Some photos from Richard

It's been quite a trip....Mom will be glad when he gets home tomorrow after 29 hours of flights and waits.   All captions by Richard.

Warsaw

Reminds me of the B.C. Ferries with the jello.

Pickle bucket in convenience store.

Pierogi!

Bacon plate.

 Lots of these in Kiev.

Hotel Kefir

Coworking
 space.

Movie theatre.

 A drugstore on every corner.

ATM warning.

Kiev Airport tip jar.

National colours of Ukraine.

Potato pancakes.

Best airline food:  Turkish Airlines and their single date.  Best airport food:  Popeyes in Istanbul.

Accumulated airline audio cables.

True story:  A rep from the UN accused us of stealing their conference room when the hotel mixed up the signs on the door.

View of Amman.

 Donut

 The only time I got outside in Amman.

Museum of Failure in Sweden celebrates products that flopped.

I found this to be a rather interesting idea for a museum.   It's probably not a coincidence that both products went for a colour consumers just weren't ready to accept.

One of the things was the Apple Newton which I'm sure Richard had since he was always an early adapter of all things Apple.   They had the right idea obviously given iPhones and iPads.

From Wikipedia:

The Newton is a series of personal digital assistants developed and marketed by Apple Inc. An early device in the PDA category – the Newton originated the term "personal digital assistant" – it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Apple started developing the platform in 1987 and shipped the first devices in 1993. Production officially ended on February 27, 1998. Newton devices run on a proprietary operating system, Newton OS; examples include Apple's MessagePad series and the eMate 300, and other companies also released devices running on Newton OS. Most Newton devices were based on the ARM 610 RISC processor and all featured handwriting-based input.

The Newton was considered technologically innovative at its debut, but its high price and early problems with its handwriting recognition feature limited its sales. Apple cancelled the platform at the direction of Steve Jobs in 1998.

http://news.nationalpost.com/life/travel/swedens-museum-of-failure-celebrates-products-that-flopped

Bocce in Revelstoke

I loved this photo John posted from his archives of 1967.  I guess that was when he was working in a bank in Revelstoke before he became a photographer.  I think some of the appeal of lawn bowling is that it is like bocce and petanque.  The thing about these Italian and French games is that they can be played almost anywhere and have always had a drop in social element.  It is only quite recently that women have been accepted in France and I imagine it is the same situation in Italy.  I think women were always a part of lawn bowling but I'll have to do a little searching about that.

This is a rather interesting history of lawn bowling.  It seems it was banned in England and France (but not Scotland) because of its popularity and concern that people were doing this at the expense of archery and that was considered a problem for national defence.

http://www.lawnbowling-arcadia.com/historyofbowlsclub.html

Email from John today:  "The bocce picture hadn't been up for two days when I got an email from someone living in Revelstoke who said the guy on the right was her uncle and could she have a print. Amazing."

Circa 1967 — Men playing bocce next to Vince’s Italian Restaurant in Revelstoke, BC.

-John Denniston photo

From Richard today

So I'm safe and sound here in Amman. Frantically getting ready for tomorrow's training day. 

Fun fact: they still smoke here inside!

Here's the view from my hotel rooms in Kiev and Amman. 

Love,

Richard

 I would guess this is Kiev.

And this is Amman.

Friday night Bar-b-q at the Stanley Park Lawn Bowling Club

It turned out to be a sunny evening after all and it's just such a wonderful setting.  We arranged to meet Maureen but we did have a back up plan to go to The Sylvia if it wasn't' pleasant.  Good food as usual and we got a table this time and met some interesting people.   We learned the club rents the space from the Vancouver Parks Board for $5 a year....now,  that's a deal!

They are celebrating their 100th Anniversary this year.   Reading some of the history I learned that there was an Elk Paddock on this site before the bowling pitch was created.

Memory from Facebook

I love Facebook for these memories.  Love looking at all these wonderful gardens of my friends who took the time to send photos of their lovely gardens...thank you again,  dear friends.

http://janicesextonart.blogspot.ca/2015/06/bunches-of-bouquets-for-carol.html?spref=fb

The Painted House of Maud Lewis

After seeing "Maudie" I put a number of things on hold and this came in the other day.  It's about the preservation effort by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia for Maude Lewis' house.   It's very well illustrated and worth a look for Maude Lewis fans.  I was also introduced  to Dan McKinnon, a Nova Scotia singer/songwriter,  who composed the song "This House"  for the opening of the Scotiabank Maud Lewis Gallery.

It's a great song and of course available on our wonderful Apple Music which probably has all his stuff as they have all everyone's stuff.  What a wonderful thing this streaming music is!  We have yet to not find something and we search all sorts of international artists.   I'm really enjoying his music and listening to it now as I make this post.

Here are the words which are reprinted in the book.

This House 


This house from where you watched the world go by 
This house touched here and there with childhood’s eyes 
Every surface your blank page, a self-painted gilded cage 
With bluebirds flying free 
Painted flowers on the stair blooming everywhere 
Now here for all to see within this house 

These hands could only do so much 
These hands now curled and spent around the brush 
Did you paint away the pain, paint away the tears and the misery 
While painting stories from the past, times that did not last 
Childhood’s memories within these hands 

These eyes witness to the passing ways 
These eyes now glancing from a stranger’s gaze 
They saw the oxen and the cart, they were the window to your heart 
Open wide enough to breathe 
Painting brightly coloured scenes, pictures found in dreams 
Only you could see with these eyes 

This house now silent witness to your life 
This house once filled with hardship and with life 
Yet does it guard unspoken dreams 
Preserve silent memories unseen by curious eyes? 
Quietly waiting for the brush 
Your loving tender touch to caress it one more time 
This house 

© Dan McKinnon

My Romanticism course

I am really enjoying my SFU course....Graham Forst is a great teacher and a fascinating person.  I was very impressed by this poem by John Keats that he wrote when he was dying of TB.  Amazing to think that someone only 24 years old could have these insights and express them so amazingly.  Keats died in 1821.

To Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, 
  Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless 
  With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees, 
  And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core; 
    To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells 
  With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees, 
Until they think warm days will never cease,
    For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store? 
  Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor, 
  Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap’d furrow sound asleep, 
  Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
    Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep 
  Steady thy laden head across a brook; 
  Or by a cider-press, with patient look,
    Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they? 
  Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day, 
  And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn 
  Among the river sallows, borne aloft
    Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies; 
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn; 
  Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
  The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft, 
    And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

A balmy evening

Last night we went down to English Bay thinking to go to the Cactus Club for dinner but then decided to get a hot dog and sit on a bench.   It must have been the warmest evening Vancouver has had since last summer and people were definitely taking advantage of it.  It's always a pleasure to see so many people enjoying the wonderful amenities of Vancouver.   We finished off by having a Red Truck Ale at The Sylvia.

I googled "English Bay Hot Dog Vendor"  and none of the photos of our usual guy were able to be uploaded but surprisingly,  John's photo of one of the old popcorn vendors did come up!

In a recent blog post I mentioned how corn on the cob and tomatoes were one of my best food experiences.  Next is stopping for popcorn from one of these vendors after a day at Stanley Park with my family.   I guess the espresso wagons didn't last long.  I don't remember ever seeing one.

n the 1960’s and 1970’s popcorn vendors with their quaint wagons lined the street next to English Bay in Vancouver. All of a sudden they disappeared, replaced by hot dog stands and espresso wagons.

Georgia Youngs Art Show

Donna and I went to see her show at her home Sunday.  She has done some quite magnificent Georgia O'Keefe like paintings.  I took some photos and also one of her with her paintings but I can't seem to get them off the phone.  Ah well,  this is her website and a few examples from that.
https://www.georgiayoungs.ca

Paris Can Wait

We went to this film yesterday and it was better than expected.   It was a must see for us because of the the food,  wine,  and France.  We knew we would enjoy all that and we did!  First four photos are from the movie.

This market was in Lyon but we think of all the wonderful markets we've been to and could taste the sausage.

Some of the wonderful meats we had and especially remembering that rack of lamb that was roasted on an open fire right beside us....to die for!

And all the wonderful cheese boards we've been offered.  Probably our most memorable was about 100 selections to choose from and we were told the 30 or so on the left side were all  "goat".  That's when we learned Roquefort was a cheese from goat.

And many simple picnics of  wine,  cheese,  and fruit.  In our first time in Paris in 1972,  we would buy a baguette for 12 cents,  a round of camembert was 60 cents , a bottle of wine was 20 cents,  and we'd get a peach,  apple,  or some grapes.  I forget the exact price but I calculated lunch was just about one dollar CDN.

My favourite part was when Jacques ordered a "tomato tartare" and waxed poetic on how the best foods are the most simple and the most fresh.    Among my best food experiences in the world were when we were camping in Penticton and dinner was often freshly picked corn on the cob and tomatoes...and of course,  cherries.  We always went in July so cherries were in season and I ate them all day long!

Linda and Jean at Buckingham Palace

It was a real thrill for them and Linda said the gardens were fabulous.

From Linda:

Today was the reason I made this short trip. Thanks to Jean Charette, Canadian High Commission to the the UK for the invitation to The Royal Garden Party held at Buckingham Palace. The weather was marvelous! When Cecil Fisher wasn't interested I invited my cousin and good friend Jean Burton. Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip, The Duke of Kent and The Duchess of Gloucester were in attendance. It was an incredible experience one I will never forget.