A Wander through the West End

 Righto... we poked around and found a skating rink under Robson Square! It was too warm already though, so it was more like a slush rink... 

This cool statue was guarding the rink... I wonder what it is... looks like an Inuit design? We looked it up and it is!! An Inuit artist, Abraham Etungat, did a small soapstone carving, and then a charitable foundation made 4 large bronze copies and placed them across Canada - one here, one in Calgary, one in Toronto and one in Halifax. Cool! It's called the Bird of Spring.

Then we tootled over the Vancouver Public Library cause it is such a cool building with a cool roof.

It's a little too early for all of the flowers though... there's a whole garden up here. Must come back in the a few months.

Then we wandered through the West End and found some cool things... a little mosaic mushroom...

And the West End seems rife with art deco buildings!!

We thought this one was pretty cool with the colouring.

And people do little curbside gardens...  between the road and the sidewalk. Nice.

Ooohhh... this one is pretty cool!

It's hard to get a good angle on it for a photo.

And this was across the street and has some art deco vibes going as well.

What do you think?? Art deco?

I could get stuck in the West End for a while!

And these cool art deco apartment buildings are next to more craftsman style houses...

So many buildings... so little time...

We eventually wandered back into Stanley Park and walked by Lost Lagoon...

This duck posed nicely... and it almost looks like a painting! It's a male Wood Duck... beary handsome!

There are lots of trails in Stanley Park...

And it's easy to get lost if you're not paying attention!

But don't worry... this little bear knows where he is going!

We ended up on one of the beaches. So pretty...

And beary windy!!

If you didn't know... you might think you are on the West Coast of Vancouver Island...

And one more art deco-y building on the way back...

And this little bear is pooped!!!

April Showers brought Spring Flowers

 Hullo! We are off on an early morning hike today...

Love this view as the sun comes up.

The purple camas are blooming!!

And this stuff which is... Death Camas...

A perfect spot from which to view the lake.

Although this spot has its merits as well...

Let's see what else is out and blooming...

Of course we have Salmon Berry!

The Vanilla Leaf is beary pretty but their flower spikes comea bit later.

A found a patch of yellow Wood Violets! Earlier in April, we saw purple violets and pink violets too. Beary cute!

The Pacific Bleeding Heart is just starting to open up.

And the sword ferns are in the middle of unfurling.

They look so funny when they are like this.

The Trillium are out too!

They are also beary pretty. Sometimes we see ones that shade into pink.

This is NOT a flower!! It's a black slug... which is an invasive European slug.

That was a nice walk... and we'll have to go to the Harewood Plains and check out the wildflower display there... if the camas is blooming, it's time!

An Artistic Day in Vancouver

 Hullo! We got up early this morning and came to Starbucks to do some blogging...

This Starbucks was pretty big, and closet to the hotel which is beary convenient!

Then it was time for breakfast...

Salmon eggs benedict... yum!!

Alright... where are we off to today??

We are heading along Robson Street and I saw something Beanie Mouse might like!

Do you see... across the street... it's Ladurée!!

We just had breakfast, so we aren't stopping there...

This shop display had gold lady bugs in it! Nice!

Alrightee... here we are... the Vancouver Art Gallery!

They have a beary cool display set up...

Are you ready...??

It's Emily Carr!!! She is one of BCs most famous and beloved artists...

She was born in 1871 and died in 1945. She spent a LOT of time travelling around BC painting Indigenous cultures.

She was influenced by painters like Lawren Harris of the Group of Seven. When he saw her work, he told her that "you are one of us"...

This is one of her earlier works. 

She had spent time in France as well..

And if you look at the earlier works, you can see some of that French Impressionist influence...

Like this one...

But then you start seeing more of the Group of Seven influence... and Carr's own style...

They had some of her sketches as well.

This one was funny!! She painted some cats in the shrubbery!

She was trying to capture movement and flow and she did pretty good here!

We love her paintings.

This one is pretty cool... the tall majestic cedars and then you can see the Indigenous village down low, on the sandy shore.

From a lot of dark green and browns...

In later ears, she started adding more blues and whites...

And then some yellows...

We don't come here beary often... 

But to see her stuff... definitely!!

Alright... where to next???

TO BE CONTINUED