We’re having an Indian Summer here in Vancouver, so this weekend was spent savouring the sunshine, and completely ignoring my to do list. We took walks around the neighbourhood stopping off for coffee and lunch, almost all of our meals were eaten outside. A large part of Sunday was spent reading and trip planning on the balcony, whilst enjoying the last of our peaches from the Okanagan.
We spent last weekend in the Okanagan, which I will write more about shortly. However, whilst we were there I took lots of pictures (big surprise) on a sim card that had become corrupted in some way.
It took ages to get the pictures off the camera, and initially I was really disappointed to have lost so many. (I do still have some though). But as I looked at the corrupted images, I changed my mind, some of these are great and certainly not what I would ever have intentionally produced. I love the unpredictability of the set, no two are even similar and the colours are fantastic.
All pictures are straight from the card, they have not been altered in any way.
Canadian Geese enjoying the sunshine outside the theatre tents
Each summer Bard on the Beach takes place in Vanier park from June to September. Two groups of actors put on four plays all summer, which must make learning your lines incredibly difficult.
The plays are put on in huge tents erected for the summer, they have raked seating so that even us wee ones can see, and cup holders in all the seats, so that at no point can you forget that you are in North America!
There is no back to the stage, which provides an entrance and an exit for the performers, but also means that the audience can watch people passing along the seawall, and the city turn a wonderful colour as the light reflects off the water and glass buildings at sunset.
This year we went to see The Merchant of Venice which was brilliant, particular mention must go to the actor who played Shylock who had me feeling so sorry for him I wanted to run on stage to try and cheer him up.
The view through the back of the theatre.
Idyllic Deep Cove is a hidden little corner of Vancouver. About 40 minutes out of town and easily accessible via public transit it is a wonderful summer afternoon retreat.
We fled the city with friends a couple of weeks ago, in search of an adventure. From the village you can hike up and around the headland from where you get the most incredible views of the village and out across the bay. The walk is nice and easy winding around the headland in amongst the trees with occasional glimpses out across the bay. This makes a nice change from so many of the walks in this mountainous region which involve going straight up with no reprieve. Given the heat and my lack of fitness, neither of the latter were remotely desirable and this suited us perfectly.
The day that we visited was hot and wonderfully clear so from the top we could look across the twinkling blue water towards the Pacific, and down on the heads of the people sailing below.
There is an ice cream parlour in Vancouver, famous for selling 218 flavours of ice cream AT ONE TIME.
218, can you even think of that many potential flavours?
Well they did, it includes Marmite (great for toast, bad for ice cream) and wasabi, my mouth actually puckers at the thought of this.
We went for much more conventional choices I’m afraid, but they were really delicious.
