Category: vancouver

Photos from the Seawall

It is a winter wonderland in Vancouver today and, with the forecast predicting pissing rain for the next couple of days, we decided a lunch time walk was in order. The photo opportunities were numerous and these are a few that I grabbed with the iPhone:

It is so strange – such a strange juxtaposition – to see snow on the beach. Beaches, even growing up here on the WetCoast, seem analogous with summer and sunshine specifically.

Here a fountain is almost completely crusted in ice… I imagine the city has the water on so the pipes don’t freeze…

Duck. Duck. Goose? I think this might be a goose – perhaps a domesticated type that was released into the “wilds” of Granville Island? Here he/she is chilling with the ducks. I have sent this photo to my Dad, who, I have no doubt, will be able to identity this water fowl.

Ah, a Great Blue Heron… while you can almost always spot these amazing birds down at Granville Island it is rare to get this close to one… at least for me… here he is eyeballing me pretty closely, but, based on the amount of water fowl we saw near shore on our walk, it must be a pretty good day for fishing so he put up with getting his picture taken.

Yarn bombing…

It has been especially quiet around here for over a month, and while some of that time off was forced upon me (I was rather unwell through November into December), the later half of December was a self-imposed holiday filled with much baking and entertaining and holiday fun. Through all this the weather has been remarkable here in Vancouver and I have enjoyed a number of sunny (and windy!!) seawall walks.

While walking to Granville Island on December 31, I happened upon two great examples of yarn bombing a.k.a knitting graffitti… true, I have noted others while wandering around Vancouver’s Kitsilano area, but these were brand new and begging to be photographed (with the iPhone 4s, FYI).

Wikipedia (linked above) describes yarn bombing as such: Yarn bombing, yarnbombing, yarnstorming, guerrilla knitting, urban knitting or graffiti knitting is a type of graffiti or street art that employs colorful displays of knitted or crocheted cloth rather than paint or chalk.

A fringed yarn bomb on the swing set at Kits Beach, Vancouver, BC, Canada

This, of course, got me wondering about yarn bombing and whether or not anyone was tracking such things… if I should be submitting the photos to a database or what not… and, upon Googling, I discovered that the writers behind yarnbombing.com were actually from Vancouver, BC, Canada, which I thought was more than a little cool! There are also a few Ravelry groups devoted to this subject.

A flowered yarn bomb on a tree at the entrance of the seawall path of Vanier Park

There were no tags identifying the artist(s), but I suppose that isn’t the point. I hope to happen upon more installations, and may be moved to contribute my own some day…

Only 11 months late:

These are Navdeep’s Christmas 2010 socks…he took possession of them last night on October 31, 2011. Yes, I am a little behind with the knitting, ahem, either that or I have too many projects on the go…

Pattern: David Socks – Designed by Anne Hanson of Knitspot – as always Anne’s patterns are well written and result in fantastic finished objects! – rating: 5 stars

Yarn: Gourmet Crafter Sock Yarn by Gourmet Crafter (Alexa) –  Colourway: Stanley Park Lights – love the yarn base (cashmere!!) and the colours – rating: 5 stars

Ravelry Project Page

In the garden: Yellow Brandywine

This is one of the new varieties of tomatoes we tried this year, Yellow Brandywine. The plant was huge, took a long time to fruit, and didn’t start ripening until mid-September, also it seemed to be very prone to powdery mildew, but they sure were tasty! I purchased the starter plant at the VanDusen Garden Sale at the beginning of May 2011.