An Island adventrue...

When in Vancouver, you simply MUST make a trip to Granville Island.

It's a public market, a culinary extravaganza.

An arts and culture centre.

A working ship yard.

A cement plant.

Home to Emily Carr Art Institute.

Land of Granville Island Brewery.

And much, much more!

Underneath the Granville Street bridge, awaits this most fascinating place.

People live, work, play and come here for all of the amazing treats and treasures.

We spent the morning here with my brother last weekend on a short trip over to the mainland.

It's not really an 'Island' although it is almost surrounded by water and boats are everywhere...

These little aqua buses ferry you from points all around the area...

Granville Island is in between two other bridges.

One is the Cambie St bridge and the other is a gorgeous Art Nouveau bridge which connects Burrard St with downtown Vancouver...

Once inside the public market, you will be so inspired to cook and eat that your head will spin!

There are acres of asparagus...

...castles of carrots...

...mountains of morels...

...forests of fiddle heads...

...satchels of sunflowers...

...towers of tea...

...chestfuls of cherries...

...basket loads of bread...

a cornucopia of strange fruit...

...oodles of olives...

...rivers of ravioli...

...loads of leeks...

...masses of mackerel...

...a plethora of prawns...

...fiddling...

...and feeding...

...cheese-aholic? No problem!...

...bad hair day? no problem!...

WHEW! Time for a rest with brother Dan...

...now back to the important stuff...

Food!

I always thought this place had the most brilliant name...

Yummy soup stock!

Now lets get down to business and get to the chocolate booth!!!

These are edible works of art!

If this place doesn't inspire you to eat, drink and be merry, I don't know what will!!!

Back in the saddle!

Whew!

It's been a while since I've been on line due to crashing hard drives

but I'm back with the further musings and wanderings of a farmlass...

Lets see...where was I?... Oh yes...

I had been sitting out by the pond taking pictures of frogs and water lillies,

and so a life continues.

We put this pond in about 4 years ago after one of our goats died and we had to have a hole dug.

When our friend came over with his digger, we thought why not get him

to dig a hole for a pond and hence Licorice Lake was born (the deceased goat was called Licorice).

A word of warning to any pond virgins out there.

Do your research!

We've learned so much about why not to have a pond.

Algae being the biggest problem since our pond is in full sun.
We were also given 5 large goldfish and ended up, at one point, with about 200 offspring!
We now enjoy it the way nature intended and don't fuss with it anymore.
Anyway, the fish population has worked itself out, the plants are healthy
and there is a lot of life in the water including frogs, dragonflies, water beetles and
numerous other creepy, crawly bugs.
The show stoppers this time of year are the water lilies...
Enjoy!

ARGH!!!!

Remember the olden days when you kept a journal?

Or as a young girl, it was called a diary?

It came with a little key, which could easily be substituted for a nail file or pen knife if you

happen to lose it...

I have kept a few in my time of travels or just of doodles and ideas.

Or how about those big binder-like photo albums?

Hours would be spent chronologically laying out your life between the pages...

that great trip to the cottage, Christmas time with big hair,

baby pictures by the scores and loved ones who've come and gone...

And the BOXES of pictures which didn't make the cut, but you just couldn't

bring yourself to throw away.

Well now you can keep all of that and a myriad more of information

in a different kind of box.

Yup the personal computer.

Seems that late last week my box got crushed under the heavy weight

of technology and crashed.

Not quite burned but definitely crashed.

Lucky for me we have a super geek in town who was able to

retrieve all of the important stuff....mainly my pictures and some of Tom's writing.

So I sit here on a PC at the library and realize that I have a slight addiction.

You see I have realized once again that I enjoy my time at the screen.

Checking email, blogging and using it for research.

How many times in the past week have I gone to look something up

on Google and was stopped dead in my tracks by the stark

realization that my own personal reference library is not available.

When I go up to my desk there is a big gap.

A sad space of nothingness.

So I must be patient while Dr Geek performs his magic and saves

the life of my vessel of ideas.

My container of memories.

My link to all of you.

Hope to be back soon!

Sunday? Just ducky!

Saturday night my niece Hannah stayed the night.

First we watched our beloved Canucks win another game on their way to the Stanley Cup!

That was a good start.

Then on Sunday, we got up early, took Griff for a walk and after breakfast we ventured north up Island.

Our destination?

Irma's.

More specifically, duck land...

It's just west of Donkey-Rocky Mountain horse ville...

And what's cuter than 3 white Call ducks?

You guessed it!

Call ducklings!

After a few laps around the pool and much quacking, it was time to get out and preen clean...

Whew...That deserves a nice long nap in the shade...

going...

going...

gone.

Now it's mama's turn to get some serious worm digging done...

It's a messy business...

...then it's clean up time for her...into the pool!

Then a cuddle with Hannah...

And back for another few laps with the lads...

Benita the mini donkey and Sophie the horse were next on the visiting rounds...

Someone loves their ears being rubbed!

How about a kiss from Griff?

...not so much!

Sophie gets some love from Jenny...

She's just about the prettiest horse around...

It was the kind of day that you just wanted to take the donkey for a walk...off to the beach!

A massive freighter was anchored off shore...

  Then it was up through the trees to dream about living here...

It's for sale, by the way.

Just need to come up with a little over a million dollars to seal the deal...

After all that walking, we were in serious need for some ice cream.

Luckily, the best ice cream around is only a 10 minute drive away in Cowichan Bay...

 Not only do they have ice cream made with REAL cream AND sugar waffle cones

but they also have every kind of retro candy you can imagine!

Cowichan Bay village is full of funky little shops of all kinds...

 ...and one of the best whole grain bakeries!

All in all a pretty good day.

The sun is out, it's warm, the arms are bare and the face is getting brown...

What more could a girl want?!

(maybe a few little ducklings of her own!)