Shelagh's Lens
Bringing Vancouver and the world to inspired travellers
Windswept
While I’m looking forward to Spring and the lush greenery to come, there’s a stark beauty in the Fall and Winter months, as with this tree by Jericho Beach.
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The Lions
Close your eyes with this image in mind, and inhale the cool, clean air.
Happy new year, all. With thanks to those who stopped by this site in 2014, this image of The Lions is my offering to mark and celebrate the turn of calendar.
There’ll be another post soon with shots of our New Year’s Day tradition – joining others in the silly but fun Polar Bear Swim at English Bay – but, for now, here is the splendour of The Lions. The bridge connecting Stanely Park with the North Shore is named for these mountains, as are BC’s professional football team, a major movie and television show company, and more. Located by Lions Bay and also known as The Two/Twin Sisters, these peaks are part of our legendary North Shore Mountains.
The East Lion stretches skyward 1,606 meters (5,269 feet), while the West Lion climbs slightly higher, to 1,646 meters (5,400 feet). Not that I’ve done it, but hikers wanting to scale the East Lion need to be well prepared, physically and in terms of time (five to eight hours) for a roughly 16 kilometers (almost 10 miles) hike. You needn’t travel up a neighbouring mountain, as I did this week, to see them, though; they’re visible from many areas of Metro Vancouver.
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Snow on Logs
Popping up to one of the North Shore Mountains with camera and gear in hand this morning, a look at my card reminded me of some shots I took following the one snowfall we’ve had in the city this season.
These images are from one of my favourite beaches where, when the tide is out, it’s a treat to walk on the floor of the inlet toward the small lighthouse – ideally barefoot. In the summer months, you’re up close with herons, crabs, kayakers, skimboarders, and all sorts of two-legged and four-legged water babies. You’ll not get as close to the eagles as to the herons, but they’re here to be seen – along with ducks and an abundance of seagulls. As Winter approached, the logs received a dusting of snow, but that didn’t deter the birds or other locals from visiting the surrounds.
Just a short walk from the beach, you have tennis courts, trails and greenery – explored below by what may seem an unlikely pair.
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Playing in Snow
Those who’ve not been to Canada may be forgiven for thinking we have mounds of snow such as this at our doorsteps. Well, that may be true during some months, in some regions and provinces, but not so in Vancouver, where there’s a reason for our gorgeous greenery.
No; we’re relatively snow-deprived/snow-free, depending on your perspective, through most winters in Vancouver. When it does snow in the city, it’s big news. If you happen to take a short drive to one of our nearby mountains, though, you may find a different story. In the image above, this little one kept popping up from behind a snowbank while learning just how much fun the white stuff can be.
Below, we’re back in the city, with an image from the snowfall we did have in the city last month. These young ones were hopping through the snow near some bushes that will yield small but sweet wild berries once again next year.
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Rooftops of Granada
Chief among the dominant memories of Granada – which also included enjoying olives, sangria, sunshine and good company while watching World Cup games – is the Alhambra. The palaces, and particularly the gardens, come to mind as places I’d like to visit again.
Given its elevated site, the Alhambra presents you another treat: great views of the region. Here, you see rooftops of the town, including views toward the Royal Chapel of Granada, the resting place of Spain’s Queen Isabella (1451-1504) and King Ferdinand II (1452-1516).
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Time Zones
Digital displays of time on a smart phone are well and good but it’s difficult to beat beautiful time pieces such as these. Above, we have a look at old Vancouver, while the clocks below are housed in locations such as Versailles, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, Porto, and Washington, DC.
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All is Calm
… All right, so we know that’s not really the case, either in the real world, or with respect to having the time to publish as much as I’d like. Hello again, and thank you to those who are turning to this page despite my relative silence in recent weeks.
With the year winding down (and a few days away from the office), it seems timely to publish images of some places that inspire calm or awe. A range of images we look upon have capacity to engender such reactions, and this will vary within individuals and from one person to another. This year, the California beach by Hotel Del Coronado was one such place, as were Mallorca’s Cap Formentor, the gardens and palaces of Granada’s Alhambra, the sweet siblings from Spain, the herons of Point Grey’s Spanish Banks … and the list goes on and on.
People and other creatures, wild and groomed flowers and gardens, nature and architecture; they all invoke strong feelings in me. Today, I’m choosing buildings such as Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia, above and immediately below. I have many more pictures of this nature-inspired (do you see the flowers in the ceilings?) place of dreams, which remains under construction and which we visited for the first time this July. I’ll include more images here or on Exceptional EA in an upcoming article about travel to Barcelona; for now, I’ll offer that Sr. Antoni Gaudí i Cornet’s vision, in this building and throughout other places bearing his imprint in Barcelona, left me quiet. The exterior of Sagrada Familia is magnificent, but it’s the interior that struck me.
Next, we have some images from a couple of rain-drenched days in Montreal, where the skies must have decided to make this Vancouverite feel at home. These shots are from Notre-Dame Basilica, and you can find more images and information in an earlier post on this site.
Across the Atlantic, I made a return visit to Notre-Dame de Paris, below. Here, Mass was underway while I was taking these images; among other things, I heard the priest speaking about the Carmelite nuns who are known, among other qualities, for the candies they make.
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Splendour
As we approach the Winter solstice, waking up in the dark and returning home from work in the dark, it’s lovely to think of the splendour that is the Palais Garnier.
This month, the Paris Opera House is home to – among other offerings – Hänsel et Gretel for opera lovers, and La Source for those who enjoy ballet. There are other options; at a nearby locale, Parisians and their visitors can spend New Year’s Eve enjoying Tchaikovsky’s music and Rudolf Nureyev’s iteration of The Nutcracker (Casse-Noisette) at the Opéra Bastille.
While we’ll embark upon December 31st celebrations with the next day’s annual Polar Bear Swim in mind, it’s also lovely to envision spending New Year’s Eve abroad, in an atmosphere such as this.
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Big Bear
How would you like to come across this fine fellow in the woods?
Fortunately, this massive bear is not the real thing. He springs to life both within, and from, British Columbia’s trees and, yes, the scale is as large as it appears. I took this image at Grouse Mountain, one of our famed North Shore mountains which, if the planets (and traffic!) align, may be reached in half an hour from downtown Vancouver.
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Let’s Hit the Ice
As I look forward to this year winding down, that’s good news in terms of having a bit of time to catch up with posts to both my blogs, with loads of photos and memories just waiting, perched on my external hard drive. We’re not yet there, though, hence the intermittent nature of posts to this site lately.
As we approach Winter, it’s fun, too, to be thinking of outdoor skating. While I remember doing so in my very early school days in Toronto, and an Ottawa friend does skate the Rideau Canal on her winter lunch breaks, that concept is foreign for most Vancouverite. We do have a small outdoor rink at Robson Square, but Chicago’s McCormick Tribune Ice Rink, seen here, is generously proportioned yet snugly nestled in an incredibly inviting setting. You can see my favourite Chicago building, the Carbon and Carbide Building (with colours inspired by a champagne bottle), in the background. More on the city’s architecture and other sites will follow, hopefully soon, on Exceptional EA.
Nestled at the base of Millennium Park, just a skip and a jump down from The Bean (the crowd pleasing sculpture properly known as Cloud Gate) and across the street from the Cultural Center, here’s a peak at what Chicagoans can look forward to each Fall and Winter.
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