Spring Break 2011 brought us to Alert Bay, BC.

We had beautiful 'wind-shine' (new word describing fresh west coast wind and crisp spring sunshine). So good to be in a wild island place. We visited the U'mista Cultural Center, where we viewed many stunning masks and baskets. The Museum is adjacent to a derelict residential school built in 1929, which now hosts totem carvers in its basement...(a much better use of space). We stayed only one night, then took the noon boat off the island and "frappé-ed the route" down island....open road, good tunes, and springtime!




Stopped at Miracle Beach (b/w Campbell River and Courtenay). We had the place to ourselves and miles of low tide and glassy tidal pools awaiting skim boards and summertime. Onward to Courtenay, where we enjoyed an afternoon of sipping beer and reading on a sunny front porch at Justina and Chance's house. Breakfast and thriftstore shopping next day....more lounging at our temporary accommodations (nice house on a quiet street with songbirds and a great yard). Thoughts of living the island life manifesting...especially after visiting Cumberland! A quaint ex-coal mining community turned hippie which hosts a renown music festival in August, The Big Timeout.

Drive, Drive, Drive...We continued our journey down island through Coombs, which has transformed into a serious tourist trap village of kitch...but still has goats on the roof. Arrived in Victoria in early evening. It's always sunny in Victoria! A gorgeous Spring experience turning up at Brian and Georgina's new rented character home...daffodils aplenty and blossoms lining the street....smiles all around and little Lilah May greeting us at the door in her dog costume. Fantastic! One night and a full day with the Hope-Tuckers and off we went to catch the Ferry to Mayne.....(after grabbing some delicious tacos in Cook Street Village). We were one of four cars on the little gulf island ferry...Patrick and i enjoyed running around on the car deck and watching the sunset from our front row parking spot at the ships bow. There were daffodils every which way on Mayne, speckling the forests and cheering up the winter landscape. So good to be 'home' at the Cobbige after journeying on Vancouver Island.


After a few lovely days on Mayne, we are now home in East Van...in our basement nook...content with and refreshed by our island adventures.

My class. Grade two french immersion. The place where I've been spending my days.



Students engaged in math centers.

equinox

The moon did a peep show tonight
Through the clouds shifting
Oceanic moon globe bright
Atmosphere distorting
Paper white light
Casting creative shadow
Velocity cycling through
Harvest
Moon
Light

I like this summer rain. lush and light. warm and wet.
A walk with Trik on the mud flats in Port Moody.
New moon=really low tide
Smells like salt, clams and mud. Oh glorious mud!

Vancouver wind rustling in whistling in tree tops.
Smells like ocean.yum. And snow dusted mountain tops frame this city so perfectly.



The Lions. The Sisters.
The snowshoeing to the top.
Sunshine and crazy carpets.


This album...found in parental give away pile...
AMAZING cover. too bad the vinyl is scratched.

A wall... a gate...a colourful porthole........ art.



texture. colour. light. reflection. collage.
rust. corrosion. weathering. art.

This is where I'm spending my days lately....in Grade One!

It's a brand new school on a site next to a forested area in Coquitlam.
I am currently teaching a unit on maps and the local environment. The students will have to map out the school yard and do a sort of treasure hunt using their maps. Should be fun. It's almost the end of my short practicum. I've definitley learned a lot. Below are a few pictures of art work students created in a lesson I taught about cherry blossoms and Springtime.




That's it for now. Short and sweet. More soon.

hosting our first xmas

Colourful lights and the xmas tree felted forest that my mom and i made in lieu of having a real Christmas tree in this small space. Patrick and I were the last to go to bed on Christmas eve and we left out a cookie and some milk for the Pere Noel.


After a nice breakfast in our backyard, we spent Christmas day at the beach! bocci, sunshine and chai tea = yum.





And xmas dinner...the citrus stuffed turkey was slow so we ate at 9:30-ish and improvised table decorations with gift wrapping silk ribbons + a mini pointsettia. Food was delicious...but we were all a little tired and hungry.


It's a 'Sarah fluffula head' at Huntington Gardens


On Boxing Day, we piled in the dunefox (our car) and headed to Huntington Gardens. The cactus garden was vast and awe inspiring. We spent the afternoon meandering through the grounds and interspersing our outdoor exploration with museum art appreciation...We saw a copy of the Gutenberg bible, an original copy of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, Thomas Lawrence's 1794 portrait of 'Pinkie' and Thomas Gainsborough's 1770 'Blue Boy'.









Posing in the Japanese rock garden.


On Christmas morning, Sarah and Patrick spent some time on Ebay looking for a brand new Stiga Table Hockey game...we paid a little extra to ensure we had it by New Years. It arrived on the 29th just minutes after Patrick had checked the delivery tracking and uttered, "it should be here any minute!" The game is a vast improvement upon the older models we've been playing on. A very exciting table hockey future awaits us. And we're bringing it North!!!

holidays

Mom came to visit in early December. We had a lovely walk along a ridge in the Santa Monica Mountains. Beautiful crisp, fresh air and good laughs.

Mom and I went to get pedicures....Trik conducted the photo shoot. Our red toes in time for the holidays.


We had the pleasure of spending 5 great days with our dear friend Brian Tucker, who stole away from his family responsibilities in Victoria to vacation with us in Santa Monica. We went to our favorite Santa Monica mountain perch to drink coffee from our thermoses....and giddy we were on our mountain top perch watching the sunset.

part 2--guest house

This was an amazingly creative (and now that i think of it extremely consumer oriented) Christmas tree display in the courtyard of one of our favorite coffee spots on our Main street. Patrick, mom and I had an epic long walk along the beach in a light rain all the way to Venice and through trendy shopping districts (Abbott Kinney and Main street)...So nice to experience this city refreshed from rain.

Peter took this shot on one of our many Paddle tennis escapades in Venice. If you look closely behind the fence you can see the famous Venice boardwalk 'dude in white garb playing electric guitar and cruising on roller-blades'.

Handsome men... they are father and son indeed.

Aaron and I goofing around on top of Temescal Canyon in our Santa Monica mountains.

an artsy shot of the Getty's 'winter garden'. The dots are actually trimmed down grasses made to resemble Van Gogh's wheat stacks series....so we learned (mom and I) on our Getty garden tour.

Winter guests part 1

Peter visits in late November. Needless to say we played a lot of table hockey at our all day bbq with Scott and Jen. Good times to be sure. Venice beach seemed to be our magnetic destination with Peter, as we biked or drove down there almost every day he was with us....to play paddle tennis (or rather, Battle Tennis, as Patrick likes to call it) and just generally catch the vibe of the promenade and crashing waves.


Ice cream cones in November...yup. That's how we roll. And some of us may have had two cones in one sitting...no names mentioned here.

It's official, Santa is in Los Angeles. I saw him out my corner office window at the Beverly Hills Berlitz. Santa and his reindeer were just cruising through the financial district to see who was naughty or nice. Speaking of which, look at these two handsome fellows below...

I don't think Aaron and Patrick will be getting coal in their stockings this year. Look at those smiles. Now look at their mugs below....

Posing in front of a picture of Guns 'n' Roses' first photo shoot as a band which took place in the landmark Hollywood diner called Canters where we enjoyed delicious corned beef sandwiches on rye. Yum.