I did not travel outside of my home province, Ontario Canada where I was born, until when I was 25 years old. It was a train trip to Quebec City with a sister. I can’t even remember if we stopped in Montreal on our way into la belle province, Quebec. So, no de rigeur European…
Category: Travel
Christmas Crystal Memories to Hold
With covid restrictions still falling like blanket globally, Christmas holidays become bright lights in a string of long nights and winter days. “Tree of Life” stained glass art windows at Christ Church Cathedral, downtown Vancouver BC 2020. By Musqueam artist, Susan Point from Alert Bay, BC. Imagery of trees supporting salmon, a symbol of northwest…
Before Smoky Skies: Vacation Spirits at Cowichan Bay, British Columbia
Now that some wildfire fire smoke drifted into Calgary this summer across the Rocky Mountains from 300 different wildfires burning in British Columbia, I am grateful for my lovely, earlier vacation interlude with friends at Cowichan Bay, on southern Vancouver Island. It feels I just beat the smoky sky blues by a few days. Cowichan…
Mist and Brightness: Beaver Lake, Stanley Park
On another post-rainy day, we cycled over to Beaver Lake, tucked in Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Once you bike or better yet, saunter down a short, hard packed fine gravel path through the woods, you’ll reach messy mini-wetland of Beaver Lake. It’s not particularily scenic spot since you’re surrounded by old growth trees and rotting logs…
Beauty Long for Now
This spring I just won’t be able to immerse in cherry blossom splendour in Vancouver. So these lovely blossom sprays and boughs are memories for me, and maybe for many of you, tissue paper living dreams. Nevertheless, join me with lightness in heart of spring and living. Cherry umbrella arcs Pink flush warms o’er skies…
Unveiling Vancouver Temperate Rainforests
Kind of embarrassing –after moving to Vancouver over 18 years ago, we finally visited 2 local municipal parks with temperate rainforests, for our first time a few months ago. For many years, I biked right by Pacific Spirit Regional Park near the University of British Columbia. Park edge was sometimes within a metre from the…
Outdoor Art Adds a Different City Heartbeat
If you need a break from the city’s fast pace and crowds while in the midst of its heartbeat, outdoor art can be a wonderful antidote to slow you down. Or indoor art in public places, such as the stained glass of Mount Rundle below, taken inside St. Paul’s Church, in downtown Banff. Not every…
Jasper National Park- Away from Thronging Crowds
If you really want to avoid wilderness national park tourist craziness, go to Jasper in early October. Be warned: I’ve never been there during summer and don’t feel like going there then, to challenge my own claim. Just know that Banff National Park received a bumper crop of all-time high of tourists 2018-2019 (data probably…
Monarchs and Other Butterfly Surprises: Toronto
Much to our surprise, our visit in Toronto, coincided with the Monarch Butterflies’ last sojourn in early September before migrating south to Mexico. Monarch Abundance Not Far from Skyscrapers Quite frankly, I had no idea in advance, the number of monarch butterflies we would see in the city in several parks, with the city traffic…
Dinosaur Dreams and Stories –Past and Now
Until I moved to Alberta, dinosaurs never dented my consciousness. World’s Biggest Museum Dedicated to Dinosaurs It was not until a few years ago I accompanied a sister’s family to dinosaur excavation and research hub, at the Royal Tyrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller. It’s in Canada’s Badlands where the dinosaurs roamed or swam and…
Miracle Moments: Of Bears, National Bird and Other Critters at Banff National Park
Of all the times we’ve been to Banff National Park, I haven’t seen any bear roaming about yet except when we were cycling on the Continental Divide west of the Park over 15 years ago. This summer Jack did spot a bear when he biked out to Vermillion Lake, a popular marshy area with birds,…
A Wilderness Jewel: Lake Moraine
Recently another blogger, an American ex-pat living and teaching in Thailand, mentioned she saw someone selling canned Canadian air to mainland Chinese tourists. Not a surprising scam. Whenever we’re hiking or snowshoeing in a Canadian national park, I always marvel sucking in fresh mountain air, gazing over clear turquoise gem lake waters, pristine expansive wilderness…
Art and Alchemy of Glassmaking: Tacoma, Washington
After viewing Chihuly’s Glass and Garden site in Seattle, the following year we took the train 45 km. south of Seattle to Tacoma. Tacoma has been historically a poorer, smaller sibling town to Seattle. It has had a predominantly blue collar population with some water vessel building and maintenance facilities for the military and private…
Glass Art Fantasia in Seattle
Many times when in downtown Seattle, we strolled by the Chihuly Glass and Garden, or colloquially named the Glass Sculpture Garden, near the Space Needle. We finally paid the admission fee and went inside to discover what lay beyond the glass sculptural twirling shapes sticking up over the bush hedges. Alchemy of Glass Colour, Textural…
Bowing Wild Deer, Warrior with a Writing Brush
Since Japan was my first step into Asia, here’s a salutary bag of traveller stories and pithy impressions. After we happily munched on just warm pounded, luscious matcha mochi from a downtown Nara shop, we strolled over to Nara Park, a heritage park steeped in Japanese Buddhism, some temples …and its wild deer. Bowing, Hungry…
Art Awakens Commuters, Tourists: Transit Rail Stations
This blog post aims to inspire the cynic and apathetic. In other words, art deniers don’t want to appreciate art for waiting commuters and walk-through visitors who appreciate visually distinctive stops for a liveable city. A city worth visiting, stopping and remembering well. For locals and for attracting tourists to even take transit as part…
Touch My Seoul and its Strength
Oddly, the official tourism sites for Seoul seem to be tepid and lack lots of dynamic photos for this great vibrant and historic city in South Korea. It’s only 20 km. away from DMZ, or demilitarized zone by North Korea. Seoul and South Korea – Not Same Romanticization as Japan Maybe Seoul or indeed South…
Deep Temple Bell, Celestial Female Musicians
Jack and I were wandering in central Kyoto city, somewhere not far from Nishiki Market and the Kamogawa river. During our trip in Kyoto, for several days we would wander into neighbourhood Shinto shrines or come upon a Buddhist huge bronze temple bell either a small one or at large Zen Buddhist temple complexes. Needless…
For Fun, Attention or Quiet Self-Identity : National Heritage Dress
One thing for certain, travelling in big cities of Japan and South Korea, you can rent a national dress and parade around in it for a few hours. It’s around 30 – 45 Canadian dollars. We never saw this money-making practice when we were in Germany, France, Denmark, Czech Republic nor Barcelona, Spain. Maybe there’s…
Food Art, Tofu Doughnuts and Octopus Kimchi Pancake: Japan and Seoul, South Korea
Before we flew off to Japan and Seoul, South Korea, I only had one Japanese cookbook which I haven’t even cooked anything from it. My tasting experience has been based on eating in restaurants in Canada –primarily Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary. And I don’t even eat out as often as others, for dinner. After Internet…
Escape to Arashiyama, Part I: Many Faces of Buddhism, Nuances in Zen Moss Garden
While travelling in Japan, I often felt I had not done enough research to swallow the meaning of sights and details unfurling before me. That feeling lingered when we wandered around in Arashiyama-Sagano. Arashiyama lies on the western fringe of Kyoto — an hour train ride away. We had initially just planned to see…
Much Matcha Green Tea Desserts: Japan and Seoul, South Korea
Maybe we were a tad crazy during our two week trip, in Japan and Seoul: it was almost a matcha tea dessert every day. Yea –in addition to sipping sometimes a lovely cup of medium to high grade matcha or at least green tea. There is a sublime difference. Birthplace and Hub of Japan’s Centuries…
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