Shelagh's Lens
Bringing Vancouver and the world to inspired travellers
Beach Yoga
Yoga is a daily element of life for many, yet not everyone is able to incorporate a beach into their routine.
Here, during early morning at Kelowna’s Sarsons Beach, this woman had secured a quiet spot before flocks of families arrived for the day. I appreciated the contrast between one persons’s use of muscles and effective breathing for fitness with the presence of the neighbour’s high powered boat – and all the more so for the unintended colour synchronisation.
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Equus
Have you ever made friends with a horse? This lovely fellow remained interested in my company even without my having had the foresight to bring an apple or some carrots to the stable. Instead, a few slow strokes to the forehead were welcomed, as seen here on his gentle face.
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Cherry Red
… and shiny, with loads of equally shiny crome. Beautifully maintained.
While I’d not turn down a Jaguar, I generally don’t pay a great deal of attention to cars. Rather, some beauties – such as this Cadillac – occasionally call out to me. If fortunate, as was the case the other weekend, I may just have my camera in hand.
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Haiku
New cherry blossoms
worlds away from my workplace
yet a five block walk
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Parisian Feline
Ah, Paris. In the 16th arrondissement, or quarter, and barely a block away from Radio France, let’s pause a moment to appreciate the elegant corbels and pops of colour.
Next, if you look a little closer while we visit the intersection of Rue de Boulainvilliers and Rue de l’Assomption, you’ll see we have a little feline perched on the centre windowsill. Despite appearances, I somehow doubt that he was checking the street name.
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Hidden Treasures
Perhaps it’s the busy work week that’s drawing me to bring you images today of relative quiet.
Here, near a popular Vancouver area beach, it was this bike parked by a colourful clump of wildflowers that pulled some of us off our intended walk … and ’round the corner to a treasure trove of wild blackberries. Smaller than the plump and juicy berries cultivated not far away in the Fraser Valley, they were nonetheless sweet – and all the more so for the gentle hum of bees, and the sense of having stumbled, early the other morning, upon a little known secret.
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Country Roads
Yesterday’s image celebrated the fun of the fair, and the lights of Paris.
Today, let me take you to a quiet driveway off a country road in Kelowna, BC. A four+ hour drive from Vancouver, this town is part of the Okanagan Valley, which is home to orchards – a number of which have, increasingly in recent years, been giving way to vineyards.
Don’t let the puddles fool you. Kelowna is dry, dry, dry much of the time during summer months, and the small reflecting pools by the gate are remnants of much needed early morning irrigation. I’ve driven by and appreciated this long, private driveway untold times, but it was just the other weekend that I stopped to photograph it for the first time. Lined with parallel rows of birches and the perfect white fence, this is but a peak at a dream driveway for country living.
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La Grande Roue
Many cities and towns have summer fairs, complete with rides for kiddies young and old. Here in Vancouver, we have the PNE, also known as the Pacific National Exhibition, where we have views of the North Shore Mountains and – from certain vantage points – the inlet.
In Paris, between late June and late August, locals and visitors alike flock to Fête des Tuileries, which doesn’t quite have the vantage point of the PNE, but does have the advantage of being on the doorstep of the Louvre. Enroute to, and from within the Louvre, you’ll see and enjoy Jardin des Tuileries, which rests between the Louvre and Place de la Concorde. The garden, which houses the fête, is a place of beauty by day and by night.
If you catch a flight in the next nine days or so, you may be in time to join the crowds enjoying this summer’s fête , and catch a ride on la grande roue, the big ferris wheel just adjacent to the Blue Lagoon ride.
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Synchronised Swimming
… and splashing, followed by plentiful tail wagging when kindred spirits meet. All this, of course, is only the precursor to earnest spraying of one’s family with whatever water was not already shaken off in galloping out of the inlet.
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Behind the Romance
… of the canals of Venice, it’s another day on the job for the gondoliers. Dressed in only minor variations of the anticipated garb, they and their gondolas are at the ready for the next set of turistas hoping to fulfill long-held visions of romance along the waterways of this storied city that dates back to the sixth century.
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