Sunday Morning Coffee and a New Art Installation

New Westminster, British Columbia was a quaint little city when I moved here a couple of decades ago.
In these twenty odd years, I've had to watch sun blocking condos go up in horrible numbers. Learned to maneuvered sidewalks that are now over crowded with lollygagging pedestrians and navigating the many narrow streets feeling the building road-rage from impatient 'just-passing-through' drivers to get to the highway.

I miss my quaint little city.

However I'm glad to see that - despite the intrusion of the ghastly number of highrise condos the city has given the thumbs up to - the New Westminster Quay and boardwalk area is confined by natural building restraints on two sides - the Fraser River and - to the bain-of-many-apartment-owners existance - the CP Rail lines.

Bless them both!

This week the local paper made room for an article about an interesting art installation that was, well, installed down on the boardwalk. It's ..... organic?

But before the boardwalk a few random shots that were sitting in my camera before I head down the hill. Did I mention that I live up the hill from this amazing little corner of New West?

Getting artsy-fartsy with light and shadows on my curtain and blinds.

Pixel & Dakota playing nice - for about seven minutes.

Yes it's a wall. The wall at Starbucks.

Getting artsy-fartsy with shadows again.

Some complexes on the Quay come with Venice-esque surroundings.

This artsy-fartsy gal would like to call this place home.

The Art. Installation. In all its glory.

I'm making fun but it's a beautiful piece!

Some cool-ass flowers that have even cooler-ass insides.

A couple of the locals.

Gurgling fountains just add to the ambiance down there!

What fountain isn't complete without lily pads. And humungous Koi fish!

A lonely blossom... 'fine art' artsy-fartsy shot.

So cool to see a train go across the river on WOODEN TIES!

How it doesn't collapse is beyond me.

Artsy.......

......fartsy

It's an amazing little pocket down there by the river with endless photo 'ops'.
I'll probably bombard this blog with many more pictures from the Quay.
Going back down there tomorrow morning to try and catch a sunrise.
Parking Karma willing ..... .... ....

We went looking for Salmonberries

Our regular Sunday morning coffee 'date' this morning ended up a hunt 'at all cost' mission around the Burnaby (and maybe Coquitlam) area looking for an elusive 'trail head' that *used to exist*. Mister was fixated on finding himself a little Salmonberry plant to uproot and take home.

After much back and forthing across North Road, Cariboo and the Lougheed we stopped in one spot and discovered and amazing display of graffiti. After we wandered around for a bit, we got back in the car and we sorta, kinda found something promising. Although the berries were not ripe enough yet to pluck and enjoy as we walked along the path, they're all working hard to be ready as soon as possible. 

I am always left feeling a little breathless once I've stepped back onto pavement after having been navigating over lumpy roots and getting snagged by blackberry thorns along the trails. I can still feel their little tugs at my coat and cuffs as I get back in the car and head back to our concrete world. My eyes still want to gaze at the spectrum of greens nature has on display.

So where we ended up *might* have been a part of the pathways that criss-cross the Barnett River or not, I'm not sure. All I know is that it's wonderful finding such dense lush 'forest' smack in the middle of a very urbanize area. The graffiti attests to just how close to a city this forest sits. 

Speaking of graffiti...when is it art and when is it vandalism? The stuff I shot today gets a check mark in the Art column from me.

Possibly a Salmonberry but I thought their flowers only came in pink.

Cool coloured bolders!

And here's the graffiti. We couldn't figure out how people got down to that level.

How can it *not* be called art. It's beautiful!

Love the slick industrial finish on the concrete. Almost looks like steel beams.
"Bomb Squad" in blue on the left, not so cool.

It covers the whole side.

And was on every surface we saw.

We debated what this said. Neither of us are very fluent in graffiti font deciphering.

 

A random shot while looking for the elusive trail head. A basket ball hoop in a church parking lot.

Not what we were looking for but we got out and walked into the forest anyway.

Everything is fresh and new and still in its growing stage.

Baby Salmonberries.

Me getting artsy-fartsy with my exposure.

Another 'exposure' experiment with a moss covered tree. Looks like a painting.

A fernling. [I have no idea what young ferns are called].

The gravel road we wandered down and eventually wandered back up.

So, he never did uproot a berry plant. But that's okay. He would have felt bad taking it away from its home. Maybe we'll find an orphaned one by the highway or clinging to the bank of an icky ditch that would be happy to be a rescue plant.

Queen's Park Annual Community Yard Sale

Saturday May 9th. It was an absolutely beautiful, warm sunny morning. My friend Karla invited me to join her in experiencing New Westminster's "Queen's Park Neighbourhood Annual Community Yard Sale".

Once I'd dusted off my camera and put in a fresh battery and we fueled up on a Starbuck's Vanilla Latte for me and an Iced Flat White for Karla, we headed to New Westminster's 'affluent' Queen's Park. The place was a zoo! Luckily we found a great spot to park and joined the curious hoards to see what kind of junk people in Queen's Park would dump on their lawn for strangers to stare at, judge and paw through.

The thing about Queen's Park for me is I would LOVE to own every second house on every street. I wish they conducted house to house tours. I'd sign up for that!

It was really nice to see the number of happy dogs everywhere! To see all those slobbering tongues and wagging tails. I think there might have been more dogs than yards out there at one point.

This house didn't participate, can you blame it?

This little guy growled at me like I was a paparazzi

A cool old hot/cold water gizmo that I wanted for absolutely no reason.

Can someone tell me the name of this flower?

His human said he was a Whippet/Borzoi cross. I wanted to steal him!

Now this is what I was expecting to see at a Queen's Park yard sale.

This Binkey is NOT for sale!

This fella was being toted around in a messenger bag.

If I recall, this house didn't participate either.

The kind of car I expected to see in that neighbourhood.

They all look so bright and happy in the sunshine.

More happy.

Why weren't they sitting in the shade?

A gorgeous but broken chair Karla considered snagging.
I wonder if it was sold despite the top being broken right off and badly screwed together. I want it too!!!

This creepy balloon kept roaming back and forth across the sidewalk.

A shout out to Stephen King's "IT".

And these two random and totally unrelated shots were already in my camera when I headed off to the yard sale this morning.
Dakota my 19 year old Himalayan cross and my rotund 8 year old ginger, Pixel.

Dakota

Pixel