NOVEMBER 28 - New Westminster Bucket List - Medieval Martial Arts and Trapeze Act - (not likely!)

Isn't it strange that I absolutely hate commutes to work, but don't seem to mind sky train or bus when I'm just a'trekkin' around? On Wednesday morning I decided to explore another bit of New Westminster, and took the sky train to Columbia Station. I had already biked around Sapperton in August, when I bravely 'did' the Patullo Bridge, so today was for exploring a bit of Columbia Street, Front Avenue and the market at Westminster Quay. It wasn't a great day, but a grey day - Howard said there wouldn't be any rain until Thursday, and I believed him.

The Sky Train drops people off on Columbia Street, a busy street with a mixture of old and new buildings. Note the bike lane - this will hopefully be handy next spring/summer when Breehy and I get going again.

I noticed the Army and Navy Store and thought I'd take a look - I had a little list of gifts to buy, and was a little bit successful there. I couldn't believe what was in store, really - there are four floors (you almost expect  to find a bit of this) and there was everything from fishing lures to Christmas cookies. I bought neither.

After a little bit of shopping, I headed down the street and saw this. Since I love puddling around antique stores, and am a bit of an antique myself, I thought I'd take a detour. I'm used to downhills by now anyway.

One of the warehouse buildings bragged about its movie ties.

And I was lost in thought when this guy seemed to jump in front of me. Needless to say, I got a bit of a shock. After all, this is the lower mainland of British Columbia.

After sidling along out of his way, and eyeing the cool guy-things in the window of this army surplus store, I walked past several antique stores - all of which were closed, even though according to the 'Hours' posted in the window they should have been opened. This street was dark, enclosed by tall buildings and the skytrain platform, and I felt like maybe it wasn't the greatest place to be - until I came across this:

Fantastic red doors. I would love to live behind these - the warehouse behind them seems a bit dilapidated though, so I would have to move them to a palace somewhere.

A couple of doors down I came across this sign - big secret as to what was behind the walls though. Assumed it was a tattoo parlour - but I was wrong. Imagine that. Check it out here and don't forget to sign up for the free class on New Years Day.

You gotta love the signs - Not Too Shabby is a furniture store which specializes in mid century, vintage and modern furniture, and accessories. See the skytrain platform on the left side? See what I mean about being 'enclosed?'

There's a lot of construction going on here - the whole area is going to be 'redone', 'revitalized', whatever. Sure hope they can keep some of these amazing old buildings and not turn the street into a steel and glass jungle.

The park in front of the Quay has some of the obligatory sculpture that adorns our cities.

View from the sculpture - see the uphill? New Westminster has a hell of a lot of uphill, too, just like Surrey.

The stairs and overhead walkway to the River Market.

View of the Sky Bridge - the one the sky train uses to get me across the Fraser River from Surrey to New Westminster three days a week.

The washrooms inside the market building were very neatly signed -

-as were the stalls themselves. I thought this was ultra cool - although some people thought it was lame.

Upstairs is a school - did you ever want to run away and join the circus? Well, this would have been the place to start. Check here to see what they have to offer - your legs could be wrapped around ribbons by this time next year. Wouldn't that be cool? Or maybe you could learn to ride a unicycle.

I met two ladies who were also checking out the training centre.

'Are you thinking about enrolling .....?' was about as far as I got, when I noticed one of them had her arm in a sling.

 'Oh,' I continued, 'I guess you already did.'

They both laughed, and I wandered off in the direction of some craft booths set up in the far corner.

Tucked away in the far corner was Sandy, who was busy piecing together some of the cutest sock monkeys you've ever seen. She had a wonderful display of hand sewn stuffies and knitted scarves and baby hats, so if you go near here before you have all your gifts bought for the season, drop in and check out her 'stuff.' Tell her I sent you.

I got two of the monkeys and they are headed to Manitoba to two very special girls - don't tell please!

Now my tummy starting complaining. Sometimes it acts just like Howard, and doesn't really care about ruffled scarves or unicylces, and only wants a bite to eat (or more possible, drink) so I headed down to the food court.

One really good thing about this food court is the absence of those Eternal Mall food chain restaurants, which like all the other stores in Malls are the same no matter what part of Canada you're in at the time. The first floor is called The Hungry Floor, and if you click on this link you'll see why. Everything looked really good, and it was hard to decide between crepes, bbq, bakery and burgers - I settled with a Canuck Panini and a chocolate something from Tre Galli Gelato Cafe.

The coffee was really good. The panini - with processed meat, cheese and bacon - had a really crispy outside, which I wasn't too torn up about, but it was okay. The bacon saved it, as bacon always will - Thank ya, Bacon. The Chocolate Square was a cross between brownie and cookie, lots of dark chocolate, and I couldn't eat it all. But the coffee was excellent. It cost just under $14.

So warmed up, with a full tummy, I headed outdoors, to find Thursday had come early. I sped under the raindrops to the sky train station, and made my way back home. There is so much more to explore in New Westminster though - what I saw on Wednesday was but a drop in the bucket - but I'm going to wait until there are no more raindrops in any buckets before I wander there again.

NOVEMBER 26 - What's Up With The Bugs and No, I'm Not A Beon

On Tuesday, the bus driver 'forgot' to take a side-trip off Westminster Highway, worrying one young gal who needed to get off at Fraserwood Way. He pretended ignorance as to his route - but I find that hard to believe, especially as he said he did the same thing the morning before. However, it did cut about 10 minutes of my transit time, and for that I was very grateful. And to make the trip even better, as we rolled along, I saw My Eagle swooping over the field near the road, and a few minutes later saw him land on his tree as we rolled by. Well, maybe there were two different eagles, I couldn't really say, but two sightings in a few minutes - whether it was one single bird or two separate ones - raised my spirits slightly.

Since I arrived at work really early, and it was really cold in there, I jacked up the heat and decided to take a stroll to see what was new in the village. There was a film crew around for a couple of days, and this day there were setting up scenes to for later in the morning. This crew, however, was not doing Once Upon A Time, but a new series set to debut in February, I believe. It is called Bates Motel, it is the prequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic, Psycho, and it will probably end up blaming his mother for everything.  A&E has okayed 10 episodes, most of which are filmed in Fort Langley, but obviously a bit of Steveston will appear every now and then.

And we will see Mr Gold's shop turned into a diner for the early riser - or at least his shop windows.

Farther down the road and up an avenue, I found this store front - and I don't remember seeing it in Once.

And then on the side of the same building this sign appears, which sort of links it to Bates Motel, as Once takes place in Maine and Bates takes place in Oregon. If Norman Bates is in 1991 Oregon, I think I'll play at home, thank you.

And you might think, how does she know the show takes place in Oregon? Because she saw the Steveston-filming-mandatory-vehicle parked on the street - no, not the yellow bug owned by Emma Swan on Once -

- but the orange one with Oregon licence plates (and a temporary BC licence on it's back window.)

So, after another little bit of wandering, I happened to slide into McDonalds to buy a coffee to wrap my freezing hands around, and of course an Egg McMuffin (well, to be honest, a Sausage and Egg McMuffin) to warm my cold tummy. Then it was off to work - past the candy store, where the first Gingerbread House of the season was displayed.

So at work - we had a lot of kids' crappy stuff to unpack, price and put away, one of which is this marble mazey thing - remember them?

But just in case you don't remember, there are instructions written on the box ...

... and if you think you are a famous detective (rather than a middled one) then the one below may prove to be a bit more difficult to figure out.

Now I'm going to see if I can bring that little beon to the DNE position, while downloading Psycho so I get some background information on that good old home boy, Norman.

NOVEMBER 22 - Howard vs the Squirrel

What a great idea, to hang a bird feeder. We are surrounded by trees and bushes, so we see a lot of little birds pecking away looking for food. Since we already had a bird feeder, it was relatively easy for Howard to just hang it from a branch. So nice to watch the chickadees and occasional Stellar Jay snacking while I was doing dishes.

However, this free fly-in quickly became a major attraction for a cute little squirrel. At least, she was cute until she started stealing all the best seeds and peanuts. It was so easy for her to just climb the tree, run on the branch, and crawl down the nice yellow rope to the birdhouse roof - from there it was easy to shimmy onto the wire suet cage on the side and enjoy the suet block, then into the house itself for seeds and nuts.

So Howard changed the rope to wire, as squirrels can't shimmy down wire. I found that was true - this one didn't even attempt it. However, this is when she perfected the jump from limb to roof. I guess she was glad she had nice sharp hanging-on nails so she wouldn't just bounce from the roof to the ground.

Until of course, he moved the birdhouse farther out the limb of the tree,  making a jump virtuously impossible - one would think. But no, after climbing a couple of trees, eyeing all the possibilities of closest trunks, nearest branches - what ones would give the best spring-off points - she found a way.

But did Howard give up? No. He then attached a long and narrow piece of metal to the end of the branch -

- and hung the birdhouse from that.

So, you may wonder, did that work? Nope. Steve came down while he was doing this, and took great joy in running out with legs and arms flying whenever the squirrel landed inside, at one point waving a garden rake madly. I really thought I had caught a better video than this ... but I was laughing so madly it's a wonder I got this much.

And then I had to leave for work, unfortunately. However, when I got home, I saw a big metal pole in the yard - with the birdhouse perched on top. Howard said if I went upstairs I could look into it through the bedroom window. I only wondered how I was ever going to get bird food into it - however, by standing on Howard's bucket and hanging onto the pole, I can just barely manage to waitress this particular restaurant.

And if I ever want to start pole dancing - we're all prepared.

WANTED - a Poem for MOM (03/23/23 - 11/18/10)


Wanted:

a toddler,

a baby of two hearts

wartime poverty tore them apart

sisters and brother,

father and mother

wanted her,

never stopped trying

to find her

to welcome her back

wanted:

a daughter,

to fill up a home

by a woman who offered

a heart filled with love

and the girl grew up safe,

and the girl grew up treasured

for that is the way a mam's love is measured

wanted:

a woman, a lover, a wife

a man from a strange land

found her for his life

and their love never faltered

their memories grew

for that's what comes from

love when it's true

wanted:

a family

a dad and a mom

and that's what God gave us -

their daughters, their sons -

and we grew up with love

always knowing that they

would be there if we needed

a word or a hug

at the end of the day

wanted:

comfort and peace

for two hearts filled with love

apart for so long

now together once more

and comfort and peace

for our hearts filled with pain

when all of a sudden

we're babies again.

NOVEMBER 15 (I think) - Around Around Around She Goes and Where She Stops Nobody Knows

 When I opened my eyes this morning, I noticed the sun trying to sneak through the horizontal blinds on my bedroom window, and knew I'd have no excuses not to have a Breehy kind of day. However, the air was really cold - all the little children on their way to school looked like they were smoking - so I thought I'd just wait a while and see if the sun warmed up the Earth a bit before I went. 

Well, as you can see, I guess I should have waited a little longer.

However, the sky was brilliant blue, only marred by the trail of jet planes on their way to exotic places.

I decided not to go on a long bike ride (HA!) and headed down to Bear Creek Park to see if the girl salmon were still flicking their tails at the boy salmon, and yes, indeed they were. There were several by the first Salmon Walk stop, but the day just wasn't the best to take pictures - sun shining and dappling on water, making it difficult to see, let along photograph, them. So I just brought Breehy on the rest of the trails, finally covering all the paths in the park.

Hmm. Two paths converged. One obviously led to a busy street (probably 88, but what do I know? Stay tuned and you'll find out ... ) and the other, not so well travelled, led to a bridge. Bridge = Water = Salmon. Maybe. So left we went.

Well, not such a great bridge. In fact, I wouldn't have been surprised to see a troll lurking underneath.

Not much water, either.

And this trail sorta kinda petered out - I was beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable here, so back we go, one more backtrack in a life of backtracks.

Uh uh, no way. Not going that way, either.

We did find our way to another nice little path, wider and more populated. This pretty stream didn't seem to have any salmon in it, but it would have been a nice birthplace for their babies, I would think.

And then it was time for lunch, before I headed home. One of my yummy Blackberry/Blueberry/Coconut Muffins and a thermos of coffee to warm my frozen hands. Sitting here in the sun was lovely. (In case you're wondering why the muffin looks funny, it's because it's missing its top. Burp.)

After my snack, we travelled back through the park to 88 Avenue. Imagine my surprise when I saw the kids in the swimming pool. I wouldn't have thought it was that warm.

As I rode past the track oval, I passed two ladies - one of them asked the other 'Have you ever had fo?'

Now, if this were years ago, I would never have known what fo was. But now, since I'm a city girl in a hugely multi-cultural environment, I do know. It is actually 'pho' and it is Vietnamese noodle soup, and some of it  comes with thin slices of raw meat that you actually cook in the hot broth before you eat it. I've never had it, but will some day.

And of course, we couldn't leave the park without one tree picture.

Now, this is probably where I went wrong, as I decided to ride up 88 Avenue for a bit and see what I could see. Since this is a pretty busy non-bicycle-lane road, I took the sign's advice and stuck to the sidewalk. If I got stopped by an over-zealous policeman all ready to hand out Riding-On-The-Sidewalk tickets, I could just show him this picture.

False advertising ahead. I could see no creek, let alone any salmon, just a huge forest area with a leaf blanket on its floor.

A familiar place came into view - this corner store was where I bought my first East Indian food last summer. However, now I would think twice about eating at a place that also sold bait.

Up the road I go, riding on the level, walking on the incline or whenever I came across pedestrians. I called this number to see if someone could come change the light bulb over the side entrance, but of course, they were busy. Too bad. (Also not true - oh they probably were busy, but I didn't call. I have my own busy boy to do that - even most of the time he's too busy to do stuff too.)

Now, this is where I got my first stomach cramp. Not a good thing when we live on 133 Street. However, I persevered. And I think this is when I maybe took a left turn instead of a right turn - or a wrong turn instead of a left turn - because all a lot of the way was uphill, and it all seemed to go downhill from here.

It seems that even though all the streets and avenues are numbered, when they get in my head, something happens to them -

1                                                                  5                                                                0

                            3                                                                    2                                  8

        4                                       2               

                3                 8                                                                                     7

8                                                   9           6   
- and even though I believed I was getting closer to home - I was definitely not. However, the beauty continued.

Now I probably wouldn't have noticed this strip mall, except I had just passed the Green Timbers Covenant Church, so it was odd to see the Green Timbers Pub not so far away. What I didn't realize at that moment that maybe I was nearing Green Timbers Park, as I was certainly heading in the wrong direction for that particular part of Surrey. Ha.

Well, this is where I decided to take advice, stop, and head back home - then changed my mind at the thought of getting closer to the mountains in the distance ....

The road seemed to morph into a ski-jump. Breehy made it clear she was neither carrying me down, not carrying me up. So stupidly enough, I went Shanks Mare.

Just because I saw mountains in the distance, I wondered if I'd get a beautiful view if I went a little farther. Well. I just found out I had travelled to the very end of 92 Avenue.

So I huffed and puffed up the hill, wondering if the muscles in my thighs would hold out long enough to get back home.

This should have been another clue. Remember the river at Tynehead Park? Serpentine? I really thought I was heading towards the Fraser River and a mountain view, maybe even a bridge. Double HA.

 

These were the wrong mountains. But they are so beautiful, and I was still ignorant of that fact at the time.

So, pedal pedal walk pedal. I finally came across a very familiar looking intersection. Yes, down in the valley, the valley below, was Tynehead Park and Salmon Hatchery. Now that was probably the place to go see salmon - but was I up to going down then up that hill pushing and pulling Breehy? Uh uh, no way. But now I knew how to get home - that wonderful yellow house nestled on the corner hundreds of miles away. Crap.

I decided to cut across to the Greenway, away from the traffic. As I rode along, I came up to two guys walking in the same direction as I was going, so I called out 'Old lady on bike behind ya!' and they separated - one going on the grass on the left, and one going on the grass on the right. I pedalled through - and said, 'I'm not that bad at steering!' They laughed. I pedalled and groaned.

And pedalled I on. And on and on and on. By the time I got to a soft easy chair I was glad to tuck Breehy away for at least an overnight - and I'm sure hoping that I'll be able to walk tomorrow. I have no idea how far I went, as so much of my travels were zipping up one road, down another, and across yet one more. I would think at least 15 km. My legs disagree. They think more like 238 km. Maybe an average of the two would be closer.