VANCOUVER REFLECTIONS

Capilano RV Park

We have been off line for the last week because we were visiting Vancouver, British Columbia.  We crossed the border at Blaine, WA and it was about a half hour wait with an abrupt, dare I say hostile, border patrol guard who was a bit in your face with questions about what we were going to do while in Vancouver and how long we were going to stay, but after we were asked the same questions over and over with nary a smile, it became insulting.  

After negotiating the border hurdle, we had smooth sailing to the Capilano RV Resort which is located in West Vancouver, just across the Lions Gate bridge from Stanley Park.  

Capilano River, men lower right corner waiting for a salmon.

The park is located on tribal land and is right on the Capilano river.  It was an easy walk to the mall across the river where we could go to the Whole Foods Market or catch the bus to downtown Vancouver.   We could look down on the river as we crossed a small bridge and see the native men who were sitting on the rocks every day with nets to catch the salmon as they came upstream.  The men were there from early in the morning until about dinner time and placed the salmon in little pools created with the rocks.  By the end of the day, there were about 60 or 70 salmon in the little pools.  Supposedly the natives were allowed to catch salmon for food... but it was a little suspect to see the same guys there every day, drinking beer and smoking dope? which was passed around in a little pipe.  

We had been to Granville Island in 2006 but wanted to return and peruse the public market and visit some of the artisans who have studios on the island.  This time we got to see a public art project by two Brazilian street artists known as Os Gemeos.

Detail photo

 They painted the Ocean Concrete Silos at the concrete plant and the close ups of the art work show show how they achieved the wrinkles in the clothes and other details to make the clothing look just like fabric from a distance.  There are many street performers throughout the district but the big draw is the food. 

 Another day we went by bus to downtown Vancouver and then walked to Gastown where we just browsed some of the shops and had lunch.  But mostly we wanted to visit a used bookstore by the name of MacLeods. 

The place was run by two old guys and they knew where every book was.  

All you had to do was ask for something and they knew right where to find it.  We had been looking in other book stores for a long time to find Winston Churchill's book "The River War".  They had a rare copy for over $300. and then they had a less expensive copy which Allan snapped up right away. 

By the way... if you are in downtown Vancouver, you should make a point of eating lunch at Meat and Bread.

 I had the best Porchetta Sandwich I have ever had in my life and Allan had a Corned Beef Sandwich which was eaten by him at the speed of light.  It is just a walk up and buy a take away lunch but we found a place outside at an office building's patio which worked out great.

One of the places I really wanted to visit was the Vancouver Art Museum, which they call the Vancouver Art Gallery.  

They have over 1000 of Emily Carr's paintings of British Columbia forest lands and I was really looking forward to seeing them up close.  Unfortunately, all they had of her work was some of the tree paintings, no totem poles at all, which she is known for painting. It was really a disappointment but I was happy to see what they did have on view.  

I had no idea that her paintings were so musical and almost spiritual.  Seeing her work in a book does not convey the lightness of her strokes and the mystical nature that she has given to the trees in the forest.  

At the time when she did these paintings, the natives lived almost exclusively on the edge of the forest in order to access the bounty of the sea.  The forest was dark and forbidding and she managed to capture that aspect as well.

These paintings were practically hidden on the 4th floor of the museum and the remaining 3 floors were holding special exhibits.  If you think that I might have taken a photo of a workroom where we had gotten lost, you would be mistaken, this shelving unit with all the junk is the exhibit.  I guess I am just not that enlightened.... because I could look at my own closet at home and see plenty of this kind of art. 
 

One whole floor of the museum was dedicated to this nonsense.
  In addition, there were some other completely terrible ideas of art designed to provoke the viewer.  The tables where Allan is standing have figures cut out of a book entitled "The Last Two Million Years".  

And my personal favorite is the Banana.
We actually paid $15 each to see these exhibits and the exhibit that should have been given some prominence was relegated to the back room, so to speak.  

Large Quarry Garden in Queen Elizabeth Park

On our final day in Vancouver we went to Queen Elizabeth Park which also houses the Bloedel Conservatory.  This was a great finale for our visit as the garden was exquisite with a duplication of the Busch Gardens in Victoria, filling some quarry areas with walks and floral displays.  

Although the day was overcast and sometimes drizzly, it was still great to be out walking and being inside the Bloedel Conservatory was a delight with over a hundred species of birds, all fairly well familiar with humans, so we were able to take oodles of photos close up and personal.  

Of course Allan couldn't resist goofing around with the statuary before we left the park.

I am also happy to report that our border crossing back into the US of A was welcoming and friendly.  We did have to wait in line for about half an hour, but we got a smile on our return.  

SEATTLE TO ANACORTES

We are currently at the Fidalgo Bay RV Resort in Anacortes, Washington and it seems as if the last couple of weeks have just flown by.  For all of you who know us, you will know that we have been just doing all of our usual excursions and I really have no excuse for not posting sooner, but I will try to recapture a few highlights of the last few weeks.
I did mention in the last post about visiting Kubota Gardens.  So the photo above is one of the many views of that garden and we were lucky that our friend Jann had a day to join us.  

While we were out hunting down used bookstores in the Fremont area of Seattle, we came across a bookstore that had a different take on the usual bookstore cat.  Ophelia's Books had a bookstore rabbit with a little swiss chalet rabbit hutch and a tiny fenced yard.  They also had a great selection of books.  While we were waiting for the store to open, we walked around the district, even having a late breakfast in a vegan, glutin free cafe.  

It was pretty good considering it didn't have any ingredients I was used to using when I cook.  On our walk we discovered a gigantic statue of Lenin.  Someone had painted his hands red with red paint and since our friends Jim and Nancy had just had their photo taken with President Carter, Allan decided he would have his photo taken with Lenin.  This 7 ton sculpture was toppled by the revolution in Slovakia in 1988 and has taken many side trips before arriving in Fremont where it stimulates local controversy.  Note that there is a for sale sign painted on the front of Lenin.  That is because it is privately owned and is for sale.  If you are interested, contact the City of Fremont.  

We also visited a used book store in Duvall, Washington.  This store is not on the internet and does not even have a phone.  We stumbled onto it by accident a few years ago and return when we are in the area.  This year while we were there, we walked to a restaurant nearby and noticed a group of people staring up into the sky.  

Sun Halo photo by Allan Frey

They were looking at a Sun Halo which is sometimes called a sundog.  It is formed by water vapor that freezes into ice crystals up in a layer of the atmosphere.  When the sun shines through the ice crystals, the light refracts and we see a halo that has the colors of the rainbow around the sun.  

Although we went to several farmers markets while in the Seattle area, one of the most interesting was the University Market in the University District of the city.  This market is ranked as one of the 10 best in the state and it was all food products or prepared foods, no arts or crafts.  However they did have one unique stall, which we have never seen in any other market (and we go to numerous markets on our travels).  A poetry booth where there were three young people prepared to write a poem on any topic for any price.  

Latin Music in the WA State Extension Discovery Garden

I think if there is one thing that I really miss while living in Arizona, it is the fresh fruits and vegetables that are available everywhere in the northwest.  We have been eating the ripest berries, peaches, and cherries, just picked and delicious.  We have had salads and grilled veggies at every meal.  Of course we offset all this goodness by eating all the fabulous scones, strudels, and breads that are also plentiful.

Boxwood Gardens

 The first excursion we had once we reached Anacortes was the annual Symphony Garden Tour.  Visiting gardens and listening to the symphony members play their instruments is always a pleasure and is well worth the donation ticket fee.  This year the gardens were not as spectacular, and the weather was drizzly and sprinkly all day, but it was still a

wonderful outing and we met many gardeners who were justifiably proud of their gardens.  One of the smaller gardens was owned by a potter and the garden was filled with art objects, not all of them hers.  Sculptures and paintings, birdhouse art, mosaics, and more.  It was a tiny space but filled with lovely art to catch your eye.   
Yesterday.... we went to Dakota Art and purchased many pastels.  I think the more pastels you have, the better you will be as an artist.  If that isn't a great rationale, I don't know what is.  

GIG HARBOR IN THE SUN

Last week we stayed at the Gig Harbor RV Resort so that we would be close to several gardens we wanted to visit and also to be within driving distance of the American Art Gallery where the Northwest Pastel Society was having their National Show.  Since I had gotten my painting "Lembert Dome" juried into the show, we headed over to Tacoma on our first day in the area.  

The American Art Gallery was established in 1889 and is located in a charming historic business district of Tacoma.   Later in the week we met up with Jann Perez, a friend of ours from our Arizona Pastel group who lives in the area and she met us at the gallery where we walked around and critiqued all the paintings.  Later she gave us a guided tour of the historic buildings around the gallery before we had a great lunch together.   

There are a number of different gardens in the Tacoma area to choose from and we started off with a visit to the Seymour Botanical Conservatory in Wright Park.  It is not very big, but it has a large number of begonia specimens.  

All beautiful and none of which would survive in Phoenix.  This was a short stop on our way to Culpepper's Used Book Store where we both found a couple of books to add to our growing collection.  We also went to a new used book store called Kings.  They didn't have much to interest Allan, but they had lots of foreign mystery authors, some of my favorites.

On another day, we took a drive to Maple Valley to visit the Lake Wilderness Arboretum.  This is an interesting story of an old abandoned airport landing strip that was purchased by a group of Master Gardeners and turned into an arboretum by accepting donations of gardens that had lost their owners and were going to be destroyed.  Entire gardens were uprooted and transplanted in the new arboretum.  This garden now has the largest collection of deciduous azaleas in the world.  They also have a Japanese maple grove and have set aside 26 acres for a second growth forest with trails and pathways.  As we walked one of the pathways, we came upon a lending library of garden books built into a tree stump by one of the master gardeners. 
Two gardens that were a must see for us were the Lakewold Garden and the Bloedel Reserve.  

Lakewold Garden

Two wealthy sisters from Seattle, married socially prominent and wealthy men.   Eulalie and her husband purchased a property now known as Lakewold where Eulalie hired Thomas Church to design a garden for her and she herself became an ardent hands-on gardener.  

The home that was built is actually similar in design to her sister's home but the property is smaller and more residential which does not detract at all from the many intimate areas that were planted along the lakeside.   There is a swimming pool shaped like a four leaf clover, and sculptures throughout the garden pathways, a small pond with benches for contemplation, and a wonderful gazebo with fuschia baskets hanging inside and a dogwood tree on the outside.  

Bloedel Reserve meadow

But the best garden of all is the Bloedel Reserve.   Prentice Bloedel inherited his father's timber company and went on to be the first person to create sawdust logs for fireplace burning.  He was an environmentalist and ensured that all logged areas were replanted.  He married Virginia (Eulalie's sister) and they purchased property with a home on Bainbridge Island.  

Bloedel Reserve and Home

This property became his crowning achievement and he ultimately retired early from the timber business to devote all of his time to developing his garden.   This property is considerably larger than Lakewold and Bloedel had plenty of

room to set aside areas for a meadow, a forest walk with a very large natural pond, waterfalls, bogs, wooden bridges, manicured lawns, japanese garden and guesthouse, moss garden, fern garden, and so on.   As you near the completion of the circular trail that takes you around the property, you come upon the spring fed reflection pond surrounded by yew trees.  This is a quiet serene place and is definitely a scene such as Bloedel was hoping to capture.... "a place where people find refreshment and tranquility in the presence of natural beauty".   
If you have time for only one garden in the northwest, this is the one you will want to visit.

PORTLAND, OREGON GARDENS

Jenkins Estate

On every trip to the northwest, we always plan on stopping in Portland so that we can visit Powell's bookstore to exchange our used books for more used books.  This time we carried in 4 heavy bags of books and carried out about the same amount we carried in.  While we were in the downtown Powell's, there was a fun run in the streets outside.  Getting out of town was a nightmare of one-way streets, blocked off streets, crazy runners in goofy getups milling around, and the general hubbub of a Saturday night on the town.  

Rhododendron Flowers

It was a lot easier when we went to the Powell's in Beaverton where we found many more books to cart back to the groaning rv.   While we were in the Beaverton area, we also indulged our second favorite thing to do in Portland, which is visit gardens.  The Jenkins Estate is not far from Beaverton and

95 year old elm trees

was actually considered to be in the countryside when purchased by Belle and her husband.  Belle was the daughter of a shipping magnate in Portland and loved horses, so the new home included stables and riding paths along with English garden areas, rhododendron gardens, a pond garden, meadows, and an Elm drive (which is 95 years old now).  

Kerr Home, Garden of the Bishop's Close

The following couple of days were pouring rain, off and on, which sort of put a damper on any further exploration of gardens, but luckily we had any number of books to choose from and read.  But on the third day of rain, we decided to do as the Portlanders do, which is go out there anyway.  So we grabbed a couple of umbrellas and went to visit Elk Rock, the Garden of the Bishop's Close.  

Garden of the Bishop's Close

This was originally the home (and business) of a Scottish immigrant who specialized in importing grain back in 1888.  The home sits on a bluff, which is itself on a steep hillside, overlooking the Willamette River.  

Level area up on the hillside

Although Kerr was an avid gardener, he hired the Olmsted Brothers of Massachusetts to design the garden and this is one of only two Olmsted gardens which are open to the public.  The design incorporated small staircases up and down the steep hillside so that access to any portion of the hillside was easy and because of the benches here and there, you could sit and look at the river or at East Portland across the river (if the rain hadn't drenched the benches, of course).  

Looking across the Willamette River to East Portland

The gardens are a combination of the plants Kerr collected on his world travels and one of the finest collections of Northwest native trees and plants.  It is all combined in a cultivated English style garden which Kerr worked on for 60 years before passing away at the age of 95.

Viewing Kerr's home from the front lawn and garden.

 His daughters donated the house and gardens to the Episcopal Diocese of Portland with the stipulation that the gardens themselves be always open to the public.  This was a favorite garden, of all we visited during this stay.  Every little nook, bend, and flower bed was filled with delight.  I am sure that in the sunshine, it would be even more stunning.  

Carrot Cake Extraordinaire 

But after this excursion, we needed to have some lunch and get dry.  And you can't eat lunch without having dessert, can you?  A really decadent carrot cake with coconut and chocolate included was hard to split between us, especially when Allan took more than his share.
On our last day in the area, we returned to two gardens which are on our list of favorites.  

Leach Botanical Garden

The first is the Leach Botanical Garden which is a collection of plants by John and Lilla Leach who traveled all over the northwest collecting plants for their botanical garden.  Lilla was a botanist and I have a soft spot in my heart for her as I was a botanist once myself and I know how difficult it can be traveling into backcountry to gather (or identify, in my case) specimens.  Although I used an old dodge truck provided by the forest service, Lilla and John used mules.   This is a small garden, placed above and below the home, which is along a creek.  

Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden

We were able to easily walk the paths within an hour, take lots of photos, and be on our way to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens across the street from Reed College.   The really great thing about this garden is all the walking paths along the ponds which have many different kinds of ducks, geese, and other water birds.  

Wood Duck

The water comes from a spring that produces 6000 gallons a minute and there are many water features including little waterfalls and creeks.  This is the only garden we have visited on this trip where we had to pay admission, but for $4 each, it was well worth it.  I got about 5000 steps on my fitbit walking this garden.  

HEADING NORTH

Tehachapi Sunrise

This year we are heading North and this week is the final countdown before we leave on Sunday for Sedona, our first stop on a five month trip.
We will be in Sedona for 3 days to showsit at our annual Spring Show at the Sedona Art Center.  

This year Allan got 3 paintings in the show and I got all four with one of my paintings  (above) getting an honorable mention.  The painting is Tehachapi Sunrise and it is a place we stay frequently in the rv as we travel from Barstow over the Tehachapi Summit to Bakersfield.  From Sedona we will be in Las Vegas for a few days and then we are spending a week in Bishop where we intend to explore the southeastern side of the sierras.  Then on to Brookings, Oregon for two whole weeks at the beach.

 We will then go up to Portland for a week and then to Gig Harbor for a week while we check out the International Open Juried Show of the Northwest Pastel Society.  This year I have one painting juried into that show and we purchased an airfloat box to ship it up to Tecoma, Washington.  The show will run until June 23rd so we will be there to pick up my painting at the end of the show.  

We will be going back to the gardens at Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island.  Check out Allan's painting of a photo we took on a previous visit......     After that we will be staying in Anacortes for about 10 days before we travel up to Vancouver where we intend to visit some favorite places we have been in past visits and also to check out some new places.  We will come back to the US to head east to Coeur d'Alene and then North to Radium Hot Springs which is located on the western side of the Rockies about an hour from Banff.  This is the furthest north we will go and on our return we will travel down through Glacier NP, a place we have never been.... Yellowstone NP, a favorite place..... Grand Tetons... a new spot for us... and we will finish up at the Plein Air Festival in the Grand Canyon.

 So this week is packing and more packing.... and also finishing up a painting I have been working on for the last week or so.  It is pretty close to done.  The painting is from a photo of Convict Lake, which is extremely picturesque... I just hope I have done it justice.