I miss the little free museums

In Cambridge, there were probably a dozen free museums or more, from the giant Fitzwilliam to the wee Classical museum filled with plaster casts (which I am appalled to say I never blogged about!). Here in Vancouver, we don't go in for that sort of thing apparently, and a day out in a museum can cost quite a bit.

Yesterday Stephen and I were out at the university to have lunch with an old friend, and afterwards we went to explore the Museum of Anthropology, with its amazing collection of Coast Salish and other artefacts. We took the free tour, which was excellent, but of course selective, and then didn't really have time to go back and look at everything. I think we will have to go again, maybe when someone comes to visit.

There was not a lot of textile work on display, but this was in the main hall: a modern piece by some local Musqueam artists.

"I could knit that," she says.

The museum had a huge donation from the family of Walter Koerner, including a rather marvellous collection of European ceramics. Of course, a pot shaped like a cabbage, with a companion parrot pitcher, is right up my alley.

The main claim to fame of the museum is its collection of West Coast First Nations art. These are a few potlatch bowls.

They would be filled with food for the great gatherings, to show off one's wealth, and also just to feed a hundred people at once.

I'd say this was more than life-sized. 

A house-pole, I believe. Look at that lovely snake!

Bill Reid was a modern Haida carver, with a rather interesting life-story. He became very well known in the 1980s, making a large war canoe for the opening ceremonies of Expo 86 and making this magnificent sculpture of the Raven and the First Men.

Somewhere in someone's house is a copy of this that my dad made in his carving days!

Today it is pouring with rain, yet again. "January rain brings February flowers," we must remember.

Sweater progress

I brought three projects with me, and am plugging along with my Kureyon pullover. The back is done, and the front well under way.

I had a wee crisis when I thought I would not have enough yarn for the whole sweater. I had 13 balls of yarn when I started, but noticed after a while that some of them were, at most, half-balls. This problem was easily overcome by going to a yarn shop and buying five more! So now I am confident that I can do the full big neck, proper long sleeves, whatever is needed.

I just need to ease into a brighter ball for the front, because the back is so lively and the front, so far, pretty dull!

A week in Vancouver

We have been here almost a week. We have taken a gazillion pictures of the view out our front window.

Fresh snow on the mountains when they peek out from the clouds

We have walked up to Fourth Ave, the groovy main drag near here. When we lived near here in the early 80s, Fourth Ave still had a bit of a hippie cachet about it, left over from when it was the centre of the action in the 60s. There is a bead store, and the record store we bought our New Wave records at is still there, but there are a lot of sushi restaurants and chic clothing stores. And so many new buildings! A lot can happen in 35 years, even more in 50 or 60!

I have also discovered two of the places we used to live. The Aquarius apartment building, still with the gold writing on the door:

This was our first apartment, a basement place "under the Greeks." I think we lived there for 2 years! And the house is still the same, though there used to be a grapevine above our door, from which the landlord made wine that tasted like Welch's grape juice.

Phew, I think that might be enough exploring down Memory Lane! We had lived in Cambridge before, but then we had been adults, with kids. We left Vancouver in our mid-20s, and along with these things we remember from those days, there are also streets I know from when my mom drove me to swimming lessons when I was 12. Different!

Today we went somewhere I think I have been once before in my life, White Rock. I remembered nothing at all about it.

We were visiting a friend who has moved here from Toronto. She has a house with a view, close to the water, and we went for fish & chips for lunch and then walked along the waterfront and out on the pier.

If you click the picture to embiggen, you can see sea lions on the right-hand side, amongst all the birds. There were a dozen of them, as well as some harbour seals. Apparently a bunch of small fish came in to White Rock, lots died, and the birds and seals are enjoying a bit of a feast.

Tomorrow we hope to go for a walk, but it might be cold or wet or snowy, so we might not. We are very delicate now that we live in Vancouver, it seems!

Another term, another city

We are in Vancouver! We had Christmas at home with the kids, sent them off back to university, and came to BC to avoid the Ontario winter; to see if we want to move here when Stephen retires; and so Stephen can do stuff at UBC.

We found another great flat -- owned by a retired professor who flees the rain of Vancouver for Santa Barbara, California every winter.

And indeed it was pretty grim for the first day or two! We know there are mountains over there, but the cloud was so low we could see nothing.

This morning, though, the clouds lifted, and the view was marvellous. We are on the top floor of a low-rise building, and on a hill so we peer over top of the buildings across the street.

The flat is very nice, quite huge. The landlords are both artists so the place is full of their paintings. I'll show you some highlights over the next little while.

The gloomy weather, however, provides warm moisture for the plants. Buds! Green things! We are a bit excited about the fact that spring is just around the corner.

I even saw this today, on a south-facing slope by the beach: 

Believe it or not....

Tomorrow's explorations will involve finding a yarn shop, because my thrift store supply of yarn will not be quite enough for this sweater. This is almost 3 of my 13 balls, maybe half of the back. 

More is more! All the colours! Bobbles and cables!

Here we are in the 20s

It's 2020. That is crazy! We are apparently well into the 21st century.

I have a plan or two for this year, mainly driven by the fact that Stephen is still on sabbatical and we will be living in Vancouver, BC for the first few months of the year.

When we were in England we travelled around quite a bit. In Vancouver, we will probably go visit Stephen's mom in Victoria, and maybe go see my family later in the spring when there is less likelihood of weather-related problems at the airport. There might be a bit of travel for Stephen's work, but we're not anticipating much of that. I think I'll be happy walking down to the beach and looking at the mountains!

I am planning another walk in England this May, so I have to walk around Vancouver to practise. Maybe even in the rain!

Knitting-wise, I have started a sweater from a 1986 Vogue Knitting magazine, with some Kureyon I was lucky enough to find in a charity shop! I have thirteen balls, so I might have to buy one or two more to finish this, but since I have several colourways already it won't matter if I have to throw another in.

That should keep me busy for a month or two. I will also take with me a mitten I was working on in 2016. The yarn is similar to that I used in the Starflake this fall, so I might take the leftovers from that, too, and when I am done the mittens I can make a giant wrap!

That all seems a bit ambitious. Nah, a sweater and one and a half mittens, and a fun and colourful rectangle, how can that be too ambitious for three or four months?

I did finish my Geology shawl, with its dang counting and remembering and so on:

So, I have a sort of plan till April or May. September should bring us back to "normal," but with two kids with minds of their own, who knows what might be normal. Playing it by ear in 2020!

Hard knitting

What is hard knitting? Nothing about knitting is really hard; all you do is wrap yarn around sticks and pull it through loops you made earlier.

I am knitting a shawl now (oh, really? Big surprise!) and there are different layers with different stitches. I did the seed stitch, the lace bit, the "escalator." But this star stitch is biting me in the butt, as they say.

And there is nothing hard about it, except that I have to pay a tiny bit of attention. Purl three together but leave them on the left needle, yarn over, purl the same three together again.

It's very pretty.

But every once in a while I find I have to unknit a whole section because my stars are not lining up, and that, it always turns out, is because somewhere on the last purl row I just purled the three together once and carried on.

Argh!!

I hope to show you the whole thing before too long; I am almost finished the star layer!

Back in Toronto

We left Cambridge on a coach at around noon; we got to Heathrow some time after 3; we hung around till 6 and flew home. Although it was only the 7th of December, Heathrow was all Christmas'd up.

At home, it had been a weird fall, and leaves had fallen, snow had come, more leaves had come, things had melted, and everywhere there was a layer of rotting leaves under mushy snow. We did manage to get four bags of leaves out for the city's very last pick-up of the year. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago now, but it kinda looks like that now, too, minus the leaves in the back yard!

When we left, this place was a concrete parking lot and basketball court. It's a yard at the local under-used Catholic school. Finally the school board and the city and the neighbours have agreed on something and we are getting a park.

Meanwhile, the last of the big Manitoba Maples on our block has come down. It was not healthy, and the people who lived under it were afraid that one day it would fall on them. People have planted trees in their yards, but it takes 70 years or more to get a tree like this.

And now we, too, are all Christmas'd up. I've put some little lights in a jar. which Elaine called "hipster," and we have the same old stuff on the same old fake tree, so we are set.

The foggy river

Things were very foggy this morning, as I walked to the store to get provisions for our last couple of days here.

It was also very busy, although it was not the ideal day for activities on the water.

This boat had got itself stuck behind the moored boat and had to find the way back into the channel without banging into it.

When I got home, I did a bit of searching and think I must have seen the beginnings of the Fairbairn Cup races. More of that tomorrow, as it seems! 

Calling this one done

I finished the knitting of the Westknits mystery knitalong weeks ago, but now I have finally dealt with all the ends. A wash will have to wait till next week, but I'm saying this is done.

Reliving the past

Today we went to the Wren Library in Trinity College.

We weren't allowed to take photos inside the building at all, and in fact the guardian at the door told us to turn off our cell phones before we went in.

I remember pictures I'd taken in 2005, which of course are memorialized forever on the ancient blog!

We saw the only known example of John Milton's handwriting. Holy cow.

And letters from Arthur Stanley Eddington about seeing an eclipse which proved Einstein's theory.

And the beautiful building itself, the walls of books, the floor, the ceiling....

Luckily we can look back a bit at the pictures I took in 2005.

Oh, look, back again

Actual knitting content today.

I finished the brown scarf properly, and tucked away all the ends.

I also finished a hat which I had begun long, long ago. I think I knit on it on the plane over here. Then it got put aside for more pressing things, but suddenly I found myself with only it on the needles! One afternoon in the pub, and done!

The decreases at the top make a rather good star, but with rather horrible bumps in between the points, because the decrease is sudden, every row instead of every other row. I have tons of yarn, I could have made it softer, but will not rip back now. I assume things will soften up with a wash and some wearing.