73. Art Day

After spending most of my day laboriously trying to get my watercolour flowers to pop, thought Id take a photo and make it my photo of the day.` It is definitely consuming my thoughts today and therefore going outside to look for a photo seemed distracting. 
The background seems to be competing with the flowers for mainstage and while I realize it is a fundamental flaw in this painting, as far as I can see, it can`t be remedied at this point.  However, this has been a great learning experience for me and I am looking forward to my next flower painting, feeling confident that I`ll be able to master the process next time.

72. Dressed Salmon

As I was about to post another "purple photo", I was interrupted by the call to dinner. When my dinner was served, I was so happy to see the colours, the salmon and the plating with the asparagus placed just so, I decided that this would be my photo of the day.
No editing, just a border was needed to complete this cool photo. By the way, the dinner was delish!

71. Purple Hyacinth

A highly fragrant flower, this spread of hyacinth was found near the beach.  On a slow stroll along the boardwalk, the sea of purple was designated as my photo of the day.  A quick photo was taken, and I'm happy with the result.  

70. Purple Quilt

Not predominantly purple, but enough to satisfy my desire for purple this week in photo of the day. Our library, and I say our because I feel entitled after living in White Rock for almost 5 months now, a very warm and welcoming place, so much so, that they hang quilts up to make it feel more homey.  It doesn't appear to be an installation that has an expiry date as these have been on display since my first visit to this library.  Along with the quilts, there is an ever changing display of local artist’s work. 

What is noteworthy is that this library seems to take an active role in encouraging artists. A role that most of White Rock has taken on.

No one seemed to mind when I took the photo of the quilts as it is in the open for all the public to see. A wee bit of cropping helped take out the partial quilt hanging on the adjacent wall which distracted from my purple theme.  What purple objet d’art will I find tomorrow?

69. Purple Tulip

Setting out to find my photo of the day, I didn't have to go very far and found this unusual purple tulip amid a sea of red tulips. This garden is actually called the Rose Garden and it sits on the grounds of White Rock City Hall, however, it’s too early for roses.  Even without the roses this garden is uplifting.  Hence my photo of the day.

68. Whaling Wall

Never get tired of seeing the Whaling Wall, so thought I’d include it in Photo of the Day. Not only is it a cool picture, it’s a cool title as well.  Whaling Wall IV by Wyland, in my opinion, is one of the best in his more than 100 murals.  Thought the fellow riding along the sidewalk would help the viewer see the size of this mural.

67. Elder Moon

Elder Moon by Leslie and Leonard Wells

A photo of the Elder Moon at the entrance to the South Surrey Recreation Centre on 20th Avenue in South Surrey. Famed Haida Gwaii artist,  Robert Davidson trained two carvers, Leslie and Leonard Wells.  In July 2009, at a traffic circle at South Surrey rec centre, the carvings of brothers, Leslie and Leonard Wells were unveiled.  Their overall circular designs allude to traditional Coast Salish spindle whorls and speak to a history of art-making distinctive to the region. Rich with symbolic meaning, the disks are installed on the traffic roundabout at the South Surrey Recreation Centre, near the Semiahmoo First Nation community.   Elder Moon alludes to the Coast Salish “13 Moons” yearly cycle, which provides guiding principles for social and ceremonial life. Each of the moons symbolically represented in the outer rings is associated with a story and a time of year.

I have walked by this a few times and on a sunny day, the turquoise of the Elder Moon is quite brilliant against the background of trees. Busy with traffic, this makes for a very inviting entrance into this well used recreation area.

66. Blossoming Cherry Trees

White Rock is missing something that it could have quite easily.  Boulevards lined with blossoming cherry trees.  In Vancouver, at this time of year, some of the streets are lined with these beautiful trees and on a windy day it literally rains blossoms.  It’s a wonderful experience, not to be missed.  

Walking along Prospect Road after trying to get a photo of the day, I saw this line up of blossoming cherry trees and decided to see if I could capture the riot of pink.  It’s an interesting view of perspective from this angle, with the fence and the sidewalk disappearing in the distance. Unfortunately, you can’t see the ocean off in the distance, but it is there!.

65. Outside Window Dressing

Off for a jaunt around Granville Island, stopping at Maiwa to look at gorgeous hand painted fabric: 

The art of handweaving in Bengal is ancient. Cotton fabrics were exported to Roman and Chinese empires and Ptolemy mentions the region in his writings. The hot, humid climate of the Ganges delta inspired artisans to produce the most diaphanous fabrics possible. These would be worn in layers and were capable of catching even the slightest breeze.  

Maiwa also has a shop full of hand dyed wools, books on wool and fabric dyes.  We spent a fair bit of time going through the books, looking at the items that could be knit from these amazing wools.

From there we walked through the Granville Island Market, taking in the sites of food and more crafts, people eating, children crying, and as we left there, seagulls screaming for crumbs of food. 

Then, on to visit BC Potters Guild and Crafthouse. BC Potters Guild, having a background in pottery it is one of my “go to” stores, I can’t resist.. A small heart shaped bowl, seemed over priced and I asked the clerk if this was a pricing error, she indicated no, the potters price the items themselves. 
For such a plain item, the amount seemed out of sync with the rest of the pottery. Maybe I was comparing it to the prices I charged, which are now outdated.  

Leaving there, we went to Crafthouse which is a shop/gallery that sells fine crafts, and as we hadn't been in there for a while we were intrigued by the Japanese style purses and bags, bejewelled mirrors and unusual pottery that reminded one of things that live in the ocean!  

As my friend had an item to pick up at Just in Stitches, we decided to visit Ten Thousand Villages afterward, which has items crafted in third world countries, such as pottery that was well priced and my friend bought a jar of organic decaf coffee.  

Before leaving, I took a few photos of Granville Island and the Ten Thousand Villages window with the ivy crawling up and around it.  This turned out to be my Photo of the Day. And the end of our journey to Granville Island.

64. Mt. Begbie

Pastel by J. Davidson

Mt. Begbie viewed from Mt. Revelstoke National Park.  Very recognizable from Revelstoke, Mt. Begbie sits as a beacon over the small town nestled in the mountains.

63. Flowering Fence

Looking for the photo of the day and almost missed it!  Flowers on the school fence!  Lots of them! All different sizes and shapes, all wood and in a riot of colours and styles.  

Not sure if this was a project by the whole school or only certain grades, but by the “2009” insignia on one of the flowers, this looks like the year they were done.  If so, they have held up nicely and must have been varnished as well.  The styles range from dainty, well thought out patterns to aggressive punk rock style.  

All are captivating for my viewing pleasure and I heartily endorse projects such as these.  It must be fun for these teens now, to venture back and see their flower still there.

62. Not a Gaggle

Surprised that  this Canada Goose posed for his photo, on the other hand, his mate, was too busy munching down grubs. To be an official gaggle of geese, there must be a minimum of 5 geese, so says the definition and in order to comply with the definition, the gaggle must not be flying as the flock would then turn into a skein.  Interesting, I've heard of a skein of wool, but never a skein of geese.

This winsome fellow peered over at me, perhaps wondering if I was just another tourist or with any luck, I had some bread crumbs to throw his way. Just a blogger looking for a photo, I told him. Thanked him for his patience and I went on my way.

61. Stairway to heaven

A short walk down Pacific Avenue, so appropriately named with views of the ocean at every cross road, turn right on Dolphin Street, and the stairway to heaven awaits.  To get to Dolphin Street, one passes by Fir and Centre Street and on the other side is Balsam and Ash Street.  Why and who picked Dolphin Street.  The street names read like a map to the ocean.  

This is not the first time I took this route, but the first time I realized how significant the street names are!

During the photo session, my camera battery ran dead.  It probably wouldn't make any difference. However, I did take a car out of the photo and it can probably be noticed quite easily, as my photoshopping skills need work.

All in all, it is a favourite stairway of mine, because there’s such a great reward at the bottom. Today, if my battery hadn’t died, I would have added another photo of the tide coming in and the sun glinting off the water.

60. Lone Seagull

A while ago, I heard anecdotally that seagulls are starving. The storyteller said they just didn't have enough food. Today in the news, I noted an article giving weight to that story.  A new study finds that "Lack of marine food cuts the seagull population in half." This article doesn’t provide the needed information on why the seagull population started declining after 1980.  It suggests that the lack of seafood forced seagulls to start foraging through garbage and eating earthworms.  Is it easier for seagulls to pick through garbage than dive for seafood?  When trains hauled garbage in open containers, did seagulls find it easier to sit on the side of a train and dig in?  Not having access to the study, leaves one wondering.