Oh Canada

Dec.9

Lights covering St. Paul's hospital - right next door.

We arrived in Vancouver last night during a rainstorm and 7 C temperature.  Four days of rain are forecast while we are here.  What a relief from all that sunshine.  But Vancouver certainly is decked out for Christmas, with beautiful lights decorating downtown.

Pacific anemonies Vancouver Island

the Handyman with his head in an aquarium bubble.

front view

Giant Pacific Octopus

We went to the Aquarium today – what a beautiful ocean floor they have here.  I would like to go diving, and I told the Handyman we would wear dry suits, but just thinking about changing outside is enough to end that idea.  I bought gloves for my cold hands today.

artistic arrangements of 50 years of stuff

bottles, buttons, bows, bowls, boots, bags, bolts,  - you get the picture

We went to the Art Gallery, it always brings a smile to my face.  The artistic interpretations of life are so entertaining/thought provoking/amusing/startling/engaging?

There was an exhibit entitled “Waste not” It was a very intriguing look at stuff. It was like an artistic display of that television show Hoarders. (Okay, I confess to watching) The artist described how his mother began saving items because of deprivation.  She lived in China during the Cultural Revolution and started out saving useful items out of necessity, but eventually the stuff she had saved became redundant because of progress in technology or design.  The items meant to help improve their lives cluttered the family’s life so much it interfered with their life.  You can see in the photos how artistically the items were displayed in the exhibit.  It made me smile to remember collecting bits of string as a child. Or how they taught us in school to tear and fold the corner of two pieces of paper together because they didn’t supply paper clips. There were no Dollar stores to make reusing items unnecessary.

We’re easing back into the Canadian climate.