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So yesterday was the day of many weddings, a date considered to be lucky in its numbers, full of feng shui or whatever.

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For us it was a fairly normal Saturday. It was a little less hot and I felt more energetic, putting in a full day of much needed work in the garden. I’m sore all over from overdoing it, as I sometimes tend to do in my enthusiasm, but happy from all the fresh air and being in the garden. Husband worked on some outside home repairs and gave me the occasional hand, such as trimming some branches just out of my reach.

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But first we started the day with a walk to our local park, a mix of forest, open grassy areas and beach. My husband had recently purchased a smaller digital camera, one that is handy to pop in a pocket for these kinds of walks, just in case one sees something interesting. We love our digital SLR camera but it’s very heavy and bulky. We took turns capturing images as we familiarized ourselves with it. It took some getting used to as old habits interfered with new ways. In very bright areas, I was annoyed and frustrated by the LCD monitor acting like a mirror, making it hard to see what I was photographing.

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Looking at the downloaded images later, I was a bit disappointed in the colours especially the unnatural green and less depth of field that I’m used to in the SLR. It may be just a setting we need to select from the numerous choices. The different image sizes and formats are interesting.

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This morning, while sipping my pre-breakfast cup of hot lemon juice, I played around with some images, making a few into black and white and trying out effects in the iPhoto, then the final touches in PhotoShop. I did not crop any of these this time, just to see how the different sizes and formats look. The marvels of technology, eh – we take so much for granted already.

sun and shadows

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summer is here at last
hot days, warm nights
seeking shade, cooling breezes

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just finished reading Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go
amazing, spell-binding writing
a disturbing and haunting story
I recommend it

fireworks

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Happy July 4th to my American readers!
Enjoy the fireworks
A hot screensaver for Macs
Wish I’d found it for Canada Day.

my favourite sculpture

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First I saw Ossip Zadkine’s De Poeet, then Tuumailua’s challenge to bloggers to post their favourite sculptures.

So here’s my choice of current favourite, especially one located in Vancouver: Magdalena Abakanowicz’ Vancouver Ancestors, posted a year ago. I’m wondering if it’s still there, if the city purchased it after the Biennial. The website mentions the auction but not the final results. I really hope it’s still there…

What is your favourite sculpture?

experiment no.2

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another exploration of a tentative idea

see also experiment no.1, no.3, no.4

a day in June

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leaving Vancouver

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under the Lion’s Gate Bridge

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heading out to sea, to Alaska maybe?

It’s the last day of June already. It was an exceptionally wet month here, but we had a few nice days here and there. One day the other week, I had to shop for a wedding gift. As we sometimes do, my husband and I made plans to meet at the end of his workday. From the shopping centre we went on one of our favourite walks along a marvellous seawall. We were lucky that day was one of the best of the month with sunshine, blue skies and the beautiful sea.

Several cruise ships were just heading out to sea – shown above is one of them. Numerous people with smiles were out walking along the sea and sitting on benches soaking in the view and the warmth of the sun. The doggy park was a busy meeting place for owners and their furry friends. Several hardy children were splashing in the ocean by the sandy beach, numerous sailboats dotted the bay, and a light plane was practising fancy loops overhead.

We arrived at an Indian restaurant and sat on the outdoor patio on the second floor overlooking the sea. How warm it still was. As we sat enjoying the scene and waiting for our food, another giant floating hotel headed out west. Coming eastward with exciting toots came the train from Whistler, with people waving to all and we waved back. We savoured our first ever Indian meal in this lovely setting. Afterwards, we walked back along the seawall, a little more slowly on full stomachs, and drove home content with such a pleasant ending to a glorious day.

Tomorrow, July Ist is Canada Day. Happy 140th Birthday, Canada! Enjoy the long weekend, my dear fellow Canadians but be careful around the fireworks.

UPDATE: We’re thinking of going to this year’s new fireworks display location in West Vancouver. The downtown one is always much too crowded for our tastes. Hope the forecasted rain holds off.

Sámi cultural heritage project

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On a recent visit to Arkeo Net**, a Finnish portal for archaeological and prehistoric information, I found an interesting, informative and beautifully designed website: Recalling Ancestral Voices, concerning the repatriation of Sámi cultural heritage.

Recalling Ancestral Voices is a project dedicated to recording the material cultural heritage of the Sámi. The project was launched in April 2006 and will end in November 2007. In Finland, the Sámi Museum Siida is participating in the project, in Sweden, the Ájtte Museum in Sweden and Varanger Sámi Museum in Norway. The project is part of Interreg III, which is funded by the European Union.

The site is presented in Sámi, Finnish, Swedish and English, with detailed information about the project, the issue of repatriation common to all indigenous people, the people involved in the project, the artefacts and much more.

As some readers may know, I’ve been interested for quite some time in learning about this branch of the Finno-Ugric poeple so this is welcome information. Here are some related earlier posts:

the Sámi and the Siida Centre
about Baiki, the magazine about the Sámi in Alaska and North America
photographs of the Sámi by Pekka Antikainen 
some Sámi music
a Sámi and Inuit art exhibition, initiated by the Hamilton Art Gallery and now at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, both in Canada
and the North American Sámi culture and news blog Árran

(Image: Shaman drum, Sweden – from Ancestral Voices)

Later note: One small criticism though – I wish active links had been posted, such as to the various museums mentioned.
** Arkeo.net no longer exists, sadly

Assemblage X

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Silent Messengers: Assemblage X

Collagraph on paper and archival inkjet on mylar layers
Layers attached together at top edge
A unique assembled print
28.5 x 35 cm.

a wedding

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A trip and a wedding took us away this past weekend, in more ways than one. The beauty of the drive over mountains and valleys to a lovely lakeside town made us grateful, once again, that we live in such a magestic part of this country. We were very excited to attend the wedding of my handsome young nephew, my brother’s second son, to a lovely young girl, both still college students.

What is that saying about weddings and funerals and seeing some family only at times like this, at the ritual markers in the passage of time from birth to death? It was exciting to see so many extended family members after too many years, noting how many of us have become the elders and how many of the young ones are now in early adulthood. The joy of reconnecting with family left a glow that still persists and is kept warm as we sort over the hundreds of photos, share stories and decide which to email to those loved ones who could not be there. Tired from the trip still, I continue to linger over these newly created memories and send silent wishes for a happy life to the newlyweds.

peachfuzz visits

There was a lot of commotion going on in the solarium this morning though it sounded like birds on the roof.

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Meet our latest visitor to our solarium – Peachfuzz – who thought maybe it was too cold outside.

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He was chattering a lot and wondering how to get down from there.
He is thinking this is a nice spot to see what is going on until he saw Opa coming after him!

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You are not going to catch me, said Peachfuzz!
I think I can squeeze between these pickets if I can hang on to the wall!

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Ok, here it goes, one leap and I am out of here. I am a flying squirrel! I hope they left the door open!

(**Stolen from an email sent by my husband to the grandchildren – too delightful not to share here!)