Follow that wave

Tags

ambleside, beach, city, cloud, log, logs, mountain, ocean, rock, sand, sea, sky, wave

Once again, I have used lines to draw the viewer into the photo to the subject. The waves are powerful and draw one’s eye along the beach to the buildings. But are the buildings really the subject? Look at the size of the boulders in the forefront. They seem to be competing with the buildings. Both are actually man-made. But wait, the waves and the beach also compete. They say, look at me, while taking the eye to the buildings and the mountains with the housing subdivisions. Even the sky seems to be pointing to the mountains.

Notice the depth of field. Everything is in focus giving opportunity for many subjects to be studied. I could have blurred the background, or the foreground and, thus, change the whole photo. The rocks at the bottom take up about as much space as the beach, city and mountains, while the water and sky hold a similar balance with each other. However, the two that match are, in reality, so different in size. A photo can be deceiving. As for colour, the bottom of the photo is somewhat duller than the top, as if to say, follow the wave and see more colour. The path of the wave provides a feeling of life and power, that seems to diminish as one moves away from the strong, powerful rocks.

This photo was taken at Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver looking west. You can see the neighbourhoods of housing up on the mountain. This beach is all man-made, as are the buildings and the houses, of course.

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The master log

Tags

ambleside, beach, bridge, cloud, logs, ocean, sand, sea, sky, tree, wave

This photo was shot at Ambleside Beach in West Vancouver, looking toward the Lions Gate Bridge, the port and city of Vancouver and Stanley Park.

Sometimes I like to use lines to draw the viewer’s eye into the subject. Here we see logs, water, waves and even the land on the other side of the water drawing the eye to the bridge. Look at the sky; even the clouds are pointing to the bridge and the city. But, instead of the bridge showing its immensity of size and strength, the first log is the largest subject. This first log competes with the bridge and steals the thunder from the bridge. The angle, along with the lens, makes this log look so much larger than the bridge. Just as interesting, the log seems like it might even be longer than the bridge and, it has a hole in it, indicating that it was used for something. Perhaps a log boom. The log has some history and some stories to tell. But it has been on this beach, lifeless, for a long time—long enough for grass to grow under it in barren sand. How many people does it know? What stories could it tell?

In this otherwise dead scene, the water brings life to this greyish brown beach and the very old log, actually a dead tree that once rose high into the sky. Is it looking at the trees across the water? While the beach seems to be deserted, even on this sunny day, the bridge, trees across the water and city in the background, speak of life. Even the footprints in the sand would seem to indicate that people have recently walked there. If one looks closely, cars can be found in the parking lot on the left and boats on the right. I am reminded of the footprints on the moon with the blue Earth in the background.

Another interesting aspect here is that public beaches are manicured. The logs are moved around to create a somewhat organized seating arrangement for people and providing a hint of privacy by being spaced out. But, there is a contrast here. You can see the well placed logs in the background, yet, this huge old log, has not been moved. It may have washed up in a very high tide or a storm and has remained untouched, commanding it’s final resting place. Look down near the water. Here you can see logs that are running the same direction as the big log, parallel to the water. They all washed up on the beach. The smaller logs near the water seem to be lined up like kids in school with the big old log the master or teacher.

A log is an interesting subject. Day by day, it captures stories, but keeps them to itself. It attempts to battle the weather and holds scars. Each log, has been keeping a record. Once a tree, its rings recording history, now in death it lives on in another life.

A grey day at the beach

Tags

ambleside, beach, dark, dull, grey, ocean, rock, sand, sea, sky, tree

This photo is a bit haunting. I like it, not because it is grey, dull and haunting, but because of what it reminds me of. Let’s take a trip in the semi-circle of this little bay. This is a public beach in a well populated place. On a warm summer day, there would be many boats. A small yacht club is just to the left. There would also be scores of people on the beach, many would be swimming. Even more amazing is that this was taken at Ambleside beach in West Vancouver looking toward the Lions Gate suspension bridge and the port and city of Vancouver. None of this is visible, but hidden deep in the mist.

The composition of this shot is interesting, beginning at the bottom with the rocky sea wall, moving to a sandy beach protected and interrupted by some breakwaters to hold the man-placed sand. These are also storm drains to take rain water into the sea. The curve of the beach take one eye around, exploring the various items, along a very nice looking beach with trees in the background, ending on a rocky point with something sticking up on it. It is an native carving. Most of the shot is grey, dull water and sky. The sand has a hint of brown and with it some warmth. I find the overall colour interesting. The whole photo is the colour of sand.

The scene looks still, lifeless, even dead. No wind, no waves. But wait, there are signs of life. As I said, this is a very busy place and if one looks closely, there are people on the beach. Along where the trees are is a parking lot. Beyond the point is a dog park. So, one’s eye is taken from rocks to sand to rocks again and, left in the grey mist, and one must wonder what the place is like on a nice sunny day.

The Olys, but why?

Tags

2010 winter olympics, amateur, attack, bagel, beach, canada, city, compete, country, crazy, dinner, doping, excitement, field, financially, history, honor, infringements, interesting, italy, logo, medal, michael phelps, money, monster, nail-biter, olympics, playing, professional, professionally, pros, safety, slogan, sport, television, tennis, terrorist, town, track, TV, vancouver, venue, volleyball, woman

There is much to talk about with the Olympics. I just watched a tremendous nail-biter with the Women’s Beach Vollyball, Canada vs Italy. It is fun and I am ready for the next phase of sports with track and field, etc.

My son and I were having dinner tonight watching the Olympics, my wife was out for the evening. Upcoming tennis matches were being announced and my comment was, “but why are the pros playing?” After exchanging a few comments back and forth, my son stated something like, because nobody would watch, it would not be interesting.

There was a time when, if you had accepted money for playing professionally, you could not compete in the Olympics. Have we come to the point where we can’t be interested in amateur sports and activities.

One must wonder how long the Olympics can survive. It has become a monster of a professional event. There are huge costs to the host country both financially and with regards to safety, namely from a terrorist attack. It seems crazy to hear of the various infringements on logo and slogan usage. Take the small bagel shop that hung five bagel rings to look link the Olympic logo.Then there are those who try to cheat, such as with doping.

Yet, there are always the amazing moments, like watching history being made with Michael Phelps winning more medals than anyone in Olympic history. If there are any two plus weeks with so many ups and downs, I am hard pressed to think of any. After experiencing the honor of living in a host city, Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics, I know how crazy the city can become. On television, we see the events, yet there is usually just as much, if not more, activity and excitement away from the venues around town.

But, I can’t help thinking what true amateur Olympics might be like in this day and age. Why are the Olympics the way they are today. What are your thoughts?

Ah, Summer at last

Tags

beach, bike, broken rib, bruises, cates park, daughter, deep cove, doctor, kelowna, mount seymour parkway, pain, prescription, rib, summer, temperature, uncomfortable, wound, x-ray

It is here, for now anyway. Summer has been lurking around the corner for some time now. Currently, the temperature is just right for me, low to mid-twenties, however, it is due to rise to the high twenties in the next few days. I may get a bit uncomfortable.

The other day, my wife and I did manage to get in a bike ride. Quite a long one, for us oldies, late fifties to early sixties and not too experienced. We rode to a beach, Cates Park and then to Deep Cove. After a very cold slushy type drink, we came back on the busy street, Mount Seymour Parkway. Actually, a highway. I lost control and crashed, landing on the pavement with my bike on top of me. After my wife helped me up, I went and sat at a bus stop. A young couple saw my spill and circled around. They offered me a ride, taking my bike in the back or their truck. Many thanks again to these kind folks.

I had some obvious wounds and plenty of pain. My worry in the hours to follow was for my ribs that began to cause me pain as they did a few years ago when I broke two of them. I have been laying low resting and now, after seeing the doctor and getting a pain pill prescription and an X-ray order, I now feel much better and really have most pain coming from the bruises that have emerged. What a relief! Broken ribs take two to three weeks to feel any relief and over six weeks to heal.

Well, I have been plenty busy over the months of mostly silence here. I’ve been to Kelowna to visit my daughter, among other activities. I won’t bother you with it all, but shall attempt to find some interesting entries to write. One has been on my mind for months, perhaps interfering with my other ideas. One day soon, it will come together.

Kauai — From Christmas to New Years

Tags

abundant, academics, activities, air, airplane, alcohol, bag, banana, bar, bathing suit, beach, bed, board, boarding, boogie, bowl, breakfast, brother-in-law, burrito, camera, cameras, clearing, coconut, combo, confident, contract, course, crowded, daily, daughter, days, demonstrate, dining, dinner, dirt, dishes, drift, drink, drinks, drive, edit, electric, expensive, family, fancy, fantastic, feature, feed, fire, fireworks, fish, float, flying, food, fun, generous, golf, graduate, grand caravan, grand hyatt, guacamole, guests, guitar, hawaii, hawaiian, hosts, ice cream, instructor, instructors, jazz, juggling, kalua, land, lanterns, launching, lava, lecture, lesson, links, live, macadamia, Marriott Waiohai Beach Club, mask, master, meal, memories, mexican, mitch, morning, movie, movies, music, neal, nelson, new years eve, night, nut, onboard, outdoor, pacific, paddle board, pancake, park, party, pedro, people, performance, photoblog, photography, photos, plastic, pocket, poipu, pool, post, potholes, price, private, pulled pork, qualifications, qualifies, red, reef, regulators, resort, restaurant, riding, road, rocks, rough, scuba, seattle, shore, shot, sing, sister, skills, snorkel, snorkelling, son, sort, sorted, spam, stand-up, stocking, storage, sun, sunrise, sunset, surf, surfer, surfing, surfs, swam, swim, swimming, syrup, talked, teaching, trains, treat, trip, TV, ukulele, underwater, vacation, vancouver, velocity, video, virgin, waiohai, walked, water, waterproof camera, waves, wife, world war II, written, youtube

Whew! We are flying home from our fantastic vacation at the the Marriott Waiohai Beach Club in Poipu, Kauai. My sister made sure we were kept busy experiencing all that we could. I have already mentioned some things we did. I continued to take an enormous number of photos, many of waves and sunrises. My storage for photos has been eaten up by the unexpected videos I shot with the little waterproof camera my sister gave us. I am now down to the onboard storage of both my cameras. I should make it, however, I will have to do some real juggling to find storage space to sort photos and edit all the videos into a short movie.

Back to the activities. Our hosts, my sister and brother-in-law, were truly generous by not only stocking the unit we stayed in with plenty of food, but also, getting us out to eat in the local dining places. For them, it is the experience with the dining rather than the price, however, they always point out that we are the least expensive guests to take out since we do not drink alcohol. So, the food is even more abundant.

One night we went to a semi-outdoor restaurant nearby. We sat right near the live music which included a fellow who surfs by day and plays the electric ukulele and sings by night. He was good too. Besides the fellow playing guitar at the outdoor bar at the Waiohai, we did not hear much more live music. Oh, there was a small jazz combo at the Grand Hyatt bar as we walked through.

One morning, we went for breakfast at the local golf course and had another huge meal. It seems that the World War II canned meat spam, still has a following in Hawaii. There are many dishes incorporating the meat, long forgotten elsewhere. I also had Kalua pulled pork, on other occasions too, even on the airplane a while ago. I tried my sister’s breakfast burrito and had a banana and Macadamia nut pancake with coconut syrup. I simply could not resist.

Another night we went to a Mexican restaurant, yes, Mexican in Hawaii, just to be different, I guess. The unique experience here was the table-side guacamole. Pedro came and made the guacamole, two servings, in a lava bowl right at our table and it was surely the best I have ever had.

We were treated to more surfing lessons. Our instructor, looked like true Hawaiian surfer. No family, just teaching surfing everyday, all day. He was there at sunrise and still around after sunset. Very dedicated. We were learning on reef surf, different from the beach surf at the previous lessons. All I can say is, it is still hard to do. But, we sure had fun. My son really took to stand-up paddle boarding and spent some hours on the last day trying to graduate to catching waves on the board.

The resort has a new contract to have daily scuba lessons available. Our instructor struck me immediately as very confident. There was my sister and three of us from my family. Neal told us that we had to do the academics first, so, he gave a short lecture, but, at a high velocity. One rarely runs across someone who can speak so fast. He assured us by giving his long list of qualifications, including the fact that he is the top person for the Pacific area and does work in movies and trains and qualifies instructors. Next, we had a couple of performance skills to master and demonstrate, such as clearing our mask of water and finding and clearing our regulators, all under water. It turned out to be so simple that, in no time, we were swimming around the pool underwater and having a great time. After, my sister invited Neal for a drink where we talked more about scuba and other interesting stuff. We came away from the experience knowing it had been a real treat. We had been in the company of a true master, just as we were with Mitch and Nelson, our surfing instructors.

As the trip was nearing its end, my sister urged me to do a few more things. One morning they took me to a somewhat remote beach for some photography. The drive was rough, through some private land. The road was the common red dirt with deep potholes, however, the Grand Caravan finally made it. We walked along the beach, along some rocks, I took many photos and then we did some snorkelling.

It was the last day, so when we got back from the early morning trip, my sister still had a few more activities for me to do. I had to keep up, somehow, so I grabbed some food and then we were off to have a swim with my wife and daughter at another beach and then, do some boogie boarding at still another beach on the other side of the resort and past a park. It was a crowded beach that we went to. People were body surfing and boogie boarding. It was difficult to keep from running into each other. On one ride I crossed over and my son ended up riding on top of me all the way into the shore.

I was not finished yet. My sister had some fish food to feed fish while snorkeling, so, off I was again to snorkel. My wife even went too. Not knowing where to put the food while we swam out to the reef, my sister suggested I shove the plastic bag into my bathing suit pocket. At one point, as I was using my small video camera, I realized that there were more fish than normal. A quick check of my pocket and I knew they already got the fish food.

Finally, it was time to get ready for the New Years Eve party on the beach. We started at the bar with some fancy drinks, virgin for most of us, and some dinner. People were already setting off fireworks on the beach and launching fire lanterns (I know there is proper name for them, but, I don’t have it on hand) that would float high into the air and drift away. Then came the big Poipu Beach fireworks display and the party was over before midnight. We went and had some ice cream, watched TV and then got tired, so we went to bed.

I feel as if there is so much I have not written about. We really did pack plenty of memories into this eight days of fun in the sun. We are about to land in Seattle for our connecting flight to Vancouver.

I will post some photos on my PhotoBlog and Feature Photos website once I get them sorted. I may even post some video on YouTube. I may also post links relating to the trip, if I get a chance.

Kauai — As the trade winds blow

Tags

agile, aquarium, BBQ, beach, blue hawaii, boring, brother-in-law, camera, chest, chickens, cloud, cold, costco, crowing, drink, eel, elvis presley, endangered, fish, fisherman, gooseneck, guava, hawaii, hawaiian, Hawaiian islands, hopping, horizon, hotel, juice, kaleakala dairy, kauai, kmart, knee, lava, leg, lemons, lobster, mainland, mall, marriott, mary soon, mitch, monk seal, movie, nectar, ocean, official, orange, overcook, paddled, passion fruit, passionfruit, photo, photograph, photographing, pinkish, pivot, pog, poipu, pop-up, rain, rainbow, rash guard, rocks, rooster, rubbing, sand, seal, shack, sharks, shirt, shopping, sister, sleep, snooze, snorkelling, snowboarder, snowflake, steaks, strange, sun, sunrise, sunset, surf, surfboard, surfing, swimming, temperatures, tide, tropics, urban, video, waiohai beach club, walk-mart, waterproof, wave, waves, weather, wind, yummy

One reason for hesitating about this Hawaii trip was the possibility of me being too hot. I truly need mild temperatures. My sister assured me that the weather would be mild due to the wind. Actually, some find it cold at times and I think I would rather put on my shirt, and it only takes a shirt or very light jacket, to escape the coolness that keeps me from over heating, but, not from over eating, what I have done on several occasion already. I am taking this morning, sort of mid-point in the trip, to write about the trip and unwind a bit. Let me take you through what has happened thus far.

I said the winds blow here, the trade winds, and with Kauai being surrounded by open ocean, that means waves. We are staying at the Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club in an area of Kauai called Poipu. The bay here is very interesting. It has breaking surf, rolling surf, calm swimming, surfing, snorkeling, so many types of ocean to enjoy.

It was early the first morning, when I heard a rooster crowing right outside our window. Did I tell you that chickens and roosters are abundant on the island and run wild everywhere, including your house, if you leave the door open. This offending fellow, who interrupted my attempts at slumber, crowed a few times and then began to work his way along the complex making sure everyone could hear him clearly. As his crowing became fainter, I rolled over to try to sleep a bit more. A few minutes later, he came again, like a snooze button. I could have become angry, but instead, I got up and headed out to see the sunrise.

I thank the little rooster now because I ended up on the point watching the the sun move up the horizon and photographing every moment. A great sight and photo opportunity. Once it was up, I turned slightly and began to photograph the surf. Waves are extremely fascinating and I now have hundreds of wave photos, each one different, just as snowflakes are said to be different, even though you can’t see the differences easily, beautiful waves showing the power of the ocean.

I have gone to the point three days in a row and took today to sleep in. The weather in the tropics can change instantly, however, not drastically. Sun, then a bit of cloud, sometimes rain, and all in a matter of moments. Sometimes you just turn around and there you see a rainbow. On my early morning visits to the point to capture the sunrise and waves, I have seen a dead eel, the tail of a pacific type lobster and Monk Seals. The seals are an endangered species and spend their nights feeding and avoiding sharks. When morning comes, they often drag themselves out of the water on the sand or lava rocks and sleep. When one appears on the beach, a little Hawaiian fellow rushes out to put up signs and rope off the area keeping the growing crowds away. I have also observed a local fisherman climb out on the lava rocks, into the surf, to throw his net. A couple of times I have also caught the sunset.

The other night, I was appointed BBQist for a family and friends dinner. There are a couple of areas here that have BBQs, perhaps there is only one area, and I went and lined up with the guys to cook my assigned eight steaks in the dark, well, there is a goosenecked light. I was warned not to overcook them. I have become better at this since my wife stopped telling me to cook meat well to make sure everything is dead. Thus, I cooked, piled them on a plate and sent them in with my son and orders to have them approved or sent back. We went in to eat another huge meal.

I don’t think there is anything like a big city here on Kauai. I would not even consider any area to be a particularly busy urban area by mainland standards, however, they do have Costco, Wal-Mart, Kmart and a mall. We did go do some shopping, but, did not buy anything.

My sister and brother-in-law, our hosts, have a collection of snorkeling equipment, so off I have gone a few times, with my new little waterproof video camera, to see the underwater sights. I now have many minutes of video with fish, the kind I have only seen in somebody’s big aquarium. From an inch or two to many inches and many colors, they swim by and, when they think you are going to get too close, they swim quickly away, often inviting a chase. A few may become curious and, if I stay still, will come closer to see the red camera. I should just hang around to see what they might do.

Yesterday was surfing day. My sister had arranged lessons with an older king of surfing guy. We had to drive to the other side of the island, a trip of about an hour and a half. We drove through some towns, some looking like what I expected surfing towns might look like. We passed the run down dilapidated hotel used in the Elvis Presley movie Blue Hawaii.

Finally, we got there, found the little shack by the side of the road where we were to check-in and get our rash guards—shirts worn to protect one’s chest from rubbing on the surface of the surfboard and getting sore. Then we headed down to the beach in a well used park. Mitch greeted us in a traditional manner and met my notion of what a old-time surfer might be like. He was in no rush, he assured us and said he was going to get us surfing.

Beginning on the beach, he guided us, in his own unique way, through what we would be doing in the water. Then, it was time to get into the water. We paddled a bit and then, with him waist high in the water watching each small wave, sizing it up for us, he sent us with a push and then the orders, right knee, left leg, pivot. Even with the very small waves, it was tough to get it right. Once you did get it, the board would provide quite a nice ride. My son, a snowboarder and much more agile, got into doing a pop-up—jumping straight to his feet. He even got to hopping and turning to face the other side of the board. Oh that kid again!

Then there is POG. On the very first day, we entered the lobby of the resort and there I saw a table with two drink dispensers, nice ones, glass and silver. One had ice water and lemons, the other had a pinkish-orange drink. I had to have some and when I tasted it, I very nearly went crazy. So refreshing and nutritious tasting—yummy! My sister said, maybe it is something they call POG. POG, as it turn out, stands for Passion fruit, orange and guava. Invented in 1971 by Mary Soon, who won the Kaleakala Dairy internal competition for a new drink, it seems to have become the official drink of the Hawaiian Islands and mostly rare anywhere else. I have ordered it in restaurants and seen it at Costco here in a big jug. I have read that some of it is mostly water and sugar, and therefore is called a nectar instead of a juice. Oh well, it is great stuff.

Hawaii is a strange place. Very pleasant. Always the same. What is the weather like? Usually the same, the temperature, usually the same, the wind, usually the same, the waves, usually the same, the tide, usually the same, etc. Everything is always the same, very pleasant and, I am told, usually the same all year around. Would that get boring, I’m not sure. It is so strange, you can make plans to do something and usually count on being able to do it. No back up plans for rain! Even if it does rain, the rain is only for minutes, or you just go ahead anyway because it is not cold enough to cancel plans. Strange!

Poodle doodles

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accident, alarm, ambleside, angry, attention, ball, bank, barrier, bathroom, beach, blog, blogging, break, breakfast, breaths, brewin', business, buy, candidates, Capilano River Regional Park, car, carpet, chase, chased, checking, cheesecake, chore, christmas, cleaners, collar, community, concrete, confused, confusing, cure, curled, curling, darts, daycare, daylight, daylight savings time, deposited, dinner, dish, disorder, dog, dog park, doggie, doggies, doldrums, drink, driveway, easonal affect disorder, eat, efforts, email, energy, escape, explore, face, family, family day, favourite, feast, feet, flinger, floor, food, freezer, friday, fridge, fun, future, games, gang, garage, garden, grabbed, gravel, Gryph, gryphie, gryphon, hall, handful, hawaii, head, hear, Helen Keller, holiday, home, house, hug, invigorated, irish, Irish-doodles, jacket, job, john, jumped, jumping, kyla, lady, lazy, le mis, leash, lighthouse park, log, malcolm, manners, marriage, message, morning, movies, mud, muddy, mysteries, neighborhood, nervous, newspaper, night, ocean, okay, orange, palm springs, park, pasta, path, patti, paula, paw, pee, perky, pet, piddled, piddles, play, played, pooches, poodle, poop, promised, property, puppies, puppy, rain, rainforest, rascal, reference, relaxing, remover, resistance, respect, road, rodney fagerfeild, rubbing, rugged, run, running, rushing, sad, safe, saturday, savings, scallywag, sea wall, search, see, selling, sensitized, setter, sick, sink, sister, sitting, skype, sleeping, sleeps, sleeve, snob, snoring, soap, soccer, sprawled, spring, squeaky, stain, stairs, stealing, street, stroll, sunny, telephone, tessie, thingies, think, tonight, topic, towel, tricks, trotting, trouble, trowing, tuckered, update, upsetting, vacation, veggies, vigilant, voice, wades, walk, wanders, water, week, weekend, wife, winter, woke, wondering, work, worry, yard, yesterday

As you can see my blogging efforts dropped off a bit. Is this due to the winter doldrums of no holiday break? After all, this is the longest stretch of the year without a holiday. There are efforts at hand to add a family day, but, that is met with resistance from the business community. I’m not going to let this blog entry get carried off on the topic of adding a new holiday. Daylight Savings Time started last weekend and this weekend holds the first day of Spring, thus, it seem the stretch is over. My sister, however, finds that she gets SAD in the winter, that is ‘seasonal affect disorder’ and any disorder deserves special attention in search for a cure. So it is, that we have not had Christmas together for a few years as they are always vacationing in Hawaii. In the old days, Christmas morning often included a long distance telephone call, these days, it is Skype. Now, I am getting closer to the topic of this blog entry.

It seems that Hawaii at Christmas is not enough, now they are looking for property in Palm Springs and with just over a week away on the search, I was offered the doggie sitting chore. I guess this passes through a few candidates and my turn came up. “You can stay at the house and I will stock the fridge.” My wife agreed for me to take the job, even though it would mean the longest time we have been apart in our nearly 20-year marriage.

Whew, I finally got through the preliminaries for this blog, the balance is taken from my responses to my sister’s message ‘…checking in…’:

Check out the toe nails – pretty Tessie

HI Bob,

Hope all is well and Gryphie and Tessie weren’t too much trouble this weekend Everything okay? Are you finding what you need?

Let me know if you have any mysteries or dilemmas to be solved, otherwise, hope you have fun and give them a hug for us!

Paula
🙂
PS – Very sunny here, half of Vancouver is here!

I ended up getting sick again, not as bad as before, but enough to slow me down a bit Saturday night and all of yesterday. I’m not sure yet about today. I watched curling and movies and Le Mis 25th.

The first couple of days were a bit confusing as I figured out where everything was. I had to get out to work, so I was in a rush. Tessie piddled a couple of times, once at her food dish and the next day in the upper hall. Now there is a stain, because I could not find what to use to clean it up, so I did the best I could with soap and water. If you have something, I could try to get more of the stain out. Often it is hard to get Tessie up from sleeping, so on that day, I was rushing to go to work and I woke her up, but, she just rolled around rubbing her face, so I went to get the food ready. When I went back a few minutes later, she was standing in the hall with her mess. I took them to daycare, because I was going to be gone all day. On Saturday, I watched about half an hour of one of Malcolm’s soccer games at Ambleside and then took the doggies to run in the park. Gryph got a bit muddy, so I used a towel in the garage to wipe his feet.

Patti and Malcolm came for dinner on Friday and Saturday nights, so I have been making it through quite a bit of the food you left, but, will have to buy a few things like veggies, etc. today.

Thus, things seem to be in some sort of order, or whatever. At least we are all carrying on.

B

Just out for a trot at Ambleside

Hi

Don’t worry too much about the carpet… I will get the cleaners in when I get home… (the pet stain remover is in the closet in John’s bathroom, on the floor, across from the sink)…

For future reference… Tessie needs to go out as soon as you are going to leave the room I always carry her from the bed to the front door and make sure she has a pee before she comes in for breakfast… (remember she is OLD….)

Give Gryph and Tessie lots of hugs…..

Glad you had fun with Patti and Malcolm

Made it to the dog park at Ambleside and are now back getting ready to start dinner. Tessie is snoring somewhere across the room and Gryph is sprawled out at the bottom of the stairs.

When we went out, all the neighborhood poop was collected and deposited on newspaper at the foot of the driveway. Surely I did not miss that much poop. I don’t know who it was, but, I hope they are not angry.

I guess it’s more pasta tonight, so, I should start thinking about getting that ready. A feast is a brewin’ in my mind, I think.

That is upsetting, particularly because all our immediate neighbours are away – so don’t know who it might have been, can you be extra vigilant and not let them out on their own…

Enjoy pasta! Thanks for the update….

Tessie likes the beach

Hi,

Hope everything is okay?

Just wanted to remind you to check out the contents of the Freezer in the garage and also the freezer compartment in the fridge (their are some individually wrapped cheesecakes!)

Hope the puppies are curled up next to you… don’t forget to pet and talk to them!!!

These are lazy doggies! I have had Tessie out three time this morning and I think she has yet to do her morning little business. At least she can really eat, sometimes she goes for Gryph’s food when he is not interested. She eats all the soft food she can get. I guess it gives her energy for those occasional times she gets perky and darts off down the street. Yesterday, she stood in the the garden down the street, tilted her head a bit and looked at me as if to say, “come and get me, I dare ya,” or, “you can’t get me in here now, can ya?” I’m never really sure what is going on in her head.

We made it to Ambleside again the other day and to Lighthouse Park yesterday. Got back into the car just as the rain started. We were sure glad about that. When we were at Ambleside, we stopped to visit and the next thing I knew Tessie was high tailin’ it down the sea wall, back in the direction we had just come, trotting along side another fellow with exactly the same orange jacket as mine. What are the chances of that, only Tessie could find such an opportunity to get confused. I thought she would never stop and they were long gone so fast, I could hardly believe it! Gryphon goes to get muddy, Tessie just does her own thing, whatever that is and wherever she is. What a scallywag.

What time are you back on Saturday?

Oh well, it’s a dog’s life.

Gryphon likes the beach too!

Ha ha!
Sounds like you are learning all of Helen Keller’s tricks… She really can’t see or hear, but if she wanders off, try sending Gryphon to go get her you have to make it sound like a fun game)

Back late Friday night, I will email you the exact time

Thanks for update and have fun!

Tessie enjoys the scenery

I don’t completely buy what she is selling, I think she is more with it than she leads us to think. She just likes to be a rascal, a real handful at times. Sleeps all morning, won’t go out, makes me nervous that she might have another accident (see she sensitized me with fear by having two piddles already), gets out finally, then follows me around until we go out to the car for a walk, takes off down the street to poop in someone’s garden, gets back in the house, because I left the door open so I could get my stuff and set the alarm, won’t come back out, wants to play chase, I have to get the leash, finally we get to Ambleside and she runs everywhere, before pooping more and then deciding to settle down. Gryphon gets fed up with all the miss focused attention and decides to try an escape over the bank into the neighbor’s yard.

OLD, my foot, she still has lots of puppy in her and plenty of tricks up her paw sleeve.

Oh ya, I forgot, Gryphon is acting up too. On the way back to the car at Ambleside, I had them go by way of the beach, so that running on sand and gravel might clean some of the mud off his feet. He gets wrapped up with a gang of dogs on the beach, wades in the water (OK that helped wash his feet) and tried to drink the ocean. Then he saw a lady with one of those flinger thingies, throwing a ball for another dog, yup, Gryph stole the ball, found that it was squeaky, decided to keep it and take it back home in the car. The other dogs just looked wondering, ‘who is this snob stealing our ball?’ Everyone tried to get it from him and, of course, this was just more fun than he could think of by himself, then I got stern with him, he stopped, I grabbed him by the collar and another lady got the ball from him. Humf, no manners! The both of them!

Now give back that ball!

Ha ha ha Rodney Fangerfeild, you have to make them respect you!

 

 

 

A bit more…

 

 

Well! I decided that we really needed to get to the Capilano River Regional Park where I used to walk Kyla. I was able to park in the first small parking lot, where I always used to park. I hoped the doggies would be alright with the short walk along the path next to the road, there is a concrete barrier. Gryph seemed to know exactly where to go and jumped over the log into my favorite part of the park. I assisted Tessie and then we were there. What a place!! I sure have missed it. A few deep breaths and we were all invigorated.

So, we followed some paths on a slow stroll so as to let the pooches explore everything they could. So relaxing.

Then, it happened. I heard a voice asking me where the path leads. This lady had two black Irish-doodles (Irish Setter Poodle mix). Well, you never saw such fun. Gryphon ran and chased, and just played, jumping over logs and everything in the rainforest–a pretty rugged place. Tessie watched to make sure the games were safe, ref-ing as best she could. Gryph sure got tuckered. I promised we would go back tomorrow and both agreed it would be a great idea.