Vancouver City Hall

I think we can call today "the last minute" for March's photo theme. It was "City Hall," something quite definite and not abstract, something that I had to travel (a tiny bit) to get to. 

I suppose I could have shown you the hall in my apartment in the city, but I didn't!

Vancouver's City Hall was built in 1936, away from the downtown in an attempt to get people to expand outwards and move to new developments. If one were cynical, one would say something about real estate deals and friends of the mayor and so on. (If you are keen, I just read a book called Becoming Vancouver which was very interesting.)

It is at 12th and Cambie, regally placed at the top of the hill, and with nothing tall blocking it. I am walking across the bridge from downtown and you can see it there head and shoulders above its surroundings. (I wish there had been a clear blue sky for this picture, but there hasn't been that much blue sky lately.)

 

 So friendly, it welcomes me even on the steps!

It does rain a lot in Vancouver and this concrete sign has aged.

The view looking up from the gardens in front of the building. You have arrived!

There are allotments in the front yard of City Hall! I don't know how one gets a plot, and I think each person only gets a portion of one of these boxes, but I like it! I imagine there used to be just lawn, or perhaps a rose garden or something. 

Someone's kale is doing well. 

At the top of the steps there is a statue of George Vancouver, the British sea captain who sailed in here one day in 1792. He stands here pointing off into the distance. 

According to his Wikipedia page, linked above, he made very good maps of the British Columbia coast, but neglected to look a tiny bit south and so didn't know about the Fraser River. Hard to imagine that! But whatever, he seems to have done a good job overall. 

There were several signs telling me that if I weren't doing something important maybe I didn't need to go inside, because of Covid. 

This is above the door, a carving of the city arms, dates and so on. When I was in elementary school in the 60s, that city crest was on every exercise book. 

I did walk through, noticed the nice stone walls inside, took no pictures and went out the door on the other side. There is not a huge foyer like in Toronto's City Hall, but it seemed quite business-like and efficient. 

This is the back door. Or maybe the front door. This is the door on 12th Avenue, which is the address of the building. No imposing steps, no statue of venerable sea captains. 

I wish I could get closer to the decoration going around above the windows, but alas, they are pretty high up. 

There is, indeed, a bust of the mayor who got this building built, Mayor Gerry McGeer. (He was the uncle of a more recent politician, Social Credit MLA Pat McGeer. I think my brother once went to a birthday party for one of Pat's children in the 1960s.)

There are some perfectly blooming trees there these days. 

Back on the other side, you can see the amazing view from this hilltop location. Good thinking, 1930s guys! I think the plaza was added later, in the days of treeless plazas with a few concrete picnic tables. Not so good!

Some of the old concrete is covered in very nice moss. 

And so we head back down the hill, and say farewell to City Hall! 

Next month I get to look for dots, dashes and diagonals, and that should be fun. I hope I will find some before the last minute! April also means recipes from Whole Foods for the Whole Family, and that will be interesting, as well as going back to Toronto, the Hot Docs film festival for the first time in two years, getting a kid ready to move, thinking about my England trip in May, starting in (again) on the decluttering. And more. 

It's raining

It is spring here, sorta. Right now it is pouring rain out and I am debating whether I can avoid going for a long walk just because of the weather. I really should go out for a long walk because I am finally going to England in May for the walk I booked for 2020! When I went in May 2019 I had months to practise and get up to speed, so to speak. Now I have eight weeks. At least I can pass some time blogging and put off the horrible decision for a while. 

I am not that keen, actually, on my retro party cookbook. I looked at a meatball recipe but it made 120 meatballs, and we are only two here now. Lots of recipes make, well, party quantities, and in fact make things that are more suited to a party than to my present lifestyle. 

I did make a shrimp and avocado salad, halving the recipe. Marinate some shrimp in lemon, vinegar, oil, garlic and so on. They wanted "three medium onions" in the original recipe; I used half of one and it was still a lot. Shortly before serving, make another bowl of cut-up avocado and pour some of the marinade on that for an hour or so. Serve it all on lettuce. 

It was tasty and the shrimp were actually nice and plump and fresh. It was good, but was it better than taking cooked shrimp and pouring salad dressing on? Maybe. I at least can remember that it is a thing one can do; I could spice it up a bit more next time. Three or four stars, I'd say. 

I'm not sure what my next recipe will be. There are retro things that would indeed be fun to serve for guests, but will I have the opportunity? Let's see. Still two weeks to go on this project. 

My other project this month is the photo theme, that I have done nothing about. City Hall... If it would just stop raining... I could walk there! I will. One day. 

In actual knitting news I abandoned the mitten when we went to Victoria, and made some dishrags on that trip. When we came back I took up with the blanket again and that is going well. 

I think all the colours are blending the way I thought they would. It started out a big hodge-podge but I think it'll be good. I am about halfway through the yarn, so I guess I'm about halfway through the blanket. 

First recipes

So far, I would say my retro party cookbook is all about cheese. 

I made the Blue Cheese Dip with Vegetable Strips. I am not sure I got the proportions quite right because I had 125 grams of cheese and I just thought it would be too much to put it all in. I probably put about 90 or 100 grams in, with my light sour cream, mayonnaise, chopped celery, and Tabasco. It was quite tasty indeed, but I might make it without quite so much mayo next time. Any sort of creamy, cheesy stuff is great for dipping veg or crackers in. 

Next stop was Spinach-Cheese Bake. This called for 3 eggs, a bit of flour, cottage cheese, grated cheese (it would have been better with Swiss, but I have cheddar) and "two packages (10 ounces each) frozen chopped spinach." So I had some of a package of spinach in the freezer and got another one, before I realized that my packages were 500 grams. Two times 10 ounces is 20 ounces, which is a bit more than a pound, which is a package + a bit. Frozen spinach used to be in blocks, but now each package holds a bunch of spinach pucks. I just cooked what I thought was about enough. 

Tasty, if you like that sort of heavy egg and cheese, almost-quiche, texture, which I do. It could have been a whole meal in itself, but we had a bit of pork with it. It might be good for a potluck dinner but it is probably not going to end up in my favourites list. 

Perhaps the next thing I try from this book will be some meatballs. There are several salad recipes, but so many slightly odd ingredients, like frozen melon balls in syrup, and MSG. Lots of boozy recipes, but I don't feel like leaving open bottles around when we are not here all the time. (Although, we have bottles at home which have sat on the shelf for ages after we opened them!) Someone else needs to invite me to a party! 

Meanwhile, spring is coming! I saw this on the sidewalk by the beach the other day. 

A sunny Sunday, and the whole city was out enjoying the day. 

Today it is a bit cloudy, but still warmish and pleasant! I have pretty well decided to go on my walk in England in May, so must start getting up my strength! Last time I did this I walked a half-marathon in October! Now I have ten weeks to get so that I can walk about a half-marathon each day for four days. Hmm. 

It's March

Here we are in March! 

A tree on Salt Spring Island

We just celebrated Stephen's mom's 95th birthday in Victoria, my brother's 64th on Salt Spring Island and today is Debbie's 25th birthday. Next week is mine, and it just continues on through the spring! Birthdays all the time. 

John's birthday party

We had a fine week away; the birthday parties, the walks in the woods, ferry rides and pub trivia night. 

Provincial parliament buildings, Victoria, at night

But, we must move on. 

On the high seas

March is the month of City Hall, photo-theme-wise. I chose this when I was in Toronto which has two quite photogenic city halls. Vancouver's is nice... must make a trek there soon, clearly! 

When we returned, we saw a marvellous rainbow

And recipe-wise, we are in for a treat, with our retro party book. I have found a couple of worthy recipes to experiment with. Unfortunately I don't have my Tupperware Jello mould here so we are unable to do a few things. 

Knitting news: I hope to continue with my beautiful mitten; I made a few dishrags on various ferry rides; I saw so many lovely colours I want to go to a knitting shop and buy all the greens and browns and blues. 

Onward.