stay awhile...

to free land...

to free office...

to free art...

 but stake out all claims...

 even if stacked up against...

 to stay awhile...

leaves-leaving...

"leaving one tree for another...

like these birds, never to fly again..."

[paraphrasing the last lines of Prévert's 'Les Désespoir est assis sur un banc']

 leaves-leaving above Trout Lake and leaves-left on the ground...

"Un cheval s'écroule au milieu d'une allée

Les feuilles tombent sur lui

Notre amour frissonne

Et le soleil aussi." 

'L'Automne'

Jacques Prévert

the vines remain...for now...

A generation's worth of summers tending to the meticulously trained vines on trellises that span the length of a standard city lot...

A verdant canopy of an urban vineyard to supply a family with enough grapes to crush into a few dozen bottles of home-made wine a year...

This season's bounty will not be harvested by the same family anymore - the house has been sold and who knows if the new owners are wine lovers, grape eaters, pruning enthusiasts...

I have walked by this suspended viticultural endeavour [at the corner of Victoria Drive and the East 14th laneway] on the way to Trout Lake [John Hendry Park] for almost three decades now and have always admired the enduring dedication in the maintenance of their elevated grape production and their old world attitude towards using their whole property - including the space above their land - to yield what they need...

the house sits empty now, the grass unmowed... but the vines thrive on without the hands that have known them for so long, and even without the required sunshine hours so sadly lacking in this non-summer of ours...

 a left behind concrete table that would have known many a bottle and cluttered glasses and bearing stains from more then a few spilled drops...

the path to the [almost wine-coloured!] front door of the large Vancouver Special house is edged by sedum-filled pots fashioned from cut opened rubber tires...

when I walked by on the weekend, I spied the clusters of green grapes dangling demurely from the tangle of vines and leaves, their pulp slowly sweetening in the already fall-like sunshine...
in the garage where the large wooden barrels would have been rolled out in anticipation of the juice to be fermented, renovation work is underway - and I was hesitant to ask if this expansive grape arbour will remain, not wanting to know the negative response...

granville island:: rounded up

 During these spring-like days of summer [only in Vancouver!], the living is easy and I am quite quite lazy - but I managed to wander around Granville Island one recent breezy day and take in some sculptural forms with a circular theme - starting with the lucky boy sinking into multi-scooped balls of ice cream...

 "BLISS" by Ron Simmer

 "HONKFEST" by Douglas Walker

[sorry, missed the title and artist's name]

[the titled pieces are part of a temporary exhibit "REVISION: The Art of Recycling" featuring art made from recycled, salvaged, scrounged or found materials...installed around the Creekhouse building and courtyard]

lonetree standing

 sometimes it is enough to be a lone botanical sentry stationed high above it all...

[on West 1st Avenue off Burrard Street]

 sometimes it is enough to be the one well-groomed specimen gracing a modest yard...

[at East 38th Avenue and Rhodes Street]

sometimes it is enough to be a sidewalk loner unperturbed by a neurotic stronghold...

[on Powell Street]

seaforth detailed

75 years forth and the Seaforth Armoury still commands its whitewashed and castellated presence at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge - a protective fort and comfort zone for The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada, a Primary Reserve Infantry which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year...

It is a building that I have been curious about but never had the urge to go right up to and really train my savage eye upon until this sunny weekday morning when I was nearby and had the time [and courage!] to approach...

There was a recruiting board set up outside the large front and side entrance doors and as I rode up on my bike to peek through the grated side door window, the door opened and a friendly reservist* welcomed me in...

He was kind enough to give me a tour of the great hall and adjoining rooms and  let me take some pictures...

I am always excited to be in an older building with its original interior still intact and retaining the atmosphere from another era...

The Seaforth Armoury was designed by the long-standing architectural partnership of John McCarter and George Nairne, [who had also built the downtown art deco landmark Marine Building in 1930 and who would eventually erect the modernist General Post Office building on Georgia Street in the 1950's], with the completion date in 1936 [the Armoury is now listed as a Class A Heritage Building]...

 

within the sparse gymnasium room hangs a lone black punching bag, almost poignant in its symbolic and literal stoic-ness, while the silhouette of an armed soldier lurks above...

[I was told that the recruitment age is from 16 to 55... - so I still have "lots" of time to think about it!]

*Thank you to Michael the Reservist for his time and generous info session.

eyeing windows

Who is watching me from behind glazed house-eyes when I aim my camera at them?...

nobody has opened up their windows [yet!] to confront me for imposing my lens towards them,

perhaps because sometimes they are all too oblivious to my intrusion!

 soundproofed - and sightless...
[at "Grave Level" - by Vancouver Mountain View Cemetery off Fraser Street - where an all-day multi-band infestation rocked the house last summer - and almost woke the dead!] 

 industrialized benign neglect...
[on that artist menagerie and tourista destination, Granville Island] 

 glass-blocked intervention...
[at the aging yet still life-supporting Vancouver General Hospital on West 12th Avenue] 

 seasonal adaptive decorama...
[on the determinedly DIY Commercial Drive] 

 sandwiched and grilled...
[on the warmed-up but still crunchy part of Cambie Street off Hastings] 

ghostly belle of the ball...
[sometimes "observed" floating around the grand ballroom of the Vancouver Hotel on Georgia Street]