Shelagh's Lens
Bringing Vancouver and the world to inspired travellers
Cafes of the Duoro
Porto, the second largest city in Portugal, grew up around the River Duoro.
In working on a Porto travel story I’m prepping for Exceptional EA, my other site, this colourful image brought back good memories of our walk down to one of the city’s famous port wine cellars.
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Contemplation
At Harrison Hot Springs Resort the other weekend, much of the contemplation was of a business nature, so it was a treat to get outdoors and walk the grounds before meetings started.
Harrison has been around for ages, and these lilies were in an area just a short walk away from a wild oak that Clark Gable planted back in 1933.
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Urban Celebration
New Westminster, the original capital city of our province, and still known as the Royal City, continues its evolution with the recent opening of the Anvil Centre at the right of this image – seen here from an overpass connecting waterfront shops and restaurants with the city’s historic cultural district.
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Commuter Gridwork
Well, this may not represent my regular commute, but crossing Vancouver’s Burrard Street Bridge – 18 years shy of its centennary – at the end of a Fall day makes for a lovely site.
These shots showcase Thursday evening’s pastel skies and steel trusses more so than the Art Deco design of this lovely bridge that comes complete, courtesy of local politicians, with a bike lane that takes us from Kitsilano to Vancouver’s West End. Here, we’re looking southbound as we pass over False Creek, which flows by the ever popular Granville Island Market.
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Colour Stream
Yesterday I took you to West Vancouver’s Whytecliff Park, and the stark beauty of a windswept tree. Today, we have another tree that’s almost bare, but surrounded by what seems to be a stream of colour emanating from Heron Lake.
Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, snug in Vancouver’s west side, is home to four lakes, a number of ponds and more than a quarter of a million plants nestled in 22 hectares/55 acres. Some of the gardens may seem familiar even if you’ve never been to Vancouver, as movie and other crews film here.
Van Dusen is a relatively young concept. The lands were owned, a century ago, by the CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway); investors and Canadians may recognise the CP name, which is the subject of media coverage regarding its lands along what’s known as the Arbutus Corridor. After the Shaughnessy Golf Club concluded its lease of almost 50 years, CP proposed a housing development; the concept was unpopular with many, and Whitford Julian Van Dusen and others formed a botanical association in 1966.
Ultimately, civic and provincial governments contributed,with assistance from Van Dusen and the Vancouver Foundation, to funding to purchase the property, and the garden opened in 1975. Entry is by admission or membership fee and, while a splashy, orchid-shaped and LEED Platinum-certified Visitor Centre opened in 2011, it’s the seasonal beauty of the plantings I most admire.
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Windswept
We launched an early start to the weekend by heading up to the North Shore mountains yesterday morning, and then down to West Vancouver’s Whytecliff Park in the afternoon.
Watching sailboats, ferries and other watercraft pass by this spot near Horseshoe Bay, we met some gracious Argentinians who spoke with sincerity about our mutual good fortune to be living in Canada. Making our way down to a sheltered cove where divers and sun seekers shared the setting with some harbour seals, we paused by this rocky outcrop and tree.
With most of its leaves gone or crumbling, the tree’s lovely lines are exposed.
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Here’s Looking at You
Up in Fort St. John earlier this week, we learned that moose are not an uncommon sight in certain areas of town.While we weren’t fortunate enough to spot one, we did come across some deer on the drive to Dawson Creek.
Having lived in Kelowna for a number of years, deer aren’t an uncommon sight; there, they can be unwanted visitors for orchardists and gardeners. Here, though, we were clearly on what remained the deers’ turf, and they paused to suss out the visitors.
Independent of the creatures’ appeal, I love the lines in the photo above, where the branches weave a series of horizontal lines that form a tangled and protective wall.
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Peace Country
It’s been a full few days, with yours truly first travelling to Harrison Hot Springs on the weekend and then, on Monday, up to northeastern BC and the area known as Peace Country.
Here’s a sense of what it’s like flying over the Peace River, which winds 1,923 kilometers / 1,195 miles from British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains through to Alberta, the province immediately east of BC. This was day one of my first trip this far north, where we spent time in Fort St. John and Dawson Creek, including a stop at Mile Zero of the Alaska Highway.
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View from the Bridge
If Paris’ Ponte Alexandre III offers striking beauty against a clear daytime sky, its opulence and view of the Eiffel Tower are perhaps even more dramatic by night.
World fairs have left us some remarkable structures, and this Beaux-Arts bridge named for a Russian Tsar is no exception. When the city’s Univeral Exposition opened 114 years ago, the bridge and all its ornamentation served to celebrate the Franco-Russian Alliance. In 1896, a year prior to commencement of construction, Tsar Nicolas II and Empress Alexandra were at the work site on the Seine to lay the first stone of the bridge that would honour the Empress’ father-in-law, Tsar Alexander III.
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Naramata
Naramata is a jewel in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley; even rolling the small community’s name off the tongue is a treat.
Increasingly of late, Naramata has come to represent wine tasting and touring. Whether or not you like to sip wine while you appreciate geographic beauty all ’round you, this is a great spot to soak up the sun.
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