A gorgeous sunny warm day yesterday tempted us outside to explore. We headed to Deep Cove with walking shoes, a backpack with water, a snack of nuts and the camera. The “Cove” was pleasantly crowded with people enjoying the boating (sail, motor, kayak and canoe), the waterfront parks, the village with its little shops and cafes.

We poked around and then went into the Seymour Art Gallery to see the current exhibition “Lelam” (Coast Salish for “friend”) of First Nations work. We liked most the various objects made of leather, and the furniture made of wood and steel incorporating native designs. We were quite fascinated by the photos of the method of preparing the cedar bark for weaving their fine traditional cedar bark hats.

This reminded us of how similarly the Finns prepared birch bark for their traditional weaving into baskets, shoes, belts, even hats. There was an extensive display of birch bark works and photos of the technique in the excellent Craft Museum of Finland that we visited a few years ago – I wish it was on their website. We also met the retired husband of one of my cousins who made the most marvellous hats of many styles, but would not sell them, for he used them as examples for his demonstrations in his teaching of the craft. Long ago. a maternal great-uncle made a beautiful basket and pair of shoes (usable but kept for decoration only) for my mother, who later gave them to me because I loved them so much, and I still treasure them and display them proudly.

Oh, I’ve wandered off the subject of our day! Some time after we got home from our outing, we smelled acrid wood smoke and noticed the air was very hazy all around. Where’s the fire? We turned on the TV for the early evening news, to learn about a large fire in Burns Bog, south of Vancouver. The winds were spreading the smoke all over the Lower Mainland. This could last a long time as the peat burns deep. I happened to come across Boris Mann’s post and photo of ithe fire at Urban Vancouver, which I’ve captured below. Our pleasant day of fresh air, exercise, sightseeing and art ended with no fresh air and a stuffy closed house to sleep in.

news report on the Burns Bog fire