Post for April!

Post for April!

Blessings for my loved ones.

All of you.  You know who you are.
March is typically a time of springtime celebration, and now we are officially in spring.  Vancouver has a Celticfest roughly around St.Patrick's Day so I get my dose of lively jigs and reels (which I missed this year).  The yacht club will have its first cruise of the year to the same tried-and-true cabin in Snug Cove,  And my birthday is coming up which finds both myself and others at least feigning to dedicate some time to meeee! I need no gifts, I just like the self-indulgent pampering.
Yet it seems to be on the back burner as I've made poor or at least loose plans for such occasion.  I have friends with health problems both physical and mental that I wish I could resolve or assist, which has just left me with my wheels spinning.
So my birthday wish is for you, for you to know you are loved and that I hope you heal.  This post is for you.

The words don't fit the picture

An art installation outside the central public library reads "The words don't fit the picture". This post has nothing to do with that.

In essence February has been rather disappointing for me. Thankfully it's nothing catastrophic and clearly there are many worse off than I, so I don't plan on devoting webspace complaining at length. As far as reporting on overall monthly activities, I've just had several consecutive instances of plans I was looking forward to falling through, thus leaving me feeling resentful that it wasted my time dedicated to attending these events.  That's all.  Simply cancelled due to snow making transportation difficult - remember the snow I featured here? It seems this isn't as fleeting as I'd thought it would be, and as it drags on is becoming less cute and more of a nuisance.  It retards my garden for both work and pleasure.

That being said, I still had a nice time mid-month for the Variety Telethon, wine festival and Valentine's Day, which all fell during the same week.  My month improved with the better weather and good company, which made me ruminate more on my social life and how tied I am/should be to others.  My social calendar is scant compared other party people but significantly more than I had as a child or teenager.  I was quite content being a self-contained creative source focused on schoolwork or hobbies, because my world was small then, I had no opportunity to go or do much else.  Perhaps I should resume that lifestyle again and just relinquish any faith in future plans, especially those that rely on the attendance/participation of others.  I'm tired of being disappointed, and now it doesn't even faze me and I'm grateful anything actually comes to fruition.  I can only count on myself.  I'll be a hermitess.
And yet a fortune cookie I received at the Chinese New Year Parade commands me to "Do more, learn more",  Curiosity and restlessness I always feel in the spring.  I feel like I want to make plans and have something exciting to look forward to, but it's easier if I simply don't care about the results that unfold.
So since these words are a bit of a bummer, I will present the first flowers of spring, a gift to my readers! Much better!

Lettuce Lions and Bagged Dragons!

Yesterday was the Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year, observed by many cultures), and I spent most of the day in Chinatown.  I awoke early enough, given that it was a weekend, and was sure to dress with a red shirt and my jade earrings and had a mandarin orange and green tea before heading out the door.  I wanted to beat the crowds to get a nice hot bao for breakfast before the parade.

I heard the drone of bagpipes as I approached the Millenium Gate.  Of course there's bagpipes, as there is in every parade in Vancouver, likely fitted in between a troupe of lion dancers and and some charity group.  Many diverse groups participate in this parade, with such a huge attendance it's great exposure for a company or cause.  I figured I'd better get a photo before the _professional_ photographers block my view during the parade, which they did.  From somewhere else yet unseen a large deep drum was pounding for the lion dancers,  The skies were grey, and surely it would rain on my parade.
It did.

I saw a dragon-on-a-stick being led wrong way down the street to the parade lineup; its ornate, detailed and possibly expensive head likely papier mache and thus covered in a plastic bag, along with the bright fabric body.  Somehow the thought of this mighty magical beast stuck under wraps seemed sadly funny.   Poor dragon in a baggie! I've seen lion dancers with their lion helmets bagged too, and the large eyes and fluffy eyelashes peering out through plastic look less like a fierce carnivore and more like a cute critter that was curiously nosing some garbage and got its head stuck.  Like silly cat videos online.
The parade started with a truck dangling a length of firecrackers, followed by the 'Emperor' to kick off the parade and wave a blessing at everyone. Then the Vancouver Police Pipe Band.  Then was our Prime Minister, flanked by security and a ton of photographers, wishing us a happy new year and happily waving to everyone.  Then a whole entourage of MPs handing out Lucky Red Packets (hongbao/lai see), usually with chocolate coins or candy and perhaps some promotional note - I'm sure they don't know me from dirt come election time, but sure I'll take their candy and well-wishes.
                         
After that was a parade of, well, parade groups.  A Sikh motorcycle club, police and ambulance, and pretty much any group that can march or otherwise move as a unit was represented, even the youngest scout troops bundled up warmly but not really thrilled to be there.  Young dancers in costumes rather than coats kept moving enough to hopefully not mind the cold and wet.  Throughout these were the lions and dragons.

Dragon #1 spared no expense with glowing red eyes.

Dragon #2, and someone oblivious to the gaping mouth behind them.

Dragon #3

Dragon #4 munching on the leader's head!

Dragon #5 is made of balloons.

Dragon #6

Dragon #7 in its baggie!

I found a lion battling a tyrannosaurus rex.  I have no idea why a tyrannosaurus rex was here, what group it's representing or why it felt compelled to battle a lion, yet somehow it's not surprising in this seemingly anything-goes parade.  The crowd loved it, the dinosaur pitifully smacking with his tiny arms and the lion biting with its flappy mouth and trying to kick a bit with sneakers on its 'paws'.  And both were absolutely silent.  This made it even funnier.

An inquisitive lion investigates a hanging baggie...

Then I followed a red and silver lion around for a bit.  I was told that all these different colored lions belong to different competing martial arts groups, and visit the local shops and businesses to dance and offer the lion's blessing for a prosperous new year, in exchange the businesses give the lions leafy lettuce (the green looks like paper money), and a Lucky Red Packet with a donation to the group, which is a primary source of fundraising for tours and tournaments.
So the lions, sometimes in pairs, are accompanied by several interchangeable pairs of legs to swap out on a moment's notice, and with a cart for a large drum and gong clanging a simple, loud, repetative CLANG CLANG CLANG!!! I recall one year I followed several lions all around Chinatown and even into the mall and squeezed into the tiny mall elevator with them, all part of the joyous ruckus.  Nowadays, frankly I don't *need* that much clanging.

 

A lion will approach a storefront with what can only be described as a swaggering butt wiggle in time to the clanging beat.  It then stands directly in front of the door wriggling that cute fluffy body. It looks left, right, down, and finally up (it does the same at every door, you'd think they'd learn after the umpteenth time to look up first) to find with great expressive delight a head of lettuce and Lucky Red Packet suspended from the doorway like mistletoe.  Occasionally someone from a balcony will lower it down on a long line, like they're fishing for lions.  Shown here is a lion being hand-fed.  Having spied the tempting lure the lion will leap quickly or sometimes carefully tower up on its hind legs to reach it gingerly with its soft mouth - sometimes you can see the hand reach out and grab it.  It stands feet firmly planted and head lowered while the lion 'chews' the lettuce, then with a drum roll it triumphantly flings the shreds over the crowd.  Lettuce-eating lions are very messy eaters.  Then with great front-leg strides and a long neck it will bow deeply to the store, and some quick little steps back draws itself up to repeat twice more.  Then the happy lion heads off to the next shop to do this all again.  A highly aerobic workout for the fluffy-legged humans inside.

 

Enough of firecrackers, drums and gongs - I retreated to the Sun Yat-Sen Gardens along with everyone else it seemed; the narrow walkways funneled many visitors into a somewhat orderly flow two persons wide with strategically designed areas to congregate, an imposed chaos-into-order that forces one to slow down.  Much like the di shui tiles that adorn the roof, no matter how light or hard it rains the water falls a single drop at a time, like a beaded curtain.  I thought of the beauty in the singleness among the masses, and the small drops contributing to the greater overall effect.  Designed with attention to detail and calculated to enhance flow and tranquility, around every corner an artful vision obscured or revealed.  This is one of my highlights for the New Year's festival, as today the garden's admission is by donation.  Also offered was a Chinese tea ceremony/demonstration that would serve tea in tiny cups for as long as I cared to enjoy them, he'd keep pouring.  Excellent way to finish the afternoon.

Snow in the Lower Mainland

Ice along the shallow coast of Mud Bay.

Powdered fields of South Surrey.

The spots and shine on Pitt River.

The snow around Christmas time stuck around till the first week of January, occasionally refreshing itself in brief bouts here and there.  Though the region unused to such a meteorological phenomenon might curse the snow as a nuisance (especially on roadways), I took this rare opportunity to go up in a small plane and get some photos.  Who knows when we might get snow like this again?

Sharp light on measured grey tiles.

Two trips within the first week; the first on a loop south from Delta to White Rock, Langley, Pitt Meadows, Indian Arm, skirting the mountains and over Vancouver.  The second trip again from Delta to Langley, and stayed east onto Chilliwack where we stopped for pie at the Airport Coffee Shop that is famous for its pies.

The only bright color now.

As usual I prefer the natural landscapes, but even urban areas seemed calmed by the dusting of white.  The frozen colors were an interesting change in the palette of our usual blue, brown and green.  The diffused light of the gentle blue sky shot along the winding Serpentine and Nicomekl Rivers like a platinum snake, a slowly undulating highlight on the ice following alongside us as the plane moved.  The ice in the sea and large rivers looked like mottled marble stone.  Ponds were a milky green,  Marshy and solid parts of the same field were more distinct, whether the snow melted or 'stuck'.  The blueberry fields were a soft rosy pink from the once deep red of autumn.  Deciduous forests looks like black bristles on a boar's back.  Even the industrial land looked prettier when the mud brown was a clean white.

Year in review, and lack of bunnies??

The year is drawing to an end.  I haven't been posting as much this year, or at least nothing of substance.  Have I had an unsubstantial year? A friend browsed my scant blog post in November and inquired "Isn't there anything you want to remember?", and that has resounded with me since.  I had not considered this blog a way to jog my memory, I would instead invest the time to scroll through years of emails in my Sent folder directed at specific people, not an online global readership.  I use this blog to shine a light on undiscovered areas or endorse businesses or organizations etc.  I've used this blog as a way to chronicle my travels, and aside from the Sloquet and some of the Maritime trip most of where I've gone this year is a revisit of places I've been - beautiful delightful places I've enjoyed, but no need to repeat myself here.
Thus begins my usual restless stirrings for a new adventure.  Greener pastures, distant shores.  Maybe it's the typical grey weather of winter in Vancouver.  January will likely be a sluggish time begging for a break in the monotony (Robbie Burns Day!), but if I stay focused it will be a good time to plan and organize, gain money and information.

In the meantime here is the Christmas tree I decorated for my friends this year.  They received eight bright green bunny ornaments so of course I featured them along with brassy yellow gold and orange and lime and red, looking like a bright fruit salad.  I've kept an eye out for bunny-themed ornaments since fall and am quite surprised at the lack of them.  There will always be puppies and kittens for the pet lovers, and seem to be plenty of birds and squirrels and deer, and the _fashionable_ fad is owls and foxes.  No bunnies.  My mom suggested that they're too synonymous with Easter so people don't associate them with Christmas.
Christmas this year was steady and easy and sensible.  I suffered the mall downtown only once to hit one specific store, in fact all my shopping was very deliberate with no impulsive purchases.  Most of my gifts to others were homemade consumables.  My time was spread out with people throughout the month; the glitz of impersonal work parties earlier, then an elaborate yet intimate birthday party, then Christmas itself with my family and all the traditions of our childhood - crepes in the morning after opening gifts, and turkey in the evening with brussel sprouts, turnips, mashed potatoes, canned cranberry jelly.  I've had at least two weeks of wearing lazy slouchy pants with rum+egg nog.  My last year's new year's resolution of getting more exercise is, well, close enough.  I colored in my nephews' coloring books.  
We did a short afternoon search for a few geocaches and found all three we attempted, along the promenade along the river.  We lucked into a brief afternoon of sunshine on Christmas Day that was bookended by snow days before and after, made me more grateful that we got outside when we did.

post for Nov

Yup, this is a post for Nov.  :D
[edit later] Why does this have more views that posts that contain actual thoughtful content?!