My studio is seeing activity the likes of which it has not seen for many years (and in fact it was another studio in another place far far away).... oil painting! I'm loving the luscious juicy painterliness of oils and having a great time ... here's how my studio looks...
.. and here is a bit of painty goodness for you to enjoy
It's been a while (for me, at least), but today we took to the trails with Boo Two on my front...and some poles for extra balance!. I'm pleased to say he loved it (ie. slept throughout) and I'm rather impressed with Boo's stamina these days too (thanks to lots of training sessions with Dadda Boo).
I believe that's Cypress mountain in the background, scene of major lack of snow for the winter olympics. No lack this year.
Boo Two's suit was knitted by yours truly, following a pattern in Zoe Mellor's 'Nursery Knits' book. It looks kinda funny until you get a baby inside it...
What a glorious day, happy Spring eve!
Our trail walking has been somewhat curtailed in recent months, partly as a result of my early pregnancy fatigue, and partly due to the injury-ridden Dadda Boo, who is slowly rehabilitating from a very nasty ankle sprain he sustained whilst running several weeks ago. He's as eager as myself and the Boo to get back out on the trails whilst the summer sun still shines, and so we headed up to Mount Seymour for a hike. Our initial plan was to head up to Dog Mountain, a short hike with pretty much no elevation gain which promises spectacular views. However, we had somewhat forgotten about the terrain, which proved to be a little too much for our party, which included one dodgy ankle (Dadda Boo), one dodgy knee (Grandaddy), one 3ft-ish novice hiker, and one slightly cautious pregnant lady. Only Granny was in fine fettle and not carrying any handicap. Hiker Boo is most keen to walk, walk, walk but we do still take the Deuter child backpack as backup for difficult terrain and tired times. But the injured Dadda being the only adult still prepared to carry the now 30lb lady, we were not keen to push it, so at First Lake we reconsidered our route.
This is a man in pain.
So we took a right turn around the lake up the rather more forgiving Dinkey Peak trail, though there were still plenty of rocks and roots for little legs to work on their skills on. The enthusiasm of the dinky hiker is infectious.
After a little way the trail offers opportunity to climb up to Dinkey Peak for views, though we declined this in favour of the next viewpoint, the climb to which was easier for little legs.
The views don't quite equal those from Dog Mountain, but are a fair consolation to be sure. Dadda Boo recites the names of all the surrounding mountains, I just take it all in.
A little further along the trail, and before the descent down the main Mount Seymour Trail, there is opportunity for another viewpoint, this time looking out over the city of Vancouver.
The little canon couldn't quite penetrate through the summer haze, but you get the impression of the vista.
The dinky hiker's training continues.
At the weekend, we chugged out of town to Cultus Lake, 1.5 hours from Vancouver along the Fraser Valley. Dadda Boo was carrying an injured foot so our trail-walking was somewhat curtailed. Whilst we did get to the sample the short Seven Sisters Trail, which runs between Entrance Bay and Clear Creek Campgrounds, he wasn't upto Teapot Hill. We'll be back for that one, and for the other trails in the vicinity. Thankfully the weather was most conducive to sitting around in. We stayed at Clear Creek campground which had fantastic private forested sites, and the largest slug population you can imagine. Not for the first time, I was reminded how tricky it is to get slug slime off a small one's hands, especially when the water in the bathroom runs cold!
Ok, this isn't really a trail, but it is the most popular walkway in Vancouver; the Seawall around Stanley Park, which is, I read today, the largest urban park in N. America. It seems to me that much of the park's uniqueness is not solely due to its size but also to its 'wildness'. Much of the park is old forest, with only trails intersecting through it, which are usually pretty quiet. You can't really say the same thing about the seawall, which is as close as things get to busy around here. I have cycled the 10km perimeter a couple of times, but have never previously walked it, but I really wanted to do so in order to take in everything at a slower pace. So we loaded up the buggy, Boo got going on the snacks, and we headed out from our starting point just across from Coal Harbour.
Before long we reach tourist central the The Totem Poles, and we were searching for bears, as ever. On the totem poles that is, there are only real bears on the north shore.
Then we got our first glimpse of the north shore. The tower blocks are downtown Lonsdale, and we live off in the distance, in the valley between the two mountains visible here.
Round the first of two little lighthouses...
... round to the 'Girl in the Wet suit' sculpture and a dragon which had a former life on a Japanese ship. Boo said the dragon was a 'green bear' unsurprisingly, her obsession with bears continuing unabated.
We trotted along under Lions Gate Bridge (or Bear Bridge 1 as it is known in our household, Bear Bridge II being Second Narrows of course).
That's Grouse Mountain in the distance.
Marching a bit now as the tourist sights dwindle a bit beyond the bridge, and Boo was beginning to lose interest, we continued on to Siwash Rock.
On the rocks around the next corner, we saw literally hundreds of purple sea stars. We couldn't get down to them with the buggy, and most of them were just too far away for the little canon, but here's a couple of them.
Round about Third Beach, we came across a spot of stone yoga which I understand is the work of one Kent Avery.
Third Beach is a great spot to chill out...
...but we were headed for the sights and sounds of Second Beach.
Finally, we scooted around Lost Lagoon,
before getting our last glimpse of the north shore mountains, and getting back in the car to head back over the bridge in their direction.
Well, my camera finally decided to give up the ghost last week, so I couldn't record our two great cycle ride/walks up the Seymour Valley Trailway and the Old Growth Trail in the glorious sunshine, which was just beautiful.
Neither do I unfortunately have any pics of our experience of this year's Sun Run , which Dadda Boo took part in for the first time.
Looking at this pic of the 51,000 runners, I'm still pretty amazed that we managed to spot Dadda Boo at the end without the use of any mobile devices!
The sun is back and I'm falling in love with the city and the mountains all over again. It's hard to think of anywhere better in the world than Vancouver in the spring and summer.
Dadda Boo bought a dinky little Canon powershot so we should be resuming normal service on the blog now, and there may even be some movies once I've figured out how to make them. Its just perfect for trail walking too. Me, I'm starting to check our some DSLRs for a future date. Mmmmm.
Now that our walking season is truly underway (we do walk in the winter, but the incessant rain dampens our enthusiasm and diminishes the frequency), I thought I would like to start documenting our walks. When we first moved to Vancouver, we bought '109 Walks in British Columbia's Lower Mainland' by Mary and David Macaree and have done most the walks in it located on the north shore, some of them several times.
This weekend it was time for walk no. 41 in the book, the Brothers Creek Trails, in the mountains above West Vancouver. We drove to the affluent neighbourhood of British Properties and parked on the uppermost road to begin our walk. The book gave options for 2,3 or 4 hour walks from the same starting point. Dadda Boo was hoping for the 4, I was reckoning on the 3, and Boo, well she wanted to go home pretty much from the outset. Most times she loves nothing more than to be on Dadda Boo's back (I'm not keen on carrying her now she's over 2 stone!), but today grumpy tot was in residence.
The trail climbs steadily up the mountain into old growth forest. This is an interesting forest to walk through as there are a number of remnants of the logging industry of the past; today we saw an old rusty truck amongst the trees. There is a heritage trail with numbered signposts to identify traces of the industry, if you want to do it properly.
We enjoyed the trail as it headed into the forest, strangely because it was less well maintained than some of the trails we frequent. Fallen trees, rickety bridges and deep mud pools add a bit of interest (though we don't want too much difficulty with the terrain what with the tot in tow).
The grumbling reached such a deafening pitch by the first marker point, that we opted to take the 2 hour route, missing out on our chance to see two mountain lakes and two more sets of falls (we'll be back!). Dropping down to the creek, we crossed a bridge and began our return route down the other side.
Mist was clinging to the mountainside as we dropped back down on the return leg, and we emerged amongst the houses to rain and a typically misty view down over Lions Gate bridge and Stanley Park.
In the afternoon, we purchased Boo her own hiking backpack (complete with little teddy) and set her off on her own two legs. Usually pretty reluctant to walk if there is another option, the hiker-in-training managed about 4km around Rice Lake.
We'll soon have her scrambling over rocks and tree roots!
