Seton Portage

Seton Portage is a small town between Pemberton and Lilloet, one major valley north of the main road.  It was a portage between Anderson and Seton Lakes on the route from the coast to the Interior during the Cariboo gold rush.  Seton Lake is glacier-fed, so it has that almost opaque turquoise colour that comes from finely ground rock dust.  Anderson Lake does not have glaciers, and is a clear dark greeny blue.  The estuary where the short river from Anderson Lake flows into Seton Lake is full of life, a lot of it just starting up again on a warm weekend at the end of March.

Granville Island

We had a Vancouver Urbansketchers meet-up at Granville Island today - about 10 people drawing amid the throngs on a nice spring day.  There was a lot going on in the space under the Granville bridge - people coming and going from shops and restaurants, a boat on stilts, a cement factory in the background, the colourful Aquabuses loading and unloading, and the top secret Canadian ICBM base (or maybe those are dock pilings?).  And a few colourful people and other passers-by below.

Haynes barn, Osoyoos

We spent a few days in the south Okanagan, tasting wine and watching the early spring migrants - western and mountain bluebirds were everywhere.  This barn dates to around 1900, and is currently being preserved as a wildlife reserve, because it's one of the few remaining buildings that are suitable for barn owls.

Mrs. Lum's garden centre

Lum's is our corner store - a vanishing feature in many neighbourhoods.  But this one has been there since 1911, or at least the building has, so hopefully it's not going away any time soon.  The Lum's also have a garden centre attached, an even rarer feature and probably a struggle to compete with the suburban mega-garden-stores.  But it is nice to know you can pop down to the corner store to pick up a ten-foot tall palm tree, if you need one.

Vancouver train station

We had the inaugural meeting of the Vancouver Urban Sketchers group today - thanks Sigrid!  About 15 of us met in the Vancouver train/bus station.  The timing was perfect, the first sunny day in Vancouver since, it seems, about 1919 when the station was built.  We could draw outside, which saved the conscientious security guard from facing the threat of people sketching the sensitive...customs booth?  Ticket stand?  McDonald's restaurant?  

The end of the Victory Ship

The Victory ships were built during World War 2 as fast cargo transports, made quickly to replace ships lost to u-boats.  The ship yards in North Vancouver produced 164 of them, a major contribution to Canada's war effort.  This is the last part of the last one, the stern of HMS Flamborough Head.  It was saved as the centre piece of the National Maritime Museum on the waterfront beside Lonsdale Quay.  A propeller from a sister ship was purchased to replace the lost original.  The only problem is that the museum was a co-operative project of the federal, provincial and municipal governments and private developers.  You can imagine how well that went.  In contrast to the effort of thousands of men and women who produced each ship in less than 100 days, this last piece of that history has sat rusting in a weedy vacant lot for years, partly covered by industrial strength Saran wrap like a forgotten left-over, a monument to government inability to get things done.  Even the weeds are failing to thrive.

Spring, sort of

I thought spring had arrived when it was sunny for a couple hours on the weekend and the crocuses in the lawn opened.  Today - not so nice.  And the problem with declaring the arrival of spring in mid-February in Vancouver is that you'll be left wondering in mid-July if summer is ever going to arrive.  Still, like the crocuses, you have to make the most of the sunny moments at this time of year.