“Let’s sit and pass the time away
And wonder at our fellow man
Down at the Seahorses Cafe
By Abernethy and Gaudin”
Brentwood Bay – September 2015
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“Boats are like rabbits; you can have one boat or many, but you can’t stop at two.”
Aristotle Onassis
Given Victoria’s position on the southern tip of Vancouver Island – and surrounded as it is on three sides by the sea – it is little surprise that the city should be included in what is quite an extensive circuit of classic boating extravaganzas. The Victoria Classic Boat Festival was one of a number of events that took place in and around the provincial capital over the long weekend just passed.
I spent a few happy hours in the Inner Harbour with one of the dear friends with whom we are currently living. At some stage in his widely varied past he owned and lived aboard a 46ft Chris Craft dating from the 1960s, and it was fascinating to ‘sit in’ on his conversations with other wooden boat owners. Most of what was said went over my head, but listening to experts – in any field – is one of my favourite pursuits. At one stage our friend found himself taking to one of his boat-building heroes – Bent Jespersen – which was definitely the highlight of our visit.
I had with me the Fuji x10. I recorded some images:
A final potpourri of images from our recent travels to the interior of British Columbia…
Our last night in Kamloops:
A five hour drive back to the coast the next morning took us to Horseshoe Bay, whence we took the ferry to Nanaimo – home both to the famous Nanaimo bar (look it up!) and to the Girl’s mother.
A night in Nanaimo was followed by a final drive down the east coast of Vancouver Island and a last short ferry crossing – the (slow) shortcut across the Saanich inlet from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay.
How am I doing at selling you the delights of beautiful British Columbia?
Tags: British Columbia, Fuji x10, Holiday, Photo
Over every mountain there is a path, although it may not be seen from the valley.
Theodore Roethke
Whilst at the cabin on the lake last week we took the GX470 up into the mountains to see what it could do. Naturally I took some pictures.
This is the pretty Saskum Lake:
Here is the Lexus in its natural habitat – on the way up Vavenby Mountain.
Having crossed the mountain and dropped down into Vavenby itself we took the Yellowhead down to Clearwater and stopped for a bite to eat at the highly rated Strawberry Moose!
A little further down the highway we turned off at Little Fort and took the tiny ferry across the North Thompson.
The ferry runs on demand and can only carry two vehicles at a time. We were on this occasion the sole occupants and happily paid the ferryman the only ‘fee’ requested – engagement in a lengthy conversation before being allowed to continue up into the hills again.
We took the back route down to Barriere through Chu Chua. I have mentioned before in these posts that that The Girl is part First Nations on her mother’s side. Her band – Simpcw First Nation – is based now in Chu Chua and we passed the band office and school on the way down.
Tags: 4x4, British Columbia, Fuji x10, Holiday, Photo
Light the lamp and fire mellow
Cabin essence timely hello
Welcomes the time for a change
Van Dyke Parks, Brian Wilson
The lack of posts over the last week is simply explained. The Kickass Canada Girl and I have journeyed to the BC interior to visit The Girl’s birthplace – Kamloops. For the past week we have been even further up the North Thompson valley, staying in The Girl’s cousin’s cabin on one of the lakes above Barriere.
This idyllic hideaway is everything one might expect and hope for – beautiful setting, fabulous weather, total peace and quiet and no phone or Interwebnet coverage.
it is the sort of place where you are wakened by a pair of chipmunks fifteen foot up a tree outside the window, chasing each other round and round the trunk to ecstatic squeals. Or the sort of place – as it was this very morning – where one may be awoken at 5:30am by what at first sounded like rifle shots, but turned out to be a squirrel bombarding the tin roof of the cabin with pine cones from fifty foot up a conifer!
All one can do is stumble down the short path to the dock and tumble into the lake clutching one’s toothbrush.
I think some pictures are in order:
Here are some studies of the light on the water at different times of day:
Tags: British Columbia, Fuji x10, Holiday, Photo
Though the last two weeks have found us near to our busiest we have found the time for a little relaxation. Naturally the Fuji x10 tagged along.
We had a bite to eat in Estevan Village on the east coast of the peninsular north of Victoria. I particularly liked these boxes that hold free magazines and circulars.
In Bazan Bay there is a splendid and relatively recently opened farm centre/bakery/bistro/winery called The Roost, where one can feast on very un-North American wood-fired oven-baked pizza and sup the local nectar, whilst relaxing in a sun-drenched courtyard. This chicken ruled the… er…
Last Wednesday evening found us at Pioneer Park in Brentwood Bay for one of the summer season’s ‘Music in the Park‘ sessions. These splendidly bucolic and completely free concerts – at which the locals and visitors alike picnic and chill in the warm evening sunshine whilst appreciating some good beats – are a regular feature of life on the peninsular. This particular occasion featured regular performers, the ‘Pretzel Logic Orchestra‘, who offer an evening of Steely Dan tunes. The Kickass Canada Girl has always somewhat snootily delcared the Dan to be a ‘boys’ band’ and she was not best pleased when I caught her ‘bopping’ along (though I will doubtless get ‘bopped’ myself when she reads this!).
Finally some more shots of Sidney, which regular readers will know that I love dearly – for (hopefully) obvious reasons – and have eulogised before.
Here is Mount Baker across the water from Sidney. Gorgeous!
Tags: British Columbia, Fuji x10, Music, Photo, Victoria
…cometh the men…
…the men from Bournes’ International Moves to take away all our worldly possessions en route to Canada, that is!
Having myself nothing more useful to do I took some snaps…
After a day and a half of febrile packing a strange beast appeared – our 20ft container.
A couple of hours later the shrewd packers from Bournes’ proved that their estimators had totally nailed the volume required during their survey.
The inventory taken and the shipping manifest complete, both our movers and the driver of the truck applied their seals.
As if by magic the truck extended its bed to its full length…
…and monents later it was gone!
Well – if anything got packed to which we should have hung on, we are not going to see it again now for a couple of months.
No – the Kickass Canada Girl and I are not emulating the couple in Ford Madox Brown’s painting of the same name. No quite yet at any rate!
These are instead a few random Fuji X10 images – most likely the last such for now – capturing facets of the English summer.
With riotous laughter we quietly suffer
The season in town, which is reason enough for
A weekend in the country
How amusing
How delightfully droll
A weekend in the country
Stephen Sondheim – ‘A Little Night Music’
Just such…
…a weekend in the country with oldest friends. The Fuji x10 came too!
One of many the reasons that this is the perfect time of year in the UK… English asparagus!
A walk is most definitely called for…
‘Et in Arcadia…’
As we approach my favourite compass of the year here in the UK it is time to blow the cobwebs from the trusty Fuji X10 and to see if I can dredge from the recesses of my memory just how to go about capturing images with it. The dreary UK winter – with its dull and barren light – offers little in the way of an incentive to get out and about looking for those conjunctions of form and colour that just cry out to be recorded for posterity. Some practice is clearly called for.
Herewith some trial shots of nature awakening from its winter slumbers:
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