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Concerts in the Park

CONCERTS IN THE PARK

July 26

Lynne Pearl

It was a bright shiny day like so many tis summer of all summers. Our forebears knew how to enjoy themselves so they built gardens with a view to pleasure in fact they often called them pleasure gardens.

So in this park there is a garden, a fountain, a bandstand, a river, a steam running by and ducks to feed. There are multiple flower beds of very kind and even a rose garden, circular with every colour of rose you can imagine and in the centre, brightly coloured flowers in geometric patterns. It is summer time for flower beds.

But today we were not so much looking at flower beds but listening to music of all kinds. We were attending the concerts in the park. There were brass bands, choirs, a duet, a junior band and a concert band. We had every kind of music.

We chose a seat in the shade underneath a large welcoming conifer tree, near to the tea stall that had all sorts of teas and cakes and scones for all. Beside this was a massive stand that was selling fish and chips that people everywhere in the park were enjoying. And there were hundreds of people everywhere milling around, talking to stall holders and watching the show.

It was time to meet up and enjoy the summer and the music. So we sat and chatted about life, the universe an everything.

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

Follow Lynne Pearl and explore their bibliography from Amazon's Lynne Pearl Author Page.

#snellblogs #concerts outdoors #concert band

TRUCKS AT SMEATHARPE

TRUCKS GALORE

SMEATHARPE

May 31 26

Lynne Pearl

It was really hot this year, in fact the cows were looking at us gratefully as we drove in car after car because they had been moved out of their accustomed fields up on the Smetharpe WW2 airfield to the shade of nice big barn. They weren’t going to be out in the sun. The visitors were.

Smeatharpe is a tiny place high in the Blackdown Hills but for several day in May it becomes the Truckers Mecca for all who can get there from wherever they come from.. It is signposted but it isn’t easy to find because it isn’t on the way to anywhere but maybe that’s why truckers like it, it is their kind of place. And this is all about the trucker’s identity as a culture and a cultural event. And this year it was with bells on. There were so many visitors.

We parked up and started out having put a GPS pin on the car because at the end of long day how are you going to find your car in a huge field, flat on top of the world with nothing in sight but other cars and rows of trucks.

And that is what greeted us, row upon row of beautiful huge trucks, all parked up in precision and sitting in the boiling hot sun waiting to have their photo taken. So the big hauliers were there but especially the big local firms. This is an agricultural area and what they need has to be brought to them and what they produce has to be shipped away.

The trucks are the backbone of the economy and this is what the event was telling us and that that without them we weren’t going to get very far. But we walked and walked past ride after ride and people dressed as dinosaurs that roar and frighten small children, and Elvis singers, and cowboys, large teddies and there were prizes to be won in shooting galleries. We were looking for the stunt ring and did eventually find it. Beside it was a circus activities tent and on arriving we had been greeted by a man on stilts riding a bicycle. We were suitably impressed. How do they do that?

Hiding in the beer tent was the only place to hide out as it was boiling in the hot sun high up on the flat top of the Hills. But meanwhile a wrestling match or two was starting in the ring. And the stunt riders were getting ready.

But first here was the stunt trucks which were going to perform stunts to the admiring crowd who watched and we all gasped hoping for the best every time. The fancy truck was the shiniest red and the driver was inside. And subsequently an old car was smashed up.

It was chummy in the beer tent, eveyone talking to everyone else about their family and their crazy kids and all that. Eventually a country and Western singer began to sing and it was like Johnny Cash all over again. It was reminiscent of North America and in fact everywhere there was the Stars and Stripes as well as the Union Jack.

It was a grand day and we ate the appropriate fish and chips and sandwiches and of course ice cream at some point. But not until we got home because the queue for the ice cream truck was round the corner.

But families and children were there in abundance and babies cried or slept and siblings sat together on the grass in the tent eating their lunch with Mum and Dad. There were four brothers in ascending ages from the toddler right up to the young teenager. They were peacefully eating and tolerant of the needs and demands of the youngest of the four.

Our children played and watched and enjoyed all the fun that there was to be had and especially the food of the fair.

And it was the heat of the day that moved us, a glorious blue aqua sky.

Not a cloud anywhere!

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

#snellblogs

Bath in the Sunshine

BATH IN SUNSHINE

Blog May 26

By Lynne Pearl

As we had plenty of time, we decided to go back the long way and visit Bath. Nobody knew Bath except our driver so we all agreed we would give it a go. So we set off finding our way out of the tangle of city streets, following back street directions from the human sat nav, until gradually the city began to slip away, bit by tangled web bit. The houses, got bigger and farther apart, and the parks began to be bigger, then there were all sorts of churches and community buildings and then suddenly beyond the current zebra crossing there were the green hills in the distance. We were nearly safely out and able to hi the high road from the city to the countryside.

There were high hills and magnificent stately homes with long winding drives, sitting in deep peaceful green valleys. There were hedges beside the road and old stone bridges and before we knew it we were in the outskirts of Bath. With more directions from the back seat we threaded our way through beautiful old cream stone buildings, everywhere the Cotswolds stone, and beside tall green hills with boys playing catch in the park and we were in the Royal Close. So we parked successfully and make our way first in the directions of Jane Austen’s House. As to who she was that was harder to describe.

First we came across a perfect circle of cream stone buildings, set around a circular green space in the centre. Within this perfect circle were a group of ancient trees tall, regal and so old they must have been growing in Jane Austen’s time and seen many of England’s wars and tribulations and then coming to nothing, they stood in peace, having withstood the test of time. To stand in their midst was to feel the wind in their leaves and it was like being in Lothlorien* of Tolkien’s creation.

After standing in the midst of the trees with the wind in our hair we joined the other tourists who were thronging the main street down and there was a cream stone terraced house with a statue of Jane herself in a blue dress standing outside. We proceeded inside and were stopped by a large man in top hat and regency dress. The top hat was magnificently tall.

From there we wandered on to find ice cream and an ornate band stand and roses falling over back walls and trailing over back gates, overlooked by the metal balcony. We were running out of meter time so stood and looked at the glory of the circular architecture before speeding on our way out of the tangle streets of Bath into the depths of the countryside, avoiding the motorways and traffic, always taking the green leafy ways across country always travelling deep into the heart of the land.

We had sung and meditated and danced together and now all of Nature was as if singing with us all the way.!

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

#bath architecture #jane austen museuem bath

WISTERIA IN WEST COUNTRY

April 29 26

WISTERIA IN

WEST COUNTRY

Blog by Lynne Pearl

It is a sign of Spring, and it is on the front of the Castle. It hangs like a a mauve mist. All winter the castle stands folorn and wet and shrouded in mist or fine drizzle sometimes buffeted by high winds, but now the blush of mauve creps over the portcullis and the flagstones. It curls and frames the all the windows and reaches to t he sky and the crenelated roof tops.

Nearby is the ancient copper beech tree that is who knows how old, it is slowly and gradually turning a peach colour that is just the beginning of its growing journey. It becomes more pink and orange. Behind it stands a real castle from the 14th century. And beside as you follow the path to the river are the bluebells in season. It is like a song from a the musical ‘Camelot’

But we are very near to Glastonbury so we are in the realm of the ancient kingdom of Arthur.

Glastonbury Abbey, located in Somerset, England, is a historic site rich in medieval, Saxon, and legendary history. Once one of England's wealthiest and most influential monasteries, it is traditionally associated with Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century, the burial place of King Arthur, and early 7th-century Saxon foundations.

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lynne-Pearl/author/B0CX9F26FR?shoppingPortalEnabled=true&ref=ap_rdr&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

#WISTERIA #copper beech #castle

Labyrinth

The labyrinth

Feb 14 26

Blog by Lynne Pearl

A few weeks ago, I wrote:

The land is asleep and so are the trees, branches against a still sky. It’s the cold at the end of the year and before the beginning. Like a never- ending story.

And at the end I added:

We miss a lot if we don’t listen to the stories of our elderly. I always loved the stories that my grandmothers told. They were of another realm and we were lucky to access it and with that access we could access other realms and as we were open to the many realities we live in, so long as we can be with them, in them.

But this day I found a labyrinth on a cliff top overlooking the sea. Most labyrinths seem to be half hidden dark things but this one was out in the open blown by storms and wind, rain too and the clouds overhead were running.

This labyrinth is set into the ground and is delineated with pebbles, maybe from the beach far blow where the tide moves restlessly, always there. This is interspersed with grass but this time of year it hasn’t been cut for a long time so the pattern is nearly obliterated. It’s not this, not that. A labyrinth is illogical. That is its very existence.

It twists and turns this way and that almost like alive thing, a creature, perhaps from the sea, like the night sea that I wrote about when I was staying down the coast at an old, forgotten hotel:

POEM: DEVONCOURT HOTEL SONG

THE DEVONCOURT HOTEL

SEA SONG

March 22

The sea is up in the sky

For me tonight,

The rooks caw flying home

And Aretha sings her prayer

For ever, for all of us,

As Ukraine teeter on the brink

And Ottawa tumbles over into chaos

While truckers take the city,

Is anyone listening?

The day slides off, mauve and grey,

Sinking sideways

As the massive pine darkens , friendly

Holding home for species.

There’s no one out there in the cold

And the singing stops suddenly

As if an invisible hand has flung silence upward.

…

When the visitors have gone and the nightjar sings, alone.

Sometimes the path turns back on itself. Today of all days we have sun. Every so often in the ground there are carvings of giant fossils.

It teaches us here to not mind our setbacks

Keep on till you get to the centre. The centre, your centre.

From the centre point you can look straight out to sea, what is out there, depending where you look on landfall for thousands of miles.

It teaches you how to live, to keep on keeping on, to not mind.

Setbacks are for the best.

There is a bigger picture.

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

Thiel: One Foot in Front of the Other eBook : Pearl, Lynne: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

#snellblogs #poetry #devon #Thiel:One Foot in Front of the Other

Snowdrops in Winter

Jan 31 26

Blog by Lynne Pearl

A few eeks ago I wrote:

The land is asleep and so are the trees, branches against a still sky. It’s the cold at the end of the year and before the beginning. Like a never- ending story.

But this morning I found evidence tha the land is waking up. As I walked out the train station and past an embankment that mus get the earlymorning sun which was shining on it and I found a whole clump o snowdrops, white as white against the dark green foliage. Then there was another clump and on and on. Whatever the embankment had it was the ideal situation for snowdrops. My Mum always said they were tricky to grow. She had tried and tried and niver could get them going and yet here they are on basically a dump piece of ground and it suits them perfectly and they were big ones too, not small but large and hanging heads. And so many that I thought I could dig up a few if I just had a trowel with me. They’d never miss them. But I’d have to come with a pot or something. Do the snowdrops technically belong to the railway. I bet the land is part of the railway. Do they know they are providing shelter to apples and snowdrops and multiple other flowers that I have to look up now that I’ve found them.

Then I met a lovely lady in the quiet of the United church high church ceiling who had been making a lovely flower arrangement for everyone to look at. She’d lost her sons and her husband. I flet for her. What a thing it is, Spring is coming on and there are people with greif. I have to sit with her next time I come to drink tea at their coffee morning. We miss a lot if we don’t listen to the stories of our elderly. I always loved the stories that my grandmothers told. They were of another realm and we were lucky to access it and with that access we could access other realms and as we were open to the many realities we live in, solong as we can be with them, in them. We are just open to that beauty and the Spring beauty that is all around us at this time of year.

Heres a little bit of poetry for the coming Spring

MOOR JOURNEY, LAUGHING JUNE

It’s the day of the rabbit,

Which means

The light is gentle, the rain is soft,

The clouds are heaped obscuring harsh light,

The sky is the softest of greys

And the air slightly warm…

Quoted from unpublished Manuscript of ‘Devon Love’

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#snellblogs

WINTER SKY AND SEA

a few days later, we have had snow every day for three days straight but it melts by the afternoon most of it. But the light is magnificent and the moon in the clear night sky is full and very bright.

Today the sea is very still, unutterably still as if it had forgotten how to move or make waves or have tides. It is a blue of the deepest blue, sort of aquamarine, or sapphires, or cobalt all the colours in the box but it is its aliveness that is moving. It is like a state of meditation clear and still before one has a wonderful inspiration or a poem comes.

The land is asleep and so are the trees, branches against a still sky. It’s the cold at the end of the year and before the beginning. Like a never- ending story.

SEA POEMS FOR WINTER:

BUDLEIGH SALT

Sun on the sea of glass

Surprising, its liquidity in December

The swell and fall on round pebbles

The curve of the bay, red crumbling cliffs

Sound continual

The sound of my soul,

An ocean inside

The same sound,

The sloughing and pulling...

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

#snellblogs #winter sky #winter sea

Sea In Winter

Dec 31 25

WINTER SUN ON SEA

Blog by Lynne Pearl

It is the end of the year and instead of a forest of Christmas trees as I had expected to write about and the sun has that winter brilliance like crystal and the sea is brittle, hard and bright.

In winter the sea has a soft quality that is not there in summer, it is as if it is resting until the next storm that is. Sometimes we have huge waves and there is roller upon roller chasing in to shore, but most folk will not go in it. We stand, watch and feel its magnificence. And today it is calm and beautiful like a sapphire that you would wear as adornment.

Taking the bus from the old market town to the nearby sea, the sun shines on the frost covered fields, they are unearthly in their shimmering beauty. We are used to a deep green, but this morning it is translucent white, not snow but the brittle brilliance of the deep frost overnight.

Nothing blooms except the winter jasmine or forsythia in the garden and a few cyclamen by the front door. But the light is absolutely amazingly beautiful and it is a fitting end to our year. We have been brave, we have been patient and we have been good soldiers waiting for our turn, we have been generous taking care of many. What will next year bring?

SEA POEMS FOR WINTER:

A LIFE IN TUNE

Time of the tide

Three o’clock.

Clear, high chimes from old bell.

It is high tide.

The time of the tide organising the lives of men,

Quickly walking to catch the waves.

Ride the wave

The point when the rain and tide meet

A life in tune

.......

Thiel: One Foot in Front of the Other eBook : Pearl, Lynne: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#local poem #Thiel #Sea in winter

Bickleigh Castle

IT’S AUTUMN:

OUTING TO BICKLEIGH CASTLE

Blog by Lynne Pearl

It’s autumn already we have had summer and there wasn’t enough time to get in the sea and swim.

We went to see Bickleigh castle a whole coach load of us, in a small coach that was full with twenty adults out for the day. Our kind driver drove us first of all to Bickleigh Mill, where there was a long stop for a leisurely lunch. It was a cloudy day with puddles everywhere but it was crowded and warm inside.

When everyone had eaten their fill, we set off again, this time to cross the river by that wonderful old stone bridge that inspired Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Bridge over Troubled waters’ so evocative of faithfulness and loyalty. We weren’t going to explore the inside of the castle but roam the grounds.

We parked and entered by crossing first of all what had been a moat long ago. There were the remains of stonework and iron gates. Nearby was the roaring river which was high as it had been raining for days. There was a small bridge over the river to the fields on the other side.

The first area of the castle grounds was a courtyard with a cottage with an old thatched roof, followed by more cottages with thatched roofs. Then we came to an area that had been stables for the horses that would have been part of the way of life. Beyond the clock cottage, (so called because of the large ornamental clock on its roof ) was the castle proper, built in red stonework. At the front door was a green plaque stating that this settlement had been entered in the Domesday book.

We continued walking to admire the main entrance a grand archway with two towers, the tower on the left was damaged, stones were piled nearby.

Through the archway was an open area of garden with more of the house of a different era, white walls with black woodwork. Back through the archway there was another garden, a pond and beyond that autumn trees in full colour.

Returning to the coach we found the original walled garden and orchard, apples fallen everywhere. It was beginning to rain so we made our way back and drove back over the river to the village, where we explored the ancient parish church which was begun in the 1300s. It was dark and made of local red stone worked to perfection. Either side of the front porch were two carved heads.

After exploring the church, we waited outside for our coach back to the Mill for a final cup of tea and visit with the peacocks before we started back home for the evening.

Thanks to all and the coach driver!

Thiel: One Foot in Front of the Other eBook : Pearl, Lynne: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#bickleighcastle #snellblogs #Bickleigh Mill

Return from Savary

Nov.21 25

Day 13 From Powell River to Sechelt, Earl’s Cove and Horseshoe Bay:

So we had to start our journey back, we left our lovely Airbnb about 10 am after packing and tidying up. The tree outside my window was just perfect for looking at while I was writing, it just sorta stood there and waited and gave shade when it was hot and beyond it there was another tree and a rhododendron tree with pink flowers that were just finishing. It had been the perfect writing desk. One only gets those every so often and one has to watch out for them. They are the clue and the spur to do the writing and having the space to do it in.

From Powell River we drove to the ferry in Saltery Bay, this one is the smaller ferry, maybe half the size of the ferry that serves Vancover so I reckon there was maybe two hundred cars on board and we all fitted. We waited in the car park above the dock. Everything is mountainous here. It was hot so we got out of our cars and started to walk towards the little park with trees nearby for kids to play on. From there we could look down on the dock and watch for the ferry drawing in, from above. It drew in quietly from between two arms of the mountains falling into the sea.

We all clambered back into cars, drove quickly and smoothly in our rows onto the ferry, and got out of our cars with bags of food and found a table with a view of the scenery and had a lunch of pita bread and humous. We ate watching mountains, passing through deep water.

We disembarked and there are more mountains, we drive on towards our destination. There are tall trees and steep mountainsides and the road is constant curves around the base of the mountains. We pass Ruby Lake, which is not near any settlement, then onto Sechelt we had no time to stop as we wanted to be sure to reach the Horseshoe Bay ferry to where we could be at the head of the queue. We passed Gibsons where we had breakfast and went on to Langdale.

Here we wait for an hour and it is hot. There are stallholders and we buy a painting, elegant and of the moon, chatting to the artist who has travelled widely but seems to be originally from Hong Kong. His smile is infectious and he signs the painting and dates it and stamps it with his own red stamp that he has had for many years.

The ferry is huge and pulls in magnificently. We jump out of the car and join the queue for the restaurant, where we get a complete veggie burger and I find a bean and rice burrito which is delicious. I go in search of a postcard to send to a friend in the UK.

We make it back in time for rush hour over the ironworkers bridge and then on to the far side of the city, which glimmers and glitters in the sunlight from the top of the ironworkers bridge.

We are home but only used half a tank of gas because so many of the miles are done by the ferries!

There is a fleet of 45 covering the province.

Our Fleet | BC Ferries

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#savary

Savary Island

June 29 25

Day 12 From Vancouver, to Lund and Savary Island:

BC Ferries Our Fleet | BC Ferries The fleet has 45 ferries. Carrying up to 370 cars.

Today we have to drive to Lund to catch a water taxi at 10 am, so we get up and pack peaut butter sandwiches. We drive from Powell River (Tiskwat) to Lund (Klahmen) stopping on the way for some provisions and buy two hats at the corner store on indigenous lands because its going to be hot today and we need protection from the sun.

We get to Lund which is where highway 101 ends (or stats depending on your point of view). Ther eis not much there except a harbour and a wharf. There’s no parking in Lund, so we have to leave the car far away. We are booked on the taxi and our names are on a list on a clipboard, so we are told we get in which we do then we have to change to another water taxi as we are in the wrong one.

The taxis are metal boats, small speedboats with comfortable seating. It’s a sort of bus with metal seats. We pull out of the harbour gently ad quietly but once we clear the harbour area, the driver puts his foot on the pedal and we rise out of the wate and speed towards Savary. It takes only ten minutes.

Savary is unutterably gorgeous and I swim in a blue sea with pink star fish and mountains in the distance, dark under a blue blue sky. The beach is pale sand and the land is covered in deep green fir trees. Its still June so the water is cold but good.

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

Road Trip River Voices: Canada Liminal eBook : Pearl, Lynne: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

#savary island #water taxi #pacific ocean #starfish

Apples are ripe in the Orchard

ORCHARD DIARY

Blog by Lynne Pearl

Oct 25

And now we must go on with autumn as its coming soon. Sun and sometimes heavy rain.

But the irises are long gone in the orchard and so now there is fruit on the trees. There are apples, plums figs, and a medlar tree.

When you walk in the orchard it is now very leafy and dark green and in amongst all that foliage are loads of apples. In fact, it has been so dry they are falling. We need them to stay another month and ripen otherwise they will be tart.

Recipe: Apple Crumble

This is our easiest apple crumble recipe, full of caramel flavours in the brown sugar and a hint of cinnamon. Just add custard, ice cream or

Veg Curry with Apple

This is our easiest apple crumble recipe, full of caramel flavours in the brown sugar and a hint of cinnamon. Just add custard, ice cream or

But the orchard is fulfilling its role and when we have had guests we served Victoria plums and a plum tart with flaky pastry on their last night with us. Apple crumble every night in order to eat all those apples!

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

#recipes for apple crumble #apple curry recipe

Autumn: the Agricultural Show

IT’S AUTUMN:

THE AGRICULTURAL SHOW

Oct 3 25

Blog by Lynne Pearl

It’s autumn already we have had summer and there wasn’t enough time to get in the sea and swim. The waves were huge this year, so there were no quiet swims but sitting in the surf as it roared around you and got you wet and filled your swimming shoes with small pebbles. It was spectacular, bright blue and lots of white foam.

AGRICULTURAL SHOW

We had the local agricultural show. There’s a showground on the edge of town, several big fields that are very nearly flat and we had nearly everything. There were the ancient tractors, a whole class in their own right. In fact, just yesterday I saw a notice for a tractor race of sorts hanging on a hedge in Somerset there was going to be a competition on a nice big flat field. It was all for charity and was this coming Sunday. All the old tractors can come out for that. In fact ,in some of the big agricultural shows they a have ploughing competitions and there are still chaps who hitch up a team of heavy horses to demonstrate how it’s done, with a team and very fine the horses look too and what a skill to be able to guide those horses and plough straight in a field. Wonderful to watch.

We also had brass bands and dancers and majorettes. There were the classes of prize bulls of the different breeds, wonderful animals, highland, small and sturdy, dark and with huge horns and the elegant white bull, a beautiful specimen. Then in the stalls outdoors waiting were the sheep, every kind of sheep you can imagine. Curly haired, smooth, black, highland, Dorset they go on and on, the breeds of sheep all specialists in their class.

Beside them are the cows, mooing loudly and waiting to be shown in the ring before going home. I did see one year a team of men attempting to coast an unwilling cow into a truck that was determined not to go. And despite best efforts of at least three men she did not. I walked away before they had found a solution.

Then there were the events for children where they could run in the ring and race one another and there was the final parade of all the best animals in their class, row upon row of the finest breeds that were the pride of their owners.

Behind them were ranks and ranks of the largest equipment you have ever seen, tractors and assorted piece of hardware that may not even fit on our roads with wheels higher than the tallest person. And the food well there’s always the food, the cake and the special brews, a beer tent, open all hours. The artisan desserts for sale.

There was even a tent dedicated just to the bee keepers of which there were many and so many types of honey, fed on the best of a variety of crops available and cakes available to be raffled or auctioned off to the highest bidder.

As well there was every kind of related business you could think of, for whatever reason. And one of the best events were the stunt riders, who rode bareback and stood on the backs of their horses, turned somersaults and even harnessed a team of three to five horses and rode them standing bare back. It was thrilling.

And the dogs there are always the special breeds of dogs here, everywhere and children of every age and size watching the main arena from the benches at the side.

We took sandwiches and did our best see everything but it was miles and miles. There was a separate section just for the horse events, wonderfully turned out horses and riders, beautiful to watch and the most lovely manes and tails white and then chestnut ones too.

We boarded the coach home back into town that was provided free by the Show organisers and what a jolly crowd was on that bus, all homeward bound some with gifts, some with dresses and some with fine food, all treasures till next year.

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#agricultural show #dog show #horse show #beekeepers #autumn events

Vancouver: cafe and restaurant

June 19 25

From Vancouver, to Metro town

I do find the bank and then I realise I could go into the mall and buy presents, so I decide to find a way into it on foot. I have to walk all around the building and get to the front and enter there and even then it was hard to find the shop I wanted because it was on a higher floor and at the far end of the most enormous mall I have ever seen. But I achieved it and was well pleased.

Then in the afternoon we went to a street in East Vancouver that had independent shops, organic food and little restaurants. We sat in a café and health food shop called something like ‘Ambrosia Cherub’ and I sat there looking at a showcase of desserts and am inspired to go home and make them myself. There was date square, oatmeal raisin cookies, mango dessert and a raw bar. My companion had a lovely mango lassi. I had golden turmeric tea. Everything was lovely.

The mountains are clouded right from the top down but they are still there watching and for a little while on the subway journey home I could see the foot of the mountains peeping out from the whiteness of the low cloud.

We had had dinner with friends, telling stories of whales and battles and heroes, Americans and Canadians but not much on life. The food was enjeera from Africa with lentils and vegetables and split peas. Yummy.

Later we watched the Dylan movie about music.

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#snellblogs #vancouver restaurants #vancouver shopping #Dylan movie

Vancouver, mountains

June 19 25

From Vancouver, to Metro town

I made it my goal not to get lost this day. So I set off on this straight busy road that is six lanes across. We know from this that this is not a European city, the sheer vastness of the road and the traffic on it, but the road is straight and climbs uphill. Today it is raining but not in a British sort of way but sort of bit by bit a little at a time, and blowing in my face. I do find the bank and then I realise I could go into the mall and buy presents, so I decide to find a way into it on foot. I have to walk all around the building and get to the front and enter there and even then it was hard to find the shop I wanted because it awas on a higher floor and at the far end of the most enormous mall I have ever seen. But I achieved it and was well pleased.

Then we went to a street in East Vancouver that had independent shops, organic food and little restaurants. We sat in a café and health food shop called something like Ambrosia Cherub, I think, and I sat there looking at a show case of desserts and am inspired to go home and make them myself. There was date square, oatmeal raisin cookies, mango dessert and a raw bar. Companion had a lovely mango lassi. I had golden turmeric tea. Everything was lovely.

The mountains are clouded right from the top down but they are still there watching and for a little while on the subway journey home I could see the feet peeping out from the whiteness of the low cloud.

We had had dinner with friends, telling stories of whales and battles and heroes and things. Americans and Canadians and not much on life. The food was enjeera from Africa with lentils and vegetables and split peas. Hmm.

And watched the Dylan movie about music.

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

#snellblogs #Vancouver mountains #metro mall #enjeera

Vancouver, the Seawall, Stanley Park

June 19 25

From Vancouver, to the Seawall

Today we went further. We were really going to another area. Leaving the building we go and catch the Skytrain towards downtown from the Patterson stop. It’s fairly quiet because its morning now. I watch the mountains hove into view. There are ever present. We manage as far as Grenville and get out to catch a bus that goes past Stanley Park. I have heard of this from ages ago. It is closer to the mountains here.

So we join a path that goes under the road and into the park itself. We walk beside lake and there is a rhododendron garden which has pink bushes still in bloom and some white. It is quite splendid with the huge blooms at this time of year, mauve, white and cerise, organised around grassy spaces. Then I notice a very large tree but it turns out to be just a series of huge tree trunks, the trees are no longer there, they’ve been logged out many years ago. But we do find one that despite being logged has grown another two main branches and survived and then coming closer to the sea itself is a tree that has not been logged and is growing very tall and I can see the sea.

It’s the Pacific and we sit on a park bench and just look at it and eat our home- made lunch of egg sandwiches. There are ships moored in the bay and containers and to one side there is a green spur of land and to the other the eternal Rocky mountains.

We spend all afternoon just walking and looking at the mountains or the birds in the sea . I try the water by paddling and it is not as cold as the sea in the West. It is easy and full of bright green seaweed…

There seems no way across these mountains, they are solid and seem to stride on. There is a road to further inland but there aren’t real passes as such. The Rockies stretch for miles and miles. And sit and watch.

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

Thiel 3 Sea Journeys eBook : Pearl, Lynne: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Story, Travel poetry, and blogging on Travels in the South West

#stanley park vancouver #rocky mountains #skytrain vancouver

Vancouver: Parks and Malls...

June 18 25

From Vancouver, to Burnaby

Next morning the tips of the mountains were hidden by cloud, and I watched as the cloud very slowly descended down the mountainside until it had covered the mountain completely and then it felt smug. It was there but I couldn’t see it at all, it was if Vancouver was just this flat piece of land and there were no Rocky Mountains at all. And then we had a little rain, not much. After that it was time to explore so we did. But locally not far. We just walked up the street past many beautiful new white apartment blocks, they stood side by side and definitely faced the mountains, although there were mountains in many directions in this city. In the garden were the most beautiful big roses and lavender thriving in the climate.

We found the park in Burnaby and the city library which although unprepossessing from outside was full of wonderful magazines and books and huge tall windows that ran through several floors. People were sitting reading in the calm of those windows. It exuded that library peace and I thought I can work in here and think in here. There were all the magazines that I hadn’t read for years because they aren’t available in the UK.

Then outside the library was the Burnaby Park which had lovely seating and flowerbeds with miniature fountains running beside them all in tandem, coming up and flowing back town in a rhythm. Flowers with water. Out from this we found the next big street and delved into the depths of Metrotown, the biggest shopping mall anywhere. I t was on three separate floors with one floor not matching the one below. It was laid out not according to a street plan and would branch into several lanes radiating from a central point and then continue on not according to any logic. There seemed to be no way to know where you were.

The way to emerge was to follow signs to the skytrain and that would lead out of the mall. But deep inside its depths there was indeed a proper juice bar. With a wonderful collection of juices and people ready to serve you juice of any kind at your timing. They seemed to make it from scratch too. We enjoyed kale, mango and then wheatgrass juice.

Lovely. And this is just a wayside flower...

Author of Thiel, Thiel by Lynne Pearl, and Road Trip River Voices

Many of my blog posts are published on Shine A Light On Life, including the series in my Sampler. I also regularly blog on Tumblr, Facebook,

#vancouver flowers #burnaby park #metroland burnaby

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