Aaaahh… on Flickr.
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I feel better already.
The Annex on Flickr.
Lord Roberts Annex, that is. My wife’s elementary school and, barring an unlikely move in the next 4 years, most likely my son’s as well.
I wonder, though, if it will be still protected by a simple chain link fence when he starts in grade one though, given the events of the day and society’s propensity for overreaction.
The World is Round on Flickr.
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Finally, incontrovertible proof!
Tropic of Vancouver on Flickr.
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Trajan was pretty excited to meet his first parrot on English Bay last night. Actually, I think it’s a Macaw but, still, beats the hell out of yet another pigeon or seagull!
The Kenilworth on Flickr.
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One of the better of the grand old apartment blocks of the West End of Vancouver, half of the Kenilworth is 100 years old this year. The other half is 101 years old.
According to a friend that lives there and the only online reference I could find for the building, this photo from the city of Vancouver archives, the southern wing of the building, on the corner of Cardero and Haro was built first, in 1911 with the northern wing following a year later.
It’s somewhat surprising that I can’t find more info on it online as, when it was built, it would’ve been one of the larger buildings in a West End composed mainly of single family houses at the time.
It’s a difficult building to get a good photograph of as the trees have grown tall around it, not to mention the excellent garden maintained by it’s tenants that spills out into the sidewalk at times but, it has always been one of the more desirable buildings to live in in the West End.
Something has Occurred on Flickr.
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Not sure what but, it seems to involved some sort of pillow related mishap. Whatever it is, it certainly has these folks attention. This is not the type of thing one expects west of Denman.
Malcolm Lowry was right. on Flickr.
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His “Lament of the Pacific Northwest” is as astute an observation about Vancouver today as it was when he wrote it in 1949.
This poem was written about the very bandstand pictured here which, in over 20 years of living downtown, I have yet to see a band perform.
They are taking down the beautiful houses once built with loving hands
But still the old bandstand stands where no band stands
With clawbars they have gone to work on the poor lovely houses above the sands
At their callous work of eviction that no human law countermands
Calously at their work of hearbreak that no civic heart understands
In this pompous and joyless city of police moral perfection and one man stands
Where you are brutally thrown out of beer parlors for standing where no man stands
Where the pigeons roam free and the police listen to each pigeon’s demands
And they are taking down the beautiful homes once with loving hands
But still the old bandstand stands where no band stands.
A developing sense of scale on Flickr.
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The controversial development at Davie and Bidwell is well under way now. All but the Facade of West End landmark Maxine’s, a former brothel and bawdy house built in 1905, have been torn down and the pit is dug for the new 21 story building that will replace it.
Now, I’m all in favour of densification and, the foot of Davie Street remains quite under developed. The restaurants, insurance agents and green grocer that lined this stretch of Davie Street always seemed like a severe under-utilzation of the space and, all struggled to survive as well, changing regularly.
Looking at the size of this pit, compared to the lovely old Sands Motel across the street though and, one has to wonder if this is indeed the right choice for the location.
Personally, I’ll miss the building that formerly held the green grocer on the corner. Briefly, in 1990, the building was home to a lovely café where my continuing addiction to and love affair with espresso began.
City Under Seige on Flickr.
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Oh, the weather outside is frightful. A major snowfall in Vancouver has nearly 2 cm of the white stuff on the ground in some parts of the city which has caused all life as we know it to grind to a halt.
Perfect time for an alien landing. Only time will tell if they’re friendly.
Urban Scarecrow on Flickr.
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This scarecrow on Mole Hill, right at the heart of the downtown penninsula, struck me as rather a incongruous thing to find in downtown Vancouver but, then I heard that they caught a bear at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre this afternoon…
None Shall Pass on Flickr.
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This Lost Lagoon Swan was marking out his territory quite calmly and firmly, taking up as much of the path as possible. While it’s a bit of a stretch to call the Swans in Lost Lagoon ‘wild’, they’re definitely not domesticated and I was quite surprised to be able to get such a nice, close portrait with the 90mm lens on the Fuji GW670, roughly equivalent to a 50mm lens on 35mm.
Since he was just hanging about, I got a shot with the 50mm f/1.1 Nokton as well, just for kicks. The Nokton is nice but, 35mm is no comparison for the tonal range of 6x7. This shot is scanned really big, 4800 DPI. View all sizes if you’re the pixel peepin’ sort.
An Albino Duck on Flickr.
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Hard to tell in the Black and White but, we were pretty sure that this is not a white duck but, rather an albino one. Will worked for years as a Veterinary Assistant specializing in birds and said he had never seen one before. It appeared to be a female Mallard and, it looks like my friend Mike has seen an albino male a few years ago also on Lost Lagoon.
She definitely had no fear, this is me sticking the Fuji right in her face.
