuff of nightmares. For others, it's the ultimate status symbol. 

The Sky Pool is a 82-foot (25-meter) transparent swimming pool stretched between the 10th stories of two residential skyscrapers in southwest London's Nine Elms neighborhood -- and it's only open to the apartment complex's lucky residents. 

It's the largest freestanding acrylic pool structure in the world and the showpiece of EcoWorld Ballymore's new Embassy Gardens development, which will also include bars, restaurants and shops. 

Located next to the US Embassy and close to the south bank of the Thames, bathers will be able to take in views of the London skyline, including the London Eye and Westminster. 

The embassy isn't the attraction's only connection to the States -- the pool was manufactured in Colorado and traveled 5,000 miles to its new home. 

The pool is 10 feet deep and the water alone reportedly weighs around 375 tonnes.

Brewing at Sandringham....love the labels!

I will never forget out first trip to London and having a pint of "bitter"...wow, beer that has flavour. In North America we were just getting these tasteless lagers.

And then in later years lagers became very popular with young people.  Well, who wants to do what their parents did?  

I didn't know the Queen was into brewing and apparently has a number of gins. 

A royal brew! Queen launches £3.99 bitter and a golden IPA made using organic barley from the Sandringham Estate

• Queen has launched two bitters using Laureate Spring Barley from Sandringham
• Bottles are on sale at Sandringham gift shop for £3.99 for 500ml 
• Best Bitter is a 'cold filtered traditionally brewed beer' 
• Golden IPA is a 'cold filtered amber coloured Ale' with three types of hop 
• 
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  

Hoping for fresh crab this season

 John's latest blog post hasd my mouth watering for fresh crab. I'm sure I've mentioned the days when our neighbour, Chris, in Victoria came back with lots of salmon, halibut, and fresh crab and shared generously....yum, yum, yum.

Crab Pots

Photo by John Denniston

The end to a lovely day yesterday

 We wanted to go to The Cactus Club at English Bay but no seating in the sunshine so ended up at The Sylvia. What's not to enjoy...sun, ocean viewing, tasty food.

Then home to watch the Blue Jays beat the Red Sox. Then an evening walk and reading.

Our anniversary today...53 years!

We've had a lot of adventures in these last 53 years but we will never forget the very special times we had in our wonderful little village of Carqueiranne. View from our apartment on the port. 

We wouldn't be worrying about where to have a great meal. Not completely sure what we'll do today. Options are limited.

And this is what we were doing two years ago:

A gorgeous day in Palm Springs

And on this day 51 years ago in Vancouver it was a wonderfully warm sunny day...a perfect day for a wedding...ours! Then to my parent's waterfront place on Gabriola Island for a cheap honeymoon since we were still students at UBC. A friend remarked when we got home that the problem with that type of honeymoon was all the cooking and cleaning. Jim looked surprised and said, "What cooking and cleaning...that wasn't a problem." Ah yes...times haven't changed very much

We did a day trip to Victoria one day...little did we know we would end up living there for over forty years. Little did we know we would end up living at UBC. And little did we know we would be in Palm Springs 51 years later saying goodbye to our wonderful desert paradise.

Ah life...it's been pretty amazing.

We're off to celebrate with dinner at Lord Fletcher's today. This was Frank Sinatra's favourite haunt and we got rather interested in it after seeing the film, "Frank Sinatra in Palm Springs".

The new normal for partying in Palm Springs?

 It will be most interesting to see how the long road back to normal will be. I hope things work out for these folks.

From The Desert Sun:

On Sunday, nearly 300 people plan to gather at Oscar’s Café and Bar in downtown Palm Springs for a “fully-vaccinated” afternoon of dancing and drinking, according to owner Dan Gore. The event — which will require prior proof of COVID-19 vaccination, identification and a signed HIPPA waiver to attend — illustrates one potential “new normal” standard for safe partying.

“We photocopied everything,” Gore said. “In the event that someone needs to see proof, we will be able to access it on the fly.”

Participants will be required to wear masks at all times except when seated at a table, according to Gore, who noted that there was no indoor seating at Oscar’s. Gore said he employed an attorney to help ensure that everything about the event was in full compliance with current Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and local regulations regarding COVID safety.

Janet King Series 1: The Enemy Within

We began watching this series after finishing "A Place to Call Home". Marta Dusseldorp is such a super actress I think we would watch anything she is in. There are three series so looking forward to the next one. I have it from the library.

From Wiki:

Janet King is a fictional character from the Australian ABC1 legal dramas Crownies and Janet King, played by Marta Dusseldorp. She debuted on-screen in the first episode of Crownies broadcast on 14 July 2011. To prepare, Dusseldorp researched legal cases and observed prosecutors in court. She also visited the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery and shadowed Margaret Cunneen SC, a Senior Crown Prosecutor and model for the character Janet King. Janet is characterised as a "tough and tenacious" Senior Crown Prosecutor who has worked in the DPP office for ten years. The character is in a same-sex relationship and has children via IVF. When Crownies finished airing plans were made to create a spin-off show centric to the character. Janet King was produced in 2013 with Dusseldorp returning to the titular role. The actress has stated that she made deliberate changes to ensure Janet listened to others more often.

Problems with Blogger

I received 7 messages about 7 blog posts that were removed. Part of the message was:

“Why was your blog post deleted?

   Your content has violated our Malware and Viruses policy. Please visit our Community Guidelines page linked in this email to learn more.

   We encourage you to review the full content of your blog posts to make sure they are in line with our standards as additional violations could result in termination of your blog.

 For more information, please review the following resources:”

  

I made a note of the Blog posts deleted:

Walking in the sunshine

The 5 minute Christmas tree

Reading Katherine Mansfield again

Enjoying The Sylvia

Van Gogh Immersive experience

Itty Bitty Book Review Midnight Train 

Baseball Begins

I didn’t click on anything and then received the message from Richard that these emails seemed suspicious. He created my blog and takes care of technical stuff.

Then very soon after I picked up these messages I got 7 messages about the 7 blog posts saying they had been re-evaluated and the posts had been restored and added a link to them. I didn't want to use the link so Richard looked them up and saw that they were restored.

Richard thinks things are ok and I can continue to use Blogger.  There really isn't any support in any form now and he feels that's because it is a free service and they have a very small staff so mistakes like this can get made. The free ride probably won't last and then he can migrate it all to Wordpress. I'm so familiar with Blogger that I really don't want to learn something new at this time.

Ah...technology.

To my blog readers

I'm receiving some strange emails in regards to my blog so I may have to stop blogging. 

 I hope we can keep in touch in other ways. 

Love to all,

Janice

Some humour

 

I stole these from Linda's blog:

This one I found myself :)

Having lunch on the patio at The Sylvia .

 It was lovely to get down to English Bay Tuesday afternoon and have lunch at The Sylvia. We had one of our favourite servers, Ace, look after us. We usually get burgers but had those recently at home so went with the sandwich special which was wonderful roast turkey and swiss cheese on a fabulous baguette.

It was lovely and warm and had a great walk on the seawall.

Photo taken from our table. It's great they have these plexiglass screens so windbreaker and Covid breaker.

Having some of my Mother's Day goodies for breakfast yesterday morning....

 Everything was absolutely delicious...thank you, Richard!

Thomas King is publishing his first graphic novel

 I think Thomas King is great so nice to see him doing this as I feel it will attract a new audience for his work.

Acclaimed writer Thomas King is publishing his first graphic novel.

Borders was originally a short story written in 1993. It's about a boy and his mother who try to take a road trip from Alberta to Salt Lake City. When they reach the American Canadian border, they identify as Blackfoot, and not Canadian or American — causing problems and putting the pair in limbo between the two countries. What unfolds is a powerful story about justice, identity and belonging.

Borders was adapted into a graphic novel by Natasha Donovan. It will be published on Sept. 7, 2021.

 "Natasha's illustrations bring the story to light in a new and engaging way," King told CBC Books via email.

Cars from "A Place to Call Home"

There are a lot of very cool cars in this series from Australia.  

1959 Chevrolet Belair

1956 Chevrolet Corvette

1958 Plymouth Belvedere

Lots more here:

https://www.imcdb.org/m2258904.html

What a haul from Legends Haul!

 Richard sent a wonderful, wonderful package from Legends Haul. This time it focused on Brunch and all sorts of fabulous goodies We will enjoy them all. This local company really does things up right and all locally sourced....wow!

Thank you, thank you, thank, my dear son. You are a wonderful person.

Much love,

Mom

It's like Christmas....

 We just had a wee taste....it's wonderful!

And flowers as well....they're beautiful!